Moon Knight Special #1 (October 1992), Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1 (1992), Moon Knight Vol. 2 #1-4 (January – April 1998), Moon Knight Vol. 3 #1-4 (January – February 1999)
Written by Doug Moench (Moon Knight Special #1, Vol. 2 #1-4, Vol. 3 #1-4), Bruce Jones (Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1)
Penciled by Art Nichols (Moon Knight Special #1), Denys Cowan (Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1), Tommy Lee Edwards (Vol. 2 #1-4), John Paul Leon (Vol. 2 #4), Mark Texeira (Vol. 3 #1-4)
Inked by Chris Ivy (Moon Knight Special #1), Tom Palmer (Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1), Mike Manley (Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1), Robert Campanella (Vol. 2 #1-4), Mark Texeira (Vol. 3 #1-4)
Coloured by Mike Thomas (Moon Knight Special #1), Noelle Giddings (Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1), Melissa Edwards (Vol. 2 #1-4), Steve Oliff (Vol. 3 #1-4)
Spoilers (from twenty-five to thirty-two years ago)
I gave up on Moon Knight during the Marc Spector: Moon Knight run, staying probably a lot longer than I should have. That series killed Marc off at the end, but I don’t think I was even aware of that. I didn’t pick up another Moon Knight comic until the Charlie Huston/David Finch run started (which I don’t remember liking). In-between, Marvel decided to restore the character, and to do that, they turned to his creator, Doug Moench, who worked with Tommy Lee Edwards on a four-issue miniseries. Shortly after that, Moench returned with another four-issue series, this time with one of the kings of dark comics in the 90s, Mark Texeira.
This was completely off my radar at the time, because I’m sure I would have bought this had I seen it (I was in university at the time and wasn’t spending much time in comics shops). I decided to extend my time with Moon Knight to include that miniseries, and I’m also going to look at a couple of one-shots that were published during the Marc Spector: Moon Knight run that I ignored in my last column.
I really don’t know what to expect here, as the character was really suffering by this point. I mean, it was the early 90s, so all comics were suffering. Marvel couldn’t really figure out what to do with Moon Knight. Was he Marvel’s Batman? Was he the servant of an ancient Egyptian god who sent him missions through psychic priests? Was he an industrialist do-gooder employing a secret cabinet of assistants? Was he a half-demon Hellbent? The character needed some serious clarifying, and his death and now resurrection gave them the chance to clear things up.
Let’s see how they did, but first I’m going to look at two one-offs that came out during the previous run, that I either ignored or didn’t know about before now. After that I’ll look at the two Moench miniseries.
Let’s see how it goes…
Let’s track who turned up in the title:
Villains
- Brynocki (Moon Knight Special #1)
- Dick Blaine (Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1)
- Bushman (Roald Armand Bushman; Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1, Vol. 2 #3-4)
- Set (Vol. 2 #1-4)
- Black Spectre (Carson Knowles; vol. 2 #2-4)
- Morpheus (Robert Markham; vol. 2 #3-4)
- Dr. Isaac Rosslyn (Red Dragon Circle; Vol. 3 #1, 3-4)
- Germain Royce/Aleister Ravenna (Red Dragon Circle; #2-4)
Guest Stars
- Shang-Chi (Moon Knight Special #1)
- Black Jack Tarr (Moon Knight Special #1)
- Mikhail Gorbachev (Secretary, Soviet Union of Socialist Republics; Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1)
- Stained Glass Scarlet (Scarlet Fasinera; vol. 2 #2-4)
Supporting Characters
- Frenchie (Jean-Paul Duchamp; Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1, vol. 2 #1-2, 4, Vol. 3 #1-4)
- Marlene Alraune (Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1, vol. 2 #1-4, Vol. 3 #1-4)
- Khonshu (vol. 2 #2-4)
- Gena (vol. 2 #2, 4, Vol. 3 #1)
- Bertrand Crawley (vol. 2 #2, 4, Vol. 3 #1)
- Samuels (vol. 2 #2, Vol. 3 #3-4)
- Nedda (vol. 2 #2)
- Lieutenant Flint (vol. 2 #3-4, Vol. 3 #1, 3)
- Ray (Vol. 2 #4)
- Ricky (Vol. 2 #4)
- Candace Calder (CIA; Vol. 3 #1-4)
- William Tryon (Vol. 3 #3)
Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:
- The Special that came out in October of 1992, during Terry Kavanaugh’s run, uses the Marc Spector: Moon Knight logo on the cover, but the indicia simply calls it the Moon Knight Special. It seems to take place after Marc got his armor, but makes no reference to his series or status quo. Moon Knight and Shang-Chi parachute or glide onto Mordillo’s Island, which was the setting for two significant story arcs in Master of Kung Fu (which I’ve recently read). The special tosses us right into the action, as MK and Shang-Chi try to fight some robotic bats that speak with lisps. A flashback tells us that a SpectorCorp trainee took off with money and company secrets, and went to England. Marc met with someone from MI-6, who suggested that a cult called Golden Dawn is involved, but refused to say anything. When Moon Knight broke into the man’s office that night, he found Shang-Chi reading the same files, worrying about ‘stolen spirits’. On the island, they fight some robot mummies that come from a small pyramid. We learn that Shang-Chi told his old associate, Black Jack Tarr, that he wanted to travel to Mordillo’s Island alone to stop the cult. MK and Shang-Chi descend under the island and travel along an underground river. The leader of Golden Dawn is shown as a skeleton, speaking to its followers. It learns of the intruders from two guys in spiked armor. Shang-Chi agreed to come with MK because he had a plane. As they move through the underground parts of the island, the two heroes consider the other’s methods, and work well together to avoid death traps and to defeat a large mechanized brain with a cannon in it. They confront the cult leader, and as they fight the spike armor guys, the converts become troubled by the violence they see. Our heroes defeat the armored guys, and we learn that the cult leader is being animated by Brynocki, the cartoonish robot that served Mordillo. The cult members realize that they’ve been following a robot and snap out of their mental haze. Shang kicks Brynocki’s head off, and he explodes while lying on Mordillo’s bones. Since they have to wait for Marc’s plane, they decide to talk to the cultists who are struggling to process what happened.
- The Special has a few parody covers showing Moon Knight through different stages of comics’ development. It also has a Mad/Cracked type story by Michael Higgins and Marie Severin about a Moon Blight movie. I didn’t get past the second page.
- As I was looking up information about the above special, I discovered that Divided We Fall, a prestige one-shot, also came out in 1992, completely escaping my notice both then and now. It’s by Bruce Jones and Denys Cowan, and is set in the mid-80s (although weirdly, it refers to George W. Bush as the President, an office he didn’t hold until 1989). Moon Knight and Frenchie tried to bust up some criminals while they played cards, but it was a trap that they had to fight their way out of. Afterwards, Frenchie complains about Marc’s poor surveillance equipment, believing they could have done better had they used better gear. Marc insists there’s nothing wrong with his gear, and blames the op going badly on Frenchie, who gets mad and storms off. Marlene takes Frenchie’s side, and also walks out on Marc. Frenchie ends up at a bar, telling some barflies his story, and a blonde guy appears to take an interest and follow him. This same guy turns up as a substitute masseuse when Marlene goes to get a massage, and shows her an image of a dove on a red background. As Moon Knight patrols the city, feeling lonely, Frenchie meets up with the same blonde guy, Dick Blaine, and they play handball together. After they play, they go out for drinks, and Blaine shows Frenchie the same image he showed Marlene. Moon Knight stops a hostage taking on a rooftop, and meets a CIA agent (also Dick Blaine) who tries to recruit him to help with security when Mikhail Gorbachev, leader of the Soviet Union, comes to speak with Bush at a convention center in a week. Marc speaks to Marlene, who has moved into her own apartment (how many times did this happen over the years?). When Marlene gets home, Blaine is in her apartment, and shows her the card again. Later, he meets with MK, and they agree to work together. We see that Blaine is training both Frenchie and Marlene to assassinate Gorbachev while under the influence of his hypnotism. Blaine is working for Raoul Bushman, who wants to torture Marc by messing with his friends. Lonely, Marc reviews security footage from his home, and we learn that he bugged both Marlene and Frenchie when they left his house. He considers listening in. Blaine is practicing with Marlene, and then invites her to his apartment. Marc ends up listening in, but can only hear the Frank Sinatra album he’s playing. Bushman comes to the apartment and is upset that Blaine is taking advantage of Marlene, but Marc doesn’t hear any of this. Marc finds Frenchie at the handball court, and plays with him, despite the fact that their friendship is still clearly strained. He finds that Frenchie appears drugged, and soon they are arguing again. Moon Knight sees Marlene walking home and follows. He talks to her as Marc, and finds that she looks off too; he tries to give her a Sinatra record but she rejects it, not liking him. Both Marlene and Frenchie turn up at the convention center with guns (even then, there would have surely been better security than this). MK posts up in the rafters, and we see that Bushman has come to see his plan play out. MK notices Marlene, and her glassy eyes, in the audience. Gorbachev shows a symbol of peace between his country and the US, and it’s of course the trigger image that sets both Frenchie and Marlene into motion, just as Marc figures out they’ve both been manipulated. He sees Marlene’s handgun and stops her from shooting. At the same time, he sees Frenchie preparing to shoot from higher up and throws a crescent dart to stop him. Two cops take Marlene and Frenchie into custody, just as Frenchie comes to his senses. Marc goes looking for Blaine, and discovers it was fake cops who took his friends. He goes after them, using his bugs to locate them (Frenchie keeps reading out street signs, as if he knows that Marc is listening). Marc follows in the classic mooncopter, and causes the van driving them to swerve and fall into a river (where are we?). MK fights Bushman while the van sinks. Luckily, Frenchie (I guess I should have mentioned that this is before he became injured) manages to save Marlene. Later, we see Blaine confessing everything, and things go back to normal.
- The Volume 3 miniseries, by Moench and artist Tommy Lee Edwards opens with news that an American archeologist is about to unearth the tomb of Pharaoh Seti III in Egypt. He and his associate break into the inner chamber, and find it undisturbed. Prominent is a black statue of Set, the god of darkness and death. Moon Knight appears to awaken and be dug out of a grave by Scarlet Fasinera (Stained-Glass Scarlet). She talks about how the evil she hunts is getting stronger, and then fires a crossbow bolt into Black Spectre when he appears to emerge through a door. The bolt sticks to the door, and she draws her symbol around it in blood; both she and Black Spectre’s body disappear. MK questions if he was dead, and opens the door. We see that the archeologist is loading the Set statue to take to a museum (Moenchi is doing that thing where he cuts between scenes multiple times, telling two stories at once). MK finds himself before Khonshu, who tells him that an ancient war is starting up again, with the emergence of another god. The archeologist is in the museum in Cairo and believes he saw the statue’s eyes move. It grabs him and kills him. MK finds himself in a cemetery, where he is attacked by the Werewolf (By Night). They fight, and he is about to kill it when he remembers that the Werewolf is really Jack Russell. As the sun rises, Russell transforms and tells MK to face the darkness and banish it. Marlene Alruane and Frenchie (who is walking just fine without a wheelchair) are outside Grant Mansion, which neither have been inside since Marc’s death. They felt compelled to come there, and as they are about to enter, we see Morpheus come between them, and they turn to skeletons. This is another one of the Moon Knight visions, wherein he talks to his three personalities – Marc Spector, Jake Lockley, and Steven Grant, none of whom had been seen since the end of the original Moon Knight run. They are attacked by Bushman, who kills at least one of them. Marlene and Frenchie enter the mansion and look at the statue of Khonshu. On another plane, we see the shadow of Set fall over this statue and declare it’s time for Set’s darkness to rule. In the mansion, the Khonshu statue shakes and explodes; in its place stands the naked Steven Grant (as Marlene calls him). He’s not immediately alive, but he revives once Marlene kisses him. He’s surprised that she keeps calling him Steven, and is confused to learn that he’s been dead. They see that the statue is intact, and put forth theories as to what’s going on. They hear the howl of a wolf or dog, and in Grant’s bedroom, find the arrow and symbol Stained Glass Scarlet left in the vision. Steven feels like he knows that Khonshu brought him back, and wants to recommit to his mission. He puts together a cover story about Steven Grant returning from a long trip, and wants SpectorCorp dissolved and transferred to Grant Holdings. He intends to leave Marc dead, but to use the Jake Lockley persona again. He puts on his Moon Knight costume, and says he wants to use the strange clues that have been left in his head to figure out what’s going on.
- As Moon Knight heads out, dangling from the mooncopter like in the old days, he tells Marlene to get Nedda and Samuels, his former servants, to return. He has Frenchie take him to the abandoned church where Stained Glass Scarlet lives, and finds her praying. She doesn’t know anything about digging up his grave or leaving her symbol in his home, and their conversation is cut short because earlier that night, she killed two contract killers and lured a third to her home. He shoots her from the shadows, and MK attacks him. Scarlet shoots the man with her crossbow, through the neck, before MK can talk to him. Scarlet does let him know that Carson Knowles is back to being the Black Spectre, and that she thinks he’s working in service to a ‘darker’ power. Black Spectre wants to run the city, but since he can’t become mayor, he wants to be the string-puller for the city. MK returns home to change into Jake Lockley, and then heads to Gena’s Diner, where Crawley is still dunking his same old tea bag in tepid water. Jake’s friends are a little surprised to see him, and Crawley tells him that a number of out-of-town bad dudes are hanging out in an abandoned warehouse on a pier. In Egypt, a detective looks into the death of the archeologist last issue. Marlene talks to Steven, and tells him that she checked with the asylum about Morpheus, and that he’s still in custody and sedated. We see, however, that it looks like he’s freed himself, and is psychically manipulating the staff into thinking nothing has changed. In Steven’s dream, he sees Khonshu facing off against Set, but the image turns into him fighting Black Spectre. The Spectre is stronger than him, and caves in his head with his mace. Steven wakes up and talks to Marlene, speculating that Khonshu’s enemy might be involved. In Egypt, a night watchman is attacked by a mummy. The next night, Samuels and Nedda return to their old employment, but Steven barely pays attention to them, wanting to rush out with Frenchie. The mooncopter takes him to the pier that Crawley mentioned. Inside, we see that Black Spectre has had a councilman kidnapped so he can threaten him into voting as he wishes. MK drops in through the ceiling, but Black Spectre doesn’t seem too concerned; his words echo what he said in Steven’s dream.
- Moon Knight continues his fight with Black Spectre, all the while asking him if he’s dreamt of the same fight. The Spectre gets a few really good hits in on MK, and is about to finish him when Stained Glass Scarlet appears and shoots him through the arm with her crossbolt. He rushes to a trapdoor and escapes via the speedboat he had hidden beneath it. MK talks to Scarlet about how he thinks that Morpheus is responsible for his dreams and all the weirdness happening, but also acknowledges that something bigger might be happening. In Egypt, Bushman talks to his boss, and it’s pretty clear that this is Morpheus, but his face is kept in shadows. We learn they are planning on stealing the Set statue and taking it to New York, and the headquarters of the UN. MK goes to visit Lieutenant Flint, his old police contact, and learns that Flint is mostly concerned these days with protecting the upcoming UN conference that is going to see many world leaders in town. Bushman and Morpheus have a similar conversation to the one we just saw, and learn that they are ready to attack the museum. MK is at home, talking to the Khonshu statue about Set (he’s holding a small figure of the god). While they talk, we see Bushman’s men blow the doors off the museum in Cairo and steal the statue. As this happens, the figure in MK’s hand starts to melt, and he believes he hears Khonshu telling him that Set is free. Steven questions his sanity. When he goes to his bedroom, he finds the ghost of the archeologist waiting for him. He tells him that Set is getting stronger, but a giant hand comes through the wardrobe and drags him away. Then Steven sees himself in bed with Marlene and realizes he’s dreaming all of this. When he wakes up, he tells Marlene about it, and decides they need to check on Robert Markham, Morpheus. Marlene goes to visit him in Ravencroft Asylum, and while the orderly can see Markham eating, it’s clear to Marlene that he’s escaped. Nine nights later, MK has had no luck in finding Black Spectre nor Morpheus, nor has he had any dreams. They talk about gods and dreams. In Cairo, Bushman and Morpheus stand in front of the Set statue, and Morpheus tries to explain that they aren’t just waging war on Moon Knight; they are serving darkness.
- Steven is seeing dark visions again, and narrates a bit of a recap while looking at horror. Khonshu makes it clear that Steven needs to stop Set from attacking the UN. The vision ends when Set appears in it and attacks Khonshu. Steven updates Marlene. In Cairo, Bushman loads the statue of Set onto the private jet he and Morpheus have acquired. Steven finds that Scarlet’s crossbow bolt and symbol are no longer on his door, and wonders if it was a message from Khonshu all along. Moon Knight confronts a city councilman who has been working for Black Spectre, and gets him to share what Spectre has planned; Flint is listening in the shadows. MK gets Frenchie to take him to Jake’s cab, and then Jake heads to Gena’s. He asks that her kids surveil the pier for him, and Crawley points out that Jake Russell left him a note in the newspaper welcoming him back. Some guards at the UN are waiting for the statue to arrive, and talk about how they need to install it near the General Assembly room; we learn they’ve been having strange dreams. Ricky and Ray, Gena’s kids, call Jake to say they followed a pair of goons to a mansion in Queens, and saw Black Spectre get into their car. MK gets Frenchie to fly him to the airport, where Black Spectre’s car is going. MK attacks them, pulling the Spectre out of the car and hitting him. He realizes that Stained Glass Scarlet is around when one of Black Spectre’s goons takes a bolt to the neck. She takes out the other goon as well, leaving MK to fight the Spectre, who he defeats. He stops Scarlet from killing him, and tells her to get a ride home with Ricky and Ray. Spectre reveals that Bushman is around, and finds him just as he’s loading the crate with the statue into a helicopter. MK and Bushman fight, and MK wins. The cops arrive, with Flint. The helicopter made it into the air, so MK gets Frenchie to pick him up and they follow it. MK jumps from the mooncopter’s ladder, using his glider cape (it’s so nice to see this again) to reach the helicopter, which is being piloted by Morpheus. Morpheus is stronger than before, and one hit sends MK flying across the cabin. Morpheus’s energy appears to animate the statue, which attacks MK (although Marc’s not sure if it’s real or not). He manages to knock the statue out of the chopper, and it falls to the ground and shatters. He then knocks out Morpheus, and jumps as the chopper crashes. Later, Frenchi, Marlene, and Steven are at home, questioning if Marc was ever actually dead, if Khonshu and Set’s statues actually have any power, or if it was all Morpheus. Marlene doesn’t think any of it matters and they embrace.
- The second miniseries, subtitled ‘High Strangers’ on the cover but not in the indicia, opens with Moon Knight dangling from the mooncopter. Marc wants to check out an old dead drop he used during his mercenary days, because someone called Gena’s Diner looking for him to say a message was waiting. The drop is in a basement in an old tenement, and inside it, Marc finds a message that says ‘Bang! You’re dead!” just as someone starts shooting at him. The gunman expected Spector, not Moon Knight, and instead of answering his questions, he bites down on a poison capsule and dies. Frenchie joins MK, and they surmise that someone has put a contract out on Spector. MK talks to Flint, and learns that the gunman had a dragon tattoo on his chest, but that they know nothing else about him. Jake heads to Gena’s, and learns from Crawley that a company has been hiring unhoused people to partake in experiments, and that none of these people are seen again. Jake asks Crawley to set up an appointment. During his intake meeting with someone named Rosslyn, Crawley turns out to be Marc in disguise. This Rosslyn guy knows him and is surprised to see him, but before Marc can question him, someone shoots him in the neck with a dart. He blacks out, and wakes up three hours later, with the warehouse they were in scrubbed clean of any proof of what Rosslyn was doing. Steven exercises with Marlene, and they talk through the case. Marlene is surprised that, if Rosslyn is part of the “Company” (I assume this means the CIA), he didn’t know they wanted Marc dead. Steven reminds her that Bushman knows his identity, and is in custody. Steven gets a call from Flint who lets him know that he’s checked his connections, and learned that Bushman was freed (probably in exchange for information). Steven decides that he needs to talk to an old company contact, who is also a former lover of his, Candace Calder. Marlene acts kind of jealous, but Steven reminds her that he returned from the dead for her. Marc calls Candace and sets up a meeting in Baltimore for the same day. He heads out with Frenchie, who guesses he’s going to see Candace based on Marlene’s face as they leave. Marc and Candace talk at the aquarium, and she shares that the company is continuing with their research into mind control. Some dude with an umbrella gun starts shooting at Candace, bursting open one of the large tanks. Marc goes after the gunman, changing into Moon Knight on the way. A few other guys emerge from bushes and attack him. The umbrella guy shoots his backup and then turns the gun on himself when it’s clear that MK will beat them in their fight. The gunman has the same red dragon tattoo on his chest that we saw before.
- Moon Knight changes back into his Marc Spector clothes to meet up with Candace again, where she talks about how a lot of people from ‘the company’ are getting killed, and that it seems anyone involved in the old MK-Ultra projects are the targets. She reveals that there is something in her skull, and she wonders if it’s an implant that might be sending her location or receiving transmissions. She talks about mind control experiments, remote viewing, aliens, cryptids, and other strange stuff. She also talks about how the Company seems split between the Red Dragon, a faction of the company that models itself after the beliefs of Aleister Ravenna, a mystic from the 30s and 40s. She also talks about how the Aquarius Group, an unofficial group of whistleblowers, have been trying to clean up the Company. She talks about how a journalist who was on the story turned up dead. Candace agrees to give Marc all the evidence she’s gathered, and they arrange a drop at the place where they kissed for the first time. The next night, MK watches Candace drop the package under a park picnic table. He asks Frenchie to follow her home in the mooncopter while he goes to retrieve the stuff. He’s fired on, and hides in a tree. His assassin is assassinated, and we see he has a red dragon tattoo. The backup assassin fires on MK, but he jumps in a lake and swims away. Later, Steven and Marlene start to look through all the evidence that Candace gathered. Steven looks at a photo of an ancient skull (he thinks it belonged to either a Yeti or an alien), and sees tiny symbols carved into it. He thinks Marlene brings him a stack of blank papers, and then she returns and gives him a stack of papers with writing on them. They look at photos of the Loch Ness Monster and crop circles, which are identical to the skull writing. Just then the TV comes on and shows the same symbols, found at the scene of some ritual murders in Manhattan. Steven wants to go look at the place where this happened. At a Company office, an agent confronts someone named Germain Royce about the red dragon atrocities, as he calls them. Royce admits this, and then using what looks like a desk calculator, takes control of the guy’s mind and makes him kill himself. After the guy is dead, he asks his secretary to bring him the file on Candace. Marlene tells Steven she wants to come with him, but he says no. She comments that he’d rather have Candy Calder with him, and then pulls out an ax and attacks him, saying she’s a tulpa and not alive.
- Marlene continues to go after Moon Knight (she’s actually got a fire poker) and he sees a red dragon symbol on the back of her shirt. She keeps claiming that she’s not actually Marlene or even alive, and then she runs off. Almost as soon as she’s out of MK’s sight, she returns, acting completely normal. He asks her to research ‘tulpa’ and heads off to check out the scene of the ritual murders with Frenchie. As MK enters and investigates the warehouse and the symbols on the walls, Marlene is disturbed by a bright light, fearing that something is trying to take her. MK takes photos of the symbols and returns to dangling from the mooncopter’s ladder as Frenchie flies home. They see the bright lights outside of Grant Mansion, which then shut off. Marlene is talking about owls with big eyes. Marc gives Candy a call to try to figure out what’s happening, and reveals to her what’s happened with Marlene. Candy says that a tulpa is a thought being and explains that the Red Dragons might have gotten to them both by now. She also says that she’s seen the owls and suggests Marc take Marlene to a regression hypnotist, since the owls are often a cover for a different memory, as they are for her. We see that her nose is bleeding and that she’s surrounded by little gray aliens. Candy explains that the American government has perhaps been trading with the aliens for technology. Steven and Marlene talk about tulpas, and how Ravenna claimed he could create replicas of himself. Steven takes Marlene to William Tryon, a hypnotist. He starts probing Marlene’s memories while Steven pokes around at his rolodex. Marlene remembers being taken to the aliens’ ship and given an implant through her nose. Steven finds proof that Tyron is working with Rosslyn, and gets angry; they leave. Steven doesn’t believe that Marlene was taken by aliens, and as he puts on his MK gear, he is brought the photos he took at the murder scene; Aleister Ravenna was standing right in front of him, but Moon Knight never saw him. MK calls Flint to get Rosslyn’s address, and heads to his place, which looks like a church. Royce, who I guess is Ravenna, is there with Rosslyn, and they and some other Red Dragons are preparing to sacrifice Candace. Royce wants Rosslyn to kill her with a dagger, but he’s reluctant. Royce gets a call saying that his people are not able to take control of Moon Knight as they’d expected, figuring either his cowl blocks their signal or his willpower is too strong. They are using their satellites to bombard his implant, but he’s still approaching the church. Moon Knight busts through the window, and takes out the Red Dragon goons that start shooting at him. He chases one outside, and is shocked to see a flying saucer hovering in the air above him.
- As it turns out, the flying saucer is little bigger than a frisbee, and when it flies into a nearby wall, it explodes. MK enters the room that it opened up and finds Candace strapped to a table. He frees her, as she figures out he is Marc Spector and then runs away. MK finds his body frozen. Dr. Rosslyn approaches, using a remote control to take over MK’s body. He talks about how they might keep him around to use as a political assassin (mentioning Oswald, Sirhan, and Manson), and we learn that it was because they used the device they implanted in him to track him that they got ahold of Marlene. It turns out that Marlene is on the mooncopter with Frenchie, and they observe the symbols burned into the ground they are flying over. Another of the remote controlled saucers flies into the mooncopter, crashing it. Rosslyn keeps talking to MK, and orders him to use a crescent dart to cut his own throat (I guess they don’t want to keep him under control after all). Frenchie, who was hurt in the crash (Marlene is missing) radios Marc, blocking Rosslyn’s control. MK takes Rosslyn down and smashes the control device. MK follows some footprints to a lake, where he sees the Loch Ness Monster. It approaches him, but then disappears when Royce appears closeby. MK comments on how he looks like Aleister Ravenna, and Royce mentions a few ways that it would be possible for him to still be alive. Things get weird as MK and Royce talk; the villain reveals that he got to know the aliens that came through a door in the desert, and that he’s going to take control of the entire world with his knowledge. Royce turns and runs away through tall grasses. He finds Marlene in a clearing (one of the crop circles), but it’s not Marlene, it’s the tulpa. She attacks him and gets his nunchucks. He starts beating on him, and throws him really far. The real Marlene appears, but MK isn’t sure which is which. Just then Candy runs into the clearing and plants her ax (it’s what MK used to free her before) in one of the Marlene’s backs. Luckily, it was the tulpa who dies, and then Candy passes out. A bright light appears above them all, and Rosslyn’s body drops into the clearing. The source of the light, a small purple ball, hovers over the lake, and more than a dozen Loch Ness Monsters appear under it. Royce claims this is proof of Babylon working, or something. We see the light turning black, and Royce keeps ranting and gloating. Frenchie has crawled to the clearing, and he shoots Royce dead, at which point the ball explodes. Everything becomes normal, and they leave. Later, at a hospital, Steven confirms that there is something in his skull, and he insists that the doctors remove it, and do the same for Candace and Marlene. Next, he and Marlene talk about exposing all of the secrets in Candace’s file, and joke about how much photocopies cost.
There isn’t much of a through-line between these four separate stories, so I’ll just look at them individually.
The two specials were not really that. It’s cool that Moench got the chance to return and have the two characters most associated with his name, Moon Knight and Shang-Chi, meet in a strange little story that wraps up a dangling thread from his Master of Kung Fu run. I don’t know that there would have been many people wondering whatever happened to Brynocki, the robot, but there we are anyway. It must have annoyed him to have to write such a protracted version of Moon Knight, without any of the things that make him interesting, in keeping with the rest of the Marc Spector: Moon Knight run.
Bruce Jones and Denys Cowan’s one-shot is more in the old school vein, but it didn’t do much for me. This could have just as easily been a Batman story as a Moon Knight story, in that there’s not much here that makes use of the character’s uniqueness. At the same time, it’s a nice long single volume with art by Denys Cowan, and that’s something I’ll always want more of. Cowan is really good with Moon Knight; I just wish there were more chances to show him gliding out of the darkness, or do the other things that Cowan is good at that work with this character.
Moench’s first miniseries (which gets the Volume 2 designation, even though I’m pretty sure the Fist of Khonshu six-issue series was also labeled as such) was a whole different matter. This was the real Moon Knight brought back to us. In these four issues, Moench returned to every character, be it alternate personality, friend, servant, helper, or foe, that made his first Moon Knight run so good (okay, Midnight would have been welcome too). It’s so good to see the existence of Steven Grant and Jake Lockley acknowledged again, and put to use (even if Marc kind of disappeared). This should always be at the core of Moon Knight’s adventures, as that’s what makes him such a unique character and hero.
I was really happy to see the regular cast return as well. Gena and Crawley are such great characters, and it was cool to have them back for a little bit. Likewise, it was good to see Frenchie healed and back in the cockpit, without any mention of Bloodlines, Knights Templar, or the god-awful Hellbent. It looks like Moench just decided to ignore any storyline that came out after the end of the first Moon Knight series, and I’m fine with that. There was nothing there that really needed acknowledging.
Moon Knight also had some colourful villainous characters, and it was great to see them brought back, and even working together. It says something that Marc was able to plow through them so easily, whereas before each would take more time to dismantle. I really like the anti-hero turn that Scarlet took in this series, and would have liked to see her relationship with Marc explored more. I’m glad that she no longer has the inexplicable group of followers that JM DeMatteis gave her without explanation in his short run.
I did notice that he made much more use of Khonshu in this series than he did in his earlier runs. Where before, it was left to us to guess whether or not Khonshu was real or had a hand in Marc’s resurrection, this makes that more clear. It’s interesting that even in the Fist of Khonshu series, it was the psychic monks that relayed his missions; I think this is the first time that Khonshu actually spoke to his ‘fist’. Of course, now we have the weird-looking mummified bird Khonshu, who I find to be an exceptionally annoying character. I much prefer the classic look that is used here, and the cryptic communications being delivered only in dreams.
The art in this miniseries is everything I hoped for. Tommy Lee Edwards is an incredible artist, and he does a good job of maintaining the general atmosphere that Bill Sienkiewicz perfected in his run. Edwards’s lines are thicker than Sienkiewicz’s (that could be the inking by Robert Campanella, but it’s pretty common across Edwards’s career), and he’s more grounded in reality, so I never get the two artists confused, but their styles compliment one another and it makes this a solid Moon Knight series, visually. I should mention that John Paul Leon, whose work I often confuse for Edwards’s, is the person who finished the final issue, but I’m not sure I would have been able to tell had I not known that, so perfectly does his style fit here. (RIP John Paul Leon, a truly fantastic artist).
One small detail that I loved about the art in this series is the way that Moon Knight’s eyes are coloured red. In the original run, Sienkiewicz did a great job of conveying such a range of emotion just through his portrayal of Moon Knight’s eyes, and this switch to red makes him more menacing, and cool looking. I wish this had led to an ongoing series by this same creative team.
Which brings us to the second Moench miniseries, subtitled High Strangers. I think ‘High Strangeness’ would have been a better title, as I’m sure Moench was high when he came up with this concept. As I’ve been reading both Moench’s MK work and his Master of Kung Fu work at the same time, it’s become clear that Moench’s interests range pretty widely, and it doesn’t surprise me to see that he is into weird conspiracy theory stuff (ah, the good old days of classic conspiracy theories, before the internet misinformation era took hold). All this MK Ultra stuff about alien visitations, mind control, remote viewing, and tulpas does feel like it belongs in his wheelhouse, but I’m not sure Moon Knight is the best vehicle for this kind of story, especially after Moench went to such pains to return him to his street vigilante roots in the previous miniseries.
I did really like Texeira’s art in this book. I always think of the second Ghost Rider when I think of Texeira, and I didn’t love that era for him, but this story allowed him to explore the ways that both Neal Adams and Bill Sienkiewicz influenced his style, and he adopted a pretty clean approach. Steve Oliff’s colours were very nice too. This felt like an older comic, and that appealed to me.
I imagine this series wasn’t that well received, because it was a while before Moon Knight got his own book again. He was involved in the Marvel Knights series that I never read, and I remember an excellent appearance in Priest’s Black Panther, but MK didn’t get his own title until 2006.
I’d intended to stop with my Moon Knight reading by now, but I’m tempted to continue into the next run. This was the one where, if I remember correctly, the perception of Moon Knight changed, as Khonshu became a recurring character, and Marc became increasingly brutal in his methods. I don’t remember liking that series, but I’m curious to see how it stands in comparison to this stuff, and how it shapes the current Moon Knight run by Jed MacKay, which is so different from everything that came before, but that I adore.
If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.
If you want to read this stuff for yourself, most of it has been collected in the omnibus that finishes off the Marc Spector: Moon Knight series.
