HULK! MAGAZINE #17, #18, & #20

”NIGHTS BORN TEN YEARS GONE” | “SHADOWS IN THE HEART OF THE CITY”
”A LONG WAY TO DAWN”
Script: Doug Moench | Art: Bill Sienkiewicz
Inks: Klaus Janson (#17-18) | Colors: Olyoptics® | Editor: Rick Marschall

The Plot: (issue 17) A serial killer called the “Hatchet Man” buys a hatchet and mask and murders a nurse, the ninth in a string. Jake Lockley learns that the latest victim had a note pinned to her body, threatening “Lisa and her lover” and realizes who the Hatchet Man is. Later, Steven Grant explains to Marlene that ten years ago Marc Spector found himself hunting an unstable fellow mercenary named Rand who killed a nurse. Spector beat Rand, but caused him some brain damage in the process.

Marlene insists on helping Moon Knight draw out the Hatchet Man and dresses as a nurse. She walks a path proscribed by Moon Knight and sure enough, the Hatchet Man assaults her. But the police arrive and open fire, winging Marlene. Hatchet Man escapes with her and Moon Knight gives chase into Central Park, where his quarry delivers a hatchet to Marlene’s back. As the Hatchet Man escapes, Moon Knight vows vengeance on him, invoking his real name: Randall Spector.

(issue 18) Leaving Marlene with the police, Moon Knight pursues his brother deeper into Central Park. Hatchet Man kills a wino and takes a nurse’s assistant hostage. Moon Knight saves her, but is injured in the process. Hatchet Man then escapes into a rocky ramble. Moon Knight unmasks himself to appeal to his brother, but the Hatchet Man charged madly at him. Unable to properly counter the attack due to his wound, Moon Knight dodges instead. Hatchet Man is impaled on a gnarled tree branch.

Moon Knight travels to the hospital, where he is informed that Marlene is in critical condition and may not survive the night.

HULK! MAGAZINE #15

“AN ECLIPSE, WANING” | ”AN ECLIPSE, WAXING”
Script: Doug Moench | Art: Bill Sienkiewicz & Bob McLeod
Colors: Steve Oliff | Editor: Rick Marschall

The Plot: (story 1) Steven Grant pays a visit to his friend Jason, an amateur astronomer, at Jason’s estate on the night of a total lunar eclipse. But as they prepare to view the eclipse, Grant catches sight of three hoods approaching the house. He excuses himself, changes to Moon Knight, and finds one of the thugs, incapacitating him, but is unable to locate the others. After a fruitless search, Moon Knight is knocked unconscious by a lumbering behemoth during the full eclipse. Eventually he comes around and returns to Jason’s home as Steven Grant.

(story 2) Bruce Banner has traveled to upstate New York to keep the Hulk away from populated areas on the night of the total lunar eclipse. But Banner unknowingly wanders into the grounds of an estate, where he comes across three men preparing to rob it. The men chase Banner into the woods but he transforms into the Hulk and takes two of them out. The third escapes and Hulk goes looking for him but instead, at the height of the full eclipse, he runs into a caped figure and slaps him unconscious, then walks on, pleased to see the moon returning to normal.

Continuity Notes: Grant notes that Marlene was unable to come to Jason’s because “…she's free to live her own life” and goes on to imply that she's on a date. Up to now we always saw Marlene lounging about in Grant’s bedroom, dressed and otherwise, and they were clearly a couple. But based on these thoughts, apparently they have what’s sometimes called an “open relationship”.

HULK! MAGAZINE #13 & #14

”THE BIG BLACKMAIL” | “COUNTDOWN TO DARK”
Script: Doug Moench | Art: Bill Sienkiewicz w/Bob McLeod (#14)
Colors: Steve Oliff | Editor: Rick Marschall

The Plot: (issue 13) In a framing sequence, the mysterious Lupinar is briefed on Moon Knight by his assistant, Smelt. Meanwhile, Steven Grant leaves to deliver $250,000 to the Chilean ambassador’s terrorist friends in exchange for the missing Horus statue. But first Grant changes to Jake Lockley and visits his contacts, Gena and Crawley, for information. Soon after, Moon Knight makes the exchange and then follows the terrorists to see them ambush an armored truck. Moon Knight switches to Marc Spector and aids the villains to ingratiate himself with them.

Elsewhere, the Mayor of New York City receives a ransom demand complete with the threat of nuclear attack. Spector realizes that the terrorists have stolen uranium from the truck. Before he can take any action, however, someone dressed as Moon Knight, working for Lupinar, appears, ready to expose Spector. And back at his headquarters, Lupinar is shown for the first time in full, revealed as a wolfman.

(issue 14) Spector tackles the ersatz Moon Knight and both are gunned down by the terrorists. The imposter is killed, but Spector plays possum and changes into costume. The terrorists split up, so Moon Knight hitches a ride atop one car while Frenchie follows the other. Eventually Moon Knight’s car takes him to Lupinar’s home, where Moon Knight confronts the villain. As the pair duels with fencing sabers, Frenchie calls the federal nuclear response team to recover the stolen plutonium from the terrorists he had followed. With his nuclear threat canceled, Lupinar impales himself upon Moon Knight’s blade.

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.

MOON KNIGHT: THE EARLY YEARS

In 1999, Marvel published a Moon Knight limited series entitled HIGH STRANGENESS (though the covers of all four issues mistakenly billed it as “HIGH STRANGERS”). The story was published weekly and I was in college at the time, branching out a bit in my Marvel reading, so I grabbed issue 1. I know I had heard of Moon Knight, but I really knew next to nothing about him. I liked his costume, though, and the series was drawn by Mark Texeira, an artist I appreciated.

Well, I was hooked immediately on the character as written in that story by his creator, Doug Moench. The funny thing is that now, having not read the mini-series in over a decade, I don’t really even remember the plot. But I fell for the trappings of Moon Knight more than the story: he’s an ex-soldier of fortune turned wealthy playboy with numerous secret identities, he resides in a sprawling mansion with his beautiful live-in girlfriend Marlene and his confidante/pilot, a fellow ex-merc named Frenchie, and he goes out at night in his stealth chopper to fight crime as the Moon’s Knight of Vengeance, to atone for his dark past.

In short, the guy is awesome.