I personally consider the issues contained in this volume to be the best Werewolf by Night stories written to date. They tell the story of Jack Russell (yeah, I know) an everyman that on the night of his 18th birthday discovers he has inherited the Curse of the Werewolf.
The strong points in these stories however are that the character's conflicts are a result of his disdain for his step-father, and his love and protective attitude towards his younger sister. The result is a compelling character story about a troubled teen that is convinced he must protect his family from his own step-father while desperately searching for a cure for Lycanthropy. However, Jack searches for this cure not so he can save himself. He seeks the cure so that he can save his sister from sharing his fate on her own quickly approaching eighteenth birthday.
As for the artwork, I find that the black and white reprinting that is a staple of the Essentials series actually compliments the Werewolf by Night comics mood and tone in a way that the garishly colored 1970's originals did not.
The downside to these stories is that they contain some of the same cheesy "hellspawned" antagonists shared by Marvels other anti-hero "horror" comics of the 1970s. Fortunately, these antagonists only appear as plot devices that allow the Werewolf by Night to battle bad-guys. This is a Marvel comic after all. ( )