Blackgar Island

Blackgar Island is a fictional island featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics. It first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #4 in June, 1972. It also appeared in Werewolf by Night #1.

History
Blackgar Island was a small privately owned island located off the coast of Monterey Bay in California. It was owned by geneticist Miles Blackgar who purchased Russoff Castle from Philip Russell and had it transported from Medias in Romania to his island where it was reassembled brick by brick.

Miles Blackgar used the lower dungeons of the castle as his personal laboratory where he conducted unorthodox experiments in genetics, creating a subrace or hideously malformed freaks. Most of these creations proved to be of little use to Blackgar and he had them killed off. One of them, a simple-minded brute named Strug, was allowed to survive and operated as Blackgar's henchman and servant.

The true reason behind Blackgar’s purchase of the castle was that he was hoping to find the Darkhold – a mystic tome of black magic said to have once belonged to Gregory Russoff. It was Blackgar’s hope that the Darkhold might hold the key towards curing his daughter Marlene Blackgar, who was a mutant cursed with the ability to turn living creatures into stone with but a gaze.

Miles was not the only one interested in the Darkhold however. Russoff’s son, Jack Russell, sought the Darkhold as well, believing that it might hold the key towards curing the curse of lycanthropy he inherited from his father. Jack and his newfound ally Buck Cowan traveled to Blackgar Island to find the book. Jack transformed into the Werewolf and attacked Miles Blackgar, pitching him from a tower window, paralyzing him. Marlene Blackgar turned her gaze upon the Werewolf temporarily transforming him into a stone statue. She left his immobile form on the edge of their property between the forests and the bay.

Unexpectedly, the metamorphosis from werewolf back to human reversed the effects of Marlene’s power and Jack returned to normal. Regrouping with Buck, they made their way back inside the castle and found the Darkhold. Buck chartered a seaplane to get them off the island and back to the mainland.

Comics that take place on

 * Marvel Spotlight, Volume 1 #4
 * Werewolf by Night, Volume 1 #1

Residents of

 * Miles Blackgar
 * Marlene Blackgar
 * Strug
 * Garth