MARVEL PREVIEW #21

“THE MIND THIEVES” | “VIPERS”
Script: Doug Moench | Art: Bill Sienkiewicz & Tom Palmer
Additional Inking: Bill Sienkiewicz & Dan Green | Colors: Steve Oliff*
Editor: Lynn Graeme

The Plot: (part 1) At Steven Grant’s mansion, Marc Spector receives a box containing a corpse. Moments later, the mansion is firebombed by a mystery assailant. Having recognized the corpse as that of an old CIA ally named Amos Lardner, Moon Knight travels to a CIA facility in Montreal where Spector and Lardner had spent some time together. There, Moon Knight tussles with the same bomber, who escapes.

The next day, Spector meets with the facility’s director, who informs him that Project Cobra, the CIA mind control initiative which had led to Spector’s resignation, was shut down and its overseer, Charles LeBlanc, quit as well and returned to Paris. Spector orders Marlene to book a flight to France for Frenchie and himself.

(part 2) In Paris, Moon Knight confronts LeBlanc but their conversation is interrupted by Amos Lardner’s brother, James. Moon Knight stops the younger Lardner from killing LeBlanc and chases him out of the building. With Marlene driving his car, Moon Knight pursues Lardner until both vehicles crash. Moon Knight, Marlene, and Lardner are taken away by LeBlanc’s men.

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.