Werewolf by Night: Blood Moon Rise is the perfect Halloween one-shot. It’s a quick, two-story, blood-soaked adventure through the world of Werewolf by Night.
Michael Giacchino (director the Werewolf by Night Special Presentation) and Jason Loo, the scribe behind the nine-issue Werewolf by Night: Red Band Series (which ran from August 2024 to April 2025) are the creative forces behind the issue, and both present their own distinct versions of the famed monster/hero in stories — “Nail in the Coffin” and “A Howling Nightmare.”
“Nail in the Coffin” is written by Giacchino with art from Ultimate Spider-Man’s David Messina. The story follows Jack Russell, however Giacchino’s version of Jack is closer to the televised version portrayed by Gael Garcia Bernal than Loo’s yoked-up lycan lumberjack. The artwork and story feels as if Giacchino pulled the issue out from a dusty box of comics in his mom’s attic, which gives it a bit more of a spooky edge to it.
The plot of “Nail in the Coffin” finds Jack trying to isolate himself during a full moon in order to spare the innocent. However, in a shocking turn of events he discovers Dracula is trying to weaponize Jack for his own personal gains. However Jack, nor the reader, is totally sure (at first) if The Prince of Darkness’ diabolic work is all in Jack’s mind, or a sick, twisted reality. The Dracula presented by Messina and Giacchino is more the classic Drac than the undead warrior king who rules over the vampyre nation of Vampryrsk, once again lending to that throwback vibe.
The cat and mouse (more like bat and werewolf) game between Drac and Jack is a fantastic interplay between two highly cerebral, and highly violent alphas. One of the best part of the story is the inclusion of a fan-favorite Marvel monster, who appears just in the nick of time. No spoilers, but if you’re a fan of this monster world, you’ll pop huge.
“A Howling Nightmare” is the second story, and it suffers from its brevity. It finds the lumberjack-esque lycan version of Jack, his sister Lissa (aka Were-Demon) and Jaka Gomez (aka the silver Werewolf by Night) as they are manipulated by Nightmare to succumb to the dark side of their inner demons.
This is a good story but it needed room to breathe and it unfortunately concludes before it ever gets any traction. The quickness of this story is further hindered by the all-too-neat ending. We’re meant, as with the previous story, to believe there are further adventures with this version of Jack, however nothing has been confirmed as of yet.
Also, some deductions to this issue come from the variant cover (which this writer picked up). The cover depicts a number of Marvel heroes including Sam Wilson’s Captain America, Brother Voodo and Daredevil — however none of them are even remotely involved in the issue. So if you’re looking for some sort of mega crossover, you won’t find it here.
Werewolf by Night: Blood Moon Rise, despite the brevity of the second story, is filled with enough psychological thrills, bloody good artwork, and taught storytelling to be a nice Halloween pre-game for a viewing of Giacchino’s MCU Special Presentation (go with the black and white version, please).
