By Jim Beard

The villagers are revolting, storming the castle with their unholy demands, and they are met with cries of "It's alive! It's ALIVE!" echoing through the halls of the House of Ideas…Mighty Marvel is reviving its Monsters.

Beginning in February, Marvel unleashes a shocking new multi-issue event: LEGION OF MONSTERS Monsters.Sewn together by some of comics most mad and twisted creative geniuses, LEGION OF MONSTERS shakes the dust off some of Marvel's creepiest characters and show fans why they still rock the mausoleum.

"The idea," croaks LOM editor and chief gravedigger John Barber, "is to reinvigorate--in Marvel continuity--our horror characters, and show the dark side of the Marvel Universe. These are the places where Mr. Fantastic is afraid to go…"

Barber cackles with glee as he runs down the list of artists and writers infusing the event's one-shots with their lifeblood, a who's-who which includes such shroud-wrapped royalty as Greg "Gogos" Land, Mike "Crypt" Carey, Skottie "Swamp" Young and David "Fester" Finch.

"I knew WEREWOLF BY NIGHT was Greg Land's #1 favorite comic of all time, and thought it would be cool to give him the chance to draw it," notes Barber. "And from there it seemed like there might be other creators who wanted to do horror stuff. Mike Carey, of course, and then Finch jumped on board. I also happened to call Charlie Huston just as he'd finished reading some Gerber MAN-THING stories. It all fell into place after that."
Each issue features two 14-page stories. Here's a taste of what Marvel Monster Mashers can expect:

·LEGION OF MONSTERS: WEREWOLF BY NIGHT (Feb.) – by Mike Carey and Greg Land, plus Skottie Young writing and drawing Monster of Frankenstein.

·LEGION OF MONSTERS: MAN-THING (March) – by Charlie Huston and an as-yet-to-be-revealed artist, plus a companion tale featuring The Zombie.

·LEGION OF MONSTERS: MORBIUS (April) – by Brendan Cahill and an artist whose identity will soon be unwrapped, plus C.B. Cebulski and David Finch deliver a new installment of the struggle between Dracula and his bat-winged daughter Lilith.

Monster Maestro Greg Land supplies covers for each issue. Barber is also quick to point a talon at the possibility of another one-shot to be added in May, a tale opening the grimoire on the devilish lass, Satanna.

Barber reminds Marvel zombies everywhere that all LEGION OF MONSTERS one-shots are in-continuity. "It's important to me, and hopefully to the fans, that these books aren't throwing out the history of the characters, or presenting new versions. These are the 'real' Marvel Comics versions, in the 'real' Marvel Universe. We're really trying to get them back to what originally worked about them and show today's readers how creepy and cool these Monsters are!"

As the full moon rises and the Witching Hour nears, more in-depth vivisections of the LEGION OF MONSTERS titles will materialize here at Marvel.com.

In the meantime, for those of you who can't stand the wait, we suggest you sink your claws into some of the sin-tillating Marvel Essential volumes that reprint many of the dark and foreboding original exploits of the Legion: TOMB OF DRACULA, WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, MONSTER OF FRANKENSTEIN, TALES OF THE ZOMBIE, and the newly-released MAN-THING and MARVEL HORROR.