Ah, I shoulda had this done yesterday, but the upstairs of my house (where the computer is) is like an armpit when it gets this hot. The whole family fell asleep downstairs before nine...God, now I feel bad because Moon Knight's able to get up after spinal injury, and I can't drag my ass upstairs. Well, moving on.
Back in action, Moon Knight then does a couple things I thought were unusual (for comics), but smart: He doesn't go tearing after the Fly for revenge, although maybe he heard about the execution. (I don't suppose the Fly's death would be headline news, except maybe the Daily Bugle. J. Jonah Jameson wouldn't be able to resist "FLY--SWATTED!" as a banner headline.) Instead, he goes to the X-Men, to get some info on Bora's wind powers from Professor X. In a lot of other comics, Professor X would drop the science/exposition, then, OK, have fun storming the castle. In this one, he sends his students in as backup.
Meanwhile, Marc's already his regular backup crew of Marlene and Frenchie in place, then he's got the Fantastic Four riding shotgun. Awesome. It's fun because you never see that. Usually Thanos or Godzilla or possibly God is tearing up downtown New York, and Spider-Man's wondering why no one's helping him. Short answer: The Fantastic Four are in the Negative Zone (not a metaphor!), the X-Men are mutants and no one likes them, and the Avengers just got a bunch of Netflix and turned off their phone.
So, even though there's still a ton of innocent bystanders, and a dance troupe, and apparently the building isn't that structurally sound; Moon Knight's able to fight Bora knowing that the civilians are safe. Safer. Even though there's a nice bit where both Storm and the Human Torch have to be held back from taking Bora themselves and leveling the place in the process.
In the end, of course Bora is defeated, and Moon Knight regains his confidence and drive to go on, which would be violently derailed in about two issues when his book was made "Fist of Khonshu." Moon Knight had previously been a test book for direct sales only, and was being rotated back to regular distribution (back when comics had regular distribution...) so Marvel gave him a new first issue and costume. Not so great, and Moon Knight's had a few shining moments here and there since, but the first 36 issues remain the best.
Ah, it's Ok about not going upstairs. Moon Knight understands about the heat. That's why he wears all white, so that his suit absorbs less of it.
ReplyDeleteAnd If Jameson had any sense, he wouldn't post a headline about The Fly's death, as it might come out that Jonah was the one who funded his creation in the first place, just like the Scorpion, the Spider-Slayers (the first few anyway), and I have no idea what else.
Spidey's right. JJJ really SHOULD have just given WEBS that money in exchange for him moving out of NYC.