Issue(s): Moon Knight #19, Moon Knight #20, Moon Knight #21
Cover Date: Oct-Dec 90
Title: "Broadway knights" / "By the numbers" / "Number one with a bullet"
Credits:
Chuck Dixon - Writer
Sal Velluto - Penciler
Tom Palmer - Inker
Danny Fingeroth - Editor

Review/plot:
Could there be anything more 90s than this cover? What's funny is that these issues overlap with Walt Simonson's "New Fantastic Four" story which was intended to mock these kinds of crass guest appearances. As i go through 1990, it occurs to me that a lot of what i think of as "the 90s" was literally 1990.

Anyway, last issue Midnight, wearing a Moon Knight costume, ran afoul of the Secret Empire. In this issue the Secret Empire goes after him...

...badly injures him, and kidnaps him, and the real Moon Knight teams up with the Punisher and Spider-Man to get him back. They fail at that...

...but i guess they manage to deal a blow to the Secret Empire in the short term, stopping some kind of Death-Claw satellite thing.

There is a lot of arguing between the three heroes...

...mostly centered on whether or not Moon Knight approves of the Punisher's lethal methods.

In the end he decides that he does not, but of course neither he nor Spider-Man do more than complain a little about the Punisher helping them. You might think that the situation is a change of heart for Moon Knight, who used to be quite gushy towards the Punisher. The experience from the previous arc's visit to Bosqueverde might seem to have given Moon Knight a change of heart. But the truth is that Moon Knight has been saying that he wasn't a killer from issue #1 of this series (even as he teams up with the Punisher and has his sidekick Frenchie follow him around in a helicopter armed with machine guns). On a meta level the back and forth might reflect the pull towards violence thanks to the Punisher's real world popularity, with Chuck Dixon perhaps struggling with how to take advantage of that while distinguishing the character. But one thing's for sure; the disagreements get quite catty at times.

One interesting bit is that the Secret Empire has established local chapters throughout the country for people that think they're joining the equivalent of the Elks or the Masons. You'd think getting people to join a group called "Friends of Empire" would be a little difficult, but i guess there's all sorts of people out there.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: It's said that Midnight stumbled upon the Secret Empire "last week" but Moon Knight has only been home from Bosqueverde "a few days" (and hasn't been Moon Knight since that story). These three issues take place over 24 hours with non-stop action, leaving Spider-Man feeling punch drunk by the end (and maybe that explains the snippy arguments between Punisher and Moon Knight, too).

References:

• After being noticed by (what they thought was) Moon Knight, the Secret Empire decided to be proactive about stopping him, since the last time they were previously stopped by super-heroes in Defenders #123 through Defenders #130 (and, like, every other Secret Empire story). Moon Knight being an ex-Avenger gave them extra cause for alarm.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

I did like the redesign of the Secret Empire costumes for both their council and henchmen.

Around this time of Dixon's run, it always felt like the title was about to take off in terms of quality, but Dixon only ends up hitting doubles instead of home runs.

You can't join our club Spider-Man! Your costume has colors on it!