Stargod

Marvel Comics probably began flirting with hot gospeller evangelism in the Power of Warlock in April 1972. The plot of Jesus Christ Superstar was given a sci-fi spin as an artificially-created super-being was dispatched to save a parallel Earth.
DC crucified a stand-in, white Jesus on an aeroplane the following month in the final Adams/O'Neil GL/GA although Adam Warlock wouldn't undergo his trial until 1974.




In 1973, Marvel introduced a villainous Dark Messiah in Dardevil and another golden Star-Seed in 1976's Legion of Monsters. The Silver Surfer was portrayed as a suffering, Christ-like figure in many of his original appearances but something more blatant was clearly going on here.

Crucifixion imagery seemed rife in 70s Marvel stories with Captain America, Deathlok, Black Panther, Conan (infamously) and in the adaptation of Moorcock's Behold The Man  in a b/w magazine.



Allegorical reference to Christ still appears in modern superhero stories, particularly movies. Spider-Man saving trains and boats; Superman's death and resurrection;  Groot returning as a seedling. But the oddest Marvel character to become the saviour of a world has to be Man-Wolf.

Although Creatures on the Loose was cancelled in 1975, as the Monster craze of the Seventies faltered, Marvel's saga of the Man-Wolf continued three years later in December 1978 and January 1979. The Showcase-style Marvel Premiere had been a tryout title in the mid-70s, often giving two-part outings for new or revamped characters from various genres such as 3-D Man, Solomon Kane and the Scott Lang Ant-Man.



Shipwrecked on the moon, MW discovers a subterranean portal to the Other-Realm. This is another dimension, where he has John Jameson's intelligence. The local rebel band, of whom the three space brigands from CotL are emissaries, elect M-W as their promised saviour from the false god, Arisen Tyrk.

This is a sword and sorcery science-fantasy, drawing on the interplanetary romance tropes of John Carter of Mars and his imitators, like Moorcock's Michael Kane. It plays upon power fantasies and white exceptionalism, like Tarzan. If it had been the conclusion of the M-W saga on 1975, it would have been placed just at the peak of the sword and sorcery boom. A couple of years later and it would've caught the eye, perhaps, of the D&D role playing crowd. In his green armour and bristling with weapons, M-W resembles the later Perez designs for the Taskmaster and Deathstroke. If this comic had come out in 1993 with a holographic foil cover, it would've made a fortune.

In the second part, M-W infiltrates Tyrk's sky-castle and the portal to Earth is destroyed. Jameson rescues Kristine, reverting to human form too. Tyrk seems to have passed through the portal becoming the minor Defenders antagonist, Lunatik, a precursor of DC's Lobo.

Perez's intricate and detailed artwork is made even more pretty by inker Ricardo Villamonte and, as I said last time, is on a par with his early New Teen Titans work. The next appearance of Man-Wolf in this collection is an out of continuity two-parter in Marvel Team-Up from August and September 1975. 



Really, this should probably be placed after Giant-Size Super-Heroes and before the Creatures/Loose stories; there's no gap in that series where it fits. And if the tone of the Stargod stories was portentous High Fantasy, this is 23 year old Gerry Conway being a Very Naughty Boy.
Spidey is kidnapped by the Monster Maker, Baron Ludwig Von Stupf, who wants to combine his powers with those of the Frankenstein Monster. The bizarre duo escape however and join forces with SHIELD agent Judith Klemmer to stop the Monster Maker's operation. This is where Man-Wolf comes in, as another captive for experimentation.
Man-Wolf develops a kind of romantic fascination with Judith which, combined with the Yiddish meaning of "schtup" and the histrionics of the villain, gives the whole story an unusually puerile tone. I wonder if Conway was trying to capture some of Steve Gerber's satirical melodrama?
Merry Gerry also portrays the SHIELD agent as a "woman of steel...protected by a male" who subsequently "melts...(feeling) lonely...an a little afraid.". This, from the creator of Power Girl and Ms.Marvel!

I don't think we ever see Judith Klemmer again, which is surprising for Marvel. Man-Wolf is retrieved by SHIELD agents and taken to New York. An editor's note by Marv Wolfman (!) says the Monster Maker somehow abducted him on his way to the moon. This can't be unless he escaped from SHIELD and then crashed in Marvel Premiere. Or perhaps this wasn't the same Man-Wolf at all but some kind of magical duplicate or clone...I think we have to place this homage to Universal's House of Frankenstein after the Star God story, despite the 1975/1979 paradox.

I thought today might be the end of reminiscing about Marvel's second-string werewolf but there are still five more stories of John Jameson's curse to recount. I think the next post should wrap them up.

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