| Title | : | Moon Knight Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Bad Moon Rising |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0785190961 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780785190967 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 504 |
| Publication | : | First published October 14, 2014 |
COLLECTING: WEREWOLF BY NIGHT 32-33; MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 28-29; DEFENDERS 47-50; PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN 22-23; MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE 52; MOON KNIGHT 1-4; MATERIAL FROM HULK MAGAZINE 11-15, 17-18, 20; MATERIAL FROM MARVEL PREVIEW 21 (MOON KNIGHT EPIC COLLECTION VOL. 1)
Moon Knight Epic Collection, Vol. 1: Bad Moon Rising Reviews
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This Epic Collection collects all of Moon Knight's early appearances up through the first 4 issues of his own comic. Some of these like the backup stories from The Hulk! magazine are are absolutely fantastic and hard to find. They aren't even on Marvel Unlimited.
Werewolf by Night #32-33 - Doug Moench & Don Perlin
Moon Knight's first appearnace. Spector is a mercenary here who gets his costume from the Committee. He's hired to capture the Werewolf by Night, Jack Russell. (I still can't believe they named the Marvel character after a dog breed. Funny stuff!) No mention of Khonshu at all. Frenchie does appear as Moon Knight's pilot.
Marvel Spotlight #28-29 - Doug Moench & Don Perlin
Moon Knight gets his various identities along with the rest of his supporting cast of helpers, Marlene, Gena, and Crowley. He fights a cheesy villain called Conquer-Lord who tries to frame the mayor with his own Watergate.
Defenders #47-50 - David Kraft, John David Warner & Keith Giffen
Moon Knight teams up with the Defenders when a friend of theirs is kidnapped by Scorpio. Scorpio is Nick Fury's brother, suffers from depression and constantly offers friends and foes alike Schlitz beer. It's hilarious and strange. Giffen's art is very Kirbian
Spectacular Spider-Man #22-23 - Bill Mantlo, Mike Zeck & Jim Mooney
This was terrific. I'm going to need to check out more of Mantlo's run after reading this. Spidey and Moon Knight team up to fight the Maggia.
Marvel Two-in-One #52 - Steven Grant, Jim Craig & Pablo Marcos
Moon Knight teams up with the Thing when Crossfire captures them and attempts to brainwash the two. Yes, Steven Grant wrote Steven Grant.
The Hulk! Magazine #11-14 - Doug Moench, Gene Colan, Keith Pollard & Bill Sienkiewicz
Bill Sienkiewicz's first work at Marvel. Moon Knight goes on the hunt for a missing Egyption antiquity and finds a plot to blow up NYC with a nuclear bomb. Moon Knight gets his full cape.
The Hulk! Magazine #15 - Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz
First a crossover of sorts with the same story told from two different perspectives as Moon Knight and the Hulk cross paths without realizing it. Great stuff.
The Hulk! Magazine #17-18 - Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz
This was awesome! Moon Knight is on the trail of Hatchetman, a serial killer attacking nurses. This is really dark and gets even darker as Marc realizes who the Hatchetman is. Sienkiewicz's Hatchetman looks like Eddie from the Iron Maiden covers and is the stuff nightmares are made of. Great stuff!
The Hulk! Magazine #20 - Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz
A night on patrol with Moon Knight. These backup stories are the hit of this collection. They are the best!
Marvel Preview #21 - Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz
Marc Spector gets pulled into his old CIA days when an old MK Ultra project rears its head.
Moon Knight #1-4 - Doug Moench & Bill Sienkiewicz
Moon Knight finally gets his own comic. His origin gets retconned into the origin we all know with Bushman killing Marc Spector after Spector tries to stop him from murdering captives and is then resurrected by Khonshu, even though Khonshu is just a statue so it could all be in Moon Knight's head. We also see how Marc met Marlene. The Midnight Man shows up as a foil for Moon Knight. In the last issue, Moench deals wiith MK's origin from Werewolf by Night fixing it to fit in with his new and much better origin.
All in all, this is a great collection if you want to read Moon Knight's early comics, many of which are obscure and hard to find. Some of them add quite a bit to the MK story as well. -
Bad Moon Rising collects all of the Moon Knight early appearances in chronological order, and the first four issues of his solo run. It's a nice collection to check out the process that went into the creation of this superhero, but it feels and looks quite dated for the most part, this early version of Moon Knight is nowhere near as good as the modern interpretation of the character, here he's basically a ripoff of older characters like The Phantom, The Shadow, and Batman, with the stories following all of the same tropes, very hit and miss for me, with two standouts, the epic battle with Werewolf by Night and the origin story featured in the first issue of his solo run, his team-up with Spider-Man and the Defenders were also decent, everything else was sub-par. Only recommended for hardcore Moon Knight fans.
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This collection houses some of Moon Knight’s first appearances leading up to the first of his own issues. Here we learn his origin story, beginning with some kind of werewolf debacle that was later debunked once his individual issues were published. Since I have read some of the more recent comics of MK, it was so nice to be able to relive the story firsthand and be reintroduced to such fun characters, including Frenchie, Gena, Crawley, and Marlene.
While the first appearances of MK take up a large proportion of this volume, it was entertaining to see where the character had started. Between tussles with Spider-Man and the Hulk, or momentarily teaming up with the Defenders, we got a lot of bits and pieces about Marc Spector. Or should I say Steven Grant. Or should I say Jake Lockley. Yeah, one thing that I think our author Monech does a phenomenal job of doing here is showcasing how the character switches between personalities and how he does so to fight crime on the streets of New York City. It was wildly entertaining once you settled into the book.
Reading this just further solidified my admiration for Moon Knight, and I’ll probably getting into reading some more of Monech’s issues because they were just a delight. I’d like to delve more into MK’s daily antics before delving a bit too heavily into the grittier storylines with Khonshu. -
Werewolf by Night (Moench). What a weird origin for Moon Knight. He's handed his suit and silver weapons to capture a werewolf! Still, this is a good story, given its context in the '70s. It's got a surprising amount of character work and arc, and Jack Russell's second life as an uncontrollable werewolf is at the heart of the story [7/10].
Marvel Premiere (Moench). Moon Knight's first solo outing is shockingly bad, even though it's also by author Doug Moench. Sure, we learn about MK's multiple identities, which would later form the crux of the character, and the political-oriented plot is kind of nice. But the villain is so ridiculously over-the-top that he's awful. Seriously: he has a pit trap full of alligators! And there's just too much running around and fighting to make this interesting. I dunno if Moench was going for a Dick Tracy vibe or what, but the result isn't great [4/10].
The Defenders (Kraft, Warner). I've always been fond of the un-team and the third-stringers that filled it. Gerber's stories were among the best, but Kraft and Warner aren't bad here (though Kraft is wordier than I'd like). This is a fun tale with a great villain in Scorpio — who is interesting for both his relation to the rest of the Zodiac and to Nick Fury. On the downside, this isn't actually a very good spotlight for Moon Knight. He could be just about any caped crusader for all the personal attention he gets in this story [6/10].
Spider-Man (Mantlo). An interesting crossover with Spider-Man, except Moon Knight really plays second fiddle to Spider-Man's continuing subplots. The coolest thing is that Moon Knight is described as being on a hunt for vengeance against the Maggia ... but as an occasional guest character, he doesn't get to do anything useful with the plot; it's really something that's running through the Spider-Man comics at the time, so it's sort of bizarre to act as if Moon Knight is their big arch-nemesis. Ah well [5+/10].
Marvel Two-In-One (Grant). An OK story that has some fun with MK's alternate identities, but which doesn't have much depth to it [5/10].
Hulk 11-14: Graven Image of Death (Moench). Finally (3 years after his intro), Moon Knight gets his own title, as the backup in the Hulk magazine, and it's pretty good. We get a detective/adventure story, we get good use of all of Moon Knight's identities, and we get the first hints that there might be a little crazy there. Oh, and once the regular art team settles in with issue #13, we get great art: one part good drawing by Sienkiwicz and one part superb coloring by Oliff [7/10].
Hulk 15: Eclipse (Moench). An amusing crossover with the Hulk, but there's no depth here [6/10].
Hulk 17-18, 20: Nights Born Ten Years Gone (Moench). This is terrific noir with a deep insight into the psyche of a criminal and a brutal, personal story that impacts the lives of both Moon Knight and Marlene. Well done, with beautiful art [8/10].
Marvel Preview (Moench)>. Another nice piece of noir & spy craft with more great art by Sienkiwicz. Moench really excels in the double-length story, and one of its greatest joys is Marlene emerging as a terrific fighter all her own [7/10].
Moon Knight (Moench). And at last, we move in to the actual Moon Knight title. It's good to see the Knight in his finalized form, with a new origin (and an explanation for the old one) and more emphasis than ever on his multiple identities. This stories are just a little mundane. I'd like a little more continuity now that Moon Knight has its own title, but they're still well-written and interesting [6+/10].
Overall, Moon Knight Epic Collection 1 is certainly uneven, but it's a great insight into where the character came from, something that you couldn't possibly have read before the release of this Epic volume, showing off the possibilities of the new line. -
Reading the Omnibus figured I'd review a good portion of it that's collected it epic eollection volume 1.
So the first half is mostly one shots of Moon Knight's first appearances. Coming in almost as a villain but redeeming himself by the end when hunting the werewolf guy. Then he dips into the Defenders a bit and that's okay. He even teams up with Spidy, because Spidy sells, so hooray all around!
But then we get into solo Moon Knight and MAN is it good and surprisingly dark. So Moon Knight does a few missions, being that he switches between his different secret identities (This is before he gets the whole split personality thing) and by the end of the storyline we get one about Marc's brother and his revenge on him. He's basically a serial killer going around murdering people with a hatchet till he finds his brother.
It's thrilling and brutal, way more than I expected, and by the end I was worried about multiple characters. Then we actually have Marc deal with the fallout, which is also great and worked maturely.
Then we finally get to the first 4 issues of the main Moon Knight run. First issue being his origin, which I already knew pretty well. But then we get one shots, but they're all dark and some right down sad. We also set up Marc's team of help, a diner waitress, a bum, and two teenagers plus his helicopter pilot, his sexy girlfriend Marlene, and his butler. This is a crazy ass team yet works well in context.
So to say I really enjoyed this by the end would be underselling it. I liked the second half so much I bought volume 2 of the Omnibus the next day. Can't wait to read more. This is a very solid 4 out of 5. -
While alot of people consider moon Knight just to be "Marvel's Batman", I find the character to be of a different bend. Both approach the idea of vengeance on crime from a different viewpoint. The beautiful Bill Sienkiewicz art and the great Doug Moench writing make these some of my favorite comics to read. Very recommended
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Thanks to the MCU and Disney Plus, along with Oscar Isaac's fine acting, this minor figure from the Marvel pantheon of superheroes is taking center spotlight right now, and for the True Believer who wants to acquaint himself (or herself) with Moon Knight's original appearances in the Marvel-verse, this nearly 500-page collection showcases his early years from 1975 through 1980.
It takes a while for Marvel to puzzle out what to do with Moon Knight, his origin, his powers, what he's all about, or even who he really is, let alone what genre he fits into, but that's one of the great things about this early collection because the interested reader can trace the way Doug Moench, Ralph Macchio, Jim Shooter, and especially budding new talent Bill Sienkiewicz develop MK's character over these first five years, slowly working him into something the casual viewer of the Disney series might recognize today.
Back when I was a kid in the '70s, Friday night sleepovers were all about secret agents and horror shows, and at just about any sleepover, you'd find us watching a James Bond flick on Friday Night at the Movies followed by a classic monster movie on Creature Feature at 10:30 and a second one at midnight. That hero/horror intersection is exactly where Moon Knight begins on the pages of Marvel Comics, and for a while it seems like Marvel isn't sure on which side of this pop cultural junction they want their new superhero to squarely land. After all he gets his start, of all places, in the pages of Werewolf by Night #32, one of those Marvel horror comics that were so popular in the '70s, along with Tomb of Dracula, Man-Thing, The Living Mummy, and a lot more. (And did you happen to catch the bus's call number "WBN 0032" in the second episode of the Disney series?) Early on in the comics, Moonie even fights a second werewolfish figure named Lupinor, and there are a couple of murderous psychopaths as well. Moon Knight's midnight powers are even rumored to have come from being bitten by our werewolf friend Jack Russell, something Marvel fortunately never commits to, and references to zombies and ghosts abound.
But at the same time Marvel balances out the horror-lite fare here with Marc Spector's backstory as a former Marine and mercenary, someone who has a lot more in common with the Punisher than with Blade. In the past, Spector seems to have been working for the highest bidder throughout the Cold War, overthrowing third-world governments, fighting terrorists, and doing the dirty work for the CIA and other shadowy organizations, piling up a shit ton of money doing a lot of bad things that he's now funneled into his cover identity as millionaire playboy Steven Grant who wears a tux to swanky soirees mixing with the jet set crowd at his Gatsby-esque Long Island mansion. (Here in the original material, Steven Grant is definitely not the vegan milquetoast museum gift shoppist of the Disney series.) This James Bond/Bruce Wayne aspect of the Moon Knight early storyline shares way too much common ground with Brand X's Batman, something no doubt the MCU/Disney wished to distance themselves from, so they replaced him with their nerdish eccentric Egypto-phile Steven Grant who lives with his books and his goldfish in his London garret. Our original crescent crusader, like Batman, divides his time between his mansion in the countryside and the mean streets of New York City fighting thugs and garden-variety criminals. He has a stuffy butler, a secret entrance into his mansion, and his own bat-arangs in the form of the crescent knives he is constantly tossing about and leaving behind as his calling cards. Beyond the cape and the cowl, Disney has left behind most of these overt Batman parallels, thankfully including Moonie’s batcopter, which shows up in just about every one of his early appearances from the pages of Werewolf by Night to Marvel Spotlight, The Defenders, Marvel Two-in-One, and the Spectacular Spider-man before he finally becomes a regular in the back pages of the lesser-known The Hulk! color magazine, and then starring in his own title beginning in 1980.
So I guess what I’m saying here is that over these first five years, there's little of the Moon Knight modern readers are familiar with...there's no mention of Khonshu at all in the beginning, and little pertaining to Egyptian mythology beyond the aptly named Mr. Luxor who has stolen a statuette of Horus in the Hulk magazine, although none of that is linked to Moon Knight's origin. A few years later that all changes when Moon Knight gets his own title, and suddenly in issue one we find the mercenary Marc Spector wreaking havoc in the deserts of Sudan where the more-familiar story of Moon Knight and his connection to the gods of early Egypt slowly begins to take shape.
So you might say that Moon Knight's origins are as scattered as poor Steven Grant's brain in the Disney show, but that's another aspect of the Moon Knight superhero story that takes a long time to come together as well. Marc Spector, Moon Knight, Steven Grant, and the cab driver Jake Lockley (a figure who has yet to appear in the television show), along with other multiple identities alluded to, all seem to start off as merely simple aliases for our silver and jet caped superhero, not manifestations of a mentally ill individual. Although Marlene (his ass-kicking sexpot secretary whom I'm afraid has been watered down into a shadow of her spunky self in the Disney Plus figure of Layla) frequently calls him "schizo" for the way he shifts from identity to identity, and there is a toss-off reference to Sybil at one point, in these early pages our hero doesn't outwardly struggle with dissociative identity disorder or other serious mental illness the way his figure is portrayed in the show, as well as in more recent comic-book incarnations. Nonetheless, with his multiple identities, the shifts in his speech patterns while in character, as well as the curious way Frenchie calls him Marc, Marlene calls him Steven, and his bowery pals call him Jake, the early writers of Moon Knight have laid down a foundation for a deeper dive later into the psychological ramifications of what is going on in the mind of a hero whose personality seems quite fractured. -
I'd been aware of Moon Knight since at least the 1990s, but never really had much interest in him, so for all my time reading Marvel comics, I've had a huge blind spot with regards to this character. I was aware that he has some connection to the Egyptian moon god Khonshu and that he has multiple personalities, but that is precisely where my knowledge ended. So with the Disney Plus series premiering this year, I decided it was time to finally check out this character. Where better to start than the very beginning?
His first appearance is as an antagonist in the 1970s title Werewolf By Night, staring the hilariously named lycanthrope Jack Russell. An organization of evil businessmen known only as "the Committee" hires mercenary Marc Spector to kidnap a werewolf, because they feel that a feral and uncontrollable rage beast will somehow make a good assassin to use against their business rivals. They give Spector the silver suit and cape and also assign him the name Moon Knight, instructing him that he shall refer to himself as such when he's out on his werewolf capturing job. They also loan him a helicopter (which in its early appearances looks like it was designed by an eight-year-old) piloted by a Frenchman Spector only refers to as "Frenchie". During the ensuing fight with Jack Russell, Moon Knight is bitten, which somehow gives him the lunar-phase dependent super strength, speed, and agility of a werewolf without the lycanthropy. After capturing the werewolf, he has a change or heart and teams up with him against the Committee, and after the battle Frenchie defects and decides to join Moon Knight.
Moon Knight next appeared in a two-issue arc of Marvel Spotlight, in which a new villain trying to make a name for himself, Conquer-Lord (I didn't say it was a good name), takes an interest in Moon Knight after he interferes in a plot to plant incriminating materials in the office of a political rival (it was the mid-70s, after all). Moon Knight then thwarts Conquer-Lord's attempt to assassinate the mayor of New York City, but as the villain escapes he kidnaps Moon Knight's girlfriend Marlene. To get her back, Moon Knight must face Conquer-Lord in a lifesize game of human chess, and yes, everything is as ridiculous as it sounds, and it is so much fun. This particular story introduces the idea of Moon Knight having multiple identities that he uses to achieve various ends: Steven Grant is the millionaire playboy who can rub elbows with high society, while cab driver Jake Lockley hits the streets and has his ear to the ground of the criminal underworld. At this point, Spector displays no mental illness regarding his multiple identities--they are wholly intentional in the same way Batman sometimes adopts the Matches Malone identity, or Wolverine calls himself Patch.
We then get a fun four-issue arc of The Defenders, wherein Moon Knight helps the team face off against Scorpio, a 52-year-old incel with a bad spray tan and a penchant for sharing Schlitz beer with his friends and enemies. Scorpio's sinister plan is to bring to life a group of 11 artificial beings (one of them being a girl!--Scorpio will finally be able to know love!) who will join him in forming The Zodiac, a bizarre team of rejects who introduce themselves one at a time as Hulk patiently waits to murder them. There are so many hilariously silly things about this story arc I don't even know where to begin. It was laugh out loud funny and I absolutely loved it, but my absolute favorite part was how Scorpio makes a point to repeatedly mention that at age 52 he's basically at the end of his usefulness--if he doesn't succeed in his machinations, he basically won't have any other chance to make something of himself, because at the elderly age of 52, his life is already pretty much over.
From here we get a fun but ultimately forgettable two-issue team up with Spider-Man against the Maggia (Marvel's version of the mafia for so many years so as to not offend the real mafia! Another interesting historical artifact: the term zuvembie makes an appearance in the Werewolf by Night issues--the Comics Code Authority wouldn't allow the term "zombie", so "zuvembie" became the rather transparent replacement). Then there's a standalone issue where he partners up with The Thing to fight a villain named Crossfire. The best thing about this issue is that it was written by Steven Grant. Grant Morrison wishes he had ever been so meta.
Then we delve into a storyline that appeared as a backup feature in Hulk Magazine, the first of which involves a rather convoluted plot around stealing a statue of the Egyptian god Horus (the first appearance of an Egyptian god--though still no Khonshu!). The mastermind behind this scheme is revealed to be another wolfman villain named Lupinar (what's with Moon Knight and all of these wolfmen?). This story takes on a more serious tone than the previous arcs, but it still retains a bit of 1970s corniness. The most noteworthy element of this story is that it introduces Bill Sienkiewicz on the art, and he brings a gravitas to the art that really pairs well with the more serious tone of the story. His early style really reminds me of a lot of European comic book artists, and it is so enjoyable to look at compared to the competent but somewhat bland art of the previous stories.
From there we move into a cute story that has Moon Knight run across the Hulk without either knowing who the other is, and then a pair of story arcs involving important figures from Marc Spector's past that I felt would have been better saved for his solo title, given their important ties to his background. I understand that this content was later reprinted in issues branded as "Moon Knight Specials", so hopefully most Moon Knight readers at the time had a chance to experience them.
The first four issues of his first solo title finish up this volume, and they definitely kick off his series on the right foot. The first issue gives us a new retconned origin story, revealing Marc Spector's not-so-proud past as a mercenary working for a terrible man named Bushman. This issue shows us how he and his longtime girlfriend Marlene met, as well as finally giving us our first mention of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu (though so far he only ties in very briefly and not in a terribly significant way). From there Moon Knight's episodic adventures have him chasing down a serial killer who only goes after bums, going up against an art thief who wants to prove he's smarter than Moon Knight, and once again facing off against the mysterious "Committee" from the Werewolf by Night issues. What's nice about this is that it reconciles his new retconned origin story with the events of his first appearance in a way that satisfies and make a surprising amount of sense.
This book really is quite enjoyable, from the off-the-wall silliness of his early appearances to the more serious stories that begin right around the time that Bill Sienkiewicz comes on board. As with most comic books going back decades, there's definitely some cringy stuff here that hasn't aged well (i.e. Moon Knight repeatedly calling a villain "fatso" while punching him in the face, characters referring to Moonie as "schizo" because of his frequent identity changes--though there is NO hint of actual mental illness to be found thus far--or the way he slaps his hired cook on the ass when he's pleased with the breakfast she's prepared). You'll start to get sick of how often he talks about his truncheon, how often he goes out of his way to explain his cowl microphone as if two-way radios were something human imaginations were not ready to comprehend, and how he constantly has to remind us readers that his crescent darts also serve as his calling card when left behind at a scene. I can see why this character has his fans and I'm certainly eager to see how he evolves more into the more developed character depicted in the Disney Plus series. I'm very glad I read this!
3.5 STARS -
A collection of Moon Knight’s first appearances and the first several issues of his solo comic. A fascinating development of one of Marvel’s most interesting characters, from a backup villain in Werewolf by Night to a full fledged superhero and member of the Defenders the stories are never dull and always full of thrills.
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Moon Knight is the best. Always has been and always will be. Even when the writers didn't really know what to do with him. "Just throw him in Defenders, see what happens!" (What I'm assuming happened).
He was first introduced in Werewolf By Night. Where Marc Spector was hired by this committee to take down Jack Russell. That's when he dawn's the persona of Moon Knight. This was the original origin of the character but when he got his own series it is changed in favor of the Khonshu origin we know today.
After the Werewolf By Night Issue's he gets his own Spotlight. Which I thought was a lot of fun.
When the Spotlight was successful he was thrown into a couple of team-ups. First was the Defenders, which I did not like at all. Moon Knight was barely there, and the author was using info from issues that were not collected here.
My favorite out of the bunch was the Spider-Man team up. I need to read more of the author's run on Spider-Man because this issue was fantastic!
After all of the team-ups we get the Hulk magazines. Believe or not these have magazines have very little to do with the Hulk. These are very similar to the series he got later in 1980. In other words there great.
Once Moon Knight got his own series we get the origin we al know today. We also get to learn more about Crawley, Marlene and the rest of the crew.
If you liked the show and looking for something similar, this is not the place (I recommend checking out
Lunatic instead). One reason is Marc does not have DID. Instead he changes between Steven and Lockley to better suit his needs at the time.
I would recommend this if your a fan of Moon Knight and wondering how the early version of the character looked. It's not needed, but is a lot of fun seeing the original version of the character. -
So I finally got around to reading some Epics this week, instead of just hoarding them, and some reason the one I grabbed was Moon Knight Vol 1. Even though I am a child of the 80's, Moon Knight was never a book I picked up. I might have had a odd issue of two in my floppies back in the day, but I doubt I read them. In way this felt almost like two books. We had the pre-Sienkiewicz and post-Sienkiewicz Moon Knight.
Lets talk the pre-Sienkiewicz Moon Knight first. Might as well, since they came first. We have Moon Knight's first appearance from Werewolf By Night, his Marvel Spotlight run, and guest appearances with Defenders, Spider-man, And Thing. He starts out as a protagonist with silver weapons for Werewolf, in Marvel Spotlight they had in the "extra identity" idea for Moon Knight. The Defenders stories have some great art from Keith Giffen (at least when he is not inked by Klaus Jenson in one of the oddest Penciler/Inker combos I can remember seeing.) Then more generic super-heroes with Spider-man and the Thing. These stories were pretty generic and Moon Knight, while a cool visual, isn't much of a character.
Then Moon Knight gets the back-up strip in Rampaging Hulk, and Bill Sienkiewicz joins with Doug Moench and we start to see a character form. We meet the extended cast, we get hints of the fact the Moon Knight just isn't a hero with three different secret identities, but maybe a man with four different personalities. We start to see those personalities interact with others, we get to start to know Frenchie, Marline, and the rest of the supporting cast, and we get some glips into Marc Spector's past, as most of the protagonist have some connection to his past. In some ways the Hulk back-up stories reminded me of Eisner Spirit stories, in the the stories were more about the villian or supporting members, rather then Moon Knight. When we get to Moon Knights solo book, Moench and Sienkiewicz get more space to play, and we really start to see that Moon Knight is a multiple personality. We get a new origin for Moon Knight, an explanation of why we have the Werewolf by night origin, and lots of great art from Sienkiewicz.
Let's talk about Bill Sienkiewicz's art for moment. He is a powerhouse right out of the gate. His art is very powerful and dynamic, and very different then the style we would come to know from him in a couple of years time. They are hints here and there of what is to come from him. It's fascinating to see those crumbs of the artist he is to come. But its not like he was bad before. He is great on these issues. But so different from where he is going.
Well, that's enough rambling from me. Thanks for coming to my Marc Spector Talk. -
Collects the sporadic Moon Knight appearances from the seventies and early eighties. Great artwork buried under mountains of horrible dialog with the rare gem here and there. Also, there are more villains accidentally killing themselves than you can shake a stick at. I guess they wanted Moon Knight to be bloody but morally innocent at the end of each story. Unless you really like older comics, most of these stories are more curiosities than great entertainment.
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I'm in comic groups where there is a lot of discussion about how bad 90s comics are and the introduction of gimmicky characters like Venom and Carnage introduced at this time. Well, I read this opening Moon Knight collection and literally everything about his early appearances is no different.
If we're to hold up earlier comics as being better than 90s, well these Werewolf by Night issues wouldn't be a great example. From what I can make out Jack Russell (not sure if this name is genius or just plain terrible), just does a Hulk type thing of living a tortured existence - he has an animalistic side of him comes out when it's a full moon. I guess you're meant to feel empathy for Jack being in this terrible state of being unable to control when he transforms but they're run of the mill, average comics - character fights internal battle while dealing with a villain of the month. And in this case, it's Moon Knight. So why do I compare Moony to Venom? Because he has a cool, sleek visual look but there's nothing else noteworthy about this character. The following issues across: Marvel Spotlight; Defenders; Spider-man, and; Marvel Two-in-One, issues follow this trajectory - creators try to find an angle on the character, without really finding one. Probably the main one is the introduction of Marc's multiple roles and personalities, which is introduced by Moench in Spotlight - but it is almost play-acting by Marc, rather than an attempt to look at any complicated mental health multiple personality disorder.
Also someone needs to call out these Defenders issues on writer David Kraft's really weird obsession with beer.
1. Scorpio tells Fury to pick up some beer.
2. Fury runs late to kidnap David, Valkyrie's husband, because of the beer stop.
3. When David is captured, Scorpio offers him a beer. Scorpio tells David to sip his beer when revealing his grand plan.
4. When Moon Knight is captured, Scorpio throws him a beer.
5. David later says he could really do with one of Scorpio's beers
6. When Hulk goes nuts, and destroys a fridge, a couple of beers fall out
7. Fury gives Scorpio a beer later
8. The arc ends with a punchline involving beer to resolve an earlier plot point.
Maybe it's just me but I could never get past the constant references. I'm not a teetollar by any means either, I do the hipster thing of supporting a couple of the local breweries near where I live. In any case, the story has nice art from Giffen.
After this we get the main selling point of this collection, Moench trying to properly establish the character. Colan does a great opening issue here and shortly after that, we're introduced to Sienkiewicz. So the art is especially great for these stories.
But I'm still not convinced on the stories themselves. The Hulk Magazine plot seems overly complicated, even if it is attempting a more mature storyline. Khonshu is introduced in Moon Knight #1 but again it's surface level and in passing. Marc also reveals his secret identity and establishes a support crew in a really weird turn of events. This involves his friendly neighbourhood diner and her 2 school age kids. I find it weird a mother is ok to put her children in any sort of danger. So as much as the Hulk Magazine attempted a mature take with the character and with these early stories also being set in a gritty 70s New York, it makes turns into being cartoonish that I also can't really get past either. And in terms of being cartoonish (and also borderline racist), Marc's pilot is Frenchie and pretty much says "Oui Marc" half the time. It's a product of it's time but these stories are what they are - some really great art and a bit all over the shop for its stories. -
The origins of the macabre Moon Knight, collecting his first appearances starting with Werewolf By Night #32 from 1975 and ending with the first four issues of his first solo series from 1980-81. Marc Spector - former Marine, CIA operative, and mercenary - is left for dead by a fellow merc but comes back to life in the presence of a statue of the Egyptian moon god, Khonshu. From then on, he is the moon's knight of vengeance, taking on the additional identities of millionaire Steven Grant and cab driver Jake Lockley to further his crime-fighting goals. Supported by his girlfriend Marlene Alraune, his pilot Frenchie, butler Samuels, and other contacts on the streets of New York, Spector takes on a werewolf, teams up with the Defenders and Spider-Man, and descends into the shadows of the city as he begins to lose his sense of self amongst the four identities he carries.
An extremely uneven collection that is still interesting, showing the introduction of what was likely a one-off character and his development into a full-fledged superhero over the course of six years and many guest appearances. His slow development was interesting but had some elements that haven't aged well (like Spector's treatment of Marlene and his vaguely offensive nickname for Jean-Paul DuChamp) and have since been removed. Until his solo series, Moon Knight was mostly a generic caped superhero; calling him a Batman ripoff implies MK had a similar mythology and supporting cast as Batman, which was only superficially true even after the solo series began. MK gradually went from guest shots against bombastic supervillains to handling fairly low-level street crime in a trend that resembles Daredevil's, though MK's stories seem almost experimental and have nowhere near the impact of the later DD stories. Even with a full-fledged origin story in MK #1, he still lacked a real mythology and he seems to only be getting one in recent years. The Khonshu aspect has been fleshed out in other much more recent volumes I've read, but the crazed and intense Khonshu and implied multiple personalities of those later volumes seemed to only undermine Spector as a hero.
Warren Ellis's top-notch volume began giving MK the aura of street-level mystery that he always deserved, taking MK's history and molding the character into something unique. -
Recently, I read volume 1 of Jeff Lemire’s Moon Knight run and enjoyed it enough I will seek out volume 2; however, Moon Knight is a Marvel character that I know peripherally. I decided to change that by beginning at the beginning.
This is not a book every comic book fan will enjoy. It is in the school of late 70’s, early 80’s gonzo Marvel comics. I found it interesting seeing MK enter the scene as an opponent for the werewolf of Werewolf by Night. Marvel then spotlighted him in Marvel premier and gave him guest star roles in The Defenders — I enjoyed visiting the team of Hulk, Hellcat, Valkyrie and Nighthawk, he was teamed up with good ole Web-Pits in Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man, and joined forces with the Thing for two issues of Marvel Two in One.
The book started to shine when Bill Sienkiewicz took over the art duties. When Sienkiewicz was pencilling, Moon Knight was a back-up feature in The Hulk Magazine. The stories started taking more shape of Moon Knight being Marvel’s Batman. The multiple personalities also started to become more entrenched with the character as well. I enjoyed these back up stories the most.
The volume ends with the first four issues of Moon Knight’s ongoing series. The stories were not as strong as the backup features in Hulk, but issue one retcons Moon Knight’s origin and issue four rectified the new origin with that given MK in Werewolf by Night.
I’m not sure if I will read more of these, but the nostalgia factor of 70’s/80’s comics was high and it was interesting seeing early Bill Sienkiewicz art prior to his takeoff with The New Mutants where he really developed his unique style. -
The good...Moon Knight 1-4 and Werewolf by Night. Nice story telling and a return of the group that started Moon Knight's career.
The bad....the Defenders stories. This may have been good in the 70's, but it is very dated. The dialogue was must plain ugly and painful.
The Awesome....the stories from the Hulk magazine. Great gritty stories and amazing art.
Reading this collections reminded me why I loved Moon Knight back in the day. I still enjoy reading his comic, but I wish they could return to the grittiness shown here. -
OK, so I read this in anticipation of the new Moon Knight Disney+ show coming out at the end of the month. I am completely underwhelmed!
There may be some interesting raw material here for a great original super hero story, but it gets buried under bad writing, two-dimensional characters, and not just a little bit of sexist and racist stereotypes. The comics don’t age well.
With that said there are a couple of things that draw me to Moon Knight. First of all his visuals are striking. I can safely say his costume is one of my favorite super hero costumes of all time. Second, the idea of a super hero with multiple personalities is a fascinating set up that could explore a great deal of depth in the human condition.
Unfortunately, this collection of his earliest stories fail to deliver beyond a few striking images. The stories are all villain of the month variety with a bit of terrorism up front concluded with the death or capture of the bad guy. The villains here are bottom of the barrel B-grade baddies. Names like “the Committee” and “Conquer-Lord” are such horrendous excuses for antagonists, it makes you almost wish there was a Dr. Doom or Sinister Six hiding in the wings.
Beyond the below average villains, these books are filled with this macho swagger that never lets the Marc Spector/Jake Lockley/ Steven Grant/ Moon Knight character feel any real anguish over the fact that he has multiple personalities. What would make this interesting is if he actually was tormented by these identities and not just using them for his own vigilante needs.
Then there is the whole problem with Marlene, Moon Knight’s girlfriend. She is portrayed somewhat sympathetically as a capable fighter some of the time. But she spends most of these comics as Steve Grant’s eye candy girlfriend whom is inevitably threatened by one bad guy or another providing a personal reason for Moon Knight to go after him, and it is always a him. The portrayal of Marlene as a sex object more often than not, just diminishes everything here.
I could go on, but why bother. I wish this was better. -
Early days. Basically. The origins of Moon Knight, both in publication and in a bit more detail.
Doug Moench and
Don Perlin may have created the character, but it was under the stewardship of Moench and
Bill Sienkiewicz that Moon Knight truly came alive. This collection offers all those early tales from Werewolf by Night #32-33 & Marvel Spotlight #28-29 that introduced & laid the groundwork for Moon Knight. But it was really the appearances as a guest-star in Defenders #47-50, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #22-23 & Marvel Two-in-One #52 that brought him to the attention of a wider audience. Still of the intriguing and more mature plots in the pages of Hulk! #11-15, 17-18, 20 & Marvel Preview #21 that brought the character and creators the accolades and recognition to land him his own solo series. Moon Knight (1980) #1-4 are also included, and actually cap off the origin arc very nicely. But the inconsistency of the growing pains of the character and the discrepancy of artist depictions really hold this back from truly nailing a 5-star review. This is great stuff and lots of fun, with a good balance of humor and drama, it as good as it is, it really only illustrates how even better volume 2 is. Since his first appearance as an opponent for Jack Russell, the werewolf by night, I’ve been intrigued by the character and my appreciation only grew over these other appearances. The writers and artists who contributed to this volume all did amazing work, but Moench and Sienkiewicz really do nail it to the wall in the next volume. This one just whets the appetite. -
Moon Knight: Bad Moon Rising is the first volume in Marc Spector’s Epic Collection, containing his initial appearances across a number of Marvel titles before landing his own series. The art is, for the most part, quite good - especially when we reach early work by acclaimed pencilled Bill Sienkiewicz - while the writing is.. less so. I enjoyed the volume, particularly once MK took centre stage, but Marv Wolfman hadn’t quite figured out the character yet. I wouldn’t recommend this as an entry into the Moon Knight mythos, particularly if you’ve been enjoying the Disney+ series, but as a drink of 70s comic
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This collection was alright -- maybe a Moon Knight fan would find these early appearances a more interesting artifact than I did. I did enjoy the Werewolf by Night series that introduced the character for the very first time, and the first four issues of the titular series are decent, although I think they're still trying to find a rhythm. But the appearances in Defenders, Spider-Man, etc are the most forgettable kind of comics for me, without much inspiration. I'm curious to see how the title series progresses in volume 2 without all that junky padding.
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Probably more like one and a half stars. This was a challenge to get through. Even though it got better as it went along, it never really got that good. I wanted to have an understanding of the origin of the character before tackling the runs I'm really interested in - Lemire, Huston and to a lesser extent Bendis. But even the background of Moon Knight changed a few times over the course of this one collection and the general story structures were very repetitive. I have the next two epic collections in this series but I'm undecided whether or not I'll continue with these or jump ahead.
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Esta recopilación de las primeras apariciones del personaje resulta interesante porque se nota cómo Marvel y sus creadores fueron encontrando el punto exacto del canon que llegó a ser Moon Knight dentro de los cómics. Lo que comienza como un casi Batman 66' termina siendo un héroe-vigilante clásico (aunque aún un tanto genérico). Es muy bueno también ver al desarrollo del talento de Bill Sienkiewicz antes de convertirse en el artista estrella que es hoy.
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Moon Knight started out as a pretty run-of-the-mill character, as these early stories demonstrate. The quality starts to improve about half-way through, with a series of tales from Marvel's magazine line, unfettered by the Comics Code and thus able to be a little more sophisticated. This collection doesn't really get going until the final four chapters, where we see Bill Sienkiewicz starting to evolve the drawing style he will become famous for.
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This is a reread. 4.25.
Rereading these is fun so far. My favorite issue in vol.1 has to be moon knight #2 “The skid row slasher.” It features the backstory of my favorite character and has a tragic ending, which is basically my jam. On to vol.2! -
An eclectic but surprisingly good collection of comics including guest appearances, back up features, mini-series, all from the 1970s and 1980s featuring Moon Knight who has three separate secret identities.
Overall, these are some very solid crime comics that show why Moon Knight had more of a life than most new characters introduced in the 1970s. The character and his methods are fascinating in a ways that are both similar to other superheroes but also offer a unique twist. The art is good, in some cases, it's quite gorgeous.
The villains are not all that great, but they're not stupid or poorly written. They make decent enough foils for Moon Knight to show his stuff and to fight crime in the unique ways only he can. His supporting cast aren't developed much other than the French Guy and the plucky girl, but for the era, that's not the worst possible portrayal.
Overall, this was a very fun collection that pleasantly surprised me. -
I've read large sized comic Anthologies before, but for some reason this one felt longer and larger than previous ones, especially for a Marvel character. I love reading anthologies from Golden/Silver/platinum eras like these to learn and know about characters and their past story lines, and to just help me bond with a character better. Moon knight is something special for me because for the most part I haven't really found too many Marvel characters which I feel "are mine" But Moon Knight is in that category now. Sure, his blatant similarities to Batman are obvious on the superficial level, and that was the initial appeal. I needed to know who in the hell this imitation Batman was. However, he is no Batman rip off once you get to the core of the character. His multiple personalities and alleged delusions of being an Egyptian god incarnate makes for a unique spin on the vigilante with out super powers (even though he claims he has werewolf venom in his blood that makes him grow in strength with the full moon. I doubt that still) from beginning to end, this also didn't feel like a typical Marvel series either. It felt more adult in nature, almost on the cusp of seeming like a Vertigo title. Sure, his rivals weren't all that memorable, but it was the dark, stanky Noir feeling in the stories (and some pretty intense moments that would have passed for a horror comic in a couple of panels) that kept me reading. I need to just continue forward and learn more about his later day adventures to see how far his voice gets developed. Honestly, this series inspires me to want to try my hand at some Moon knight stories and pages. I would also love to see this adapted in the Marvel/Netflix universe. It has the rawness, grit and soul that matches along side Jessica Jones and Daredevil. Until then, drop down the ladder, Frenchie and fly us the fok outa here!
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I love Moon Knight! He is my favorite super hero. I have been collecting his comics for a long time now, but have never been able to afford a copy of his first appearance in Werewolf by Night #32. I bought this collection mostly for that reason. It was great to final read the original origin of this great character. I also enjoyed reliving the other issues included in this collection. These early stories of Moon Knight's career are some of the weirdest. Current story lines have played around a lot with the multiple personas that Moon Knight takes on and have questioned his sanity. These early stories show how all of that developed in the first place. I know many people think of Moon Knight as a cheap imitation of Batman. To some extent they may be right, but there are vast differences in the two characters in terms of their sanity and motivations. These differences lead Moon Knight into dark corners of the supernatural and macabre that Batman never really ventures into. Also, were Batman is the Ultimate Detective that can pretty much take out the entire Justice League single handed, Moon Knight regularly takes a beating and just keeps on fighting the weird fight.
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I don’t think older superhero comics are really my thing. They’re interesting from a historical perspective, as they show a contemporary view of the time period they were written in. It’s interesting to see how slang and fashion have changed over the years. It’s also interesting to see the effect of the comics code on the writing. I think I prefer more modern releases, though. Especially with how the art has evolved over the years.
Plot-wise… Maybe because they were originally published in the back of Marvel’s Hulk comics, the story-line is mostly a series of short stories, mainly connected by a common character - the titular Moon Knight. With the short lengths, you don’t get a very complex plot of insight into the characters for most of these stories. Hopefully once Moon Knight gained traction under his own title this was able to improve for further volumes. Most of the stories were solidly in the 2.5-3 star range, though a couple stood out among the others, like the storyline involving a serial killer targeting nurses. I liked the storyline they came up with for Moon Knights’ origins as well. -
I really like the character and was interested to dig into the history before the Disney + series goes on the air. However, this collection felt a little dissonant. The character starts off with a few issues of "Werewolf By Night" where you primarily follow Jake (the werewolf) for an occasional glimpse at Moon Knight.
After that, we get a look at Moon Knight from some other books like Defenders and the origin story is murky. He is the "soldier of fortune" turned vigilante and apparently has superhuman powers from a werewolf bite. It isn't until his solo series that we get the origin on an archaeological site although we do start to get the split personality much earlier.
A large portion of this book is dedicated to stories from the back of Hulk Magazine which I found to be the least interesting. All of it makes for a good build-up to the first Moon Knight series and that series was good.
All in all, I felt like this was a bit of a grind to get through with occasionally great issues. I enjoyed it, but it isn't as re-readable as I'd hoped.
