Background

John Jameson was an astronaut who had been on several missions before being selected for a secret mission to the moon. While there he discovered a ruby- like gemstone that he felt compelled to own. He stole it from quarantine and began wearing it as a pendant. The moonstone proved to be an alien artifact that attached itself to Jameson's throat and on nights of the full moon transformed him into the Man-Wolf, a powerful and violent wolf-like humanoid. For months Jameson tried and failed to stop the transformations, eventually stalking his own father, J.Jonah Jameson and then-fiance, Kristine Saunders. Spider-Man intervened and fought the Man-Wolf, eventually ripping the moonstone from the creature's throat. Jameson reverted to his human form, seemingly cured.

Later, Morbius reattached the moonstone to Jameson so that he could use the Man-Wolf as a pawn in a scheme to cure himself of his vampiric illness, a scheme that was thwarted by Spider-Man. Now Jameson transformed into the Man-Wolf whenever the moon was above the horizon. As the moon waned from its full phase the Man-Wolf's strength diminished and more of Jameson's intelligence emerged. On the run for being AWOL, the Man- Wolf fought Kraven the Hunter and the Hatemonger before Jameson finally surrendered to the authorities. Unaware of his condition, they offered to drop charges against him if he would investigate a communications blackout on an orbiting space station. Jameson discovered the station had been seized by warriors from the extra-dimensional Other Realm, the origin point of his moonstone. They convinced him to return with them.

In the Other Realm, Jameson retained his personality and intelligence as the Man-Wolf. The Realmites told him his moonstone was created centuries ago by their dying lupine Stargod to pass his powers on to his successor. On Earth it could only partly transform Jameson into the new Stargod. The Man-Wolf helped the Realmites defeat the tyrant Arisen Tyrk and then used his powers to return to Earth. Again subject to the partial effects of the moonstone, the Man-Wolf was kidnapped and controlled by Spencer Smythe in an attempt to get revenge on J.Jonah Jameson and Spider-Man. When Smythe tried to destroy the Man-Wolf, his moonstone teleported him to another dimension where he again became the Stargod. The Man-Wolf returned briefly to the Other Realm and saved it from destruction. Although he had begun to enjoy being the Stargod, Jameson decided to return to Earth. There he could not remember the Other Realm or the Stargod and allowed Spider-Man and Dr. Curtis Connors to administer a biomagnetic treatment that caused his body to reject the moonstone, which crumbled to powder. Once more Jameson ceased transforming into the Man-Wolf.

After recovering in a sanitarium, Jameson became Captain America's pilot. Eventually he was contacted by the villain Dredmund Druid. Jameson attempted to defeat Dredmund himself, but was overpowered and temporarily transformed into a werewolf that greatly resembled his Man-Wolf form. Dredmund reassembled the moonstone and attempted to use it, but was defeated by Captain America and the moonstone was destroyed again. Disheartened, Jameson resigned as Cap's pilot. He tried being a freelance monster-hunter, but gave this up when Dr. Ashley Kafka offered him the post of Security Chief at Ravencroft. At some point Jameson's memory of being the Stargod returned and he has revealed this to Dr. Kafka. John and Ashley became very close while working at Ravencroft and began dating. They faced many of the institutions lunatics together, especially Carnage, who enjoyed torturing the two of them. Since they were so eageer to force thier view of the world on him while calling it "treatment," he decided to force his view on them.

Following an incident where the Chameleon escaped, it was one escape too many and both John and Dr. Kafka were fired from Ravencroft. The replacement announced was Doc Samson, but he was never seen in the Spider-books since.

John has been used as a pawn by several super criminals, such as Mad Jack, who brainwashed John into attacking his father. He was forced back into his Man- Wolf state by Stegron, who acquired a magic crystal from the arctic which had the power to transform anyone into a more bestial form. He sniffed out Mary Jane and tracked her down to Avengers Tower (where Peter, Aunt May and MJ lived after their home in Queens was destroyed by a fire). Changing into Man-Wolf, he attacked MJ but was defeated by a knock on the head by Aunt May. He must have been taken by surprise. And tripped.

John was much more up to par after he married Jennifer Walters, aka She Hulk. While the two of them were very much enamored with each other, their love wasnt entirely what it seemed. Jennifer's day job as a lawyer to super humans led her to defend the Titan known as Eros, who had used his love powers to smooth over a rough patch in Jen and John's relationship, unknown to either of them. The happy couple eloped and married in Las Vegas, much to J. Jonah Jameson's...well, rage. (Jonah had just condemned Peter Parker for unmasking as Spider-Man and now his son was marrying a super human.) Alistaire Smythe was also unhappy with the news of John's marriage, and attacked him by having a tiny, robotic spider inject him with a substance that caused him to revert back to his Man-Wolf persona.

After a time of being the mindless Man-Wolf, the Star God persona began to overtake John. He accepted the power that being Star God entailed, just as She Hulk was being subpoenaed to appear at Ero's trial (for sexual harassment!) on his home world. Eventually, John learned enough about his powers as Star God to travel to Titan, where the trial was interrupted by Ero's brother, Thanos the Mad God. After Thanos was defeated, John and Jen learned the details of Ero's involvement in their falling in love. While the god like being did use his powers on Jen, he did not on John. John's love for Jennifer was real, and her's were not. Jen seperated from John, annulling the marriage.

Quizzes: Quick Quiz on John Jameson, Quick Quiz on Man-Wolf.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.

Some of the above information is extracted from the various versions of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe and the more recent Marvel Encyclopaedias.