Moon Knight Vol. 4 #14-30 (January 2008 – July 2009)

Plot by Mike Benson (#14-19), Charlie Huston (#14-19)
Script by Mike Benson (#14-19)
Written by Mike Benson (#20-30)
Layouts by Javier Saltares (#14-19, 21-25)
Art by Mark Texeira (#14-19, 21-25), Mike Deodato Jr. (#20), Jefte Palo (#26-30)
Coloured by Dan Brown (#14-19, 21-25), Rain Beredo (#20), Lee Loughridge (#26-30)
Spoilers (from sixteen to seventeen years ago)
I dropped Moon Knight again just before Charlie Huston finished his run, but since I’ve come this far in my read of Moon Knight from the beginning, I kind of want to finish off this run. My expectations are low, despite the fact that Huston set the book up to be pretty successful.
I think the reason why I’m not expecting much is because Mike Benson came on as the writer, and while I am fully aware that I’m jumping to conclusions, I just don’t see how someone who was writing a comedic TV series like Entourage would have been considered a good fit for one of Marvel’s darkest books at that time. Maybe I’m wrong and I’ll love this? I also think that I’m getting a little worn out on Moon Knight at this point, but the completist in me wants to stick it out to the end of this run. (I considered moving on to the next one, for the Jerome Opeña art, but I’m starting to stretch the ‘retro’ category I feel, as these still seem like recent comics to me).
Let’s track who turned up in the title:
Villains
- Black Spectre (Carson Knowles; #14-19)
- Killer Shrike (Simon Maddicks; #14)
- The Whyos (#16, 23-24)
- Buck (#17-18)
- Michael O’Brien (#21)
- Norman Osborn (Thunderbolts; #21-25, 30)
- Venom (Mac Gargan, Thunderbolts; #22-25)
- Penance (Robbie Baldwin, Thunderbolts; #22, 24-25)
- Songbird (Melissa Gold, Thunderbolts; #22, 24-25)
- Moonstone (Karla Sofen, Thunderbolts; #22-25)
- Bullseye (Thunderbolts; #22, 24-25)
- Swordsman (Andreas von Strucker, Thunderbolts; #22, 24-25)
- Radioactive Man (Chen Lu, Thunderbolts; #22, 24-25)
- Carlos (Alcantara’s man; #26-27)
- Gilberto Alcantara (#26-30)
- The Toltec (#27-30)

Guest Stars
- Iron Man (Tony Stark, Director of SHIELD; #14-15, 17-19, 21-22, 24-25)
- Larry King (#17, 30)
- Wonder Man (Simon Williams; #19)
- Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers; #19)
- Werewolf By Night (Jack Russell; #20)
- Maria Hill (Deputy Director of SHIELD; #21)
- Raymond Sikorsky (CSA; #21)
- The Punisher (Frank Castle; #26-30)
Supporting Characters
- Marlene Alraune (#14-17, 19-25)
- Khonshu (#14-19, 23, 26, 28-30)
- Frenchie (Jean-Paul Duchamp; #14-17, 19-25)
- Rob (Jean-Paul’s partner; #14-17, 19, 22-24)
- The Profile (#14, 17, 19, 21, 25)
- Ray (#16-17, 19-20, 24-25)
- Samuels (#17, 21)
- Nedda (#17)
- Lieutenant Flint (#17, 20)
- Bertrand Crawley (#18-20, 22-23)
- Gena (#19-20)
- Ricky (#20)
- Carmen Alcantara (#27-30)
- The Zapata Brothers (Gustavo and Rigo; #27-30)
Let’s take a look at what happened in these books, with some commentary as we go:
- Benson started off coplotting with Huston, but there is a very noticeable shift in tone right from the beginning of God and Country, his first arc. The art is laid out by Javier Saltares, with the full art credit going to Mark Texeira, but this looks nothing like their 90s work, and comes off feeling very rushed. MK stops a couple of guys breaking into a boarded up building, beats them, and carves a crescent moon into their foreheads. We see that Marc and Marlene are sleeping together again (Khonshu watches), but when Marc says he wants a relationship, she takes off. After a rehab session, Jean-Paul and Rob get harrassed on the street for being gay (I was surprised to see the f-slur rear its ugly head in a Marvel comic). Jean-Paul acts in a menacing way and the two men move on. Moon Knight attacks a drug smuggling facility and does some real damage to the men working there while Khonshu acts as his cliché-spouting hype man. In addition to carving a moon in someone’s forehead, MK cuts off his ear too. The next day, the news is full of stories of Moon Knight’s brutality, and a commentator asks how he could possibly be a registered hero, which seems to catch Tony Stark’s attention. In a sleazy hotel, some guy with a caduceus tattoo and a scar on his cheek drinks while a sex worker leaves his room (we have no idea who this guy is). Marc meets with The Profile (who looks a bit different and is never named). It seems that The Profile is providing him with possible targets for Moon Knight, but few of them interest Khonshu. Profile tells Marc that Killer Shrike, the villain who hurt Jean-Paul once, is out of jail. Later, Moon Knight breaks through the window in the same sleazy motel we just saw, which is where Killer Shrike is staying. MK beats him and throws him down the stairs before taking off. We see the scarred guy among the crowd that gathers.

- Tony Stark, Director of SHIELD, and one of his agents watch a video of Moon Knight carving a moon into some guy’s forehead, and they question how Marc ever passed his psych review and became a licensed hero. They decide to look into it. Marc is training with Rob, hitting a punching bag. Rob asks about Killer Shrike, and why Marc was so hard on him; Marc deflects the question to Jean-Paul, who refuses to answer. Marc ends up knocking the bag into Rob’s face hard enough to break his nose, and it’s clear that Jean-Paul is angry. The Black Spectre (Carson Knowles) has been released and is working for the MTA, and has to suffer some mocking from his coworkers. At their home, Rob and Jean-Paul talk, and Jean-Paul tries to get Rob to see how dangerous it is to be friends with Marc; they end up arguing, and Rob storms out. Knowles goes to see his parole officer, who shakes him down for illegal payments and makes him feel small. Marc and Marlene are still sleeping together, but she’s not happy with their situation, especially since Marc has moved the statue of Khonshu into his bedroom. They argue while Khonshu tries to get Marc to think about other women, namely Tigra. Knowles visits his father, who appears to be in a coma, and gets a bit of a pep talk from an unseen person, who encourages him to get noticed in the world. Marlene leaves Marc because she doesn’t want to argue; Khonshu encourages him to go out and cause some violence. We see Knowles go to a pawn shop to retrieve a long and narrow item. He also removes a box from under the floorboards in his bedroom. Marc retrieves something from his bookcase. Marlene decides to return to Marc’s place. Using a bit of parallel structure, Knowles sits in front of a case and removes his sword, having chosen to become the Black Spectre again. At the same time, we see that Marc has preserved Bushman’s face. Marc stands in front of his bathroom mirror and puts on Bushman’s face; this is when Marlene walks in, freaks out, and takes off. The vision of Khonshu (presumably) picks up the face and puts it on, making it look like Bushman is back.
- Marc argues with Khonshu, who wants him to kill people for him. There are more news broadcasts asking questions about how Moon Knight has been allowed to operate in the city given how unhinged he seems to be. Carson Knowles is meeting with his parole officer again, who is trying to shake him down for even more money. Knowles snaps and stabs him in the neck with a pair of scissors; Knowles sees a picture of one of MK’s victims in the paper and gets an idea. Marc goes to Frenchie’s restaurant to try to talk to him, but Jean-Paul doesn’t want him around anymore, and tells him to stay away from Rob. Rob sees him on the way out and tells him he’ll need a new trainer for the time being. Knowles wanders around an armor and weaponry exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. An unseen person talks to him about the rewards once given to brave warriors (this is likely the same person he spoke to at the hospital, but no information is given on who that is). Knowles sees Marlene, who is ignoring a call from Marc, and he approaches her. They talk for a bit, and Knowles apologizes for how he treated her before. Marc starts suiting up for the night, and we see that he wears braces to support his knees. As he gets ready, so do the members of a cheesy Warriors/Clockwork Orange-tribute gang who wear suspenders, neckties, and bowler hats. Ray tries to tell MK that he wants to get more involved in the fight, but he’s told to follow orders. Knowles is still walking and talking to Marlene, until they get to the hospital where they part ways. The gang members go to a punk bar and drop off the heads of members of a rival gang, starting a fight. They start shooting, while Knowles smothers his father with a pillow and carves a crescent moon into his forehead. The gang members run out of the bar and find Moon Knight waiting. As he beats on them, he maintains an inner monologue about how it’s so hard to fight without killing. He gets taken down by a kick to the knee, but survives the attack that follows. Suddenly, Ray opens fire from the mooncopter, and shoots a guy who was about to shoot Marc. Just then the police pull up, and Moon Knight recognizes that he’s in trouble.

- Issue seventeen opens with a discussion on Larry King’s TV show between a community activist and a SHIELD PR flack. They discuss the fact that Moon Knight has now killed the gang members from the last issue, and SHIELD is accused of taking too long to deal with him. We see that Frenchie and Rob are watching this on a giant TV (the restaurant must be doing great) before Frenchie shuts it off. Marlene also sees this and leaves Marc a message. Depford, the SHIELD psychologist who approved MK’s registration learns that he’s going to be questioned, but by the time the agents get to him, he’s hanged himself. Tony Stark is not happy about this, and wants to know more about what happened in his session with Marc. Carson Knowles has gone to a medieval arms supplier who he’s hired to craft armor and weapons for him. He kills the guy instead of paying him. Marc meets with Marlene in a diner and she tells him that she ran into Knowles. He gets angry, and isn’t willing to listen to Marlene saying that Knowles has changed. Instead, Marc figures out that he’s the one killing people and carving moons in their heads, speculating that the dead parole officer was probably Knowles’s. Marc storms off. At the skid row hotel where Knowles is staying, a group of recently released felons led by a guy named Buck start to plan a job. When they leave, we see that someone who I assume is Knowles (his scar keeps moving, and the Saltares/Texeira art is not good at making people look distinct) is listening to them. The TV shows footage of an anti-Moon Knight rally, and we see that (people I assume to be) Samuels and Nedda are watching. Moon Knight appears behind them and gets angry. He tells them both to leave his home. We see that Knowles carved a moon into the arms dealer’s forehead. Lieutenant Flint (called Detective here; there are so many inconsistencies) is pulled off the case by two SHIELD agents who take over. Flint pushes back on their immediate assumption that MK is responsible before they leave. The Profile is with a sex worker and ignores a call from Marc. Moon Knight gets into an argument with Ray, who thinks he should become a more active part of their mission. Marc maintains that he won’t kill, while Ray argues that some people deserve to die (Khonshu likes Ray’s points). Their argument is interrupted by the arrival of Iron Man and a bunch of armed SHIELD agents.
- Knowles, now wearing his new Black Spectre armor, has found the guys from his hotel, and the place where they’ve hidden all the SHIELD equipment they stole. Tony Stark confronts Moon Knight (Ray has disappeared and doesn’t appear in this issue) over how he’s been acting. Marc insists he’s being framed for the murders, but also breaks the arm of an agent who tries to hold him. Tony also asks about Depford, the doctor that tested him for his Registration, and tells him that the man killed himself. Tony tells Marc that his registration card is suspended until their investigation is done. Black Spectre kills one of the thieves, and then disarms (literally) another. He questions Buck, the mastermind of the operation, about what he’s got. They talk about the Stark ‘nanological’ weapon, which basically allows someone to control another using nanites. Marc is at home alone, and Khonshu mocks and berates him for not fighting Iron Man. They argue, with Khonshu demanding sacrifices in his name. Marc insists he wants to be a hero, not a killer, and walks away. Black Spectre shows up and attacks him. They fight for a few pages and the fight ends with Marc on the ground. Black Spectre smashes his mace next to Marc’s head and then tells him that he’s going to take his time with his payback, and completely ruin Marc’s life. He walks away. Hurt, Marc makes a call, telling someone to bring him something. Shortly, Crawley arrives, finding Marc sitting in his wheelchair. It’s clear that Marc called him to bring him pills (taking us back to the start of this volume). Crawley refuses to give him pills, and instead talks at length about how Marc is the reason he’s still alive and how his mission has given him dignity and purpose. He starts slapping Marc, demanding that he get up and stop feeling sorry for himself. Marc slams him into the wall, but Crawley’s words get through to him. He goes through a secret door in his closet to a spare costume. Black Spectre is on a rooftop, and engages a sequence using a remote device.

- Black Spectre stands on a rooftop overlooking a rally that Tony Stark has organized to honor and recognize the efforts of the everyday people who work for the Initiative (essentially, the support staff for the registered superhero governance structure he created after the Civil War). He has a secretary talking about her job for a very enthusiastic crowd, and the various journalists who are covering the event for TV manage to bring up Moon Knight. We see that Frenchie and Paul are watching from home, and that Marlene is watching from the museum. Gena is watching at the diner with Ray, and she is not happy to hear MK’s name. A holographic figure of Wonder Man starts to talk at the rally (which was supposed to be all about the ordinary people), and as he talks about himself, we see a small cloud of nanites descend and enter peoples’ bodies. Crawley helps Marc suit up as Moon Knight. Marc has him shoot him up with a cocktail of painkillers and help him wrap his wounds. Soon, Crawley drives him towards the celebration, as this is where he is sure Knowles will be (exactly where he was in his first appearance, back in volume one). Ms. Marvel’s hologram talks to the crowd about love. Black Spectre is about to set his plan in motion, but sees Moon Knight approaching and goes after him with his sword. They start to fight on the roof, and the crowd notices them. (It should be noted that Texeira really nails this fight, much more than the rest of this arc). MK cuts himself on a ricocheting crescent dart. Knowles keeps up a monologue about how this time around the people of New York are going to love him (it’s sad that this entire plan he’s been executing is now about using nanites to make himself some new friends), while Marc’s interior monologue is about how the painkillers make him not care if he is getting hurt. Knowles has to inject himself with the control nanites, and is about to, while looking down on the crowd. He doesn’t see Marc come up behind him and throw him from the building, in plain view of everyone. As Knowles falls, he has a memory of his son, and then he dies. We see the supporting cast react to this (Frenchie storms off, Tony Stark swears). Marc has collapsed, but Crawley helps him get away from the scene. The Profile was in the crowd (which seems unlikely) and he talks to himself as he walks away. It must be later, and Khonshu is praising Marc, suggesting that they go on the road with this new act. Marc says he’s done being Khonshu’s avatar, which angers the god. As he threatens and rants, we see some SHIELD agents removing things from Marc’s home, including his Khonshu statue, which breaks when they drop it by mistake.
- Issue twenty is the first that has Mike Benson writing on his own, joined by Mike Deodato on art. Crawley has been hiding Marc in an underground tunnel since the authorities started looking for him. Marc has slept for days, and is feeling trapped. This leads to a flashback to 1994, when some unnamed guys had Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night, trapped in a cell. We see them draw blood from him. Elsewhere, Moon Knight stopped some guy running down the street, and when he tried to ask him questions, someone shot him. Elsewhere, Detective Flint looked at a dismembered body and had to admit to himself that there was a serial killer on the loose. The coroner more or less confirmed that it looked like the bodies were being killed by tooth and claw, more specifically by a dog the size of a man. Flint went to Gena’s and left a note for Moon Knight to meet him (Ricky was still alive at the time). We see that the guy who was in Russell’s cell was going around hiring unhoused men. Flint and MK talked, and Marc saw the file on the killings. We see that werewolves were fighting in an arena. Jake Lockley (clearly we’re on the Marvel sliding timescale if Jake was active in the mid-90s) drove around in his cab until he learned of the fancy nightclub Lu’Pine. The guy in charge visited Jack and explained that they were able to use enzymes from his blood to temporarily turn other people into werewolves. Steven Grant and Marlene attended a night at Lu’Pine. Marlene flirted with men to learn that the club fought wolves. They slipped somewhere private so Steven could change to Moon Knight, and he told Marlene to call Flint if things went wrong. He found his way into the underground chambers where the werewolves were held, and discovered dead bodies, while Marlene watched the fights. MK found Russell, and attacked the men outside his cage. One tased MK, but he got some help from Russell, who he’d freed. MK ran and locked the chamber that Russell’s cell was in, and then freed the other werewolves, who attacked the men that came for MK. Russell killed the guy in charge. Moon Knight finished off the werewolves, while Marlene came down the stairs. Russell, who is drawn at least twice as tall as Moon Knight, approached him and they fought (Deodato is so good at this stuff). MK got cornered, but Marlene shot Russell in the back with silver bullets, distracting him. Moon Knight got on top of him, stabbed him in the chest with some crescent darts, and this somehow turned him back into Jack Russell. They opened a door and let Russell take off into the night before heading home in the mooncopter. In the present, Marc decides to face what is coming to him, and leaves the tunnels.

- Saltares and Texeira return for issue twenty-one, as ‘The Death of Marc Spector’ kicks off. SHIELD raids the tunnel where Marc was staying, but don’t find him. Agents interview Marlene, Frenchie, and Samuels, but also learn nothing about where Marc has gone. Tony Stark is frustrated that they haven’t been able to find him, but is even more frustrated when he learns that Moon Knight stopped a ‘nanological’ attack using something developed by his own company. An unnamed guy dressed all in black stakes out a place where drugs are being made. He busts in. A convict named Michael O’Brien, who has a moon cut into his forehead, is visited by someone who seems to know a lot about him. This guy wants him to do something for him; we see it’s The Profile. (Wasn’t Michael O’Brien the Guardsman? I’m confused). Stark and Deputy Director Maria Hill take a meeting with Raymond Sikorsky, now of the CSA (I had to Google to learn that’s the Commission on Superhuman Activities; this is bad writing/editing). Sikorsky, who looks nothing like he did in the excellent Busiek/Perez Avengers run, is there to take over the investigation into Moon Knight. Stark and Hill disagree, but Sikorsky pulls out the Superhuman Registration Act as a way of pulling rank. The guy in black beats up the drug manufacturers and pushers, and blows up their building. We are shown that this is Moon Knight, doing his thing anonymously and silently (it’s interesting that Benson makes little to no use of Khonshu). Stark is still upset, as he realizes that Sikorsky is sending a team of ‘psychopaths’ after Moon Knight; he and Hill walk out of the meeting. We see that someone is looking over Moon Knight’s file and preparing his team; it’s Norman Osborn, which explains why Venom and other Initiative-era Thunderbolts are on the cover despite not being in the comic.
- Norman Osborn gives a briefing to the Thunderbolts – Venom (actually the Scorpion), Penance, Songbird, Moonstone, Bullseye, Swordsman (Andreas von Strucker) and the Radioactive Man. They’re tasked with taking Moon Knight down, and seem pretty enthusiastic about it. Crawley goes to see Frenchie, who is trying on very high-tech prosthetic legs that allow him to jump pretty high (there is no mention of how he would have gotten them or why he needs to jump at his restaurant). Jean-Paul has no interest in helping Marc, which is what Crawley was hoping for. Iron Man and a ton of SHIELD agents arrive at the building that Marc blew up; Tony is frustrated that he has no idea where Marc is, but wants to get to him before the Thunderbolts do. Marc makes himself some external Wolverine claws in a workshop somewhere, and goes through a training exercise. Crawley goes to Marlene next, who kicks him in the nuts and then takes him out to dinner; she also has no interest in helping Marc, especially when she learns that Marc didn’t send Crawley to her. Some guys driving a truck get attacked by Marc, who is still in his all-black outfit. He realizes he’s being followed by an aircraft and attempts to run. Moonstone breaks the Thunderbolts into teams and sends them after him. Marc is hiding in an abandoned slaughterhouse, where Swordsman finds him. They fight, and Marc chokes him with his nunchucks. Venom attacks, and in his bloodlust ends up setting off a bunch of propane cylinders. Marc sneaks away while the Thunderbolts regroup. Marc makes it to a facility of his, but he’s badly injured, bleeding from his torso. He collapses in a room filled with Moon Knight suits (including his armored version) and some of his old angelwing aircraft.

- Norman Osborn yells at Moonstone about the fact that it’s been two weeks that the Thunderbolts have been looking for Moon Knight, with no luck. He takes her to meet with a guy named Finn, the leader of the Whyos, the goofy looking gang from a few issues back. He was sent to them by someone that Osborn is keeping secret, and we see that he has a crescent moon carved into his forehead. Marc is in his lab; he injects himself with something and then calls for Khonshu to appear to him. His god is annoyed with him, and when Marc promises to maim and kill for him, he rejects him, and suggests he has others working for him as well. The Whyos enter Jean-Paul’s restaurant and start smacking around the clientele. Rob confronts one of them and gets stomped out. Frenchie comes out of the kitchen and attacks them, stabbing one in the back and biting the ear off another. When the police approach the Whyos who are still standing run away. Rob is taken to the hospital with a ruptured spleen; an officer questions Jean-Paul but he doesn’t reveal his connection to Moon Knight. Marlene takes him to dinner, and when he gets home he contemplates killing himself. Instead, he goes to find Crawley, who takes him to the Whyos’ hangout. Frenchie knocks the door down and comes after them with a baseball bat. He’s shot in the shoulder, but then Moon Knight comes through the window and fights the gangsters. Jean-Paul is mad that Crawley called him, but MK thinks it’s good. He goes after one of the runners, who seems to be waiting for him. MK tosses crescent darts into both his legs, making him collapse. We realize he was leading Moon Knight into this alley, and see that Venom is there waiting above them.
- Venom attacks and they fight, but Moon Knight gets away from him. Moonstone finds Moon Knight walking down the street, and soon the other Thunderbolts (Swordsman, Penance, Radioactive Man, and Songbird, who isn’t shown for a bit) have him surrounded (I guess Venom can’t find his way out of the alley for the rest of the issue). Moonstone attacks first, but Swordsman wants to fight MK on his own. They fight briefly, but Marc knocks Swordsman down, and Moonstone intervenes. Radioactive Man prepares to blast MK, but is hit by an energy weapon from above. A SHIELD helicarrier hovers over them, and some agents descend to the street, ordering the Thunderbolts to stand down. Moonstone argues with the agent in charge about jurisdiction and the fact that the ‘reformed’ criminals were going to kill MK. Radioactive Man blasts at the head agent, who manages to restrain the other agents from opening fire. No one notices MK slipping away. He heads back to the mooncopter and gathers up Frenchie. Back at Marc’s base, he and Jean-Paul talk, and Marc reveals that the Thunderbolts arranged for Rob to get beat up as a way of drawing him out. Jean-Paul is furious, vowing revenge. On the helicarrier, Tony Stark talks to another agent about their efforts to capture Marc, and how Norman Osborn is using this to move against Stark for political gain. Marlene calls Jean-Paul to give an update on Rob’s condition (he’s in a coma and breathing on a ventilator) and to let him know some agents have arrived at the hospital. Marc talks to Ray in a park and he agrees to come back. Jean-Paul talks to Ray while he works on the mooncopter; when Marc arrives he gives Jean-Paul the chance to back out of their plans, but he wants to help. Marc wants the mooncopter painted black to avoid detection, and his assistants notice that he’s not seeing the white paint as a way of honouring Khonshu anymore; in fact, Marc says he’s done with false idols. At Thunderbolts Mountain, Osborn goes to see Bullseye, who is eager to kill Moon Knight.

- Issue twenty-five opens with Bullseye and Moon Knight fighting on a Manhattan street. Bullseye gets MK down on the ground, and is about to finish him off when Ray opens fire on him from the mooncopter. A different mooncopter swoops down to pick up MK (I was confused at first, until I realized that this one is being piloted by Jean-Paul). Bullseye is angry that Marc is getting away, so he kills a motorcycle cop and chases them (it’s all being recorded by a newscopter) to the end of a dock. Marc tells Jean-Paul that he and Ray should ditch the choppers and lay low. He dives out of the copter and into the water; Bullseye follows. The rest of the Thunderbolts are approaching. Bullseye follows Marc into an underwater opening to his base. Bullseye taunts MK as he looks for him, and gets excited when he finds a wall of weapons. MK swings past and hits him in the back with some crescent darts. Bullseye continues to follow and taunt him, as he’s genuinely looking forward to this fight. He’s surprised when he finds a Moon Knight dummy, covered in explosives. With seconds left on the timer, he sees Moon Knight behind him on a platform; Marc says that this is only going to end in death for both of them. Bullseye returns to the underwater entrance and swims away as the base explodes. Later, both Norman Osborn and Tony Stark give press conferences; Osborn claims the legitimacy of his Thunderbolts program while Stark runs it down, and makes it clear that they believe Moon Knight is dead. The Profile is watching while experiencing a session with a dominatrix, and it’s clear he doesn’t believe that Stark is telling the truth. Jean-Paul and Marlene meet and walk together. While they walk (it’s evening in New York) we are shown images from a run-down bar in, presumably, Mexico. Marlene is sad that Marc killed himself, but Jean-Paul explains that this was the only way out for him. As two men with guns approach a ‘gringo’ at the bar, we see that as the countdown in MK’s base continued, Marc jumped into a capsule of some sort and escaped. When one of the men puts his hand on the gringo, he gets his face smashed into the table, and the other is knocked out. Jean-Paul tells Marlene that while Marc Spector is dead, Jake Lockley is not; we see Jake/Marc standing at the bar.
- Issue twenty-six starts a vastly different story arc, with art by Jefte Palo. Jake is in Mexico preparing for a Fight Club style fight. He sees Khonshu as the worm in the tequila he’s drinking, but he ignores him. He wins his fight against a bigger man pretty easily, and afterwards is approached by a man who wants him to work for him. He turns the guy down and is immediately approached by another guy who also has a job for him. He wants Jake to meet his boss, Gilberto Alcantara, who wants his help with something. The man, Carlos, explains that his boss is a wealthy landowner whose daughter was kidnapped by ‘federales’, and is being held in a jail. Jake goes to meet Alcantara, who offers him seven figures to bust his daughter out of the jail. Jake agrees, with stipulations, and Alcantara insists that Carlos goes with him. Soon, they and another man are in a car together, and get stopped at a checkpoint. They get through, but see that the police are standing over a scene where three men were chopped to bits, and an Aztec or Mayan symbol was painted on the ground with their blood. They stake out the jail and make plans; we see that Jake has his Moon Knight gear with him. Jake talks his way into the jail, claiming he’s looking for an American friend. We see that someone is setting up a sniper rifle somewhere. Carlos learns from one of his informants that a bunch of Russians are in town for some reason, and learns the exact location of the girl in the jail. Jake, Carlos, and the other guy talk in a bar, but Jake won’t drink with them. He leaves, and we see that the Punisher is watching him through a rifle scope.

- The Punisher recognizes Jake and dismantles his gun. Jake meets with Carlos and the other guy to go over their plan to get the girl out of the jail, and Jake insists that no one gets killed. He almost gets into a fight with the big guy, but then they all hang out at a strip club until it’s time to make their move. As they put on their bulletproof vests, the big guy notices Jake’s scars. Jake and Carlos move into an alley by the jail while the big guy sets off a bomb in a car parked outside the jail. Carlos and Jake break a hole in the wall while guards rush to the front of the building. Carlos holds the guards at gunpoint while Jake heads into the jail. He takes out one guard and finds the girl’s cell. He confirms that she’s Carmen, and when he says he was sent by her father, she freaks out and scratches him. He has to knock her out and carry her back to Carlos. They get into their getaway car, stashing Carmen in the trunk. They meet up with the big guy, and Jake asks why Carmen is afraid of her father. The big guy holds a gun on him, but Jake starts to fight them. Someone shoots at them, killing Alcantara’s two men. Jake takes off with Carmen, who is still unconscious. We see that Alcantara is upset that things went south, and he tells someone to get her back over the phone. Jake is holed up in a hotel room with Carmen. When she wakes up, he tells her what’s going on. She explains that her father is a terrible criminal and that she was working with a DEA agent to build a case against him. She was being locked up to keep her safe, as her father was going to execute her in front of his Russian contacts to show how tough he is. She mentions that someone is going around cutting up her father’s men. At some gym, a pair of luchadores called the Zapata Brothers are hired to track Jake down and get the girl for Alcantara. Jake goes out to get food and a car; once he’s gone, Carmen goes through his stuff and finds his vestiges. As Jake walks down the street, he passes an alley without realizing that some big monstrous guy has cut up a couple of gunmen, and the same design we saw last issue is painted on the wall with their blood.
- Jake is in the hotel room while Carmen sleeps. Khonshu’s face appears on a spider dangling from the ceiling and gives him grief for drinking. The Zapata Brothers drive to the hotel, carrying on a conversation that makes more use of the word ‘bro’ than the Russian mobsters in Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye. As they talk about Facebook and energy drinks, they use a missile launcher to break down the door, just as Jake kills the Khonshu-spider. Jake starts to fight them, but struggles against them both. Carmen jumps on one of them, pulling the pin off a grenade on his belt. He jumps out the window to save his brother, and then realizes the pin was from a gas grenade, not a smoke grenade. As the other brother looks out the window, Jake and Carmen go out the bathroom window. The Zapatas re-arm and go after them. Jake and Carmen run through the town, and get noticed by three tough guys who also work for Alcantara. They give chase, but get attacked by the big monster-guy. The Zapatas find these guy’s severed body parts and decide that they are not going after the bounty on the monster-guy’s head. Jake and Carmen hide out in an abandoned building. Carmen wants to go back to the Federales for protection, but he insists that it wouldn’t be safe. Alcantara meets with the Russian guys in town and gives a long speech about their joint business venture. He’s brought out of the meeting to meet with the Zapatas, who explain what happened. He tells his men to get rid of them, but the Zapatas beat them all up. They tell Alcantara they’re going to get his daughter and Jake, and then say they’ll get the guy that’s been killing his men. Alcantara agrees to pay them a lot of money if the bring him the Toltec’s head (I guess that’s his name now, because it gets used for the rest of the issue). As the Zapatas leave, they talk about how they’re not really going to go after the Toltec, and instead plan on killing Jake and then killing Alcantara. As they walk, we see that three different people are watching them – Moon Knight (who is in the costume he clearly left behind at the hotel), the Punisher, and this Toltec guy.

- The Punisher arrives at the suite where the Russians are holed up, in a disguise, and kills them all. Moon Knight returns to his hideout to find that Carmen has left. We see her trying to hotwire a car, but she gets caught by two guys who recognize her. They fight, but then the Zapata Brothers show up and kill the two men. They get Carmen to go with them (and she somehow falls asleep in their monster truck). They see a helicopter and pickup truck with a machine gun mounted on it following them, and try to get away. Their truck gets turned on its side, but they manage to bring the helicopter down with their rocket launcher. They right their truck, and find Moon Knight standing next to them. They all go somewhere else to talk. The Zapatas explain that they were disrespected by Alcantara and now want to help Carmen. They agree to look after her while Jake goes after Alcantara alone. Alcantara learns that the Russians are dead and is upset. Rigo Zapata calls to tell him that he has both his daughter and Jake and asks for a lot of money. Alcantara calls in all his men. Moon Knight watches them and talks to Khonshu, who is now appearing to him as a dead rat. The Punisher also watches Alcantara’s men gather. In his home, Alcantara talks to his aide, and they look out to see how many guards there are around the house. We see that the Toltec is just outside the gate, having killed a guard.
- The Zapata Brothers sneak towards Alcantara’s property to see what’s happening, and are surprised to see no one around. Moon Knight jumps the fence and enters the property, passing dismembered dogs and guards. He finds bloody scenes inside too, and one survivor who has lost both his mind and his eyes. MK is surprised to find the Punisher in the house, sitting drinking expensive whiskey. Castle denies having anything to do with the slaughter, says that MK seems different, and then leaves. Khonshu talks to MK, appearing as a rat; he’s excited by all the killing and how the killer must be honouring his god. Some of Alcantara’s men open fire on MK but he takes them out, along with a few other goons that he finds. Eventually, he finds his way to Alcantara, and is about to beat on him when they both realize that The Toltec is in the room, hanging from the ceiling. He drops down, and he and Jake stare each other down. Jake just walks out of the room, leaving the Toltec to kill Alcantara. Outside, he finds the Zapata Brothers and Carmen robbing the place. The next morning, the Zapatas and Carmen say goodbye to Jake, having given him a big bag of cash. Jake sits in a hotel room, and Khonshu, appearing as the worm in his tequila again, tries to convince him to use the cash he got to go start over as Moon Knight in the US again. He turns on the TV and sees Larry King interviewing Norman Osborn about how he came to shut down SHIELD, run HAMMER, and run the Avengers. Both Jake and Khonshu are surprised by how quickly things have changed; Khonshu wants him to go beat up Osborn. Jake flushes his tequila, and Khonshu, down the toilet and says he’s going home, but alone.
Well, this all went downhill pretty quickly…

The first arc in this run, with Huston co-plotting with Benson, wasn’t bad, but once he left and Benson was on his own, the series really started falling apart. Huston had done a good job of rebuilding Moon Knight into a violent character with a lot of demons, and shaky relationships with his former friends and lovers that seemed kind of believable. Once Benson was on his own, these elements started to feel a little forced, and then got jettisoned.
The Black Spectre arc was decent. I liked how there was some contrasting of the two characters and how they went about their work, and how it tied in with the Initiative and Tony Stark’s position as the preeminent hero at that time.
After that, the story arc involving Norman Osborn going after Moon Knight was a bit more of a mess. The story became hard to follow in parts, and some of the elements made no sense at all. On a few occasions, it looked like Benson was setting up The Profile to try to take down Moon Knight, having him meet with some guy named Michael O’Brien in prison (we never saw that guy again), and just generally turning up from time to time to have no impact on the story whatsoever. Was it The Profile that kept talking, unseen, to Cason Knowles, urging him on? And if so, why? And if so, why not reveal it? (I always thought we’d learn it was Khonshu, which would have been interesting). It’s like Benson wanted to use The Profile, because he’s a cool character, but then he didn’t know what to do with him.
After Marc Spector ‘died’ and went to Mexico, to live as Jake Lockley, things really fell apart. That Mexico story is an absolute mess. The Punisher spends issues following Jake around, and then when they finally meet, it’s in the middle of a massacre that he had nothing to do with. Why was he there? He added nothing to the story, and I doubt that in 2009, his presence would have done much to juice the sales of the book. Further to that, what was the point of The Toltec being this big fierce character if his story is not told at all? It’s like Benson had a much bigger story to start here, introducing a supporting cast in the Zapatas and Carmen, but then just abandoning it all when the title got canceled.
What really bothered me about that storyline was that Marc was not acting at all like Jake. Under Benson, Marc’s split personalities just became extra identities, with no more character to them than a fake passport would have. It would have been interesting to see the Jake from Doug Moench’s run try to set up a new life in Mexico, but instead we get an attempt at a ‘mature’ story about Moon Knight helping a woman, while all the real action is caused by other characters who never appear on screen until afterwards.
The exploration of Marc’s relationship with Khonshu, which Huston upended in his run, was deeply unsatisfying in this one. Where Huston was suggesting that Khonshu was just a figment of Marc’s imagination, or another personality like Steven and Jake were, Benson handled it without subtlety, making it more obvious, as Khonshu took the form of creatures in Jake’s environment, that he was a hallucination. It was not satisfying to see this handled this way, as it didn’t lead to any soul-searching or disbelief on Marc’s part.
This whole run felt like comics for comics’ sake, like Marvel wanted a Moon Knight book on the stands, but had no interest in or cares about keeping the book true to character’s roots or saying anything new about him. I can appreciate the desire for line-wide synergy leading to appearances by Tony Stark and Norman Osborn, as well as the Ellis-era Thunderbolts, but it’s strange to have a Moon Knight comic where Tony Stark appears more than Marlene.
I think my biggest complaint about this series has to do most with the art. There was a time in the 90s when many people would have been excited at the idea of Mark Texeira working off Javier Saltares’s layouts, but I don’t think any of those people would have liked what they would have found in this book. Their issues remind me of the black and white Marvel magazines of the 70s, which always appeared to have been only lightly inked. The look doesn’t work in a book from the 00s, and it was often unclear who was who. Marc and Knowles both had facial scars that moved around, and the action sequences felt stiff. The appearance of the book also reminded me of a lot of black and white independent books, with artists just starting out, only in colour.
When Jefte Palo took over for the Mexico arc, I was happier, but then he didn’t really get to draw Moon Knight until the end of the arc. Palo’s art was exciting at that time, and stands up today. His Moon Knight, in the final issue, looks terrific.

It looks like this title was canceled only to be relaunched as Vengeance of the Moon Knight, which I remember as having terrific Jerome Opeña art, and being the actual birthplace of the “Khonshu as bird god” look, which I still hate. That series only ran for ten issues, but we’ve pretty much always had Moon Knight comics since then, of varying quality. Most of the next runs are completely forgettable (and in the case of the Brian Michael Bendis/Alex Maleev run, better completely forgotten) until Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey gave us a short run of perfect done-in-one Moon Knight comics that introduced the world to the Mr. Knight persona.
Having now read all of Moon Knight’s comics from his earliest appearances and first run through to 2009, I feel compelled to talk about him as a microcosm of the different eras he’s existed through, but that seems like a lot right now. I don’t think there’s anything truly profound or special about the character; like any Marvel or DC character that’s been around this long, there are good runs and bad ones.
The character started out as a Marvel take on Batman, and his best-known run was drawn by an artist who started out heavily influenced by Neal Adams’s Batman run. That it became a testing ground for a new art style that would go on to evolve to the height of 80s comics is important. Subsequent Moon Knight runs reflected the times they were made. In the 90s, the books became dumb, generic, and beholden to line-wide crossovers. In the 00s, they became needlessly tied down by inter-title synergy, while also ignoring continuity, and trying to be more mature. Many of these approaches failed, which, if you read comics long enough and in the volume that I have, is not a surprise.
This was an attempt by a TV writer known for comedy to write a serious and gritty street level hero, and it didn’t work. He was not helped much by his artists. There’s a big part of me that doesn’t want to let this go, and wants to continue into the Hurwitz/Opeña run, right through the Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey and Jeff Lemire/Greg Smallwood runs (Lemire really dealt with Marc’s mental health), leading to the current excellent run being written by Jed MacKay. But, if I keep reading these comics into the last decade and a half, it’s not really ‘retro’ anymore. And there are so many other titles that I want to read.
Now that I’ve polished this off, and taken way too long to do it, what with the extended breaks between columns, I need to finish an omnibus that I’ve been close to finishing for a while, and wrap up my columns on that title. Hopefully you’ll hear from me again soon.
If you’d like to see the archives of all of my retro review columns, click here.
If you’d like to read the stories I wrote about, you can buy the omnibus here.