Who is Jack Russell, also known as Werewolf By Night?

Werewolf By Night is an upcoming Disney+ TV special that will be released on October 7. It was rumoured that the two famous characters from Marvel Comics, Moon Knight (Marc Spector) and Werewolf by Night (Jack Russell), will have a crossover in the series. However, the director, Michael Giacchino, has denied any such plans. 

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Werewolf by Night

Jack Russell, aka the Werewolf by Night, is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Russell’s incarnation debuted in Marvel Spotlight #2 in February 1972. The character was an idea of Roy Thomas and Jean Thomas. 

Born as a human, Jack Russell is the descendant of Grigori Russoff who became a werewolf after fighting Dracula in 1795. After some years, Jack’s grandfather, Gregor, reactivated the curse again from an arcane ancient book called Darkhold. It was a full moon night when Gregor was reading about transforming into monsters from the book Darkhold, due to which his son Gregory, and other adults of the Russell family including him, transformed into werewolves. As a result, they all became animalistic in appearance and personality, as well as possessing supernatural abilities. Having lycanthropic genes made them all stronger, faster, and more agile, as well as powerful healers. They also inherited the traditional weakness from silver. 

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Lissa and Jack were born to the couple Gregory and Laura. And after Gregory was killed, Laura moved to the United States with her kids. There, she married Phillip Russell, who was the brother of her late husband Gregory. When her mother was dying in an accident, she revealed the curse to Jack and asked him to never raise his hand on Phillip. On realizing his true nature, a grieving Jack, who was also raging with anger, transformed into a werewolf. He avenged her mother’s death by killing the suspects behind said crime. 

Moon Knight and Werewolf’s connection

Moon Knight was another comic character who was hired by the Russells’ rivals to capture Jack alive for $10,000. Although he tracked Russell and knocked him down during their aggressive battle, Knight later empathises with him after knowing what the rival committee was planning to do. This made him help the werewolf escape.

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In the comic Moon Knight (1980) #29-30 by Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz, they met again and together fought against Khonshu’s avatar (one of the gods of Celestial Heliopolis), and also freed themselves from the cult who captured them.