Issue(s): Moon Knight #36
Cover Date: Mar 84
Title: " Ghosts"
Credits:
Alan Zelenetz - Writer
Bo Hampton - Penciler
Bo Hampton - Inker
Linda Grant - Assistant Editor
Denny O'Neil - Editor

Review/plot:
Dr. Strange guest stars in a story that plays on Moon Knight's connection with the Egyptian god Khonshu. We begin in ancient Egypt, where a man is doing terrible things to a cat.

The man is Amutef, and his cat mutilation spree is halted by Thosbi, priest of Khonshu.

People, i've said it before but apparently no one is listening to me: stop mummifying your enemies. It never out well in the long run. And so, in the present, we have Moon Knight's girlfriend Marlene wearing Amutef's amulet.

She's pulled it out of her father's collection of archeological finds, and she and Moon Knight, in his Steven Grant identity, are at an exhibit displaying the rest of the collection.

Dr. Strange detects a disturbance based on the amulet, and shows up to investigate.

This is a story where no one looks good. Dr. Strange can apparently get stymied by a security guard...

...and in full "That doll is evil! EVIL, I tell you!" mode, and is unable to explain what the problem is or just do something about it already.

Moon Knight, meanwhile, completely disregards what Dr. Strange is saying.

For Moon Knight, at least, it's deliberate that he's acting irrationally. As implausible as it seems, the idea is that Moon Knight doesn't believe at all in the supernatural. We saw this expressed in his most recent encounter with Werewolf By Night as well. Or it might be better to say that he thinks if he accepts that the supernatural is real, that he'll go crazy. So the rest of this issue is a possessed Marlene/Amutef sending mystical threats after Moon Knight, who has to get repeatedly rescued by Dr. Strange...

...until he finally accepts what's going on and embraces his mystical side.

Marlene/Amutef is kept busy by attacking cats in the meantime.

Strange enables a battle between Moon Knight/Thosbi and Amutef on the astral plane.

When it's over, Moon Knight is said to now be stronger for being able to accept that the supernatural does exist.

Superficially, this reads more like a Dr. Strange story. He's the real actor here, and the book is full of mystic battles that Moon Knight doesn't participate in directly. But it does seem to represent a turning point for Moon Knight, so the story is much more important for him than it is for Strange. I still don't have a lot of Moon Knight issues after this (2 more issues of this volume, and then short-lived revival next year), but more generally i know that he's usually more accepting of the fact that he's an agent of Konshu (actually, the next series, which is still mostly by Zelenetz, is subtitled Fist of Konshu), so i guess that begins here.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Moon Knight learns to accept the supernatural

Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP places this between Doctor Strange #63-64.

References:

• There's a recap of Moon Knight's origin, shown in Moon Knight #1.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A