Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 109

"Return of the Braineaters, Part 3: Battle on the Brooklyn Bridge"

Cover Date: July 1992; Publication Date: May 1992

Writer: Chris Cooper; Artist: John Stanisci; Inker: Jimmy Palmiotti & Ken Branch; Letterer: Steve Dutro; Colorist: Freddy Mendez; Editor: Terry Kavanagh; Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco; Cover Artist: Sam Keith

The Werewolf confronts Danny Ketch in the cemetery, but transforms back into Jack Russell to propose a partnership. He tells Danny about the Braineaters, a biker gang of werewolves that he's encountered before and feels obligated to stop.  Realizing that the boy, Billy Baldwin, witnessed the Braineaters in their human forms the two vigilantes track him to the Brooklyn Bridge, where he's being chased by the Braineaters.  A motorcycle battle commences, but Russell is knocked off the bridge and Billy is grabbed by the werewolves, who demand Ghost Rider's surrender.

THE ROADMAP

This issue of Marvel Comics Presents also contained stories featuring Wolverine/Typhoid Mary, Thanos, and the Young Gods.

Werewolf by Night encountered another group of Braineaters in Marvel Comics Presents (1988) # 54-59, which ended with all members of the gang dead.

CHAIN REACTION

After the interesting turns in the last issue, this chapter loses a lot of the story's seedy atmosphere in favor of a frankly ridiculous looking motorcycle battle.

I praised John Stanisci's artwork in my review of chapter two, but this chapter doesn't play to his strengths at all.  He was right at home with setting that grimy tone of a grindhouse exploitation story, but here he's given nothing in that vein to work with.  Instead, there's an extended motorcycle fight on a bridge, and it's obvious that drawing kinetic fights in motion is not the guy's strong suit.  I recognize that the whole conceit of the Braineaters is that they're "werewolves on motorcycles", but the image of skinny, shaggy Jack Russell on a crotch rocket looks like unintentional comedy.  Then you get important details that are glossed over in the artwork, such as Jack being thrown off his motorcycle and off the bridge, in a two panel sequence that just looks off in a way that's hard to describe.

There's not much meat to the story in this chapter, either, since it only has two goals: have the heroes team up and have a big fight with the bad guys.  Chris Cooper is doing an admirable job continuing the Werewolf by Night's story, but he's coming off the heels of the excellent Len Kaminski/James Fry Werewolf story that's referenced in this chapter's flashback.  That one had an absolutely gripping sense of horror throughout, and I think this one's a bit too preoccupied with giving Ghost Rider stuff to punch.

This is a middling chapter of what could so easily be a great serial.