Issue(s): Marvel Spotlight #29
Cover Date: Aug 76
Title: "The deadly gambit of Conquer-Lord!"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Don Perlin - Penciler
Don Perlin - Inker

Review/plot:
Marvel Spotlight #28-29 are Moon Knight's first appearances after his debut in Werewolf By Night. I haven't found a copy of issue #28 in my price range (and i have too many Moon Knight issues to make a purchase of Essential Moon Knight vol. 1 worthwhile), but this second issue was an easier find and it does helpfully summarize the previous issue. It seems issue #28 introduced the concept of Moon Knight's multiple identities ("To some, he is a gutsy soldier of fortune. To others, a garrulous and streetwise cab driver. And to still others, a suave and sophisticated financier"), and Moon Knight even describes himself as "flirt[ing] with schizophrenia" (yes, that's the wrong medical term, but we get the idea).

Of more immediate concern, Moon Knight has been fighting something called a Conquer-Lord, and has just prevented him from assassinating the mayor of New York as part of a bid to replace him with a corrupt lackey. Conquer-Lord then manages to escape by taking what he says is Moon Knight's girlfriend Marlene hostage, although it's clearly just a stiff mannequin that was being used to show off some crazy new pants.

Moon Knight lets Conquer-Lord go and instead returns to the mayor. While he's binding the mayor's wounds, he tells the mayor that despite Conquer-Lord setting him up last issue, he's not guilty. The mayor agrees heartily with the guy who is holding his life in his hands; not exactly surprising.

From there we get another example of Doug Moench's seemingly troubling treatment of homosexuals (cf). Moon Knight returns to his mansion, and finds a guy in a pink shirt and a flower on his jacket that is literally in the closet. The guy was pretending to be his valet, but he's really a mole for the Conquer-Lord.

Moon Knight calls him a "pansy" and "twinkle-toes" as he allows the guy to escape so he can follow him back to Conquer-Lord.

In the meantime, you have to love this. Conquer-Lord tells Marlene that in another week when his crooked mayor is put in power, he could legally have her killed. But since the election isn't until next week, he'll just have to slowly lower her into a pit of crocodiles. Because those really are your only two options.

Moon Knight follows "twinkletoes" (again) to the hideout...

...where the fake valet quivers and trembles...

...and is soon killed by his boss.

Now on to Conquer-Lord himself. He's apparently seriously into chess.

But since when does Black move first? The board is arranged to explode if Moon Knight doesn't move in the proper way for a knight, but Conquer-Lord's pawns are allowed to just shoot across the board. Seems like Conquer-Lord went through a lot of trouble to set up a life sized chess set only to cheat right in the opening. I'm never very impressed with the way chess is used in comic books.

The whole thing is ridiculous.

Moon Knight eventually manages to leap out of the various death traps using super-strength...

...and then he wraps up Conquer-Lord for the police, rescues Marlene, and goes home.

Maybe there's something awesome about the first part of this story, but from what i can see, all i can say is that Moon Knight should wake up every day and thank Khonshu for Bill Sienkiewicz, because if this is the sort of nonsense he'd be getting up to without him, forget it.

A Warriors Three story was originally going to run in issue #28 but it got bumped back two issues to make room for this story.

Quality Rating: D

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - early Moon Knight story

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The only thing that sounds the least bit interesting about this all is the name of the villain. CONQUER-LORD! To bad have doesn't live up to his name.

I'm of mixed feelings about the Merkins character. Obviously it isn't a positive thing to have a gay character just to be the target of homophobic slurs and insults from the hero. But on the other hand, the fact that a gay character was included at all at that point in time is sort-of a good thing, in terms of providing some degree of visibility and representation. I think its the fact that it appears to be part of a pattern of homophobic portrayals that really makes it a bad thing.

Moon Knight's homophobic attitude here is interesting in hindsight, given Marc's reaction years later when Frenchie comes out of the closet. Marc didn't react particularly well when he first found out, although he adapted quickly enough.

It's even worse: a merkin is a vaginal wig that strippers used to wear after job-related shaving down in order to keep their boyfriends from freaking out(this was in the days before Brazilian waxing). That's where Stanley Kubrick derived the name "Merkin Muffley" in Dr. Strangelove.

I guess I'm naive but I never would have seen "tiwnkletoes" as a homophobic slur or picked up on the character being gay. I'd just see his awkward body language as a result of the crappy artwork.

Mark, I'm really glad that I didn't know that. I'd be embarrassed to reveal that info if I knew it.

:-)

"Twinkletoes" alone wouldn't necessarily be an anti-gay slur. But when combined with "pansy" and "tinkerbell", it definitely was intended that way.

Embarrassed? What for?

Because my tastes don't range in that direction, and it's not the kind of thing I'd want to research.