The Chronological Marvel Journey - Part Three: Moon Knight #12-14

For the third instalment of ‘The Chronological Marvel Journey’, I will be discussing Moon Knight Volume 1, Issues 12-18 from 1982.

From viewing the information about the issues, and the stories contained within, my initial feeling (before I had even read them) was that switching from one storyline per issue to two storylines per issue meant that they did not have enough content in one story to fill out a 20-page comic, and they had to find another one to fill that extra space. I feel that this suspicion is justified, as this was around the era where the Moon Knight comics were not the most popular titles being sold by Marvel. This was definitely true with me when I tried to read the first 11 issues of the run, and I couldn’t even really get through the first issue. Thankfully, I know who most of the characters are, after watching various YouTube videos about the Moon Knight mythos, and through reading the latest Moon Knight run by Jeff Lemire.

This chunk of issues that I will be discussing was mainly written by Doug Moench, with artwork by Bill Sienkiewicz.

The issue begins with a man called Dr. Peter Alraune in his office, reflecting on how he is to blame for Robert Markham’s transformation into a grotesque figure called Morpheus. His transformation is the result of using an untested drug to attempt to cure him of an unknown disease. Morpheus then breaks into Alraune’s office to confront him, and attempt to kill him for what he has done. At first, the powers of Morpheus are explained in an odd way, he can ‘grant people sleep’, because he is unable to sleep. I’m grateful to the writer that he did not just leave it this ambiguous, and fleshes the power set out a little as the issue progresses. Before Morpheus can kill the doctor, the police enter the building, which causes him to escape, leaving Dr. Alraune unconscious in his office.

Later, Moon Knight (in his Stephen Grant persona) and his girlfriend Marlene, are called to the hospital to talk to Peter (Marlene is Peter’s sister). Unfortunately, Peter falls in to a coma just after trying to tell his sister what has happened, and it is uncertain if he will ever wake up. Coincidentally, this is right when Morpheus arrives at the hospital, getting into a conflict with the police guard outside, and eventually with Moon Knight himself. This is when we are shown some more of Morpheus’ powers, specifically that he is able to use the dark energy that surrounds him and turn it into weapons such as rope to use in combat, but in doing so he uses up his power very quickly.

On pages 12 and 13, we are shown a conversation between Moon Knight, and police Detective Flint. This is quite a cool moment, as we are immediately given a character developing moment for Flint, who is making his first appearance in this issue. It is essentially showing that Flint is a rather good detective, able to anticipate what questions Moon Knight is going to ask, and then answer them straight away. This is explained at the end of the issue when he tells Moon Knight that ‘he doesn’t like questions’.

It is then revealed to us that Morpheus is living in a tenement building, specifically in a darkened apartment. In each of his appearances in this issue, Morpheus seems to be becoming more and more insane. “A palace fit for a god of dreams, dreams, no dreams, can’t dreams.”

With Morpheus wondering around the streets, Moon Knight tries to enact his plan, but Morpheus runs into a zoo. He destroys the bars on one of the cage, and Moon Knight is attacked by a panther (not the Black Panther though sadly.) Moon Knight leads Morpheus to the generator room, and draws him into firing his dark energy at the generator, which causes his powers to be taken away. In the issue, Moon Knight says that this is because “positive energy cancels out his negative energy.”

The issue ends with Morpheus in a prison hospital, forced into the one thing he could not do for so long, SLEEP. This is contrasted in the final three panels of the issue, with Peter Alraune finally waking up from his coma.

Issue #13 of Moon Knight guest-stars ‘The Man Without Fear’ Daredevil. The initial splash page for this issue teases a fight between Daredevil and Moon Knight, narrated by The Jester (who is a D or E-list villain at best.)

When the issue really begins, Moon Knight discovers that a man called Ace Taggert is being released from prison. Due to this, he assumes his Jake Lockley persona in order to gather information on Taggert’s plans. Jake Lockley is one of, I think, three main civilian personas that Moon Knight has, the other two being Marc Spector, his usual one, and Steven Grant, who is used to show Spector’s wealth from his mercenary days.

We switch to a prison, where we learn The Jester’s (Jonathan Powers) plan, and we are the given a brief summary of the events leading up to him becoming a villain. This is for those of us who may not have read the particular issue of Daredevil that he first appeared in.

The story then skips to four days later, when The Jester is due to be released from prison. This coincides with Jake Lockley heading to Gena’s diner, to continue his search for information regarding Ace Taggert’s whereabouts. Gena has no information from Lockley, however a man by the name of Crawley tells Jake that Taggert got drunk and let slip that he was meeting The Jester.

We then find out, from The Jester himself, that he is planning on disposing of Taggert once he has served his purpose. The Jester is largely used as a comic relief-type of villain, as he uses various gimmicky toys, such as yo-yos as weapons when fighting his foes.

While following The Jester, Moon Knight comes into a conflict with Daredevil, as he has ruined his plan to follow Jester to wherever Taggert was meeting him. This is very typical of the super-hero team-ups of the time, where the heroes will fight due to having a misunderstanding, then they will realise the error of their ways, and team-up to battle the villain or villains. This particular battle between the two begins to endanger the civilians in the arcade, so they both decide to stop and pursue Taggert and Jester together.

Meanwhile, in the theatre, Jester has hijacked the performance and taken the audience hostage, doing various villainous things, such as upstaging the performers, and stealing the valuables of the rich audience members. At this point, Moon Knight notices that Taggert is in the van across the street, so the two heroes split up once they have reached the theatre. Moon Knight takes down  Taggert very easily.

During the battle with The Jester, I got to thinking as to how he can really be seen as a credible threat to anyone, when he is using ‘exploding popcorn’ as a means to defeating Daredevil. While the two of them are fighting, the captive audience members manage to escape from the theatre, taking them out of harms way. Towards the end of the fight, Moon Knight seemingly lets The Jester get away, causing Daredevil to get a bit annoyed. This turns out to be a ruse, as Jester’s pre-arranged escape helicopter is now the personal vehicle of Moon Knight, piloted by Frenchie, which means that Jester is deposited right into the laps of the police.

At the end of Issue #13, the 'next issue' box tells us that the story will be called 'Ruling the World from his Basement' - however, this is not the case, as that is the name of Issue #15's first story.

Regarding Issue #14, the Marvel Wikia states that this is 'Stained Glass Scarlet's' only full appearance in Marvel Comics, with her later being briefly shown in the Civil War events aftermath.

The issue begins differently to many others, as the splash page does not give very much of the plot away. Instead, it presents some questions to the curious reader, such as: Who is this woman? and What is her problem with Moon Knight?

The story itself begins on the next page, where we are shown a church. Here, we are introduced to the character of 'Stained Glass Scarlet', who is said to have lived in the unkempt church for the last three years. This answers the first of the questions that were presented to us on the splash page, in a basic way. She is sat alone in the church, which makes us wonder what has happened to everyone else. She is described at one point as "staring at the past." We are shown that she seems to enjoy star-gazing and playing the organ, specifically Bach. In her photo album, she stares at the picture of Joe "Mad Dog" Fasinera, we are not told at this juncture whether he is her husband or her son, all we know is that he is a criminal. Scarlet drops the book, and goes over and turns the radio on.

The scene shifts to Grace Mansion, the home of Steven Grant and Marlene. The mansion is described in the opposite way to the church, presenting us with a contrast. Marlene begins talking to Steven about his transition from "conscienceless mercenary, to a man like Moon Knight". During this, Grant does not seem all that in to the conversation. The two of them begin looking at a book on the coffee table. We are told that Steven has allowed Moon Knight to 'take an evening off'', which suggests that this is not something that would usually happen (which brings comparison to DC's Batman.) Marlene mirrors Scarlet by going over to the piano and playing a song, this time it is not Bach, but "In My Life" by The Beatles. During this, there are references to the assassination of John Lennon, and this thought, and the lyrics of the song, cause Marlene to stop playing, as she ask Steven to put the radio on instead.

The scene once again switches to Scarlet, who has the radio on. It is a report about three shooting incidents, all by "Mad Dog" Fasinera. Steven and Marlene hear the same broadcast, causing Steven to become Moon Knight once again.

It is in the next scene where we are given some more hints as to the relationship between Joe and Scarltet, where he is most likely to be her son, as there are many references to something that had happened to his father. During a conflict with the police, "Mad Dog" and his crew leave, in order to go after his father's money.

When he becomes Moon Knight, Steven seems to disassociate himself ftom the Grant persona, which is a reference to Marc Spector's 'Disassociative Identity Disorder".

In the next scene, Scarlet is seen putting on a red cloak and leaving the church "as if it was her last walk."

The accent of Moon Knights assistant 'Frenchie' seems to be quite exaggerated. I did not really notice in the previous issue, but the design of Moon Knight's helicopter is interesting, as it has a crescent moon attached to the back, but does not seem to have a propeller. Moon Knight gets in to a conflict with Fasinera's 'pack', after he has ditched them.

Moon Knight leaves in order to catch the remaining criminals that got away, and to find information on where Fasinera is going. He reaches a grocery store hideout where two of them are hiding, and he witnesses Scarlet entering. She confronts the two goons that are in the store. After she has given them information to tell "Mad  Dog", she leaves. She had told them 'he will find what he is looking for in the church'. When they feel that it is safe, the goons head for the exit, but are stopped and defeated by Moon Knight.

Moon Knight and Frenchie arrive at the church, where Moon Knight decides that he wants to enter through the trapdoor on the roof. It is here that we are given the definitive reveal that "Mad Dog" is the son of Scarlet.

Scarlet tells Moon Knight her back story. How she wanted to be 'either an actress or a nun' when she was a child, ending up being a nun. It was in that profession that she met Vince Fasinera. The two eventually got married, and Scarlet found out that Vince was a bit of a pig. He never once visited the hospital, or even held his own son. One day, Vince was robbing a bank, and was gunned down by the police, in front of the very church that Scarlet now lived in. At the end of this backstory, Joe arrives at the church, demanding to know where the money his.

Joe shoots Moon Knight for attempting to fight him. This causing Scarlet to shoot her own gun, narrowly missing Joe on the first shot, but connecting with the second. With the last movements of his life, Joe pulls on the rope connected to the church bell, with the  money he wanted falling down.

The issue ends with a mesage, "Some succeed in their chosen mission. Others fall, no matter how hard they try."

(YOU MAY HAVE GUESSED, BY THE QUALITY OF ISSUE #14#'S RUN THROUGH, THAT I DID NOT REALLY ENJOY IT. WHICH IS WHY THIS EDITION OF THE JOURNEY  WAS CUT DOWN FROM 6 ISSUES TO 3.)