Retro Review: Marc Spector: Moon Knight #35-60 by Kavanaugh, Garney, Kwapisz, Fry, Platt, and others

Before getting into this column, I wanted to take a moment to apologize to my readers. I’ve been writing these Retro Review columns for a number of years now, and to do so, I read a comic a day, and then jot down my thoughts. These last months have been too busy for me to find the time for even this simple pleasure, and when I have had the time, I haven’t always had the energy or mental focus. There are two other columns I’ve been working on, and years worth of material I’ve wanted to get to, so it’s been frustrating for me. I might experiment with different formats to make these quicker to write and with less verbiage. At the end of the day, I turn to reading comics as a stress reliever and to connect with others over something I love, and it’s frustrated me to not be able to do that. I do recognize the irony in the fact that my column (partially) about Stephen Platt is hella late. And now, a column on some mediocre 90s comics…

Marc Spector: Moon Knight #35 – 60 (February 1992 – March 1994)

Written by Terry Kavanagh (#35-60)

Plot Assist by Ron Garney (#39-40)

Penciled by Ron Garney (#35-38), Gary Kwapisz (#39-44), Klaus Janson (#42), Kelley Jones (#42), Norm Breyfogle (#42), James Fry (#42, 45-50, 52-54), Ty Templeton (#42), Dave Hoover (#51), Stephen Platt (#55-57, 60), Fred Haynes (#58-59)

Inked by Tom Palmer (#35-42), Klaus Janson (#42), John Beatty (#42), Norm Breyfogle (#42), Karl Kesel (#42), Ty Templeton (#42), Jimmy Palmiotti (#43-44), Chris Ivy (#45-50, 52-55), Keith Williams (#51), Al Vey (#55), Scott Koblish (#55-59), Fred Haynes (#59), Stephen Platt (#60)

Coloured by Christie Scheele (#35-39, 42-54, 57), Ian Laughlin (#40), Mike Thomas (#41), Dana Moreshead (#55-56), Loretta Krol (#57), Ovi Hondru (#58-60

Spoilers (from thirty to thirty-two years ago)

As the 90s took hold, and there was a glut of comics on the market, I tried to rein in my purchasing, limiting myself to books I was truly enjoying (or at least convinced myself I was).  Needless to say, I dropped Moon Knight during JM DeMatteis’s short run.  After that, I did pick up some crossover issues during the Infinity Crusade event, but it was years before I read Moon Knight again.  

Having read through MK’s original run for the first time for this column, I’ve decided to continue reading this series, even though I don’t really expect to enjoy it.  Why do I do this to myself?  I often do find things to like, and I know that this column is going to end with the art of Stephen Platt, which I’m curious to explore.

Terry Kavanagh took over Marc’s book with issue thirty-five, and wrote it until its end with issue sixty.  That’s an impressive run, and I know that some of what he did here got picked up in Jed MacKay’s current, and very good, Moon Knight work, so I’m curious to see that.  Kavanagh is not a household name writer.  He edited a lot of titles in the 90s, but wrote comparatively few, with runs on X-Man and Web of Spider-Man being among his best known (unless you’re a big fan of Nightwatch).  

I have very few expectations for this run, but am curious to see if he carried over any of JM DeMatteis’s new approach to a kinder, more thoughtful Moon Knight who focuses on redemption.  I see that he picked up the notion of Randall Spector returning from the dead, so I want to see how that plays out.  I’m also curious to see how this stacks up against other mid-tier 90s comics (in other words, how long until Wolverine shows up?).

Let’s see how it goes…

Let’s track who turned up in the title:

Villains

• Shadowknight (Randall Spector; #35-38)
• The Knights of the Moon (Cult of Khonshu; #35-37)
• Princess Nepthys (Sandahl Swarn, Cult of Khonshu; #35-37)
• AIM (#35)
• Doctor Corling (#38)
• Doctor Doom (Victor Von Doom; #38-40)
• Metalslash (Sensor Squad; #39-40)
• Bloodhound (Sensor Squad; #39)
• Modem (Sensor Squad; #39)
• Impact (Sensor Squad; #39-40)
• Soundbyte (Sensor Squad; #39-40)
• Lanzer (Latverian ambassador; #39-40)
• Deadeye (Sensor Squad; #40)
• Iron Man Doppelganger (#41)
• Mister Fantastic Doppelganger (#41)
• Thanos (#41)
• Moon Shade (Moon Knight Doppelganger; #41-42)
• Franklin Richards Doppelganger (#41)
• Black Knight Doppelganger (#43)
• Beast Doppelganger (#43)
• Seth Phalkon (aka Seth the Immortal, Knights Templar & Phalkon Corps #43-44, 50, 52-59)
• DeMolay (Knights Templar; #43-44)
• Lamberton (Knights Templar; #43-44)
• Chrétien (Knights Templar; #43-44)
• Darkhawk Doppelganger (#43)
• Daredevil Doppelganger (#43)
• Namorita Doppelganger (#43)
• Multiple Man Doppelganger (#43)
• Basilisk (Hellbent; #44, 47-49)
• Agony (Hellbent; #44, 47-50, 53-57)
• Demogoblin (#45-46)
• Deadzone (John DeZoan #45-49)
• Snapp Simone (#46)
• Krak (#46)
• Tombstone (#48-49)
• Bramble (Hellbent; #50)
• Network (Hellbent; #50)
• Murmur (Hellbent; #50)
• Harlan Silverbird (#51)
• Glaze (Hellbent; #52-53)
• Cubist (Hellbent; #52-53)
• Fizzure (Hellbent; #53)
• Lowdown (Hellbent; #53)
• T.K.O. (Hellbent; #53)
• Triplex (Hellbent; #53)
• Gnash (Hellbent; #53)
• Tailspin (Hellbent; #53)
• Pang (Gremlin; #54)
• Flare (Hellbent; #54-55)
• Hook (Hellbent; #56-60)
• Krunch (Hellbent; #58)
• Vault (Hellbent; #58)
• Ripper (Hellbent; #58)
• Crackdown (Hellbent; #58)
• Spike (Hellbent; #58-59)
• Arc (Hellbent; #58)
• Lava (Hellbent; #58)
• Bass (Hellbent; #58)
• Belle (Hellbent; #58)
• Dusk (Hellbent; #58-60)
• Nightshadow (Hellbent Prime; #59-60)
• Slime (Hellbent; #59)

Guest Stars

• The Punisher (Frank Castle; #35-38)
• Microchip (#36, 38)
• Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards, Fantastic Four; #40, 44, 46)
• Wolverine (Logan, X-Men; #41)
• Daredevil (Matt Murdock; #41, 57)
• Strong Guy (Guido Carrosella, X-Factor; #41)
• The Hulk (Bruce Banner; #41)
• The Thing (Ben Grimm, Fantastic Four; #41, 44)
• Speedball (Robbie Baldwin, New Warriors; #41, 43-44)
• Archangel (Warren Worthington, X-Men; #41, 57)
• Living Lightning (Miguel Santos, Avengers; #41)
• Storm (Ororo Monroe, X-Men; #41, 57)
• Weapon Omega (Alpha Flight; #41)
• US Agent (John Walker, Avengers; #41, 50, 57)
• Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff, Avengers; #41, 57)
• Gambit (Remy LeBeau, X-Men; #41, 43, 50, 52-53)
• Nova (Richard Rider, New Warriors; #41)
• Psylocke (Betsy Braddock, X-Men; #41)

• She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters, Avengers; #41)
• Multiple Man (Jamie Madrox, X-Factor; #41, 43, 57)
• Invisible Woman (Sue Richards, Fantastic Four; #41, 44, 57)
• Thor (Eric Masterson, Avengers; #41, 50, 57)
• Colossus (Piotr Rasputin, X-Men; #41)
• Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski, Alpha Flight; #41, 57)
• Captain America (Seve Rogers, Avengers; #41, 57)
• Alicia Masters (#41, 44)
• Franklin Richards (#41, 44)
• Beast (Hank McCoy, X-Men; #43-44)
• Black Knight (Dane Whitman, Avengers; #43-44)
• Puck (Eugene Nelson, Alpha Flight; #43, 57)
• Crystal (Avengers; #43-44, 57)
• Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter, Avengers; #43)
• Human Torch (Johnny Storm, Fantastic Four; #44)
• Black Widow (Natasha Romanov, Avengers; #44, 50)
• Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange; #44, 46)
• Spider-Man (Peter Parker; #47, 57)
• Hawkeye (Clint Barton, Avengers; #50)
• Vision (Avengers; #50)
• Bloodline (Henri Remont, in Frenchie’s body; #50, 57)
• Manx (Hellbent; #50, 53, 57-60)
• Werewolf By Night (Jack Russell; #50, 52-53)
• Bloodline (Pierre Latrec, in Frenchie’s body; #55, 58)
• Vortex (Cadre; #56-60)
• Shard (Cadre; #56-60)
• Dementia (Cadre; #56-60)
• Goddess (#57)
• Moondragon (Heather Douglas; #57)
• Wonder Man (Simon Williams; #57)

Supporting Characters

• Marlene Alraune (#35, 38, 50, 52-60)
• Frenchie (Jean-Paul Duchamp; #35, 38-40, 43, 45-60)
• Sigmund (Dr. Robert Plesko, Shadow Cabinet; #38-41, 47-48, 51, 53, 55-56)
• Psycho (Peter Slate, Shadow Cabinet; #38, 43-46)
• Sheriff (Lieutenant Jaime Vasquez, Shadow Cabinet; #38, 43-44, 47-50, 53, 55-56)
• Sarah LeWarn (SpectorCorp; #39, 52)
• Nicolai Cray (SpectorCorp; #39-40, 53-55)
• Stash (Rich Conners, Shadow Cabinet; #39-40, 53-54, 56)
• Don G (Paulo Santacosta, Shadow Cabinet; #39, 47-48)
• Penny Annie (Colleen Shore, Shadow Cabinet; #39, 51, 53, 56)
• Donna Kraft (SpectorCorp #39, 52-60)
• Fingers (Thomas Haney, Shadow Cabinet; #40, 43-44, 53, 56)
• Cover Girl (Zena Z., Shadow Cabinet; #40, 47-49, 53, 56)
• Junior Birdman (Warren Tork, Shadow Cabinet; #41, 53, 56)
• Scout (Kim Hong, Shadow Cabinet; #41, 45-48, 51, 53, 56)
• Mercy (Dr. Hannah Trumball, Shadow Cabinet; #43-44, 48, 53-54)
• Shark (Cass Brennan, Shadow Cabinet; #43-44, 52-53, 55-56)
• Chloe Tran (Templar; #43, 47-50, 54, 56-60)
• Raul Cruz (SpectorCorp; #52-56, 58)
• Ella Bright (SpectorCorp; #52)
• Jae Tsuda (SpectorCorp; #52)
• Skitter (Shadow Cabinet; #53, 56)

Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:

• The first issue of Kavanagh’s run has the shadowy figure we’ve seen around Marc’s mansion recently burying something in the yard.  Marc and Marlene drive onto the property, and we see the figure run off, triggering something that makes part of the house explode.  Marlene points out that it’s the wing of the house that has all of Marc’s Moon Knight stuff, and he worries that Frenchie might be in there.  As Marlene calls 911 on the car phone, Marc swings into action, putting on his Moon Knight gear as he moves, and gliding into an upper level of the house.  He uses his new adamantium truncheon, that can extend into a bo staff, to leap over some flames.  Marlene watches the fire spread to more of the house and notices some noises in the bushes.  She goes to investigate, and we see the shadowy figure move towards Marc’s car.  Marlene doubles back but is shocked by who she sees standing there.  Marc moves down to the basement hangar, which is not engulfed yet, but sees that the flames are moving towards the massive furnace.  He also notices that his Khonshu statue, which he moved to the basement to protect, is missing its head.  Marlene stands face to face with Randall Spector, with his monstrous face mask and an axe.  She attacks him.  Marc moves the mooncopter into a secret sub-basement so firemen don’t find it, and sets the self-destruct to take care of the rest of his gear.  He finds Frenchie passed out under some debris and drags him as another explosion goes off.  We see them escape in the angel wing, his one-man copter which has recently been extended to two seats.  He jumps out when he sees Marlene lying on the ground where his car used to be.  He sees that she’s carrying the fright mask, and concludes that someone is impersonating his dead brother; he vows vengeance.  Later, in a brownstone in the Upper East Side, some of the Knights of the Moon approach their leader, Princess Nepthys, in a room adorned with Egyptian artifacts (the Princess wears a lot of Egyptian jewelry and breast cones), she talks about starting the Trials of Khonshu.  She enters a room where the guy from Marc’s house waits; he talks about how Moon Knight is going to come after him.  On the Lower West Side, another shadowy figure watches through a skylight as some crooks argue about one guy’s payment.  We learn that he’s done a job for AIM and wants more money.  One of the men he’s speaking to cuts his throat, and at that point, the Punisher jumps through the skylight and starts shooting.  He asks who bought a shipment of weapons and learns that the Cult of Khonshu did.  The next night, some cops bringing a known snitch named Mouton hear an alarm in their station and rush in, leaving Mouton behind.  Moon Knight uses some lights and smoke to scare the superstitious criminal, who tells him that Marc’s missing car was seen outside the brownstone uptown.  Right after Marc leaves, the Punisher turns up to ask the same questions after scaring him with a flamethrower.  Moon Knight sees his car outside the brownstone and goes in through the roof, surprised to find the Egyptian decor, including a statue of Khonshu.  Some Knights of the Moon rush him, but don’t answer his questions while they fight.  He struggles to take them all down; once he’s got them all on the ground, Nepthys and her guy appear to him.  Nepthys explains that Moon Knight never faced Randall Spector; instead, he fought a man made to look like him with surgery, experimental drugs, and false memories.  The real Randall Spector reveals himself, holding the head of Marc’s Khonshu statue.  At that moment, Punisher drives his motorcycle through the wall and declares the party over.
• Moon Knight has to stop the Punisher from killing Nepthys and his brother, and we learn that Frank took out all of the Knights that MK left unconscious.  They pause to explain things to one another, with Frank explaining that he’s been tracking some AIM weapons, while Marc explains that Randall is his brother (it’s odd that he chooses to reveal his identity to Castle here).  For some reason, the two they are fighting over are just standing around, and Frank wants to go kill them with a knife.  Marc has to fight him, which gives them time to slip out a window.  Frank grabs Randall by the neck, but Marc tackles him, and they fight each other some more as Randall also leaves.  Marc knocks Frank’s gun out a window, and uses an electrical charge in his truncheon to open the secret door Randall came through.  They find the AIM weapons (minus one crate), and Marc uploads all of the info in the computers there to his angelwing.  Marc notices ‘squashed bullets’ on the floor and doesn’t want Frank to see them.  Frank recognizes the computer systems as belonging to the ‘company’ and he shoots them all up.  The two anti-heroes agree to work together, and Marc picks up the head of Khonshu before they ride Frank’s motorcycle out the window and onto the hovering angelwing.  Marc secures the bike magnetically and they head out.  Frank calls Microchip to send him the data, and learns that he can track some atomic power source they are using (for what?) to the Central Park Reservoir.  The heroes take Frank’s bike into a secret tunnel and learn from Microchip that Nepthys used to work for the CIA on experiments in mind and body altering.  They drive through the dark tunnel as far as they can, then continue on foot.  They find their way over a chamber where they can see a person in a large cylinder full of liquid.  The person inside it is screaming, but Nepthys says it’s part of her plan and calls the person ‘avatar’.  She hits a button and Marc and Frank fall from the roof to find themselves surrounded by Knights of Khonshu with AIM weapons.  Nepthys tells them to spare Moon Knight, and the fight is on.  Frank kills some, and Marc disarms others.  We see Randall coming out of the tube in a Moon Knight-like costume.  Marc stops Frank from shooting him, and Nepthys explains that she and Randall were lovers, and he brought her an old papyrus document from one of his mercenary jobs.  She left the CIA taking a lot of hardware with her, believing she is carrying out the will (as in last will and testament) of Khonshu.  Frank tries to shoot Nephtys, but Marc saves her, and Randall, now calling himself Shadowknight, attacks him.  Frank blasts him with an AIM rifle.

• The Statement of Ownership for 1991 reports an average press run of 95 000.
• Despite being coloured by Christie Scheele, who coloured many Moon Knight comics before this one, something strange is going on with Marc’s, Frank’s, and Randall’s hair in issue thirty-seven, as it keeps switching colours.  We learn that Punisher’s shot had no effect on Randall, because he’s now invulnerable thanks to Nepthys’s ‘lunar treatments’.  Repeated shots from the AIM rifle don’t affect him, so Randall grabs the gun from Frank and shoots it into the ceiling, bringing down a ton of water into the base.  Marc wakes up outside, tied to a tree, with Randall holding an axe.  Randall says that he shielded Nepthys from the cave-in, and he left the others to die.  He starts to explain how when Marc was working for Bushman in Sudan, and they attacked a rebel camp, Randall was there, working for the rebels.  He believed that Marc saw him and left him there to die.  Randall and Marc recap what happened to Marc after that, and how he was left in the desert to die.  Randall explained that he was also crawling through the same desert, and he fell into a secret tunnel that was part of the same tomb complex where Marc went.  Inside the tunnel, he found an ancient scroll.  He found his way to the main chamber, and watched as Marlene sat over Marc’s dead body.  Marc explains how Khonshu brought him back to life, and he became a knight of vengeance.  Randall went to kneel in front of the Khonshu statue after they left, but nothing happened for him.  Randall cuts Marc loose and explains how when he returned to the US, Nepthys translated his scroll, which tells how there were two Khonshus, and that one absorbed the power of the other by killing him.  Now Randall wants to do the same, so they prepare to fight.  In the underground complex, Punisher wakes up as the water continues to fill the chamber.  He uses the explosives he conveniently planted last issue to blow a new hole in the room, thereby freeing himself from some debris.  He swims out of the room and surfaces in Central Park, where he finds Nepthys and a number of the Knights of the Moon surrounding him.  Marc and Randall continue to fight, and bring up old grievances from when they would fight as children.  Finally, Marc disarms him and they fight on the ground, man to man.  The Knights of the Moon shoot at Frank, and cause an explosion when they hit his ammo belt.  Nepthys has some glowing thing in her hands, and is excited about Randall’s ascension, but then Punisher, who somehow now has his motorcycle (the explanation he gives makes no sense), tosses a gas grenade at her.  She runs while he mows down her Knights.  Marc manages to use his expanding truncheon to cut Randall a bit.  Their fight is interrupted by the arrival of Nepthys and some Knights.  Marc starts using pressure points to paralyze Randall, and figures he can kill him by extending his staff into the cut he made.  Nepthys rushes to save Randall as Punisher enters the clearing (his bike is on silent mode, of course) just in time to stop some of the Knights from shooting Marc.  Punisher zaps Nepthys too, and tells Marc they should leave.  He grabs the scroll from Nepthys (where was she hiding this in her non-existent clothing, and how did a thousands year old scroll survive being in the water like that?), which he is somehow able to read (he doesn’t even try to explain this).  He explains that the popular interpretation of Khonshu’s role was always wrong, and that instead of being a god of vengeance, he is in fact a god of justice.  He feels that, because of a few things that happened in this issue, he’s now rightfully earned his role as the ‘avatar of justice’.
• It seems that Randall Spector is back to the old tricks that his brainwashed former body double was doing.  We see him abduct a nurse while wearing a fright mask, and bring her to a room in the sewers where we see he’s already cut up some other nurses.  This nurse screams, and suddenly a gas capsule goes off.  The Punisher comes riding into the room on his motorcycle and gets the nurse on the bike with him.  He knows he can’t stop Randall with bullets but he hopes his gas hurts; he rescues the nurse, and we learn it’s been six weeks since the fight in Central Park.  On the Lower West Side, we see that Marc has had an old warehouse renovated into his new home, and that he’s set up the entire block with tunnels and made a base for Moon Knight.  We see him meeting with three men whom he calls Sigmund, Psycho, and Sheriff, who give him some information; it’s clear he’s got new assistants, but it’s weird that we aren’t introduced to them.  A week later, we see that nurses are starting to share cabs, but after one gets out, the driver reveals himself to be Randall.  Three days later, he kills two nurses at the entrance to a hospital.  Two days after that, we see how nurses are checking on one another, and how cops are stationed in the hospital.  Marlene and Frenchie are both in the hospital, I guess recovering from their injuries from almost eight weeks prior when Randall set their house on fire.  Frenchie is in a wheelchair, and we learn he might never walk again.  Marc is in his new base, trying to predict Randall’s activities, which seem to be counting down in terms of the space between killings and the number of people he’s killing.  He uses the info from his ‘Shadow Cabinet’ and his holographic table to predict that Randall is going to attack the hospital where Marlene is staying.  He puts on his new, armored (read 90s) Moon Knight suit, which has metal shoulder and wrist pieces, and takes the angelwing through a river exit.  The targeted hospital goes dark, and we see that Punisher is there disguised as an orderly (confirming that we saw him there before).  He is on the wrong trail, thanks to a distraction rigged by Randall.  Randall’s on the roof, with his invulnerable skin continuing to crack.  Moon Knight drops on him from behind.  Microchip helps Punisher fix the backup generator remotely.  Marc fires crescent darts from his new Deadshot-style wrist blaster, but can’t stop his insane brother.  Randall almost knocks Marc off the roof, so he jumps and uses his glider-cape to re-enter the hospital, but a few floors lower than he’d hoped (he’s still getting used to the weight of his new costume).  By the time he gets to Marlene’s floor, Randall has already killed a bunch of people, and attacks him from behind.  Next, he grabs Frenchie around the neck.  This is when Punisher arrives and Marc tries to convince him to let him handle things.  Frenchie tries to fight back and Randall throws him out a window.  Marc dives after him while Frank opens fire on Randall.  Marc just manages to catch Frenchie and using the line on his truncheon, gets him to the remote controlled angelwing.  As they move upwards, he sees Randall fall out of the building and fall to the ground.  Later, Marc Spector confirms Randall’s identity, and learns that Punisher’s bullets bounced around inside his body, killing him before he fell.  Frenchie tells Marc that Marlene had checked out of the hospital before Randall arrived, and that she said she’d be back at the right time (not sure what that means, given their relationship was shown to be going well prior to Kavanagh taking over).  A woman stands in the shadows, telling the doctor, Doctor Corling, that their roles in MK’s life are over for now.  Marc drives Frenchie to their new home and gives him a flying Professor X style wheelchair.  He shows him around the new complex, but is surprised to see that someone other than him has fixed the statue of Khonshu (he does smell Marlene’s perfume though).  Closeby, in the Spectorcorp part of the complex, some of the staff have their meeting interrupted by the arrival of Doctor Doom, asking for Marc Spector.

• Gary Kwapisz came on as the new artist with issue thirty-nine.  Doctor Doom (actually his hologram) has been waiting for Marc at the SpectorCorps offices for two hours, and decides to leave.  Marc, meanwhile, is being run through a virtual reality version of the Danger Room by Frenchie in his new digs, and Marc worries that he made a reference to his legs that has upset his old friend.  They are interrupted by a call from Sarah Lewarn, Marc’s secretary (maybe?), letting him know that he’s been invited to an event at the Latverian consulate the next night.  Marc is clearly keeping secrets from Frenchie, and we see that there’s something wrong with his hand (not that it is noticed again in this issue).  At the consulate, Doom talks to Ambassador Lanzer about how their party needs to be successful.  In a rougher part of New York, some revolutionaries plan an attack on the Latverian consulate.  Among them are five 90s cyborg types collectively known as the Sensor Squad – Metalslash (such a 90s name!), Bloodhound, Modem, Impact, and Soundbyte.  They receive a call from Lanzer telling them that Marc will be at the party.  At his ‘Shadowkeep’, Marc speaks holographically with his Shadow Cabinet, a concept that still hasn’t been explained to us.  Stash provides him with blueprints to the consulate, while Don G tells him that local Latverians are importing weapons.  Penny Annie tells him that Doom was thought to be in Russia, and that she’s going to the party too.  Sigmund talks about Doom’s personality.  The next night, Marc arrives at the party with Donna Kray, his publicist, as his date.  Doom arrives at the party, and we see the revolutionaries circling the building.  Marc chats and flirts, and a woman named Colleen Shore approaches, looking like she’s probably Penny Annie, but the text doesn’t give any clues to that.  Doom approaches but before they can really talk, Sensor Squad makes their move, trashing the place and attacking Doom.  Marc rushes the two ladies he’s with in some bushes outside, and rushes for his car in the underground garage, pursued by Impact and Soundbyte.  Knowing his way around because of the blueprints he got, he cuts the lights and, having changed into his gear, attacks the boring looking villains, first by driving his remote controlled car at them, and then by fighting for real.  They have a pretty typical fight, and after a few pages, MK takes them both down.  Inside, Doom fights the remaining members of Sensor Squad.  One of them throws an atomic grenade at him, and he holds it to his chest to protect his guests.  When the smoke clears, the villains have all left, and the party-goers start leaving.  Marc, back in his tux, approaches Doom and they continue their conversation.  Doom knows that Moon Knight rescued Marc (is he suggesting he knows his true identity?) and takes him to a back room where a portrait of his mother hangs over a fireplace.  He talks about how, while Doom was out of Latveria for a time (Kristoff era?), the country became less stable.  Marc mentions that his company bought land next to Latveria, and they discuss how on that land were relics that are sacred to the Latverian people.  Marc claims they’re worthless, but doesn’t want to return them; he leaves.  Doom promises his mother’s painting that he’ll get the stuff back.  Lanzing arrives with Sensor Squad (without Bloodhound), and Doom makes it clear that they are to go after Marc.
• Cray, the head of security at SpectorCorp, is working very late and notices lights coming from Marc’s office.  When he enters, he sees Sensor Squad breaking into the safe.  Well, there are four of them, but they aren’t the same ones from last issue.  We’ve got Metalslash, Soundbyte, and Impact, but there’s no sign of Modem, and instead the person breaking into the safe with his laser eye is called Deadeye.  They attack Cray and toss him out a window.  Moon Knight swoops in (Cray used a rooftop beacon to summon him, although I’m not sure when) and manages to catch him.  He sends him to the hospital in the angelwing and then swoops in on the Latverian crooks.  There’s a fight, we realize Metalslash’s whole thing is that he has an adamantium retractable tongue, and soon Marc defeats them without them being able to get the stuff from his safe.  We see Marc leave his office in a suit just as his employees begin to arrive.  Not long after, Marc is in the Shadow Keep, where Frenchie is upgrading a car for him.  Marc summons the Shadow Cabinet holographically, and we learn that he lured Sensor Squad to his office (weird that he wasn’t watching it, then) by using Scout to report that the Latverian artifacts were there.  Stash explains that the artifacts are from a Roma family.  Sigmund shares that Mister Fantastic makes Dr. Doom angry.  Fingers has information on how to get into the Latverian embassy (it’s weird that none of these people have been properly introduced or explained yet).  Moon Knight goes to see Mister Fantastic at Four Freedoms Plaza, lying about having Avengers clearance to go after Doom.  He gets Richards to modify a piece of Doom’s tech – a fake eye that has multiple functions.  At the consulate, Doom talks to Lanzer about his plans, and how he’s safe when he’s inside the consulate, due to his diplomatic immunity.  A young woman rings the doorbell to deliver a letter to Doom, and after she leaves, we learn she is Cover Girl, and she wore the fake eyeball (I guess she usually has a glass eye?) and was able to access Doom’s network with it.  She gives it to Moon Knight.  That night, he manages to break into the consulate and evade some pretty quotidian traps.  Doom notices that someone is in the building, and gets angry when he sees Reed Richards come to him, dangling the amulet he wants.  Doom tries to blast him, and learns that it’s actually Moon Knight using the eyeball tech to give the impression he’s Richards, just to annoy Doom.  Doom insists he give him the cameo he’s holding, and they start to fight, trashing the place in the process.  Marc learns that his info on Doom’s capabilities is lacking, and Doom gets really angry when his mother’s painting gets damaged.  He starts to take apart Marc’s armor and comments on a problem Marc is having (but we don’t see what he’s referring to).  He offers to help Marc in return for the amulet, and then Marc realizes that in the portrait of Doom’s mom, she’s wearing it.  He decides to just give the cameo to him, but turns down his offer of medical help.  Back at the Shadow Keep, we see Marc standing in front of Frenchie in just his armor jockeys, and we see that his skin is mutating or sloughing off or something (he looks like naked Deadpool from the neck down).  What was the point of this whole fight with Doom, with the whole Sensor Squad working with revolutionaries ruse, if all Doom had to do was ask for his mother’s cameo?  This was kind of dumb.

• Issue forty-one is a crossover issue, part of the Infinity War event, which I remember as being pretty terrible.  There’s not a lot of exposition, but when the issue opens, Moon Knight is with a number of other heroes from the Avengers, X-Men, Alpha Flight, New Warriors, as well as other solo acts, at Four Freedoms Plaza.  Mister Fantastic quickly explains that heroes are being attacked by evil doppelgangers.  Iron Man suggests that this is a mutant threat, which gets Wolverine angry (I knew he’d show up sooner or later!).  Daredevil notices something and throws his billy club at Mister Fantastic, causing the dozens of heroes to start fighting.  Marc is worried about how his body is deteriorating, and wants to get to Daredevil to figure out why he started off all this madness.  Along the way, he barely avoids being punched by Hulk, Thing, and Strong Guy, misses hitting Speedball, gets his adamantium line cut by Archangel’s wings, and barely avoids being fried by Living Lightning and Storm.  He hits US Agent and Weapon Omega, then gets attacked by Wolverine and Scarlet Witch.  He avoids them, and gets in a fight with Gambit that is broken up by Nova.  Marc gets closer to his goal, but Psylocke sticks one of her psychic knives in his head.  He has some anti-telepath training, so he throws up a bunch of images from his mercenary days, but they don’t affect Betsy.  She realizes that he’s hiding something he hasn’t figured out yet, that clearly has something to do with the medical issues that haven’t been explained yet.  MK breaks away from her, and gets into it with the evil Iron Man.  Next he’s caught between She-Hulk and Multiple Man, and as he finally approaches Mister Fantastic, he sees him trip off a gamma bomb.  Invisible Woman and Thor take care of the explosion and radiation, at which point Thanos appears and leaves through a teleportation gate, leaving with Reed, Iron Man, and maybe someone else (it’s hard to make out).  Sasquatch figures out Reed and Tony were imposters.  Captain America wants to talk to MK about his Doctor Doom confrontation, but Marc blows him off.  A bunch of the heroes leave together to go after Thanos (I really don’t know what’s happening here, and wonder how much of this is repeated in an issue of Infinity War); as she is leaving, Psylocke wants Gambit to tell Marc that he’s dying, but Marc leaves the room with Alicia Masters.  She takes him to a private room where he can access a modem.  He uses a disc someone named Zig gave him (I’m tired of the fact that we have no idea who any of these people are) so he can get in touch with more of the Shadow Cabinet – Scout, Junior Birdman, and Sigmund.  Scout explains that the doppelganger attacks are happening throughout the area.  Junior Birdman, who is military, is asked to give him information on Alicia and Franklin Richards (Alicia had just mentioned that she needed to check on him).  He tells Sigmund he’ll need therapy when this crisis is over.  An alarm goes off, and he heads back to the others, confident that Reed Richards won’t be able to track down who the Shadow Cabinet are.  When he joins the other heroes, he sees a bunch of the ‘dark doppelgangers’.  He notices his double slipping away with a smaller one, and follows.  He tracks them, fights his double briefly, and then finds them in Franklin’s bedroom where Franklin’s doppelganger puts a psi-phon on the kid’s head to drain his life essence.  Marc fights his double, trying to protect Alicia.  He throws his truncheon at the evil Franklin, knocking him out.  He grabs the device off Franklin’s head and leads Alicia out the door with Franklin.  The evil Moon Knight grabs the psi-phon and puts it on, explaining that it allows him to absorb other Moon Knights from the multiverse, making him stronger and bigger.  He calls himself Moon Shade and says he will rule the multiverse.
• Issue forty-two is one of the worst comics I’ve ever read, despite the fact that a ton of artists whose work I love contributed to the issue.  We get a quick recap letting us know why Moon Knight ended up in Four Freedoms Plaza with other heroes.  He continues his fight with Moon Shade, who explains how he’s absorbed so many Moon Knights from other alternate realities.  They fight as they fall off a building, and both realize they are in another reality (drawn by Klaus Janson and meant as a tribute to the Dark Knight Returns, complete with a news broadcaster talking.  Moon Knight and Moon Shade glide through the city, still fighting, until they are interrupted by Darkmoon (a Moon Knight Batman knockoff).  Moon Shade absorbs him through the psi-phon, so MK grabs the device and smashes it.  They shift into another reality, drawn by Kelley Jones, where Moonfang is a vampire version of MK.  Moon Shade gets him too, and then they end up in a reality where two MK analogues, Crescent Moon and Greywing, fight each other from their neighbouring armed cathedrals (drawn by Norm Breyfogle).  Moon Shade drops Greywing (Marc tries to save him) but drains Crescent Moon.  They switch through a few more worlds (compliments of James Fry and Karl Kesel) where we see Moon Knights based on the Spirit, Space Ghost, and a dinosaur.  On each world, Moon Shade defeats the local Moon Knight.  They end up underwater, and then in another Batman-focused world modeled (by Ty Templeton, shout out to a local legend) on the Batman TV show of the 60s.  Marc tries to save Moonman and Moonboy, as Moon Shade realizes these are the last Moon Knights, the absorption of whom will make him omniversal.  When Moon Shade grabs Moonman and starts to drain him (did I mention he doesn’t need the psi-phon anymore?  That was probably important), Moon Knight starts to fight him again.  He’s able to get his truncheon inside the creature and expand it, making him explode (something about adamantium).  Moon Knight, who worries about the fact that his body is deteriorating, finds himself in an empty void.  Terrible.

• Moon Knight leaves the void and returns to his New York. He calls his angelwing to take him to the top of Four Freedoms Plaza, where a number of heroes are fighting their demonic doppelgangers. Frenchie is in the Shadowkeep. He consults with Mercy, the doctor in the Shadow Cabinet. She explains that she’s examined the samples she received of Moon Knight’s skin, and can’t figure out what’s wrong with him, but knows that he only has about a week left to live.  Jean-Paul summons more of the Shadow Cabinet, Shark and Sheriff, but because of the way Marc has set up his holo-projections, they believe they are talking to Moon Knight. He tells them they want to go after the Hobgoblin. At FFP, Marc fights the doppelgangers of the Black Knight and the Beast. In Western Scotland, five people in robes meet in a gigantic monastery. We learn that this meeting is unprecedented, and some think they aren’t ready. We learn the names DeMolay, Lamberton, and Chrétien, and that these people, the Knights Templar, need to ‘take’ Jean-Paul Duchmap. Marc fights the doppelgangers of Darkhawk and Daredevil, while Namorita’s doppelganger tries to kill Multiple Man. Marc realizes that Daredevil must have extra sensory perception based on his fight with the demon version of him. A number of doppelgangers surround Moon Knight. At the Shadowkeep, Psycho and Fingers have joined the meeting, and we learn that Demogoblin and Hobgoblin have separated. Shark and Sheriff are worried that Frenchie’s plan will violate the Demogoblin’s civil rights, but Mercy insists that they need him to fix Moon Knight’s condition. The plan involves moving Psycho into the same holding facility. Frenchie has to get tough with everyone, and threatens Fingers with blackmail in order to get him to comply (no one else hears this though). The meeting ends, and Frenchie opens up a file that outlines what he is to do if Marc dies, and he cries. Marc continues to fight the doppelgangers, and receives some help from other heroes, including Crystal, Beast, Speedball, and Gambit. All of the doppelgangers collapse and they figure out that their colleagues must have done something elsewhere (like in the Infinity War series) to make that happen. Marc reminds the other heroes that the crisis isn’t over, and then starts to worry about whether or not he’ll find Reed Richards and get his help in time. Gambit is about to say something about what Psylocke learned, but something happens that gets all of the heroes’ attention.
• The heroes freeze as Warlock and Magus fight their big cosmic fight. In Scotland, the four older Knights Templar robed people we met last issue continue to talk. We learn that they’ve sent their youngest associate to activate something called the ‘Bloodline Agenda’. The only one that wasn’t named last issue lays claim to the Knights’ destiny, and brings forward two operatives. Basilisk is a creepy 90s Eurotrash type, while Agony is a cross between Medusa and Typhoid Mary. She kills one of the Knights with her hair, while Basilisk fries another with his eyes. Seth, the unnamed Knight, doesn’t really explain why he’s doing this. The Fantastic Four return home and find that Moon Knight is waiting for them, having returned after being sent home by Warlock. He tells Reed that he needs his help. Ben tries to call the Avengers, but Marc disconnects the call. Ben takes that as proof that Moon Knight is not currently associated with the Avengers (he heard Cap call him out), and Reed figures out that he lied to him when he came for help with Doctor Doom. Marc is about to leave when Sue arrives in the room with Alicia and Franklin, and stops him. Alicia recaps what happened with Moonshade, and Marc continues the story, explaining his recent adventure. He then takes off his glove to show how much his body is changing, and Reed immediately offers to help. Mark takes off his tunic, showing that his body is rapidly deteriorating. Reed starts to examine him, but can’t make sense of his readings. Doctor Strange suddenly arrives, having sensed Marc’s plight. He can tell that there is something mystical about his condition. He uses the Eye of Agamotto to look at Marc, but this gives control to the demon inside of him. It tries to escape, and Reed and Strange fight to contain it. Reed is able to sedate it, and immediately Marc regains control. Reed and Strange want a tissue sample from the source of his infection, but Marc rejects their offer to help capture it. Reed warns that he has only seventy-two hours to live. Marc returns to Shadowkeep, talks to his Khonshu statue, and then confers with the Shadow Cabinet. Mercy agrees that she needs a tissue sample, but Shark is against that. Fingers explains that the Demogoblin is in a prison in Connecticut, and Sheriff explains that Psycho is already there. Psycho jumps into the holo-conference to tell them that there’s a lot going on at the prison. We see that a large crowd has gathered to protest the execution of a serial killer; Marc recognizes that this will slow him down, but he’s determined to get to the Demogoblin that night.

• James Fry joined the book as new regular penciller with issue forty-five, and it feels like he was trying to give things a more stylized look, but he was still trapped in the early 90s, so it was only a little bit effective. Marc is ready to try to go retrieve a sample of the Demogoblin’s flesh, and Frenchie is uneasy about it. It seems the Demogoblin is aware that he’s coming and finds it funny. Outside the prison in Connecticut, protestors and reporters gather because of the impending execution of a serial killer named John DeZoan, scheduled for 2 AM. A reporter notices MK’s anglewing in the sky, and figures that whatever he’s doing will be enough of a diversion that she can get in the prison with her cameraman. Weirdly, she gets into the observation room unchallenged before Marc even makes a move, and she watches as DeZoan is strapped into the electric chair. Marc lands on the roof, using his modified truncheon to avoid the sensors (it seems Frenchie retro-engineered the work that Reed Richards did). The executioner flips the switch on the electric chair, and at the same time, Psycho unscrews a lightbulb and screws in a device that Marc gave him. It causes a short blackout throughout the prison, which is attributed to the electric chair, and Marc is able to slip inside the building. DeZoan appears dead, but then revives and has lightning shooting out of his eyes. Marc makes it so no one can use the elevator (but stapling the doors shut with his crescent darts), and proceeds to death row. He learns which cell he’s looking for from Psycho, who is surprised to learn that he’s working for a superhero, when he thought he was working for the mob (it’s weird that this is not a detail shared with the Shadow Cabinet, especially given the conversations we’ve seen them having). The electrified DeZoan grabs Psycho through the bars after Marc leaves and starts choking him; we see he’s killed a bunch of people already. Marc gasses the guards outside Demogoblin’s cell, and checks the ‘death-watch’ that Frenchie made for him; it shows he has less than five hours to get the tissue sample he came for to Richards and Dr. Strange. He enters Demogoblin’s cell, and the demon grabs his wrist with his tongue, and immediately plunges Marc into a mindscape filled with his friends and enemies. They fight, and it becomes a little hard to follow as it’s not clear if they are only fighting in Marc’s mind or in the cell as well. When Marc shoots crescent darts at Demogoblin, he splits into Marc’s other identities, but Mrc just destroys them. He thinks he sees Marlene, but she becomes Scarlet. She is attacked by Randall, who becomes Frenchie, who then tries to kill him. Marc realizes this is all illusion and fights the demon in the real world. He figures out that Demogoblin wants to turn him into his new host. When the Demogoblin sticks his claws into Marc’s side, it accelerates his decay, as shown on his ‘death-watch’. Marc goes on the offensive, hitting him from all angles, and picks up a dart that has some of the demon’s tissue on it. He’s going to try to escape, but Demogoblin grabs him by the neck.
• Moon Knight continues his fight with the Demogoblin, and we see that Marc’s whole body is starting to change and look as demonic as his foe. Marc realizes that they aren’t fighting in his mind, as he thought, but in Demogoblin’s, and with that revelation, he is able to defeat him. Marc finds himself standing outside Demogoblin’s cell, and he quickly puts his gore-covered crescent dart in one baggie, and squeezes other gore off his hand into another. He knows he’s got to get out quickly before he falls apart, but he finds that Psycho is passed out in his cell and unable to help him by disrupting the prison’s electronics again. He’s confronted by DeZoan, who has freed a group of prisoners that attack him. Marc learns that Psycho is not dead, and that he’s responsible for the electric feedback that somehow gave DeZoan powers. Marc realizes that one of his baggies of Demogoblin gore has ripped open, making it useless (because now it can’t be exposed to air, but it was fine a couple pages ago?). DeZoan admits he intends to kill all the prisoners as he escapes, and after he gets ahold of Marc’s truncheon, he uses it against him and then runs away. With each page, Marc looks more and more demonic, now sporting fangs instead of his usual blank facemask. As Marc finds himself in the middle of a riot, the reporter from last issue wakes up. Marc tries to fight his way through the riot, knowing that he’s losing time. A prisoner with a rifle is about to shoot Marc, but the reporter, Kim Hong, stops him by hitting him with her camera, which she then turns on to broadcast what is happening. A large inmate named Krak grabs Marc from behind in a bear hug, and an older prisoner explains that his friend always claimed to be from a powerful hidden race. The older guy was put away by Marc at one point, and he prepares to shoot him. Just then, a demon bursts out of Marc’s chest (looking a lot like the chest-bursters in Aliens) and eats the man’s gun. This causes Krak to pass out in shock. Marc gets even more demonic, but he grabs the keys the old guy had and opens the door to the riot police. Marc recognizes the reporter as Scout,and then passes out. Suddenly an angelwing blasts through the roof and pulls Marc up in a tractor beam (it’s worth discussing the ways in which Marc’s technology is now better than Batman’s in this series). We see DeZoan escaping in a riot cop’s suit too. Marc believes he’s dead, and momentarily sees a little demon before coming to and realizing that Doctor Strange and Reed Richards are operating on him. We see that they, and Frenchie, are in the Doctor’s home, and Strange extracts a small demon from Marc’s chest, putting it in a ‘tranquilizing canister’. Stephen wants to banish it, but Reed wants to study it. Marc is surprised that there is no hole in his chest, and likes how Strange restores his armor (making it look even more 90s, but sleeker). Frenchie and Reed explain that they didn’t get to Marc soon enough, so there might be permanent damage or mutations to his body; he has to stay in his armor for forty-eight hours before they can know for sure. Marc and Frenchie return to the Shadowkeep, where we learn that Psycho is in a coma and that Scout wants to talk to him. As they talk, we see the small demon from before slide out of Marc’s cape and into a machine. Marc still wants to go ahead with his ‘legacy quest’ and it sounds like he’s ready to hang it up as Moon Knight.

• Moon Knight is talking to Sigmund (actually Dr. Robert Plesko) about what’s happened to him, and he resists any therapizing, given that he’s not sure he’s going to be alive in the next twelve hours (he’s waiting to see what’s going to happen with the possible changes Demogoblin made to his body). Marc is determined to set his ‘legacy quest’ in motion and find a successor; to that end he’s had Frenchie prepare things for him. We learn that his new truncheon is almost finished, and that his Shadow Cabinet helpers are ready to assist in the field. After Marc leaves, Frenchie decides to call Marlene (Marc won’t) to tell her what’s happened, but her voice mail says she’s on the way back to America. Frenchie wonders why his legacy program is running properly, and we see the little demon from before munching on some cables. The unnamed female Knight Templar is watching the Shadowkeep from a distance, and prepares to go in to talk to Frenchie about the Knights’ ‘bloodline agenda’. Before she can leave, Agony and Basilisk crawl out of the Hudson river, and she calls them Hellbent. Moon Knight stands on his angelwing, watching a baseball game. He’s particularly interested in a fielder named Andy Wharton who stands out for his physical skill. After the game, Don G. and his men drag Wharton into a car. We see that he was offered money to throw the game, but he refused. Moon Knight saves him when it looks like the gangsters are going to kill him, but then Marc notices the track marks on his arm and realizes he’s a drug addict. The Templar is surprised that Hellbent are coming after her, and starts to fight Agony. A construction company owner, Cliff Barstel, is Marc’s next prospect. While he works late on a job site, he sees a woman fall from the building, luckily getting caught on a hook. Cliff tries to set up some beams to help her, while Moon Knight goes through his files and realizes he turned down a shady offer from Spector Industries. The woman falls because Cliff was too cowardly to climb up to her. As it turns out, the woman is Cover Girl, and the angelwing catches her. The Templar keeps fighting Hellbent, but it looks like she escapes them. Marc has one prospect left; he’s arranged for Scout to test him by offering money to buy news scoops. Scout and the photographer are getting mugged in an alley, and Marc hangs back to watch as Peter Parker, his prospect, fights them. Marc grabs him after he beats up the muggers and offers him the job of being Moon Knight, but Peter turns it down without revealing what he does as Spider-Man. Marc returns to the Shadowkeep. Frenchie explains that he has lost the original legacy scenario program. Marc’s time in his costume is up, so he takes it off to learn how his body has changed. As it turns out, he’s perfectly healed. Sheriff calls in to tell them that John DeZoan, now calling himself Deadzone, has attacked a club where Tombstone and some other gangsters hang out.
• Moon Knight goes to investigate the Yorkville Athletic Club, Deadzone’s latest target, and ends up having to fight close to ten gunmen. Tombstone calls them off and they talk about working together to catch and stop Deadzone. Marc doesn’t agree. The story splits into two vertical strips for a few pages. On one side of the page, Don G (who we learn is really named Paulo Stanacosta) prepares pasta for his kids and doesn’t notice that his Shadow Cabinet ring is blinking. When he does notice, he takes Marc’s call, and tells him and some of the rest of the Cabinet about John DeZoan, who he knew as a child. Scout fills in more gaps about DeZoan, who had a rough childhood and converted to Christianity in prison. She receives a bulletin and tells Marc that Deadzone is in Chinatown.  We’ve seen him go after the gangster Don Gwun (who is not Don G, which is what I’d assumed earlier). Deadzone kills Gwun’s men, and starts to torture Gwun, talking about pain and pleasure. Chloe convinces Frenchie to go out for dinner with her at their favourite restaurant, 52 Club, so they can talk about things. We see a crack house in the Bronx where a guy called Stitch sells dope. Deadzone tricks his way inside and starts killing everyone. Moon Knight arrives and they start to fight while arguing about vengeance and stuff. Deadzone manages to electrocute Marc. When Frenchie and Chloe arrive at the restaurant, they realize that it’s not wheelchair accessible. They are about to leave when the two villains of Hellbent arrive and call one of them Bloodline. Deadzone keeps whipping Marc with his electrified whip, and leaves him when he hears sirens. Marc makes his escape. Back at the Shadow Keep, he consults his Cabinet again. We learn that Cover Girl sent him to the Bronx, and Mercy talks about how his body is not up to these fights yet. Sheriff is upset that Marc spoke to Tombstone, and Marc dismisses them all except for Sigmund. He admits that he expects them all to realize they are working for Moon Knight soon, and he talks about how he feels guilty for causing Deadzone’s powers and freedom. Sigmund is not happy to learn that Marc can override their signal rings when he suggests he’ll have to do this, since he can’t get ahold of Don G. When he turns on the holographic ring, he sees that Don G is dead.
• The Statement of Ownership for 1991 reports an average press run of 96 000 copies, with average newsstand returns of 1 400.

• After a quick recap of what’s happened, we see that Moon Knight is showing up at what looks like a big rumble between some street gangs, the Blood Fists and others. He uses his angelwing’s magnets to pull away most of their weapons, and works his way through the crowd, knocking out as many as he can. Another gang, the Silverados, show up, and their leader, Zena (aka Cover Girl) holds a gun to MK’s head. Zena stops her crew from killing Moon Knight and the others, insisting that they all work for her now, including Moon Knight. Later, back in the Shadowkeep, he talks to her, reminding her that she only has power in Alphabet City now because of him. He reminisces about how he recruited Don G to his cause by posing as a mob boss, and how he never knew that he was working for Moon Knight. He talks to Sheriff to find out what’s going on with the Deadzone investigation, and reveals that Sheriff’s an officer named Vasquez (although later he gets referred to as a Lieutenant). Sheriff is still worried that MK is working with Tombstone. At the same time, a few other gangsters gather at one man’s house to discuss the situation. They are attacked by Deadzone, who kills them all. Even though a fair amount of time has passed in MK’s story, Frenchie and Chloe are still fleeing from the Hellbent. They catch up to them in a stolen police car. Frenchie hits them with a missile from his floating wheelchair and gets Chloe to escape in the police car. Frenchie can’t get a hold of Marc, so he tries to get away. Agony’s hair stops his wheelchair, and Frenchie wonders why they call him Bloodline. Suddenly a blonde woman in silver shows up. The Hellbent recognize her as “The Templar”, and she starts to fight them. Basilisk sees himself in a car mirror and dies, and Agony takes off. When Frenchie recognizes the Templar, she knocks him out. Tombstone is driven through a cemetery, where Don G already has an elaborate headstone. He talks to his driver about how they publicized his coming to pay his respects. Suddenly, Deadzone pulls the driver out of the car with his whips, and is surprised to see that it’s Moon Knight who was driving. They start to fight, and it’s somehow quite a difficult fight for MK. He manages to knock the villain out though, and only then Tombstone comes to join him. Tombstone wants to kill DeZoan, but Marc tries to stop him. This gives Deadzone time to recover, and he electrocutes Marc while Tombstone drives off. Marc gives Deadzone a serious beatdown, and writes RIP on Don G’s headstone with DeZoan’s blood. The cops arrive, and Sheriff wonders if it was Moon Knight who did this, since he’s not around anymore. 
• Issue fifty has a very nineties die-cut cover that does look kind of cool. While Marc’s computers work to track down Frenchie (and we see a demon munching on one of his monitors), he engages in some holographic battle against his recent foes. The program shuts off just as he’s about to face his brother Randall. He’s getting two calls at the same time; he ignores a call from Black Widow to talk to Sheriff, who lets him know that they haven’t found Frenchie yet, but they’ve found his van and the bodies of two cops and Basilisk. Marc heads out, investigating what happened and looking for the missing police car, since he’s still not able to locate Frenchie’s wheelchair (because it’s the computer that got eaten by a demon that has that info). As he investigates, we see that a creature that doubles its s’s is following him. Marc is interrupted by Thor, insisting that he come to Avengers HQ with him. MK dumps Thor off his angelwing. Thor chases him, and Marc fires missiles and uses a smokescreen to hide from him, but Thor spots him heading into an alley to stop a pimp from beating on a woman. The Templar woman explains to Frenchie that the Knights Templar have had to enact their Bloodline protocol, which is why the Hellbent came after him. We learn that Templar is actually Chloe. We see that they are holed up in an abandoned tenement. At Avengers HQ, Black Widow, Thor, and Vision sit around a conference table while Hawkeye and USAgent join them via satellite. Natasha runs down some of MK’s recent misdeeds, and while USAgent sees them as reasons to have him arrested, Hawkeye stands up for him. They start to squabble about things, bringing up Vision’s recent actions in Operation: Galactic Storm, and Marc stops listening as his cowl gives him information about Frenchie. Marc slips away, leaving his identicard burning on the table. Frenchie has trouble accepting what Chloe is telling him. He feels abandoned by Marc, and tries to get up and walk away, but his legs collapse. In France, Seth makes moves, calling forward three more of the Hellbent (Bramble, Network, and Murmur) to go capture Frenchie before the Bloodline thing happens. Chloe explains that the Templars have always existed, keeping track of history. Now that Seth (who is immortal) is using the Hellbent and taking over the Knights Templar, she needs to use the Bloodline protocol, which involves having Frenchie access his family’s shared memories, since he is Bloodline. When she used a nerve pinch on him earlier, it started to unlock his memories. She claims his ancestors swore eternal allegiance, and figures that the changes the protocol will bring to his body will also heal his legs. He says the secret phrase he was taught, but nothing happens. This is, of course, when the three new Hellbent attack. Chloe tries to fight all three, but Frenchie grabs a sword off the wall (convenient, but we learn this is a Templar safehouse, not an abandoned tenement) and tries to fight Network (how many villains were named Network in the 90s?). Chloe is hurt (Bramble shoots sharp parts of his scabrous body at people), and the anger Frenchie feels sparks the Bloodline stuff. Suddenly, his body has been replaced by that of the able-bodied Henri Remont, who starts to fight the Hellbent. Bramble is about to fire another shot at Chloe, but that’s when Marc finally arrives. Remont asks Chloe what’s going on, and she reveals that Bloodline was not supposed to work like this. The Hellbent think Marc is a Templar, and attack him. Chloe insists that Remont help Marc, as Frenchie would, so he joins the fight. They manage to stop Murmur and Bramble, although Remont gets cut on the arm in the process. Network’s tendrils cover them, but then disappear as a newcomer, who looks a bit like a werewolf, kills her. Remont recognizes this as Manx, who was the creature we saw following MK earlier. Remont explains that Manx hunts other Hellbent; Manx then takes off. Remont looks to Chloe, but she’s gone. Moon Knight moves to the roof to look for her, and hears a scream. He returns inside to find Frenchie in his wheelchair, and Remont gone. MK moves them and Network’s body into his angelwing (previously these were a lot smaller than this). Frenchie doesn’t tell him anything about Bloodline. Seth has installed himself in a new office building, where he runs Phalkoncorp. Murmur explains to Seth and Agony how he got away, but Agony slashes his throat with her hair. Seth has a visitor, Marlene Alraune, who is there to become his president of mergers and acquisitions, and to help him take over Spectorcorp. Back at Marc’s mansion in Long Island, we see that Gambit has broken in, and finds Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night, is already there.

• Issue fifty-one reads like a fill-in issue, with Dave Hoover and Keith Williams coming on art duties, and with no mention made of things from the previous issue. Satellites keep crashing to the Earth, and Moon Knight helps with the rescue operation in Brooklyn Heights, rescuing babies from collapsing walls, pulling people from burning buildings, and stopping people from looting stores. He consults with some of the Shadow Cabinet (but not Sheriff, who he called for) to figure out what’s going on. Penny Ante, his government contact, reveals that the attacks on these satellites are targeted. He uses their data to try to work things out, and Frenchie tells him that Antarctic vibranium is involved, because of the way it melts metal. MK figures out that a guy named Harlan Silverbird, a former mining exec, is doing something from his island in the Caribbean. We meet Silverbird, who has hired a beautiful scientist from NASA to help him with his project. He wants to clear space in the sky for his ‘silvermoon’ satellite, which will blanket the world in Antarctic vibranium radiation to melt all other satellites, so he is the only person with satellites or something. It’s a weird doomsday plan. The angelwing approaches the island and gets shot down, but we see that MK is swimming onto the island. He triggers some defenses and has to fight some trained dogs, before confronting Silverbird. They fight, and MK learns that Silverbird has a forcefield powered by the Antarctic vibranium that makes it impossible for him to take him out with his crescent darts. The woman comes and points out that Silverbird is stalling, as his ray projector prepares to take out the final satellites.  MK tries to climb up to the projector, having to deal with the mercenaries on the tower he climbs. By the time he takes them out, the Silvermoon launches. He uses the ray projector to try to shoot it down, but it’s not made of metal. Instead, he turns the projector on the control room, which makes the silvermoon explode as well. The tower collapses on Silverbird and the woman, but his forcefield protects them. MK helps pull the woman out of the collapsing steel beams, but Silverbird is unable to grab his truncheon. Everything collapses on him, while Marc takes the woman to the shore just as Frenchie arrives with the mooncopter. He places the woman on board and goes back to steal the Antarctic vibranium, before they all leave.
• James Fry and Chris Ivy return for issue fifty-two, and we pick up where issue fifty left off. Gambit and Werewolf By Night are fighting in Marc’s mansion, which he no longer lives in. Gambit explains that he’s there as a friend to Spector, but nothing is explained. Marc is in his brownstone in Manhattan, preparing for his day. He realizes he needs to concentrate on Frenchie right now, but his friend, who now insists on being called Jean-Paul, has made a meal for him. He instead leaves, to go to the office, and remarks that they still need to discuss the Hellbent and what’s going on there. Jean-Paul doesn’t want to talk about it, and instead is upset that he can’t find Chloe anywhere. Apparently a lot of the work at SpectorCorp happens in the evening, and everyone working there is surprised to see Marc walk in. They all have things that need his attention, but he quickly delegates it all. He learns that Phakon Inc. has been buying up their holdings, and puts a new employee named Raul on it. He talks to Donna Kraft, whom we haven’t seen since the Latverian Embassy story, and kisses her, which she is not happy about. At Phalkon Corps (not Inc.), Marlene is concerned that she was only hired because of her connection to Spector, but Seth assures her that’s not the case. Gambit and Werewolf By Night keep fighting. Marc floats over Central Park in his angelwing, brooding on how he misread things with Donna. He learns that four guys are in the process of assaulting a woman, and goes to stop them. The woman he saves runs away from him, and then he hears a scream in an opposite direction. A carriage has been overturned and covered in slime that is suffocating its driver. Two new villains, Glaze (gooey demon woman) and Cubist (knockoff of that Brotherhood of Dada guy from Doom Patrol) are eating the horses, but they attack Marc. He has trouble fighting them, but manages to free the carriage driver as they run away (what is the purpose of this scene?). Now he hears other problems in the park, and finds a bunch of frat boys beating on homeless families in a cardboard shanty town as part of their pledge nonsense. He fires gas bombs at the frat boys and runs them towards some cops. He heads home, thinking about the place SpectorCorp has in the world. He finds that Jean-Paul is taking apart his computers, trying to figure out why so many wires are being chewed through. We see the little demon playing with wires, and it inadvertently connects the sensors in Marc’s mansion, so he knows that there is a problem there. He rushes to the mansion and finds Gambit and Werewolf still fighting. This issue has a pretty vicious letter in it from Ivan G. Turner excoriating Kavanaugh’s run, and it’s like he and I share the same brain on this stuff.

• Moon Knight tries to move the fight between Gambit and Werewolf By Night outside, but they all just end up fighting one another for a bit. We learn that Russell is tasked with hunting down “rogue super-naturals”, and counts Moon Knight in that category. Gambit tries to talk to Marc, dropping Werewolf down a hole for a bit, but he gets back out before he can say much. Finally, Marc uses the angelwing to knock them both down and get a moment’s peace. Gambit says that he is worried about Marc’s health, but Marc explains he’s cured. Gambit starts to hint that Psylocke found something “sinister” in his head, but Marc won’t hear about it. Gambit leaves. Russell thinks that Marc is still a demon, but discovers that it’s just some gunk left on his armor from last issue that makes him think that. Russell and Marc decide to hunt down Glaze and Cubist in Central Park. At the Shadowkeep, Jean-Paul is researching his bloodline, and thinking about how he can’t properly tap into his Bloodline abilities because of his injured body. He’s sad that Chloe has disappeared. Marc calls in to get him to talk to the Shadow Cabinet about Glaze and Cubist, so Jean-Paul talks to all of them. We meet a new Cabinet member, Skitter, who represents the mutant community. The only one who knows anything is Junior Birdman, because he’s heard of them showing up around the reservoir. Stash points out that there’s an old aqueduct system there. Because Jean-Paul recognizes that these are Hellbent, he decides to withhold that info from Marc, and tells him the Cabinet found nothing. The demon in the keep disrupts their communication. Marc and Russell approach the park, hoping that the Werewolf’s senses can help them find their prey. They discover seven Hellbent, including Glaze and Cubist, and a big fight starts. Cubist’s powers make it hard for Marc to stay in the fight. Russell does well on his own, but Marc keeps hitting wildly. He’s finally able to knock Cubist out, but he and Russell get trapped by Glaze’s goo. At SpectorCorp, Raul Cruz pursues his research into PhalkonCorp. Marlene, meanwhile, is becoming suspicious of her new job. The Hellbent fight over their prisoners, and then Gambit turns up to help them. The fight goes a lot better now, but when Gnash (he has extra mouths at the ends of his arms) runs off, they hear him scream. The Manx has shown up and appears to have killed a few of these Hellbent. He tells Marc that there are too many Hellbent in the city and world for him to take care of on his own, and takes off. Gambit decides he needs to warn the X-Men about the Hellbent, and Russell, now human, heads off to fight them on his own. Marc returns home and finds Jean-Paul working. He says that the new moon-powered car he’s working on is almost ready, and mentions that he still can’t figure out why their equipment keeps malfunctioning. We see that the demon thing is hanging out on the Moonmobile’s steering wheel.
• Moon Knight has Mercy, Dr. Hannah Trumbull, in the Shadow Keep to perform an autopsy on Network. Mercy can see some link between the Hellbent’s DNA and that of the demonic virus Marc had. MK promises another donation to Mercy’s cancer foundation, and after she leaves via angelwing, we learn that she is in fact dying from cancer. Next Marc takes a look at the Moonmobile that Frenchie has finished, and as he leaves, some of Network’s blood drips off his hand and maybe touches a wire, which seems to animate the Moonmobile. Jean-Paul is outside of Chloe’s apartment, and wants to go up to see her, but because of his crippled state, can’t climb the fire escape. We see that Chloe is standing on a rooftop watching him. We see that the demon we’ve kept seeing in the Shadowkeep is part of the Moonmobile now, and it explodes or something. Marc is in his apartment when he sees the explosion happening closeby. Jean-Paul fires a dart from his wheelchair to lower the fire escape ladder, and starts climbing up using only his arms. Chloe watches, and thinks about how neither of them exist as people anymore, only as pawns in service to the ‘arcane archives’. MK chases the Moonmobile, which is bucking like a bronco and setting things on fire (this is like a bad Inferno flashback). He shoots at it from his angelwing, and it shoots back, transforming into a demonic tank. Marlene tells Seth that he’s hours away from owning a controlling block of SpectorCorp. After Marlene leaves, he sends Agony and a new Hellbent, Flare, after Chloe Tran (this is the first we’ve heard her last name, I believe). Outside Phalkoncorp, Cruz and Cray prepare to break into the building. At SpectorCorp, Donna Kraft breaks into Marc’s computer and finds something surprising. Marc keeps fighting his car, which transforms into a gundam and calls itself Pang. He climbs up into the driver’s seat and finds the demon’s body connected to it. Not able to stop the mechanical being as it transforms into a giant spider, he smashes the demon body, causing the Moonmobile to fall apart, but for the demonic energy to spread, until a local police captain has the cops pull a switch and shut off power to ten blocks. Later, back at the Shadow-Keep, he shows an image of the demon to Stash, who recognizes it as a gremlin. They figure it’s why they’ve had so many computer problems lately, but we also see that it’s left behind a clutch of eggs. Jean-Paul finally finishes climbing to Chloe’s window, and is confronted by Agony and Flare. Chloe still watches, figuring that Jean-Paul has to win this fight on his own, while she has to look after the Cadre, three Hellbent teens (they really just keep layering on new story elements here).

• The sudden appearance of Stephen Platt’s art in issue fifty-five is a shocking shift in direction, especially with Dana Moreshead’s exceptionally bright colours. Marlene is in Phalkoncorp, feeling like she’s being used, while monitoring a very high tech monitor and speaking to Phalkon, who is apparently out of the country. Cray and Cruz, dressed as Phalkoncorp guards, are eavesdropping. It seems to be implied that Marlene and Seth have never met, even though we’ve seen differently in the last few issues. Apparently Seth’s appearance is changing as he feeds. Cruz enters Seth’s office, and the immortal man attacks him. Cray busts through a window and tries to fight him, but Seth drains him of his life force, killing him. Marlene runs in and finds Cray’s body, and Cruz drained of energy and sputtering. Moon Knight is chatting, in person, with Sigmund at Shadowkeep. Plesko chides Marc at having suppressed his other identities and not dealing with his issues in a healthy way, causing Marc to reveal his true identity to him (although he already knew, and we learn that they have history from their mercenary days). An alarm warns of a security breach. Jean-Paul is still dealing with Agony and Flare, who are torturing him in the hopes that Chloe will return. He goads them and ends up getting tossed out a window. He manages to grab the fire escape with a badly burned hand, and the pain he feels activates his Bloodline powers. He turns into his grandfather, Pierre Latrec, who is a giant, hairy, psychopathic man. Marc and his lawyer, Cass Brennan, are at the morgue to identify Cray’s body (apparently he’s Latverian), and to visit Cruz, who seems insane (I’m not sure why the police morgue would have a padded room). Donna Kraft is not happy to not know what’s happening, but Marc and Cass arrive and advise her that Cruz was not really following his directions. Marc is angry but has to wait for night to figure out what’s going on. Bloodline smashes Flare, and makes it so Agony’s hair hits her fellow Hellbent instead of him. Cops arrive on scene (it’s actually Sheriff), but only find Flare’s body and a trail of blood. Marc uses a vastly redesigned angelwing to approach the roof of Phalkoncorp, and landing on it, gets attacked by all sorts of automated weapons. He fights his way through, then jumps off the building and uses his line to smash into an office, Marlene’s. More weapons attack him, and we see that Seth is watching on a monitor, but it seems he doesn’t know that Marc Spector is Moon Knight, which is kind of weird. At the same time, someone is in Shadowkeep, downloading information about Spector’s financial portfolio, and sending it to Seth (which would suggest he does know who MK is). Marc keeps fighting off against wall lasers and narrowing corridors, causing more and more damage, until Seth lets him into the room he’s in. Moon Knight thinks that Seth now looks like Marc Spector (which, given the way Platt has drawn him, I wouldn’t have caught without the text).
• Seth attacks Moon Knight, and in the process rips away his mask. Seth is surprised to learn that MK is Spector, whose identity he’s in the process of assuming. He claims to be Spector’s ancestor, and intends to drain his life force. This causes some sort of bio-feedback, which zaps them both. In the Shadowkeep, Jean-Paul and Plesko talk. Jean-Paul explains that he’s growing apart from Marc, but wants to talk more about Bloodline and how Seth and the Hellbent are coming for the ‘arcane archives’ that are apparently in his blood. At the same time, Chloe is on a roof somewhere training the Cadre, three Hellbent who were apparently introduced in a Web of Spider-Man annual. Dementia seems kind of catatonic (and looks a lot like Deathbird), and talks about taking them to fight the rest of the Hellbent. Marc recovers and finds Seth gone. He goes to a massive computer terminal to download all of Phalkoncorp’s information, and discovers that the computer is already linked to the Shadowkeep. After he returns home, he looks at the list of Shadow Cabinet members, trying to guess who the traitor would be. He summons them all holographically, which annoys most of them. They point blame on one another for a while, with each professing their innocence, before he decides to cancel the whole Shadow Cabinet program, causing all of their hologram rings to self-destruct. His computer shows him that Marlene has been working for Phalkon. Elsewhere in the Shadowkeep, we see that Jean-Paul has Agony, shorn of her hair, prisoner. He has a syringe, and plans on interrogating her. Donna Kraft goes to visit Cruz in the police station, but he is really agitated; Donna wants to know about Marlene, who it turns out was her college roommate. Marlene is on the rooftop patio of her apartment, completing her work. She recognizes that Seth manipulated her, and does something to limit computer access to her alone. Marc comes to see her, but it’s actually Seth, looking like Marc, and he smacks her hard across the face. Moon Knight arrives on the scene and starts to fight Seth. Marlene jumps from the roof, but lands on the edge of the angelwing. Seth is about to break Moon Knight, Batman/Bane style, but Marlene fires rockets at him. Marc manages to pin him to the wall with crescent darts, and gives him a good whack with his truncheon to knock him out. Marc and Marlene embrace. Weirdly, Marc goes into Marlene’s apartment, which has a wall with a large computer monitor; someone on it contacts him to get him to join the Infinity Crusade (ahh, the 90s). Marc disappears. Marlene hears a noise from outside, and finds a winged Hellbent with long nails, called Hook, has freed Seth and flies off in the angelwing with him.

• As Marlene falls off her building, she’s grabbed by Donna Kraft, who we learned was her rival in college, but was also someone she recommended that Marc hire after she left him. Moon Knight is in Paradise Omega, kneeling to the Goddess (I remember nothing from Infinity Crusade). She doesn’t believe that he is worthy to follow her, but he wants to prove himself. We see that she has a large gathering of heroes with her, predominantly Avengers, with some members of Alpha Flight and the X-Men thrown in. Jean-Paul is flying a SpectorCorp jet, with Agony as his prisoner, over the Amazon Rainforest, looking for the Hellhole. Agony’s taunting angers him, so he turns into Bloodline (the Henri Remont version), and Agony uses this chance to eject. We see the jet crash. Closeby is a temple where Hook has brought Seth. He is about to drain Hook’s life energy to restore his own, but Agony arrives and offers her’s. Soon, Seth is in his computer room, where he learns he can’t access the Shadowkeep’s computers anymore. He has spent his long life manipulating his descendants into being friends with the Bloodline line, but now that those plans are ruined, he’s going to open the Hellhole or something. On Paradise Omega, Moondragon prepares a team of heroes to run a mission for her, and Moon Knight jumps onto the teleportation platform. He finds out that their mission is to stop Spider-Man from reaching the cathedral. Marc is confused but goes through with the plan, snagging him with his line. Spidey fights back, but seems to think he’s fighting Venom and Carnage, and he knocks MK into a pile of Multiple Men. Moon Knight fails his mission and is teleported away. In Lower Manhattan, Manx attacks the Cadre, who do a good job of defending themselves until Chloe comes to help them. Chloe tells Manx she wants his help. Marc finds himself being questioned by a voice about his need for redemption. He claims to be human, but the voice suggests he might be the “Hellbent Prime,” which is honestly a step too far. There is a textpiece about Manx and the Cadre written in Chloe’s voice, but it doesn’t tell us much of interest.
• I’ll try to explain issue fifty-eight, which has guest art by Fred Haynes. Moon Knight’s been teleported ‘home’ by the Goddess, but home is the same abandoned temple in the Amazon, which Marc takes as further proof that he’s Hellbent. He’s attacked by a number of Hellbent right away, as they are protecting the Hellhole. At the same time, Jean-Paul comes barreling into the same temple in the micro-tank that he apparently had in the jet that went down. It’s not really mini – it has huge tracks and a lot of weaponry. Three Hellbent attack him, but he zaps them and moves on. We see the Cadre sneaking in behind him (it’s odd that everyone managed to get to the Amazon at the same time). MK continues to fight more Hellbent, while worrying that they are really his people. Jean-Paul finds Seth and a group of Hellbent (including one that looks like the Teen Titan Raven). Half a dozen Hellbent attack the tank, and eventually overwhelm Jean-Paul. Seth reveals that it was Jean-Paul who sent him all the Shadowkeep secrets, but he thought he was sending them to Marc (remember they are identical, except for the red skin). Jean-Paul’s guilt triggers another Bloodline transformation, and he becomes Latrec again. Chloe and the Cadre join the fight. Marc uses his truncheon to get away from the Hellbent that were holding him. Seth watches all the chaos, and stops one of the Hellbent from hurting Latrec. He wants to follow him to the ‘arcane archives’, which probably shouldn’t be hidden in the Hellhole, but whatever. The Cadre keep fighting, with Manx by their side. The Hellbent see that a Templar fights and think she’s there to lead them. Latrec starts punching a wall, and Moon Knight approaches him. They start fighting. In New York, Marlene and Donna check in on Raul, who is very traumatized, and then go to scatter Cray’s ashes (that was quick). They’ve planned to do something for SpectorCorp in the morning. Bloodline and Marc keep fighting, and Marc gets more and more angry. Latrec keeps beating on Marc, until energy streams from his eyes and he turns into Jean-Paul again, and dies. Marc thinks he’s killed his friend. Seth is amused by this and figures he can now reach the Arcane Archives.

• I thought that last issue was confusing, but issue fifty-nine is even stranger, as Kavanaugh keeps introducing new concepts to a story that is already way too bloated. Marc mourns his friend (it’s explained that he drained his life energy using his own Hellbent powers). Hook and Spike join Seth and Dusk, warning that the Cadre are coming. There’s a lot of fighting, as the Cadre and Manx take on Seth’s people, while Chloe goes to Marc. Somewhere else in the Hellhole, two of the Hellbent Prime – Nightshadow and a guy who is never named start killing other Hellbent. It turns out that Nightshadow is working for Seth, and that he’s been ordered to kill any half-breed (which I thought all the Hellbent were). Seth fights Manx and Dementia. Chloe pushes on the Bloodline nerves in Jean-Paul’s neck, and Marc, shorn of most of his costume, attacks Seth with his truncheon. Marc shoots him with crescent-darts, and Jean-Paul wakes up. The other Hellbent are happy to hear that Bloodline and the Templar are there, and they start to fight Nightshadow. Hook shoots someone in the back, so Manx fights him. Seth opens a portal, or finds a portal or something, and goes after the Arcane Archives. Marc follows him through, Jean-Paul loses consciousness again, and the Hellborn approach, and I guess they aren’t on the side of the Templar? There’s more fighting, and Chloe focuses on protecting the Cadre. Nightshadow starts to drain Shard’s energy, but Spike steps in to help him, because he’s his father (who is deciding that these story elements are needed?). Nightshadow sneaks off with Dusk and Hook. Seth realizes that the arcane archives are a giant mirror and he’s angry. Marc fights him some more, and while they fight, Jean-Paul, who we were just told was unconscious, crawls through the portal towards the mirror. When he gets to the mirror, he stands up, and mocks Seth, because he claims that the knowledge Seth wants is in his mind, and he can now contact and control it. He mentions how the cavern they’re in holds tens of thousands of scrolls, but Seth wants to drain Jean-Paul’s life. Marc attacks again, but Jean-Paul tells him Seth can’t actually die, so Marc ties him up off panel in adamantium wires. Jean-Paul explains the whole history of the Hellbent – a hybrid race of human and Inhuman, who stayed hidden in the Hellhole for millennia. Chloe and her friends join them, now that they’ve defeated the rest of the Hellbent Primes (I thought they were fighting all of the Hellbent, but whatever). Jean-Paul explains that the whole Hellhole is about to collapse, but they can use a Hellgate to teleport away before that happens. Nightshadow, Hook, and Dusk follow. We see the other Hellbent react as their whole Hellhole collapses on them (despite the fact that we can clearly see the night sky above them). Back in New York, Marlene and Donna do some computer fund transfers, and cheer the fact that they are now the owners of SpectorCorp.  Good lord this was not a good comic.
• The final issue of this series has Stephen Platt both penciling and inking the art. Marc comes through the Hellgate with Jean-Paul, Chloe, the Cadre, and Manx, followed by Dusk, Hook, and Nightshadow. They are in the air above the Shadowkeep, and while Vortex slows their descent, Marc grabs Jean-Paul and uses his truncheon to swing down, while the others manage. The good guys all fall into the Shadowkeep, where Marlene (dressed in a Sharon Carter-like green jumpsuit for some reason) is waiting for them. Marlene wants to talk to Marc about SpectorCorp, so the others give her space. We see that the three bad Hellbent are on a roof somewhere. Nightshadow wants revenge on Moon Knight, and comments that Seth still lives in unexpected ways. Marlene explains how she and Donna Kraft have taken control of SpectorCorp, and Marc is fine with that (because it’s not like he really worked there; the whole corporate part of his identity in this run never made sense to me). They make out. Jean-Paul and Chloe start to talk, and Jean-Paul is not upset with her, now that he has all these Bloodline abilities (he’s back in the wheelchair though). We learn that when Hellhole exploded it created many little Hellgates all over the world, suggesting that there are more Hellbent around the world (also, Manx took off). The Cadre want to leave Chloe to go look for their mother, and to find other Hellbent. Jean-Paul leaves them to talk with Chloe, and maybe interrupts Marc and Marlene having sex (it’s vague). Marc takes the time to apologize to Jean-Paul for being a bad friend, and for killing him, but Jean-Paul is not upset. They question if Khonshu ever brought Marc back to life, or if it was his Hellbent blood. Marc feels like he has never done good as Moon Knight, having not been able to protect Jean-Paul or his brother Randall (weird that his name comes up again). Marc decides it’s time to stop hiding, and tells Jean-Paul that he’s happy to give his company to Marlene and Donna. He turns on his computer so he can delete all the Shadow Cabinet stuff, and activates a talking holographic computer virus Seth left in his system. The hologram explains that it’s going to enter every computer networked to this one, and destroy them all. Marc tells Jean-Paul to evacuate the building, but Seth’s program closes the door. Marc starts breaking hardware and yelling a lot, while the countdown spells the name of Marc’s company. Marc has an override, but (and this part gets confusing) it is to make everything explode. He seals himself in the room while the Cadre and Chloe protect Jean-Paul, and the place explodes. Marlene finds Marc, who collapses in her arms and dies. Jean-Pauls explains that he was ready to die. Later, at a moonlit funeral, Donna joins the others (Marlene is not there). We see that Marlene is vowing to use SpectorCorp to do good. Elsewhere, Nightshadow drains the life energy of a vagrant. Hook calls Nightshadow Rand (suggesting he’s Marc’s brother, but like, why would you introduce this into the last issue?). Nightshadow says the Hellbent will thrive now that he’s in charge (there are three of them in total though, so…). Jean-Paul speaks about how Moon Knight was a light in the dark for them, even if he couldn’t see it.

So, as much as I didn’t like Chuck Dixon’s run on Moon Knight, my god this got so much worse. No disrespect to Terry Kavanaugh, who appeared to have some interesting ideas for writing a superhero series, but this didn’t work for me. I can tell that Kavanaugh had to work around the Infinity War and Infinity Crusade some, and I’m guessing the stream of guest appearances were editorially mandated (the Punisher showing up makes sense, but Gambit does not), so it did feel like his plans suffered because of that.

My problem is that while some of these ideas and concepts are interesting, Moon Knight was not a good fit for them. I actually really liked the concept of the Shadow Cabinet, but don’t know that it was executed well. First, their inclusion in the series was not explained well, and it took forever to establish any backstory for any of them, which worked against it. This would have worked better had they been worshippers or Khonshu, or somehow connected to Marc’s former life (aside from Sigmund, that is). Otherwise, this concept works better with an unpowered vigilante like The Shadow, or maybe Punisher (if they were all victims of violent crime as well). 

I also didn’t like the way Marc and Jean-Paul became so high-tech. In previous runs, Frenchie was a pilot with mechanical skills. Now he’s an engineer creating high-tech remote controlled angelwings, and Marc is a computer hacker who can create holographic meeting rooms and stuff. It took both characters too far from their original roots, and made them infinitely less interesting. Marc’s armor was kind of silly, both in how it looked and how it changed the character, but it needs to be seen in the context of everyone getting armor at that time (remember Daredevil’s?), and therefore excused.

I understand how demonic stuff was becoming popular at the time these comics were coming out, and the Infinity War’s reliance on evil variant versions of characters pushed things in that direction, but it’s kind of weird that we spent so much time with Moon Knight fighting the demonic Hobgoblin, and then dealing with a gremlin in his base. Again, it wasn’t typical for MK, and that’s fine, but it didn’t really work.

And then there’s the Hellbent and Templar storyline. What is up with that? This was central to Kavanaugh’s plans, as he started laying the groundwork for it early in his run, but it never really made sense to me. So, we started with the idea of Bloodline; that the Templars needed to implement an old plan to preserve their knowledge, and that involved finding a certain person with that knowledge locked in his mind. Fine. I was okay with the idea that one of the Templars, Seth, would betray his colleagues as well. 

Where it fell apart was with the sudden inclusion of the Hellbent, a hybridized group of powered creatures with partly Inhuman (I think?) heritage, who live in the Hellhole, which I think is just a cave with an open top? And they stay there for thousands of years? Except for the ones that live in Central Park, of course. Why couldn’t it have just been a band of Deviants, or something else that already existed? So leaving aside just how 90s so many of these Hellbent were (unless they were knockoffs of existing characters), and how they were basically demon Morlocks, their system didn’t make sense. Was Seth both Templar and Hellbent? And what’s up with this Hellbent Prime concept that showed up at the very end? Are they leadership in the group, because it looked like Nightshadow was trying to take over, and didn’t work with Seth.

Also, were we to believe that Chloe became Marc’s housekeeper in order to keep an eye on Frenchie? That needed to be explored a little more, as did Chloe’s history. It took ages to reveal her last name, Tran, which suggests an ethnicity that was not reflected in her earlier appearances. Also, were there many Vietnamese (I assume) Knights Templar? Weird choices. Maybe I need to read a random backup story in a random Web of Spider-Man Annual to better understand Chloe, and find out who the Cadre really were, since they weren’t introduced well here either.

I can forgive the concept that Jean-Paul has a historical connection to the Templars, but the idea that Marc is related to the Hellbent was ridiculous. This idea that Seth is his many greats grandfather, and the suggestion that his brother might be Hellbent Prime is ridiculous. One thing that makes Marc interesting is that (after Moench’s run), he was shown to be a Jewish hero. That and his connection with Egyptian lore made the character unique. To toss away this dual heritage to retcon in a blood relation to a secret demonic society is kind of nonsense.

Even worse is the way Kavanaugh killed Marc off in this last issue. It came out of nowhere, and felt like there was some spite involved. I’m not opposed to killing off characters in the interest of story, but this was gratuitous and pointless. It had no buildup (aside from the final issue) and no impact. Compare this to the recent death of Moon Knight in Jed MacKay’s run, and how well that’s been handled, and how his loss has been explored through the eyes of his friends.

Artwise, this run was a real mixed bag. Both Ron Garney and Gary Kwapisz had potential, in a straightforward 90s traditional way, but things got kind of weird when James Fry came on the scene. His art was an interesting blend of Kelley Jones, Mike Mignola, and Sin City era Frank Miller, and while I liked it on a surface level, I found his storytelling a little hard to follow at times. 

And then there’s Stephen Platt. I think Moon Knight was his first ‘regular’ title (of which he only drew a few issues), and the growth in his art is huge from his first to his last issue. There’s nothing more 90s than Platt’s intersection of Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld in his issues. The art was sometimes gorgeous, and often silly or hard to follow. I can understand how it stood out on the stands, as it was a huge change from what Fry was doing, but I don’t know if it was successful. We know Platt was very slow, even at the beginning, so had this book continued, I’m not sure that he would have stayed on it for long anyway.

When I originally decided to continue reading this volume of Moon Knight past the point where I dropped it back in the day, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to make it to the end of this run. It’s because I wanted to read Platt’s issues that I stuck with it, but I’m sure that’s a big part of why I was so slow in completing this column. I wasn’t inspired or excited by this stuff. There were elements I liked, but ultimately, when compared to the Moench/Sienkiewicz run, this was terrible. 

I was going to stop here, but I realized that Moench returned to the character in 1998, to walk him back to the living world, and I think that might be a better place to end this series of columns. I also realized that there was a Marc Spector: Moon Knight Special written by Moench that I didn’t include here. I think I’ll look at both of those things for my next column, and I think that will be my final Moon Knight foray. Thanks for reading this far, and for being patient if you’ve been wondering where these columns have gone.

If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.

If you’d like to read any of the stories I talk about here, you can go here to find the omnibus that contains them.