Dilettante Nina Price‘s lycanthropy kicked in when she turned 18. A letter from her mother, Lissa Price (formerly Lissa Russell, now believed dead), explained that it was all thanks to her Russell Family bloodline. She was bitten by a vampire while searching for a cure in the Carpathian Mountains. Now she’s only ever a Vampire By Night – requiring blood to live while not undead, but also able to fully control her wolf form except on nights of the full moon.
Nina will only be one of the supernatural beings recruited into Nick Fury‘s latest SHIELD initiative to combat supernatural threats… the Howling Commandos!
Sadly, Keith Giffen’s new version of the Howling Commandos wasn’t a hit and the series would only last six issues. However, the concept has been revisited since (see the Fallout section).
Minor Crossover: Nina Price’s initial appearances introduce the character before she appears alongside the Howling Commandos in their ongoing series.
Must-Reads: Issues marked with a ✔are essential to the story.
Anthology Issues: When an issue contains multiple stories, the relevant story is denoted with square brackets. For example, [2/5] refers to the second story of the five stories in that issue, so you don’t need to read the other four.
Spoilers: The issue descriptions and fallout section contain spoilers, so be warned!
Want to keep it simple? Here’s the chronological reading order without story descriptions, or spoilers:
- ✔ Amazing Fantasy #10 [2/2]
- Amazing Fantasy #11 [2/2]
- ✔ Amazing Fantasy #12 [2/2]
- ✔ Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #1-6
| Must Reads | Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Amazing Fantasy #10 [2/2] Paparazzi photographer Louis follows the wealthy Nina Price down a dark alley in Naples and sees her snap a mugger’s neck, then drink blood from another. Nina tells the cornered Louis her entire origin story. She lets Louis live, figuring no one will ever believe his story. Especially as she doesn’t appear in any of the photos he took of her… 1st appearance: Vampire By Night/Nina Price |
| Amazing Fantasy #11 [2/2] Nina is forced to take on a personal assistant so that her father can write off her travels as business expenses. Experienced candidate Inger Rinefeld decides to follow Nina at night to see what she gets up to. In wolf form, Nina escapes the zoo where she’s locked up. Inger fearlessly lures the wolf into a cage and, in the morning, accepts the job as Nina Price’s PA in exchange for the truth… 1st appearance: Inger Rinefeld | |
| ✔ | Amazing Fantasy #12 [2/2] Louis finally sells his story on Nina Price. In the month or so since becoming Nina’s PA, Inger has started tracking violent felons and murderers for Nina to target. But she finds herself falling into a trap set by SHIELD agent Dum Dum Dugan. Jack Russell – Nina’s uncle, better-known as Werewolf By Night – comes to her aid. The agents are left alive, but Dugan still has plans to recruit Nina Price. Jack offers to tell Nina a story about her mother… |
| ✔ | Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #1 Now a member of SHIELD’s Howling Commando unit, the Vampire By Night and her teammates shut down the headquarters of the Lords of the Living Lightning in Afghanistan. Nina, the Clone of Frankenstein’s Monster, Gorilla-Man, the Living Mummy, Warwolf & Zombie are picked up by their ride – the dragon Grogg – and taken back to Area 13 in the Pine Barrens. Nick Fury assigns Clay Quartermain to take over as the Commandos’ new Commanding Officer. In Antarctica, Merlin explodes out of SHIELD’s Warehouse of the Weird… 1st appearance: Bradley Beemer, Frankenstein’s Monster/Clone of Frankenstein/Frank, Howling Commandos, Buzz McMahon, Warwolf/Vic Marcus, Zombie/‘John Doe’, Area 13 |
| ✔ | Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #2 The Howling Commandos (including additional members – the Abominable Snowman, Brother Voodoo, It the Living Colossus & Sasquatch), forcibly recruit Groot (aka King Groot) and the Glob into the Howling Commandos. Brother Voodoo senses Merlin’s escape, but the Living Mummy believes he was broken out. At Stonehenge in England, Merlin transforms the immediate area to that of Otherworld to form an army of mythical and mystical creatures… 1st appearance: Abominable Snowman |
| Must Reads | Title, Issue & Synopsis |
| ✔ | Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #3 The magical feedback from Merlin’s boost at Stonehenge left SHIELD ESPers dead, with similar psychic casualties among the Lords of the Living Lightning. Clay Quartermain selects Nina Price and new member Lilith Drake – the daughter of Dracula (see SHADOWS IN THE NIGHT) to Stonehenge on recon. The argumentative duo encounter fairies, orcs, elves, goblins and more. The Vampire by Night fights her way through and finds herself hailed as the ‘Tussle Queen’. Lilith witnesses Hellstorm being escorted by guards to Merlin… |
| ✔ | Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #4 A cadre of orcs have taken control of the Lords of the Living Lightning. Hellstorm (aka Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan) offers to join forces with Merlin, but the magician senses Hellstrom’s true intentions. Meanwhile, Lilith betrays the Howling Commandos and switches sides. Nina is taken prisoner and Merlin learns all he needs to know about Area 13 from her thoughts, as well as Lilith’s. While the magic continues to spread and transform all of England, Merlin’s forces invade Area 13… |
| ✔ | Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #5 The Howling Commandos fight back, admirably. SHIELD Chief Technician Bradley Beemer unleashes King Groot and the other gigantic captive monsters to ensure victory. All present monsters chase Merlin’s through the portal to Stonehenge, but only King Groot remains with the Howling Commandos. Nina is freed by a rogue fairy. Brother Voodoo figures out Merlin’s weakness. Agent Beemer corrects Quartermain on how best to lead the Commandos… |
| ✔ | Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #6 Brother Voodoo, Satana, Shaman and other magic-users lead the charge into England. Quartermain orders Grogg, the Dimensional Man, Dragoom, Fangu, Golden Gator, Goom, Kraa the Unhuman, Manphibian, Orrgo and a host of SHIELD agents into the fray. Quartermain employs the Mole Man to steal Salisbury. Hellstorm turns against Merlin’s lead elf, Telesti. Lilith’s attempt to drain Merlin of his life’s blood fails and he leaves her as an ashen corpse. Merlin divines from the ashes that his current course will only end in failure, and teleports away before Warwolf and Gorilla-Man can arrest him. Lilith regenerates, revealing the lengths she’d gone to in order to dissuade Merlin. The Howling Commandos succeeded and England is restored. Meanwhile, Merlin locates the remaining Lords of the Living Lightning… |
| Must Reads | Issue & Fallout | Event/ Crossover |
| Blade #1 (2006) Blade passes Spider-Man on to Clay Quartermain for his Howling Commandos to handle after the web-slinger is bitten by a vampire. | ||
| Agents of Atlas #1-6 (2006-2007) Gorilla-Man reunites with the former-members of Department Zero as a member of the Agents of Atlas. | ||
| Civil War: Front Line #5 (2006) Despite his apparent co-operation with SHIELD, the Living Mummy becomes one of the prisoners for superhumans opposing the Superhuman Registration Act who are contained in Prison 42 in the Negative Zone. | CIVIL WAR | |
| New Excalibur #11 (2006) Merlin is revealed to have returned to Otherworld, taking on a more benevolent role. | ||
| She-Hulk #17 (2007) Despite his apparent co-operation with SHIELD, the Glob is apprehended by She-Hulk who, while imposing the Superhuman Registration Act for SHIELD, is rounding up the Hulk‘s foes. | PLANET HULK | |
| Legion of Monsters: Morbius #1 (2007) Lilith is next seen when Dracula encourages her to put their animosity behind them, but she doesn’t realise she’s being used. | LEGION OF MONSTERS | |
| X-Men: Die by the Sword #1-5 (2007) Merlin’s madness returns (possibly spurred on by Mad Jim Jaspers) and he turns against Otherworld; Merlin is defeated and imprisoned by Excalibur and the Exiles. | DIE BY THE SWORD | |
| The Last Defenders #5-6 (2008) Constantly straddling the line between hero and villain, Daimon Hellstrom returns to the side of good when he joins a new Defenders line-up. | ||
| Captain Britain and MI13 #1-4 (2008) More magical prisoners of Otherworld escape into the Earthly plain when the Skrulls attempt to control all magic; Pete Wisdom releases Merlin from imprisonment, back to the Earthly plane so that he can resurrect Captain Britain. | SECRET INVASION | |
| Taskmaster #1 (2010) The Lords of the Living Lightning (renamed the Legion of the Living Lighting) return and are among the assassins, mercenaries and terrorists groups hired to take down the Taskmaster, but fail dismally. | UNTHINKABLE | |
| Annihilators #6 (2011) It’s revealed that King Groot has returned to his home world Planet X and is punishing Groot of the Guardians of the Galaxy for masquerading as him. | ||
| ✔ | SHIELD #6 (2015) The short-lived All-New Howling Commandos squad (Living Mummy, Frankenstein’s Monster, Man-Thing & Zombie) are sucked into a portal to the Dark Dimension following a battle with Dormammu. | |
| SHIELD #9 (2015) A new SHIELD initiative called STAKE (Special Threat Assessment for Known Extranormalities) is headed up by a new Warwolf (Martin Reyna). | ||
| Mrs Deadpool and the Howling Commandos #1-4 (2015) Earth-61610 makes up of of the many domains on God Emperor Doom‘s Battleworld; in this domain, Shiklah leads Dracula‘s elite monster team of Howling Commandos. | SECRET WARS | |
| ✔ | Howling Commandos of SHIELD #1 (2015) Dum Dum Dugan and Martin Reyna are given the role of handling the new Howling Commandos; original members Manphibian, Man-Thing, Orrgo, Vampire by Night are joined by Hit-Monkey, Teen Abomination and the zombie Jasper Sitwell. | ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT MARVEL |
| Howling Commandos of SHIELD #4 (2016) Nadeen Hassan joins the Howling Commandos as Glyph. | ||
| Old Man Logan #14-15 (2017) Logan and the Howling Commandos take on Dracula; the death of Dracula frees Nina Price from the vampire curse. | ||
| ✔ | Secret Warriors #2 (2017) STAKE and the Howling Commandos fall under the control of Hydra. | SECRET EMPIRE |
| Collected Edition Title | Collects… |
| Guardians of the Galaxy: Road to Annihilation vol.2 | Marvel Monsters: Monsters on the Prowl #1 Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos #1-6 Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos: Director’s Cut #1 Sensational She Hulk #44-46 Thanos #7-12 |
Reading Order © Omniverse Comics Guide 2024
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