Marvel ’s original Werewolf by Night story appeared in Marvel Tales # 116 , covering fire - dated July 1953 in a Pre - Code Horror classic .
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Fandoms care to unite dots . Wanting to make sense of the fictional creation that our favorite character inhabit is often one of the thing that help to limit a special fandom . Vintage comic book lover — Silver Age Marvel fans in special — have acquire a belief that has come in to be called character"prototypes . " A prototype is a usually - obscure eccentric that precedes a more famous or important character and is like to that character in a remarkable way . " Prototype " probably is n’t quite the correct name for the construct . It ’s often just a name , a visual looking at , or a superintendent - power that was reuse for later usage — perhaps sometimes wittingly , perhaps not . Still , prototypes do have their solicitation . It ’s another lilliputian hook into infer comics chronicle . WhileMarvel Tales # 116isn’t widely considered a prototype by collectors , perhaps it should be . It turn back a werewolf story name " Werewolf by Night , " 19 year before a character of that name became a Marvel revulsion icon beginning inMarvel Spotlight # 2 .
There are a few reasons why this issue has n’t yet catch on among most Marvel image collector — all of which serve to makeMarvel Tales # 116all the more worthy . Most Marvel prototype effect have a relatively short gap between the show of the prototype and the debut of the " real " character . In the case of the very popularStrange Tales # 97 , which contains a prototype for Spider - Man ’s Aunt May and Uncle Ben , the prototype appeared just two month before the real characters seem inAmazing Fantasy # 15 . Many Marvel prototypes appeared a few years prior to their more famous counterparts at best . That scenario was n’t potential withMarvel narrative # 116 , as the Comics Code afterwards banned werewolf eccentric until the guidelines were loosen in 1971 . However , Menace # 5 , the PCH appearing ofBill Everett ’s Zombie fictional character , was also cover - date July 1953 — the same calendar month asMarvel Tales # 116 — and Marvel explicitly tied that case to his reemergence in theTales of the Zombiemagazine series in 1973 . Werewolf by Night ’s official introduction inMarvel Spotlight # 2also comprise an EverettVenusstory from 1951 , and the covers of both sport a three - gore werewolf transformation sequence . Overall , it ’s cleared thatRoy Thomaswas perusing the old PCH material for possibility during this period , and this raises the opening thatMarvel Tales # 116did indeed inspire the Werewolf by Night of 1972 .
Marvel Tales # 116is much more hard to get than traditional Marvel prototypes . For model , there are only 54 entries for the issue on the CGC Census , compared to 325 entries forStrange Tales # 97 . But there ’s very nicely - lay out crude copy ofMarvel Tales # 116(Atlas , 1953 ) experimental condition : VGup for auction in the 2025 February 2 - 4 Sunday , Monday & Tuesday Comic BooksSelect Auction # 122505at Heritage Auctions .
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