This is awful. I mean really, really awful. And yet…It’s also fantastic. It’s all the reasons comics are better than movies: They can tell over-the-top, stupid stories and go completely nuts with them.
“The one where Captain America becomes a werewolf.”
It’s also the one that rebooted Doctor Druid. So…Two reasons never to read these issues.
The tale starts with Wolverine hunting a werewolf and John Jameson (formerly Man Wolf) having gone missing. We then meet a new character…
Sigh. A werewolf hunter called Moon Hunter. Not only does his name not make sense, but we already have a moon-themed werewolf hunter, and you can’t tell me Moon Knight is too busy to join this story when Wolverine is in it and is also in no less than a dozen other comics in the same month.
But I guess Moon Knight doesn’t have armored underoos.
Now, about that Doc Druid reboot…
Somehow, he’s younger and has a lot more hair.
Wolverine meets Moon Hunter.
And really??? He can defeat Wolverine????
So Moon hunter is working for Nightshade, and she can mind-control Wolverine.
She also dresses in an S and M outfit now.
And so Cap is captured too.
And I’m sure you know what comes next….
Bondage! Good thing she’s got that black leather costume now!
Cap is transformed. He meet other mutated werewolves.
And learns to speak werewolf. From Wolfsbane. I know that the below pic doesn’t look like her, but it is her.
Rahne being prisoner means we get a few panels of Cable and Shatterstar. But they don’t get involved.
Meanwhile, Dr. Druid tries to figure out how to help…And meets Druid!
Druid has the moon gem that changed John Jameson into Man Wolf, and he’s been mind-controlling Nightshade as well. I don’t really understand why he needs to work through Nightshade, but apparently he does. So she’s not the villain we thought she was. I wonder if he also got her to dress up like a femdom?
Nightshade puts him in a cage with the other werewolves and he becomes their Moses, rallying them to fight for freedom.
They get free and they go to rescue Dr. Druid, only to find that Dredmund Druid has accessed cosmic werewolf power.
Cosmic werewolf. Is this worse than black Punisher? Better? Bad and good for all the same reasons?
All this AND an Infinity War tie-in when Cap’s Magus doppleganger shows up for a bit.
Cable and Feral show up at the end to help with the big finale.
And in the conclusion, in a bizarre piece of Gruenwald randomness, Jack “Werewolf by Night” Russell drives off riding bitch behind Wolf from Team America!
Cap has to recover from all this. I mean, it was a lot to go through in six issue.
But at least it ends with Falcon and Cap being a duo again.
In the backups, Diamondback is still being held by Crossbones and no one cares. D-Man fights his Infinity War doppleganger and no one cares.
And Mother Night and Crossbones seem to … Getting it on?
Really, the only part of all this mishmash I objected to was the “hunkafication” of Dr. Druid. Where did he get all the new hair, and how did he lose the Dad-bod-?? Dr. Anthoney Druid may not be the Character-find of ANY year, but at least he was relatable. A superhero who is not A) Young B) Ridiculously buff, and C) Bald! Of course, all that detriment eventually worked against him, because nobody liked him and he never caught on, but at least he was realistic, as superheroes go. Always a pleasure to see Deadly Nightshade. Between the little black leather bikini she first showed up in, ( in ‘Captain America & The Falcon’# 164 ) and the black leather jumpsuit she’s rocking here, something tells me Nightshade, Queen of the Werewolves would be one fun girlfriend! Plus, she’s super-smart! Super-smart is sexy!
Doctor Druid sucks.