Obsessively putting our comics in chronological order since 1985.
| 1992-02-01 00:10:10 |
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Moon Knight Special #1
Issue(s): Moon Knight Special #1
Cover Date: Oct 92
Title: "Explosion at the center of a madman's crown"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
Art Nichols - Penciler
Christopher Ivy - Inker
Joey Cavalieri - Editor
Review/plot:
I don't know how Moon Knight managed to finagle a special, or why Shang-Chi's agent couldn't manage to get him billing in the title, but this is a silly story that allows Doug Moench to write the two (Marvel) characters that he's most known for.
A trainee from Marc Spector's London office has been kidnapped, and MI-6 tells him that it was a cult called Golden Dawn. Spector later tries to break into MI-6's office as Moon Knight to get more info on the cult, and he meets Shang-Chi and together they go to the place where the kidnappers have been traced to, which is Mordillo's weird island. So they fight their way through the island's tricks and traps.
The Pointer Brothers are a pun on the Pointer Sisters, a musical group that was popular in 1985. Odd to see a pun on them in a 1992 book.
Mordillo's island is (still) run by the robot, Brynocki.
Shang-Chi decapitates him, and Mordillo's bones are caught in the resulting explosion.
The kidnappees shake their brainwashing when they see Mordillo.
Moench runs two streams of narration through the story, so that he can distinguish between Moon Knight and Shang-Chi's personalities.
I never thought of Moon Knight as the funny guy. I guess only Shang-Chi can out-stoic him.
It's cute, but everything about Mordillo's Island is very silly, and it was probably pretty bewildering to people used to the darker stories in Moon Knight's current series, especially if they've never read Moench's Master of Kung Fu. Moench was lucky to have great artists on both his Master of Kung Fu and Moon Knight runs. No offense to Art Nichols, a long time inker for Marvel, but the art here is not up to those levels. I guess part of the problem is that by deliberately going for something cartoony, it overemphasizes the silliness of Mordillo's island and Brynocki.
This issue also has a number of mock covers made up in the style of earlier periods. These are fun.
And it also has a comedy story by Michael Higgins and Marie Severin about Moon Knight getting a movie.
Quality Rating: C-
Historical Significance Rating: 1
Chronological Placement Considerations: This should take place before the effects of the Hobgoblin blood that has infected Moon Knight are seen in Moon Knight #39-40, and therefore before Moon Knight #35-38, which ends with a lead in to issues #39-40.
References:
- Shang-Chi was first on Mordillo's island in Master of Kung Fu #33-35.
Crossover: N/A
Continuity Insert? N
My Reprint: N/A
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Comments
I had absolutely no idea this comic book even existed. I might actually try to find a copy of it, just because it looks so damn bizarre, and those mock covers by various long-time Marvel artists are pretty funny.
Moench has been pretty brutally open about how he feels other writers didn't get Moon Knight, so it's weird as hell to see him do this Special concurrent with Marvel publishing what must be the absolute worst Moon Knight comics possible.
Those fake covers are fun though.
I love the Batman and Spider-Man style covers.
Odd that the cover they identify as "Golden Age" looks an awful lot like Silver Age DC, right down to the Comics Code Authority sticker that didn't exist in the Golden Age.
Maybe the Pool Shark should team up with 8-Ball. Or maybe they are bitter rivals...
Moon Knight is often very stoic. But it seems natural to me that when teaming up with Shang Chi he would assert his own individuality by emphasizing Jake Lockey's crude sense of humor.
Wasn't Moench the regular writer on Batman by late 1992? I wonder if this was originally an inventory story that they slotted into the publishing schedule.
The reference to the Pointer Sisters sure suggests that this was written a fair while before it was published. It seems to be well insulated from continuity concerns as well.
