Raymond Coker

Raymond Coker is a fictional werewolf and a recurring antagonist featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Werewolf by Night #11 in November, 1973.

Biography
Raymond Coker was Jack Russell's reclusive neighbor at the Colden Arms Apartment complex in Los Angeles. Mostly a singles building, Coker had little interest in fraternizing with any of the building's other inhabitants and took a particular dislike to Russell. One day Russell accidentally entered Coker's apartment while he was in the middle of some sort of mystic ritual. Coker became furious and threw Russell out, saying he had no use for a person like him.

As Jack became more and more desperate to find a cure for his curse of lycanthropy, he again approached Coker, asking him if he knew much about werewolves given his knowledge of the mystic arts. Coker again became enraged at Russell and told him to get out of his sight. Jack did not realize that Coker was himself a werewolf, and had reacted that way because he thought that Jack had realized his dual nature. A short time later Jack, in his Werewolf form, was attacked in his apartment by Ma Mayhem, a powerful witch working for the Committee. Ma Mayhem sent the Werewolf straight through his apartment wall, interrupting the spell which Coker used to keep himself from transforming into a werewolf on the nights of the full moon. As a result, Coker himself also became a werewolf and attacked Jack. Mayhem, unwilling to fight two werewolves, quickly fled the scene. The battle between the two supernatural beasts soon spread to the streets below, and a slightly stunned Lou Hackett tried to shoot the two beasts with silver bullets. When the battle shifted to the city's park, Hackett was prevented from shooting them by a group of onlookers who mistook them for a couple of brawlers.

For a short while, Coker continued to hold a grudge against Russell, as the spell he used to control his transformations would take months for him to recreate. Though soon the two wolves found themselves patrolling the streets of the city together, having formed a bestial bond. Hackett had come into possession of one of the Werewolf Rings and used his own werewolf form to track and keep tabs on the two men, discovering their secret.

When he found out that Jack was supposed to have the other ring, he followed the two werewolves and trapped them down a one-way alley before attacking them in his own werewolf form. He was quickly overmatched, however, and fled to the rooftops, with Russell in hot pursuit. The two werewolves eventually continued their battle on the roof of a local foundry, both crashing through the skylight and landing on a catwalk about a vat of molten steel. Hackett got the upper hand and it looked as though he was going to cause Jack to fall to his death in the vat below, but Coker leaped from above, saving Jack from his fate. Hackett fell over the side and was instantly vaporized by the heat of the vat below. Legends told that the only way for a werewolf to reverse his curse was to kill another werewolf, thus when Coker killed Hackett in his werewolf form, he reverted back to human, his nightmare curse having been lifted.

After his uncle and aunt had been killed in a zombie attack, Coker left California and went to Haiti, seeking out the help of the witch Jeesala of de Thousand Years. She thought that he had come seeking her help to rid him of the werewolf curse, but when she realized he needed help against Zombies, she referred him to Brother Voodoo.

Abilities

 * Lycanthropy: is a metaphysical condition in which a human being develops the physical and mental characteristics of a wolf. Lycanthropy is usually caused through an act of mysticism, such as having a curse placed upon the individual, but may also be hereditary. Other origins may include scientific experimentation or mutation.
 * Enhanced senses
 * Enhanced hearing
 * Enhanced smell


 * Regeneration
 * Claws
 * Fangs
 * Physical prowess
 * Superhuman strength
 * Superhuman durability
 * Superhuman stamina

Superhuman reflexes
 * Superhuman agility

Notes & Trivia



 * In normal human form, Raymond Coker possesses the strength level of a man his age, size and weight who engages in moderate regular exercise. In his werewolf form, Raymond's strength level increased to superhuman levels.


 * When Coker transformed back into his human state, he lost his superhuman abilities. The metal silver is necessary to weaken or kill a werewolf. This is due to mystical "purity" properties which are deadly to many supernatural creatures such as vampires or werewolves. If Coker were shot or stabbed and mortally wounded by a silver bullet or blade in his werewolf form, he would die within a matter of minutes.