LT.
LOU HACKETTLT.
LOU HACKETT
Real Name: Lou Hackett
Identity/Class: Human magic-user (werewolf/Lycanthrope variant)
Occupation: Lieutenant in the Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD), hunter
(formerly) Professional football player (tight
end for the Los Angeles Rams)
Group Membership: L.A.P.D.
Affiliations: Joshua Kane (deceased), Lt. Victor "Vic" Northrup, Vince (partner?)
Enemies: Raymond Coker, Geraldo Kabal (deceased), Jack Russell
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: 23rd Precinct, Los Angeles, California
First Appearance: Werewolf by Night I#6 (June, 1973)
(in werewolf form) Werewolf by Night I#20 (August,
1974)
Powers/Abilities: In his human form, Hackett did not possess any superhuman powers. However, as a police officer, his job may have required him to remain in good physical condition. Also, the fact that he was an avid hunter may mean that he was skilled in the use of different types of guns.
By using one of the "Werewolf Rings", Hackett could change into a werewolf, a form which is a hybrid of human and wolf. In this form he possessed enhanced human physical abilities (strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, etc.). He may have had enhanced senses as well but this was not demonstrated.
While in his werewolf form, Hackett acted in a more savage manner than he had as a human. While this may have been caused by the ring, it was probably just the psychological effect of being able to release his true self which caused him to be more savage...but what do I know?
Hackett's werewolf form presumably had the same enhanced healing ability as normal werewolves. If so, then he could have recovered from any non-fatal wound ten times faster than humans would. However, he could not survive plunging into a vat of molten metal which burned him to death (vaporized him?) before he could get out. Hackett's werewolf form was presumably also vulnerable to magical attacks and to assaults involving silver but this was also not demonstrated.
History:
(Werewolf by Night I#6 (fb) - BTS) - Hackett once played tight
end for the Los Angeles Rams (or maybe that was just something
that he fantasized about doing?)
(Werewolf by Night I#21 (fb) - BTS) - Hackett and Joshua Kane hunted together a lot and became good friends.
(Werewolf by Night I#21 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Hackett’s hunter’s instinct led him to become a cop.
(Werewolf by Night #6) - While looking over the file on the Kane case, the two brothers who had been murdered a night apart, Hackett discovered some interesting references in Joshua Kane’s notes, references which tied in with items from other reports he’d gotten lately. After putting the pieces of the puzzle together, Hackett told his colleague Vince that he believed that there was a werewolf on the loose in Los Angeles and he stated that he was going to find it and stop it.
(Werewolf by Night I#8)
[One month passed]
(Werewolf by Night #9 (fb) - BTS) - Hackett MAY have made a second visit to the Russell house to speak with Lissa who was again out (see comments).
(Werewolf by Night I#9) - After Jack Russell was identified as being in the drunk tank at the 23rd Precinct, Hackett notified Philip Russell. He then told Jack that he had been asking questions about an incident that took place at the Russell family’s beach house a few months earlier (some motorcycle hoods and a few state police were messed up pretty badly) and about the killing of his family chauffeur by some kind of beast that took place a month before that, at about the same time that Jack had disappeared. Jack didn't provide Hackett with any answers and Hackett released him into Philip Russell's custody.
(Werewolf by Night I#10) - Just before dawn on the following day, Hackett got a call from the riot squad about some sort of trouble out at Century City. Hackett had a feeling that "that Russell kid" was somehow involved so he and Vince went there to investigate. After finding an abandoned car registered to Phillip Russell, Hackett and Vince went to the Russell house and, when no one answered their knock and they found the door unlocked, they went in and found no one home (Philip had just been kidnapped by agents of the Committee). Hackett called it "very odd indeed.”
[Four months
passed]
(Werewolf by Night I#17) - Hackett came to Jack Russell’s apartment in Colden House and announced, "I’ve reason to believe a werewolf is here!"
(Werewolf by Night I#18) - As Hackett questioned Jack Russell, the young man suddenly threw Hackett to the floor, knocking him out (and saving him from a deadly attack by the "cleaning lady" behind him). When Hackett revived, he heard a commotion outside, saw two werewolves fighting each other atop a police squad car, and opened fire with silver bullets. With other policemen, Hackett pursued the two werewolves to a nearby park but was prevented from firing upon them by members of the crowd who were unwilling to let "the fuzz" shoot two "guys" just for brawling. Hackett, the police and the crowd members were then knocked unconscious by the werewolves.
(Werewolf by Night I#19 (fb)) - The next day, when Jack Russell asked a police officer about Hackett’s whereabouts, he was told that Hackett had been taken to the hospital the previous night, semi-conscious and muttering about werewolves. The officer also referred to "Lou and his ‘beastly’ nature."
(Werewolf by Night I#21 (fb) - BTS) -
Hackett received a (magic) ring from the estate of Joshua Kane,
as stipulated in Kane's will.
Hackett somehow discovered that the ring could transform him into a werewolf without removing his human intelligence and ability to speak.
(Werewolf by Night I#21 (fb) - BTS) - Wanting to learn the origin of the ring, Hackett began trying to contact Kane's lawyer, Geraldo Kabal, but had no success. When he visited Kabal's home, the butler claimed that Kabal wasn't home.
(Werewolf by Night I#20) - In his werewolf form, Hackett stalked Jack Russell and learned that he and Raymond Coker were both werewolves. Later, in his human form, Hackett came to Jack’s apartment, revealed that he’d found out that Coker was THE werewolf in the area and pressured Jack into agreeing to help him stop Coker.
(Werewolf by Night I#21) - After trying to reach Geraldo Kabal for a month, Hackett finally confronted Kabal in his home and asked where his magic ring came from. When Kabal refused, stating that, as the executor of Joshua Kane’s estate, he had fulfilled the stipulations of Kane’s will by seeing that Hackett got the ring but was not required to reveal the ring’s origin, Hackett grabbed him and struck him across the face until Kabal agreed to talk. Kabal revealed that the ring had come from a trunk full of sorcerous artifacts which had supposedly once belonged to the mad monk Aelfric but which had come into Joshua Kane’s possession. Kane had told Kabal that Hackett was to be given one of two (identical) rings because it would suit Hackett’s nature. When Kabal revealed that the second ring had been taken by Jack Russell, Hackett put on his ring, transformed into the golden-furred werewolf, and killed Kabal. Wondering what the other ring would do, Hackett resolved to find Russell and get it from him. After tracking down the Russell and Coker werewolves, Hackett trapped them in a dead-end alley, stripped down to his pants and transformed into his werewolf form. After a brief battle, Hackett realized that they were too fast and nimble for him to fight in the alley so he escaped to the rooftops to lead them to a place where he would have more room to move. At a foundry, Hackett confronted the Russell werewolf on a catwalk over some vats of molten steel and demanded the ring, then slashed him, causing him to fall over the railing. As the Russell werewolf dangled from the catwalk, Hackett began stomping on his fingers, trying to force him to let go and fall into the cauldron below. As the Russell werewolf was moments away from losing his hold, the Coker werewolf leaped down upon Hackett, knocking him over the railing and into the vat of molten metal where he was vaporized. Since Hackett had been in his werewolf form when he died, the act of killing him had cured Coker of his lycanthropy and he returned to his human form.
(Werewolf by Night I#22 (fb) - BTS) - The L.A.P.D. later found Lou Hackett’s empty car, some of his clothes and a lot of blood (some of which turned out to belong to a wolf) but not his body.
(Werewolf by Night I#22) - Homicide Lieutenant Victor ‘Vic’ Northrup, who considered Hackett a good friend of his and (wrongly) a good cop, told his partner Eddie that he was determined to solve Hackett’s disappearance.
(Werewolf by Night I#24) - Vic Northrup told his partner Eddie that he’d found references to a werewolf in some of Hackett’s private notes.
Comments: Created by Len Wein, Mike
Ploog and Frank Bolle.
Transformed into a werewolf (and a murderer) by
Doug Moench, Don Perlin and Vince Colletta.
When first introduced, Lt. Hackett was just a dedicated detective who had stumbled upon the Werewolf's trail and was determined to track him down. The fact that he was good friends with Joshua Kane and was capable of murder was not revealed until Doug Moench took over as writer and in all probability was not something which his creator Len Wein had planned for him. I guess it was just Moench's way of ending that leftover subplot so that he could focus on his own stories.
Exactly when Hackett received his magic ring from Kane's estate was never made clear nor was it revealed how Hackett learned that the ring could transform him into a werewolf. I've assumed that Hackett began trying to contact Kabal as soon as he got the ring but it's possible that he received the ring earlier but didn't begin to try to find out about its origin until AFTER it transformed him into a werewolf.
In Werewolf by Night #9, Lissa tells Jack that "Hackett was out at the house yesterday asking about me and the beach house" and a footnote states that that was "last issue" (i.e. in WBN #8). However, since almost a full month passed between issues 8 and 9, that can't be right so it seems that Lissa must have been mistaken about when Hackett dropped by. Maybe it was actually "a month ago" instead of "yesterday"? Or maybe Hackett actually dropped by the Russell home on two occasions. His first visit was depicted in WBN #8 but his second visit, which occurred a month later (and on the day before WBN #9) was never depicted. If that were the case, then we should just ignore that "last issue" footnote in WBN #9.
If you read those WBN issues under artificial light, Hackett's hair looks to be white. However, when viewed in sunlight, Hackett's hair is actually a pale blond color. I mention this solely because, until about 15 minutes before writing these words, I had never looked at those issues in sunlight and so was somewhat surprised at the difference it made.
Speaking of color, I've been describing Hackett's werewolf form as "golden-furred" but in WBN #20 he actually looks orange to me. On the other hand, his fur seems to be the same color as Jack's hair and Jack is supposedly red-haired, so maybe the Hackett werewolf was meant to be red-furred? Anyway, in WBN #21 his fur is more yellow in color (and closer to golden-furred). You decide.
Clarifications:
Lieutenant Lou Hackett has no known connections to:
Vince was a colleague of Lou Hackett's who was also stationed at the 23rd Precinct of the Los Angeles Police Department. One day, after bringing Hackett a file he wanted, Hackett confided in Vince that he believed that there was a werewolf loose in the city. Vince replied that "the Lou Hackett I know would toss me out on my butt for even suggesting such a thing."
Two months later, Vince accompanied Hackett during his investigation of trouble at Century City. After finding Philip Russell's car abandoned there, Vince and Hackett checked out the Russell house but found nobody home and the door unlocked.
--Werewolf by Night I#6 (10)
images:
Werewolf by Night I#6, page 10, panel 7 (head shot)
Werewolf by Night I#17, page 18, panel 7 (blond head shot)
Werewolf by Night I#21, page 3, panel 6 (beating up Kabal)
Werewolf by Night I#20, page 1, panel 4 (werewolf)
Werewolf by Night I#21, page 10, panel 1 (werewolf)
Werewolf by Night I#21, page 5, panel 6 (werewolf in a suit)
Werewolf by Night I#6, page 10, panel 6 (Vince)
Werewolf by Night I#8 (August, 1973) - Len Wein (writer), Werner Roth (pencils), Paul Reinman (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Werewolf by Night I#10 (October, 1973) - Gerry Conway (writer), Tom Sutton (pencils/inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Werewolf by Night I#17-18 (May-June, 1974) - Mike Friedrich (writer), Don Perlin (pencils/inks), Mike Royer (#18, inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Werewolf by Night I#20-21 (August-September, 1974) - Doug Moench (writer), Don Perlin (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Last updated: 10/27/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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