HULK! MAGAZINE #11 & #12

”GRAVEN IMAGE OF DEATH!” | “EMBASSY OF FEAR!”
Script: Doug Moench | Art: Gene Colan & Tony Dezuniga (issue 11);
Keith Pollard, Frank Giacoia & Mike Esposito (issue 12)
Editor: Rick Marschall

The Plot: (issue 11) Moon Knight witnesses a murder, then becomes embroiled in a chase around the city involving a key stolen by the murderer, the hijacked taxi cab of Jake Lockley, and a statue of the Egyptian god, Horus, which has been replaced with a fake. Finally, Moon Knight’s investigation leads him back to the mansion of Joel Luxor, who was murdered earlier in the evening, and where Marlene is now at the mercy of Crane, Luxor’s ex-partner turned killer.

(issue 12) Moon Knight rescues Marlene, who’s been shot in the arm, from Crane. They fail to find the Horus statue, but learn that Chilean ambassador Alphonse Leroux has it. Days later, Steven Grant and Marlene attend a gala at the French embassy, where Grant introduces himself to Leroux and expresses interest in acquiring the statue. Leroux invites Grant to his embassy at midnight, but Moon Knight arrives first, learns Leroux is in league with terrorists, and disables Leroux’s guards. At midnight, Grant shows up and tells Leroux he will pay half a million dollars for Horus, but only on the condition that Moon Knight deliver the money to Leroux’s terrorist allies.

Continuity Notes: Everybody seems to know Moon Knight by name at this point, so perhaps his time with the Defenders did some good for his public image.

Throughout the investigation, Moon Knight is constantly exposed to various Egyptian artifacts, but makes no mention of the fact that he was resurrected by the Egyptian god of vengeance -- because, as a ret-con a few years down the line, that little tidbit hasn’t entered the character’s mythos yet.

Moon Knight also invites Marlene to Luxor’s mansion to investigate his artifact collection, telling her to “pretend [she’s] an archaeologist”. As it happens, in the pages of MOON KNIGHT #1, we’ll learn that she is an archaeologist -- if not formally, by way of accompanying her professor father on digs in Egypt. But that’s another ret-con yet to be implemented.

Moon Knight has decided that his old cape constricted his movement too much, so effective partway through the second story, he begins wearing a long, billowy cape not attached to his wrists (except in one panel as an artistic mistake).

My Thoughts: Sorry for the vague description of issue 11. To summarize it properly would require far too many paragraphs. It’s an overly dense fifteen-page tale of murder, betrayal, and Moon Knight’s investigation of same. In fact, for the first time since his debut, Moench quite clearly casts Moon Knight as Marvel’s answer to Batman. This story could have worked very well as an adventure of the Caped Crusader over at the Distinguished Competition. The moodily gothic artwork of Gene Colan, soon to become the regular artist on BATMAN, certainly helps with the idea.

And perhaps Moench realized this, because the next story in the serial dials back the Batman-esque elements to bring us an adventure much more in keeping with Moon Knight as we’ve seen him previously. And again, the artwork may play some role in this feeling, as the far more traditional Rich Buckler provides pencils which make the story feel less Batman-like and look more like the earlier efforts of Don Perlin.

Over the years, the subsequent chapters of this saga have been reprinted a couple times. In the early eighties there was a Baxter-paper series called MOON KNIGHT SPECIAL EDITION, and more recently Marvel produced a hardcover volume under the title COUNTDOWN TO DARK. Both reprints omit these opening installments, even though they’re clearly part of the ongoing serial, setting up Moon Knight’s interest in stopping the terrorist plot. Presumably they were left out previously due to the fact that all the following chapters are drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz while these two are not. Also, the following parts of the story are beautifully, lushly colored by Steve Oliff, where these earlier portions are done in a more traditional flat style. Nonetheless, I’ve always been a bit miffed that these opening chapters were left out, so it’s nice that Marvel has finally collected them, in color, in the MOON KNIGHT EPIC COLLECTION.

Finally, it’s worth noting that these stories appeared in Marvel’s HULK! magazine as back-up features. Marvel’s magazines were exempt from the oversight of the Comics Code Authority, allowing their writers to get away with more than the standard comics could permit. In the case of Moon Knight, it means we see Crane call Marlene a “slut” three times, and Marlene use the word “damn” (Jim Shooter had forbidden -- or soon would forbid -- all casual swearing in mainstream Marvel comics around this time).

Also, what’s up with the Chilean ambassador being involved with terrorists? Isn’t that usually the province of fictional countries? I’m certain something like this wouldn’t fly nowadays, but I’m amazed it even got published in 1978!