HOWLER

Real Name: Louis "Luke" Garrow

Identity/Class: Presumptive human (possibly a mutant, mutate, or magically-empowered being); pre-modern era

Occupation: Criminal, laborer

Group Membership: Possibly Werewolves of Earth (see comments)

Affiliations: Chimera (Zuhn), several other unidentified Skrulls;
    briefly paid to work with Axis, Positron, the Scythe, and Typhoon

Enemies: Axis, FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), First Line (Black Fox/Robert Paine, Blackjack, Effigy/Velmax, Firefall, Mr. Justice/Tim Carney (formerly Kid Justice), Liberty Girl,/Beverly, Nightingale, Oxbow/Sam Matonabbe, Pixie, Reflex, Yankee Clippe/Patrick Carney), Scythe

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None;
    "Animal," "offal," "sub-human" (derogatory terms used by Axis)

Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed;
    last seen on Earth's moon;
    formerly mobile (wanted in several US states)

First Appearance: Marvel: The Lost Generation#6 (September, 2000)

Powers/Abilities: When exposed to moonlight, Garrow transformed into the savage, feral creature known as Howler. He typically lost the power of speech and some degree of control, but devices that filtered select harmonics granted him greater degrees of conscious control. Howler had some degree of superhuman strength (Class 10). His strength and savagery were enhanced by exposure his degree of exposure to moonlight. When on the surface of the moon, he became completely savage and was strong enough to tear a super-strong man in half.

    Skrull "Lifeboat technology" allowed Howler and his allies to operate on the moon's surface without wearing spacesuits.

Height: (Human) roughly 6'2"; (Howler) roughly 7'2"
Weight: (Human) 250 lbs.; (Howler) roughly 400 lbs.
Eyes: Brown?
Hair: (Human) gray; (Howler) white

History:
(Marvel: The Lost Generation#4 (fb) - BTS) - Garrow worked primarily in heavy lifting.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation#4 (fb) - BTS) - At nighttime, for several years, Garrow turned into a giant form he called Howler, losing his power of speech and seeking to satiate its many base needs and urges.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation#4 (fb) - BTS) - In both of his identities, Garrow was wanted by the FBI in several states.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation#4 (fb) - BTS) - The moment Garrow was spotted in Dallas, the FBI alerted the First Line of his presence.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4 - BTS) - During his forced stay on Earth, Skrull commander Zuhn became aware of Howler's existence and decided to enlist him in his plans to get the technologies required to repair the crashed Skrull saucer that had stranded him on Earth back in 1947. Posing as wealthy Texas aeronautical expert Winget, Zuhn invited Garrow to his East-Dallas Winget Co corporation. There he planned to expose his guest to a device that used artificial moon beams to achieve whatever effect he desired on Garrow. However, because of Garrow's status as a wanted man, the FBI immediately tracked him to Dallas and alerted the First Line.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation#4) <November 21, 1963> - Meeting with Mr. Winget (secretly the skrull Zuhn), head of the aerospace company Winget Co in an industrial park east of Dallas, Garrow questioned what Winget would want with him, at which point Winget activated a device that bathed Garrow in energy simulating moonlight, but with select harmonics designed to improve Garrow's conscious control of his Howler form. Posing as another were-being, Chimera, Zuhn proposed an alliance.
    That evening, Chimera and Howler broke into a Stark Industries plant, only to find the First Line (Black Fox, Effigy, Liberty Girl, Yankee Clipper) waiting for him. Liberty Girl drop kicked Howler in the head, and the Yankee Clipper flattened him with a punch. After Chimera slew Liberty Girl, Effigy slew Chimera. The First Line waited for the police to arrive to pick up Howler (who was out cold) and presumably took him into custody, while Effigy got rid of Chimera's body so no one would learn he was a Skrull.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6 - BTS) - Aware of the fact mankind was about to embark on their first major space exploration by landing on the Moon, the Skrull Empire sent three agents to Earth to destroy Apollo 11. Figuring the failure of the Apollo mission would discourage humanity from spreading out among the stars, the Skrulls disguised themselves as humans and contracted Howler and several other super-villains (Axis, Positron, Scythe and Typhoon) to do their bidding.

(Marvel: The Lost Generation#6) <July 16, 1969> - Not too concerned about the fate of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin or the other astronauts aboard the Apollo 11, Howler and the other villains gladly agreed to help out the three disguised Skrull agents in light of the major compensation promised to them. Howler initially objected to the involvement of fellow superhumans Axis and Typhoon, fearing that he would have to split his fee. One of the Skrulls assured Howler he would receive full payment, but then Axis complained about having to work with "sub-humans." Howler rushed Axis, telling him to say his prayers, but Axis punched him across the room, saying, "I do, animal. Every night." Calling Axis a pious fascist and threatening to mail him back to Germany in a baggie, Howler tore up a piece of machinery and hurled it at Axis, but Positron blew the machinery to pieces and broke up the fight. One of the Skrulls then reminded them of their compensation of their mission, to destroy the Apollo 11 ship as it landed on the moon. They departed for the moon in the Skrulls' flying saucer.
    Unbeknownst to them, Effigy had learned of the planned attack on Apollo 11 and brought the First Line to the Moon as well.

    As the Skrull ship approached the moon, Howler began to feel really odd, and the close proximity to the source of his powers made him increasingly erratic, a fact noticed by Positron who likened it to Howler reaching maximum overload. Nonetheless, Howler joined the other villains on the surface of the Moon while the three Skrulls remained on board their craft, unaware the First Line had arrived as well.
    Arriving on the moon, the criminals encountered the arriving First Line. Upon seeing Blackjack, a now re-formed criminal, Howler rushed to kill him.

    When Axis dared to push Howler aside, claiming this was a job for a super-MAN, the crazed, now savage creature tore Axis in half. Shocked, and possibly acting out of self defense, the Scythe then used his massive arm blades to slash Howler's mid-section, presumably disemboweling Howler, leaving him for dead on the surface of the Moon (see comments).

Comments: Created by John Byrne, Roger Stern, and Al Milgrom.

    In case you're not familiar with the series, Marvel: The Lost Generation started with issue #12 and then worked backwards to #1, each story taking place sometime before the last.

    In Marvel: The Lost Generation#6, Howler had yellow fur. In Marvel: The Lost Generation#4, Howler had white fur. No explanation...not sure if it was coloring error, of if there was some explanation.
Maybe prolonged exposure to Chimera/Zuhn's artificial moonlight device long term turned him more yellow?
    It could  also have been a deliberate attempt to make Howler's appearance more distinctive from the aforementioned Yeti.

    According to John Byrne himself this was due to "shoddy production values Marvel dumped on this series. Especially the coloring/separations, where characters would not keep the same hues sometimes from page to page!"
I actually got a commission from John Byrne recently featuring the Lost Generation and he talked about how poorly done the series was in terms of the production values: (http://www.byrnerobotics.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=42718&PN=0&TPN=1). 
    all the best,
    Kevin Moorhead

    Thanks to John Holstein for pointing out the explanation of how Howler, his allies, and the First Line were active on the moon without spacesuits:

Marvel: The Lost Generation # 6, page 15 panel 1. Effigy says "No need ( for space suits ),Oxbow. Those tubes at the back of the chamber are part of the ship's "Lifeboat Technology( seen on page 22 panel 1 )"---they temporarily supercharge the body's natural electromagnetic aura while hyper-oxygenating its tissues."
    The Villains ( Howler, Scythe, Typhoon, Axis & Positron ) working with the Skrulls probably used the same technology.     

    You'd think with Howler's amped up power level on the moon that he could have recovered from a sword slash.
Was that really the end for Howler? It's not unthinkable he'd have a healing factor as all feral creatures tend to have... And since he was already charged up from being on the Moon, having him recover from being gutted isn't that big a stretch. Still, could he have survived up there for decades? Maybe if he somehow wandered onto the Kree ruins on the Moon's Blue Area for food and shelter. Heck, if he did that he might have stuck out long enough to join the Inhumans once Attilan landed on the Moon. With his remarkable visual (and behavorial) similarities to wayward Inhuman Yeti, he'd blend right in.
--Norvo

    Howler seemed more likely to a be a mutant or mutate rather than a werewolf. Presumably the sun's light, reflected off the moon's surface, is what gave him his powers. I asked Roger Stern if Howler was a werewolf or not in preparation for the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe's Werewolves profiles, and he asked that we not clarify it one way or the other.

    Fin Fang Foom444 noted: The name "Luke Garrow" would seem to be a play on the French "loup-garou", meaning "werewolf".

Profile by Snood, with expansion, additional images and comments.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Howler has no known connections to:

• "HOWLER" (    ) - @ 1959, alien infant, briefly lost on earth, cried for its parents, discovered by Charlie Fox, hunted by army, easily defeated them before being reclaimed by its parents--Tales of Suspense I#6/1
• Howler, (Zed) a Z'lyzlayan Fantastic Four ally @ Fantastic Four III#33
• Howling Commandos, World War II soldiers @ Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos#1
• Howling Commandos, SHIELD monster soldiers @ Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos#1
• Howling Commandos Private Military Commandos, @ Secret Warriors#1
• "Howling Vessel", encountered by Silver Surfer @ Marvel Comics Presents#69/4
• Howlin' Wolf, Marvel's version of the famous musician @ Marvel Comics Presents#65/4