Adam Garou

"Wanna see something really scary?"

- Adam Garou

Adam Garou was a werewolf who was born in France sometime in the late 19th century. The means by how he became a werewolf are unknown, but it is known that his family was hunted down, forcing him to flee France for the United States.

Early Years
He immediately fell in love with America and developed a deep sense of justice. He graduated from Yale University in 1910 with a masters degree in science, but his true passion lied in the world of law enforcement. At this time, Garou found a way to refine and redirect his werewolf abilities via biofeedback and drugs. He also learned that during a full lunar eclipse, he was practically invincible. He used these methods and his unwavering dedication to make him a more efficient hunter. During the 1930s, Adam Garou was pivotal in bringing down Al Capone's mob in Chicago, killing many of Capone's hired guns. Soon after, he became chief of police under the alias, Joseph O'Conner.

Forming the Pack
Over the course of several decades, Adam Garou amassed a great deal of wealth and influence and insinuated himself into the law enforcement culture in several cities. He also found a way to bestow enhanced physical attributes to others by way of a serum cultivated from his own blood and brain tissue. The recipients of this serum, while not true werewolves, found themselves stronger, heartier and more feral. They also developed the ability to heal from nearly any wound (except silver).

Garou began setting himself up as an Officer Crisis Counselor and used this position to recruit officers to his cause; officers whom he believed shared Garou's unorthodox sense of justice. These officers became part of a special detachment of the police department known as the Pack. Invariably however, Garou never placed too much trust in his accomplices. Prolonged use of his werewolf serum had a harrowing effect on some of his recruits, and not all of them necessarily fell in line with Garou's views. Garou and his Pack moved from city to city, cleaning up the streets, slaughtering members of organized crime wherever they found them. The departments they worked for unofficially supported Garou's task force, but it is unknown exactly how much they knew about Garou himself or the means by which he empowered his agents.

Whenever Garou considered his chosen city to be "safe", he then murdered his accomplices on the night of the full lunar eclipse, leaving no trace of their whereabouts behind. One pack member from the Miami police department, Detective Tom Davies, survived Garou's massacre, but his body was slowly breaking down from the effects of the serum.

Following the Miami incident, Adam Garou set himself up as a detective and crisis counselor in Los Angeles, California. He lived in an expansive penthouse suite and established a new Pack which consisted of former L.A. detectives, Casey Spencer, Ramón Pérez, Doug Crane and a woman named Liza. He gave the detectives the same biochemical formula that he had given previous Pack members, and the detectives became pseudo-werewolf super-cops. At this time, Adam became romantically involved with Casey Spencer.

Los Angeles
In 1993, Adam Garou met L.A. detective Max Dire. Max had recently suffered a lot of stress due to the loss of his partner, Jim Sheldon. Adam encouraged Max to sit in on a "counseling session" at his penthouse, with the intent of bringing him into the fold. During this meeting, Pack member Doug Crane pulled Garou aside and confessed to infecting Jim Sheldon with the werewolf serum while he was in a coma. Sheldon had come out of his coma, but committed suicide with a silver bullet shortly thereafter. Adam made certain to keep this information from Max.

Adam then invited Max to accompany them on a raid, to show him how effective his methods could be in terms of cleaning up the streets. Adam and the others dressed in black bodysuits and raided a safe house owned by a crime lord named Teague. Max watched from the sidelines, viewing the spectacle through infrared binoculars. He watched as Adam and his cohorts savagely tore into the criminals, crippling many of them, but leaving even more dead.

A short time later, Adam learned that Casey Spencer had an affair with Max Dire. This greatly angered Garou who believed that he was the sole recipient of Casey's affection. Partially transforming into a werewolf, he then displayed his dominance by forcing himself upon her. At this time, Garou learned that Casey had infected Max with the serum and that he was now one step closer to becoming a Pack member.

Adam and the Pack showed up at Max's 30th birthday celebration to formerly initiate him into the group. Leaving the Blue Night bar, the group was attacked by Teague's men who tried to kill them by blowing up their van. The werewolves survived and returned the favor by slaughtering the men who tried to kill them, then dumping their bodies through the skylight of Teague's penthouse.

Max quickly came to distrust Garou and his methods. Though he was now infected with the werewolf strain, he did not approve of the Pack's sense of vigilante justice. Max then encountered Detective Tom Davies, the sole survivor of the Miami Pack. Davies tried to explain to Max that Adam Garou was evil and that he would be the death of them all. Max's suspicions of Garou were confirmed when Adam came into the police station and shot Tom Davies to death. When questioned by the police chief concerning the shooting, Adam told him that he shot Davies because he had attacked Officer Dire. Max said nothing to contradict Garou's assertion.

Betrayal
"Go ahead. Make your day."

- Adam Garou

A short time later, Max went to Adam's penthouse to confront him. He warned the others about Garou and what he would do them after he no longer required their services. Doug Crane no longer wished to be part of Garou's pack, but Adam was not going to let him simply walk away. He murdered Crane in front of Dire and the other Pack members. Max Dire and Casey Spencer escaped from Adam by leaping out of the penthouse window.

Although disappointed by Max and Casey's betrayal, Adam was not about to forego his more pressing agenda. On the night of the full lunar eclipse, when he was at the height of his power, he laid siege to Teague's dockside enterprises, nearly killing the gangster himself.

Max showed up to stop him, this time armed with silver bullets. He shot Adam point blank in the chest, but quickly learned that on the night of the eclipse, not even silver could harm him. Adam assumed his full werewolf form and as a demonstration of his power, killed his own Pack member, Liza. He then began chasing Max Dire across the docks. The two came to blows on top of a shipping crate suspended from a crane. Max stabbed the werewolf in the neck with a needle filled with silver nitrate. By this point however, the lunar eclipse had passed and Garou was now vulnerable to silver once again. He reverted to his human form and slumped down onto the docks. He pleaded with Max to not let his legacy die with him. He asked him to lie down in his blood and absorb his power so that he might carry on his work. With the silver nitrate coursing through his system, Adam Garou finally died. Max Dire decided to honor the man's final wishes and continued his legacy.

Notes & Trivia

 * Garou is French for Wolf.


 * Adam Garou had a prolonged lifespan. It is unknown if this is characteristic of being a werewolf or a side effect of the bio-formula that he injected himself with.