Believe it or not, it all starts with merry Gerry Conway, the boy wonder of Marvel’s silver age. He was the only writer to rival Stan Lee for quality on Amazing Spiderman. He is probably best known for killing off Gwen Stacy (in Amazing Spiderman #121) and inventing the Punisher (In AM #129).
However, he also did some work on Marvel’s horror books, which is much less known, but also significant. He kick started the Tomb of Dracula series; he wrote the first appearance of Manthing (in Savage Tales#1 ): he wrote Satana (in Vampire Tales) and most significantly the earliest Werewolf by Knight issues (in Marvel Spotlight).
The Werewolf by Night series which he started featured a supernatural lycanthrope, and he also made up the Manwolf (who like Morbius was a scientifically created monster) then he made up the Lobo Brothers who were mutant werewolf twins.
When he worked on WWBN in Marvel Spotlight #3-4, he tied the werewolf’s origin (and the origin of all Werewolves) to the Darkhold, which was an evil book sort of like H. P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon (which was used in the evil dead flicks.) This concept eventually became one of the concepts that held together all the Midnight Sons titles
Many of the Marvel horror characters had been destroyed or undone mostly under the direction of the polarizing editor Jim Shooter. In issue, 62 of the second Dr. Strange series, Roger Stern killed off all the vampires in the Marvel universe (including Lilith and Deacon Frost) with the exception of Hannibal King, who became human but he still has to keep some of his vampire powers.
Later on Bill Mantlo cured Michael Morbius in Peter Parker #38. He was human for a time, which made it all the more tragic, that he ended up reverting to his bloodsucking ways.
When the vamps came back in the late 80s, none other than Conway’s old buddy and mentor, Roy Thomas resurrected them in a new Dr. Strange mag, Dr. Strange: Sorcerer Supreme (the early issues had exquisite art by Jackson Guice). The voodoo queen, Marie Laveau desperately wanted to regain her youth, but she needed vampire blood for the process. Since all the vamps were killed or cured she reverted Morbius to a vamp to get his blood in in Dr. Strange Sorcerer Supreme 10, but it did not work perhaps because he is a living vampire.
Thomas also brought in many supernatural characters in the book including Brother Voodoo, Werewolf by Night and even the Scarecrow (now called by the much less scary name, Strawman). Even Stranger’s brother Vic came back as a vampire. Thomas also wrote an interesting backup feature, which dealt with the history of the Darkhold. Eventually all this led to the rebirth of the first lord of the vampires, Varney, who was previously an adversary of Conan and Red Sonja, and it hinted at the revival of Dracula.
Dracula came back in a weird way in one of the many Blade series (it was the Midnight Sons one which spun off Nightstalkers). The series was going to reveal that this new Dracula was actually the remains of Hannibal King and Frank Drake which were fused in an explosion in the last issue of Nightstalkers but the series was cancelled before the situation was explained (it was explained in the letters page.)
In the 90s, Marvel put out a bunch of hybrid series that married super heroics with the supernatural. The Midnight Sons concept tried to feed off the success of the very popular second Ghost Rider series, which had the benefit of great art by Mark Teixeira and Xavier Saltares. The new series had a new Ghost Rider in Danny Keitch, and it improved the title character’s powers (he now had an indestructible chain.)
Anyway, a crossover event spawned several spin off books such as Morbius (which had solid Len Kaminski stories and good Ron Wagner art for the first seven issues, Spirits of Vengeance, Darkhold, Nightstalkers and later on Midnight Sons Unlimited.
The second and best crossover in these books had Blade make a deal with an evil dwarf associated with the Darkhold. The dwarf gave him enough power to slay all the supernatural figures on earth; He would kill them and absorb their power. They were all brought back to life in the end.
Most of the Midnight Sons books had okay writing but they may be remembered for having some of the most abysmal art to ever appear in a Marvel comic. Much of the Morbius art after Ron Wagner left was barely professional and Nightstalkers was just as bad. By the time we get to the third crossover Midnight Sons event (the villain was a new Lilith based loosely on the demonic first wife of Adam from the Kabbalah) which seemed never ending (there was almost 20 crossover issues) the art had gotten so bad that you could barely follow the plot or guess what is going on.
Lisa Tuscani took over Morbius for the last few issues and introduced a new love interest for the living vampire. The last storyline was quite intriguing and well developed, but it was too little and too late. The title was cancelled with issue 31 just as it started getting interesting. Joe Keating’s subsequent Morbius book in the 2000s was okay but it did not qualify as a horror book at all. It was more of an urban crime, book which just happened to feature a vampire as a protagonist.
The Midnight Sons Morbius book regularly used the Werewolf by Night as a supporting character. Len Kaminski who launched the Morbius book (he left because of a dispute with artist Ron Wagner) wrote some nicely done werewolf solo stores which appeared in 1991-1993 in Marvel Presents #54-59 and 98 plus 108-113 and some other issues.
It was announced in an early Morbius column that Kaminski would get his own series penned by Kaminski but it never materialized. Kaminski then went to DC and did some good work on the supernaturally themed Fate and Scare Tactics which reminded me of a more horrific version of the Groovie Ghoulies (it featured a guitar playing vegetarian werewolf). He also did a run on Hellstorm and Ghost Rider 2099. He disappeared almost completely after that and i feel his writing was underrated.
Around the same time as the Midnight Son books the Son of Satan got a new book called Hellstorm: Prince of Lies, and it ended up being the best of the 90s horror comics (of course Terror Inc. and Nightstalkers were not the best competition.) The series was much darker than the Midnight Sons books but it was also humorous in a sinister way. It was the only really good regular marvel series that could vie with Vertigo for quality. The main characters was revamped into a Constantine like anti-hero.
Original writer Rafael Nieves (who came straight from doing horror indie comics Cold-Blooded for a Chicago publisher) started the series off (accompanied by the great Michael Bair on pencils.) There was supposed to be a ghost rider crossover which might have improved sales but it never happened. By the third issue Nieves was gone and he was replaced by Len Kaminksi. Kaminksi did a fine job but he tried to take the series in a more sci fi territory (making the demons and angels aliens).
Then a dream team took over comprised of the brilliant Warren Ellis and the mad Argentinian Leonard Manco. The new team significantly changed the series, making it much more horrific overnight. The supporting cast included Satana and Gabriel Devil Hunter who were used very well and great new characters were creat4d such as golem adversary who was eventually killing in a shocking way by Daimen and the pierced fetish/pierced love interest, Jaimie Cutter. Then when the series was clicking and headed toward greatness it was cancelled with the 21rst issue.
Some writers tried to create some new horror concepts (albeit using old characters.) Steve Gerber and Whilce Portalcio brought back a truck load of Gerberverse characters including Dr. Katherine Reynolds (from Son of Satan), Jennifer Kale (from Manthing), Martin Gold (from Lilith), and Dr. Chan Liuchow (he was from Fin Fan Foom’s first appearance in Strange Tales). They united against the alien dragon, Fin Fang Foom ( by the way he was a dragon who wore shorts and knew karate.) The Legion appeared in three stories but apparently, Marvel did not make it into a regular thing. Foom was a major character in the recent Monsters Unleashed limited and ongoing series (both written by Collin Bunn.)
The supernatural character Dr. Druid (the early Timely Stan Lee created character) went through a load of hard times, and most writers after Roger Stern treated him like shoe shit. Under Stern (who treated him with respect), he joined the Avengers but he became persona non grata after he was seduced and manipulated into betraying them by Nebula (who turned out to be a version of the former love of the time lord, Kang). Druid fell even further in an issue of Solo Avengers it was revealed that Druid’s brain was tampered with by the Ancient one who restored some of his ancestral memory and cast him aside before accepting Dr. Strange as sorcerer supreme.
Druid gained back a little of his credibility when he formed Shock Troops and helped Captain America and quasar a few times. Then he was manipulated and used by an aspect of Dr Strange and he was forced to lead the Secret defenders against his will.
Warren Ellis did the best job yet on the character in what was supposed to be an unlimited series. He made him a truly frightening diabolical presence who radically increased his power. It could have been like a marvel Vertigo series. However, when Ellis found out Druid was going be cancelled after only four issues he unceremoniously had him burned alive by the new king of hell, Damien Heilstorm. However, which it was around it was a neglected gem and Leonardo Manco’s art was the perfect counterpart to Ellis’s depraved writing.
Ellis then took over Doctor Strange and it was advertised that there would be a funeral for Druid in one of the previews, Ellis ended up quitting the book (because of a change in editors). Apart from a few issues of Monster Hunters in Marvel Universe by Stern and the miniseries, Dead Avengers the good doctor has not been seen again. His son Sebastian was in Secret Warriors and he was even a candidate for sorcerer supreme (Dry Voodoo ultimately got that gig.)
After the Marvel Knights, line helped restore popularity to unpopular characters like Black Panther, Daredevil, the Inhumans and Daredevi. l Marvel tried a similar strategy with marvels’ horror characters. Marvel Knights used editors and artists from Event comics (such as Joe Quesada and Jae lee) outside the usual marvel comics to revitalize characters then they hired some creators from Chaos Comics (who found some success with Lady Death and Evil Ernie) to take over the horror books.
The 1998 miniseries used Ghost Rider, Brother Voodoo, Satana, the Werewolf, the Gargoyle and the Black Cat and put them up against such adversaries as Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster. It was a good idea to place the story outside the marvel Universe, but the characters were so changed that they scarcely resembled the originals in some cases. Black Cat was a good bad girl in Spiderman who stole and had a costume, which provided some cat powers, but she had no supernatural powers. In the mini she was a werecat. Why not just use Tigra?
The series went nowhere and it only lasted four issues. Sometimes I think Marvel’s monster series fail because they are not given an enough time to develop an audience. It is a good thing Marvel did not develop sandman, preacher or swamp thing. The series would have been cancelled after three issues.
A supernatural team comprised mostly of supervillains also emerged in the 90s.Some bizarre characters emerged from an unexpected place and started to appear as together as a villainous team. The first Spiderwoman was a rather forgettable character that was developed by Archie Goodwin to fulfill a copyright need (Marvel wanted to beat another company to the punch before they could make their own Spiderwoman character. Despite her uncreative name there were some decent stories involving the character. Her first comic series was much darker than most of Spiderman’s comics. Her stories often involved supernatural or monster characters such as a sorcerer named the magus (he was her mentor), the werewolf by night, and Tigra.
During most of her run, Spiderwoman battled foes that were much more horrific or monstrous than the ones typically faced by her male counterpart. Eventually many of her foes joined together with some of the werewolf by Night’s enemies as Night Shift, a group of supervillains that their leader the shroud tricked into doing good acts.
The membership included Brothers Grimm, Dansen Macabre, Digger, Gypsy Moth, Hangman, Misfit, Needle, and Tatterdemalion. Tick-Tock and for some reason Werewolf by Night. The offbeat group appeared in Captain America, West Coast Avengers and Quasar then they disappeared.
They reappeared in the fourth Marvel Zombies miniseries of all places as foes for the new Midnight Sons, which consisted of Morbius, Jennifer Kale, Werewolf by Night, Son of Satan, and Manthing, and they were working for the Hood.. Finally they showed up in the Bendix Moon knight series) #3-4) as henchmen (or is that Hench Persons) for Count Nefaria and he incinerated them for failing to kill Moon Knight and Echo.
Marvel wanted to cash in on the popularity of comic zombies which arose because of Walking Dead ( a series which Marvel would be too gutless to ever publish ) so hired Robert Kirkland to do a series which featured zombified versions of most of Marvel’s most popular superheroes (Warren Ellis actually came up with the idea in an issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four.) There were several sequels and Archie Comics did their own spin on the series when they had the Glee writer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa zombify the Archie universe.
The director of Night of the living Dead, George Romero himself created a pair of so so series featuring zombies for Marvel’s Icon imprint called Empire of the Dead. They took place outside of the Marvel Universe and unlike his zombie films they contained other types of monsters such as vampires. Tomb of Terror was a black and white one shot that featured the Son of Satan, Manthing, and Werewolf by Night. Some good talent was involved but the stories were too short to allow for much plot development.
The brevity of the Marvel horror series and the many writers handling them frequently resulted in the Marvel horror characters changing dramatically in between appearances and being portrayed in ways that contradicted their whole histories. The mostly good Daimen Hellstorm flipped to being a villain in the Fear Itself Marvel crossover event (it does not make sense for a lord of hell to become a Baron Zemo minion) and his evil succubus sister Satana suddenly and inexplicably became a quasihero (in Thunderbolts). The explanations for these changes were nonexistent or ludicrous. The Fearsome Four was another Fear Itself spinoff series. The four issue mini teamed up the Frankenstein Monster, Nighthawk the she hulk and Howard the duck team up against a possessed manthing. The team up was wacky and unexpected best part about it was it as partially drawn by former dc horror superstar Mike Kaluta.
After the Punisher was killed by Dakken, the son of wolverine, Frank was remade into a Frankenstein like creature and thrown into the monster side of the marvel world in Frankencastle (2010). Castle started palling around with the former legion of monsters: Morbious, Werewolf by Night, Manphibian and theLiving Mummy and he fought a fanatical monster hunter whose origin paralleled the punisher’s (his family was killed by monsters). The series was wonderful while it lasted and some issues featured wonderful art by Dan Bretonon. But within a year the status quo was revived and castle went back to his old self.
Believe it or not this not the first time that the down to earth Punisher figure was thrust into the realm of the supernatural. An offbeat but not fully successful Marvel Knights series in 1999 had a resurrected punisher encountering demons and teaming up with the son of Satan. It was created by Christopher Golden , Tom Sniegowski and Bernie Wrightson (who just passed away) and it was an interesting failure.
When Dr. Strange lost his sorcerer supreme title, it eventually went to the former Brother Voodoo (the contenders included Wiccan, Jennifer Kale, Dr. Doom, the scarlet witch and Sebastian Druid. A fine new series appeared called Dr. Voodoo Sorcerer Supreme which was written by the talented Rick Remender (Frankencastle proved he had a way with horror characters). There was some memorable guest shots and meetings in the series with Dr. Strange, Dr. Doom, Dormammu and Hellstorm. The impressive series started to tap into Marvel’s vast supernatural marvel universe and it had seemingly unlimited potential but (gasp) it only lasted five issues.
Eventually Voodoo helped save the universe from his evil dead brother but the overexposed Wolverine hogged most of the spotlight and glory and Voodoo ended up dead. The character was later resurrected by Dr. Doom and his potential is currently being wasted in another avenges series, Uncanny Avengers, where he is a mutant and deadpool sidekick (the stories never seem to revolve around him and he’s just one of the crowd.)
Strange Tales was supposed to be Marvel’s own Vertigo with mature horror storylines produced by some of the top comic artists who would be given complete control . Marvel ruined the whole line before it was even published.
The creators were told that they would be able to produces adult stories wihout having to please the old fashioned and tyrannical comic code authority. Then at the last minute someone changed their mind and Marvel reneged.
The Santana series was supposed to be the jewel in the crown of the line and it was going to continue the brilliant storyline that Warren Ellis and Leonard Manco had started in Hellstorm with Satana amassing great power and trying to overthrow the supernatural powerhouses in the Marvel universe (including Dr. Strange.) However, when the first issue was submitted to the comic’s code, they said that nothing could make it fit for human consumption (I’m paraphrasing here.)
Even though he had already finished the first few issues Ellis ended up quitting and Jon Ostrander stepped in to finish the storyline (Marvel never published the results.) Ellis also changed the characters and rewrote the story and put it out in Strange Attractions for another company.
In the 70s Legion of Monsters was both a super team (debuting in the tryout comic Marvel Premier #28) featuring Morbius, Manthing, Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider and Manthing), and it was also a one shot black and white magazine (featuring the Frankenstein Monster and the debut of the creature from the black lagoon imitator, Manphibian.)
The team reappeared in the Frankescastle series and this incarnation included Morbius (the leader), Living Mummy, Manphibian and Werrewolf by Night. They helped defend sell the monsters that were living underground in the morlock’s old headquarters. Variations of the team also helped Red Hulk, Old Man Logan and Daredevil when he needed to find the Darkhold. They also had their own entertaining four issue miniseries, but they never got their own book.
Blade appeared in many failed series. He had a few forgettable try out stories in Marvel black and white mags illustrated by Tony De Zugio and Rico Rivall. His Midnight Sons series had atrocious art by Doug Wheatly and it was cancelled (with the 10th issue) at the end of a three part story that was supposed to explain the other issues and wrap up many pot ends (which never got resolved). There was a Gerber one shot (around the time the first movie became an unexpected success). The Great 70s icon Don McGregor did a short series that was a part of the Strange Tales line and it only lasted three issues. Bart Sears drew a well-drawn series (written by Marc Abdreywu) that copied the films too much. Howard Chaychin probably did the best and most popular Blade series which jumped back and forth between stories from the past and the present, (I liked it but it probably confused most people.) The series was more tied to the traditional marvel universe than the Blade series and it even included memorable encounters between the title character and Dr. Doom.
A Tomb of Dracula revival by former Warren/Twisted Tales scribe Bruce Jones was originally supposed to be a maxi series and it featured Blade in the main role leading an army of slayers against Dracula. When it eventually came out a different writer wrote it and it lasted (surprise surprise) only four issues.
Despite the lack of success of his solo series Blade has continued to be one of the most used and popular Marvel horror characters. He was used to great effect in Christopher Priest’s run of Black Panther (fighting vampires in a post Katrina New Orleans along with Spectrum, Luke Cage, and Brother Voodoo) and Captain Britain and M13 (in which he had a romantic liaison with a vampire version of the Golden Age speedster Spitfire and helped prevent Dracula from taking over England.) Less memorable Were his stints in New Avengers (half the time he was dressed in a Spiderman or Ronin costume?) To be honest Blade’s depictions in comics have rarely been as interesting as his appearances in the first two films (the third is forgettable.)
Dead pool married not one but two succubuses. A goofy Deadpool Teamup series went backwards in terms of how the series was numbered. It was kind of like the old Marvel Team up and Deadpool sometimes would team up with obscure supernatural characters such as Frankencastle (more on him later), It the Living Colossus and even Hellcow.
In my favorite issue, Satana the Devil’s Daughter hired Deadpool. and of course he instantly fell in lust with her. She lost a wager and she she promised to marry several demons or dark lords disguised as gaming geeks who wanted to use her to rule hell. Deadpool helped get her out of the situation by marrying her. In the end she abandoned him but she kept half his soul.
He later married Skylah the Queen of demons to get her out of a marriage with Dracula. The marriage lasted for a time (i thought they were a great couple) and it all ended with Shyklah leading a monster army against humankind. In the end, she married Dracula and they were supposed to merge the vampire and monster armies but they ended up (in an unbelievable plot twist) giving up her throne voluntarily and staying together.
Vampire by night ran in Amazing Fantasy, a new try out book and it featured a relative of Jack Russell who inherited the curse. Of lycanthropy yet was bitten by a vampire. However, marvel vampires can turn into wolves anyway so what is the point. Later on VBN showed up in Howling Commandos and had a memorable squabble with Lilith daughter of Dracula.
Marvel wanted to cash in on the line of successful female centered films and shows so they did a four Issue mini series featuring the monster hunter, Elisa Bloodstone (as a Marvel version of Buffy) and the long postponed Witches (which was a combination of Charmed and Charlie’s Angels with Dr. Strange filling the Charlie role).
Perhaps the best (and last) recent outstanding Marvel series to feature Dracula was the run of Captain Britain and M13 by Paul Cornell. The series featured Dracula as a protagonist who wanted to overthrow England. He was aided by a huge gang of supernatural characters such as Lilith (the mother of demons not Drac’s daughter), Captain Fate and one of the Baron Bloods. Ultimately, Dr. Doom was the one who did the most to stop the supernatural invasion by delivering Megan who was the key to destroying the vampires. It was a magnificent series (of course few bought it and it was soon cancelled) and the last Marvel one that depicted Dracula without pissing on the legacy of Wolfman/Colan’s Tomb of Dracula run (when Drac came back in the Curse of the Mutants he was missing most of his personality and he was sporting a bad 90s Image style costume.) Dracula in the bad costume also appeared in a Fear Itself crossover in which he battled the hulk. He was killed by Wolverine in an oddly drawn, badly written issue of Old Man Logan (in an older issue of the new Xmen Drac was able to single handedly pulverize the whole team.) Then miraculously Drac showed up alive with no explanation in Deadpool. Apparently, the new Marvel is not bothering with continuity.
There was a number of Dead of Night series featuring Werewolf by Night, Man thing, the Simon Garth zombie, and a new Devil Slayer character. They were each four issues long and by far the best one was the Man thing series which was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (of Glee) and featured nice art and a gorgeous rendering of Jennifer Kale (by someone named Kano) Other Manthing series Included Daydreamers by J. M. DeMatteis, a posthumously published mini by Steve Gerber and Kevin Nowlan. Although I liked some of the issues that Claremont, Conway and DeMatteis used the Manthing no one has written he character as well as Steve Gerber (in Fear, the first solo series and the first 12 issues of Marvel Presents,)
Finally, there was a pair of short series, which featured SHIELD teams mostly comprised of horror characters, supernatural heroes and monsters called Howling Commandos. Although the concept had potential the art was terrible and the writing mediocre so they were quickly cancelled. However, if you are dying to find out what happened to Golden Gator see the second series.
Which brings us back to the beginning. When the classic writer Gerry Conway started the new Carnage series he brought back the Darkhold as a major plot element (The homicidal carnage used it to make himself even more powerful, and the quasi horror title even featured long discarded characters such as Victoria Montesi and the Manwolf (who was briefly married believe it or not to the she hulk.)
