Cute as a button...

...or is that...creepy as a button?



The last one definitely applies to this disturbing, unnerving kid from heck in Werewolf by Night #31. Sure, pretty much all the kids of the Marvel Universe have had their creepy moments...Franklin Richards, Katie Powers, Kristoff Vernard von Doom, little Jimmy Howlett, Kid Hulk...they all make ya cringe at one point or another. Well, they're mere...ahem...child's play compared to the spookiest, kookiest, ookiest Marvel Devil Child of them all...meet...and run away from...Buttons!:


All panels are from Werewolf by Night #31 (July 1975), script by Don Perlin and Doug Moench, pencils and inks by Don Perlin, colors by Michele Wolfman, letters by Dave Hunt

What's so bad about Buttons, you say? Well, even if you discount her misshapen face and her death-like stare, there's still her..um, obsession with marrying a man who is four or five times her age. (Also, who's a werewolf.)



The Oxford English Dictionary cites Werewolf by Night as the first appearance in print of the phrase "He's reeeel priddy." It would not make its spoken debut in the English language until the debut of the movie Deliverance.

Oh yes, that Buttons is "too much":



That's not "way cool, really neat, fab and gear" "too much," that's creeping me out beyond all human nature, kid "too much:



Now, 'round about now, I bet you're hoping that the old adage "this cover scene does not appear in this comic" is actually untrue in this case:



Which means you, me, and everybody else is waiting for, wishing on a star for, and applauding for this to happen:



GO WEREWOLF GO! GO WEREWOLF GO!



Sadly, Buttons's well-deserved ripping-apart at the hands of our hero was not to be. But all that was back in 1975. Nowadays, you can find Jack Russell (tee hee!), the Werewolf by Night, hanging around in a bar, patting a Drambuie-soused Dr. Strange on the back and reassuring him that Marvel's Midnight Sons imprint will be back any day, you betcha.

And Buttons? Whatever happened to creepy, skinny little Buttons? Well, she grew up. And...in other directions. And she became the lead singer for a girl group. Creepy, creepy Buttons...she had the last laugh. Creepy little Buttons had the last laugh on everybody.



And now you know...The Rest of the Story.