I picked up this issue of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE during my regular weekly comic-buying run to my neighborhood 7-11 on Thursday, another issue of a book that was mostly just there, and which I kept buying largely because of how much I loved the Fantastic Four. In just a couple of years, Moon Knight would become a hot character for a short while after the launch of his solo series. But in 1979, he was another bit-player around the Marvel Universe. I’d seen him before in DEFENDERS and SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN, but he hadn’t made much of an impact on me. And this story, while perfectly fine, wouldn’t do much to change that assessment.
The one interesting quirk of this particular story is that it was written by Steven Grant, which also happens to be the name of one of Moon Knight’s alternate identities. I seem to think that the character had been named by Doug Moench in honor of the genuine Steven Grant before the latter had entered the business, but it may have simply been a coincidence. Artwork was provided by Jim Craig, a Canadian artist who’d been doing a bunch of mostly fill-in work around this time. Here, he’s inked by Pablo Marcos, whose lush ink line makes more of an impression in the final artwork.
The story is a single-issue caper. It opens with the Thing attending an event honoring his partner Mister Fantastic. But as the high-class event gets going, it’s interrupted by the arrival of a frantic man who begs Ben Grimm to help him. But before the Thing can act, the area is swarmed by jumpsuit-wearing operatives who gun the man down. They’re packing super-scientific weaponry that freezes the Thing in his tracks. But fortunately, Steven Grant was attending the shindig, and he’s taken the opportunity to change into his Moon Knight attire and come to the rescue. Together, the two heroes turn the tide, leaving their attackers defeated. Before he expired, the man gave Ben an address, so that’s his next clue. But the thing has no interest in working with a newcomer, so Moon Knight is told to take a hike. Instead, he switches into his Jake Lockley identity and picks the Thing up in his taxi as a fare (good thing he had the cab parked nearby, I suppose) taking him to the address and thus determining where it is.
Ben charges in, immediately getting into a firefight with more of the same goons who attacked him downtown. Then, Moon Knight shows up again, having executed a costume change, and the two heroes once again join forces to total their opposition. But as they mop up, a viewscreen descends from the ceiling and the mastermind behind these attacks makes himself known. His name is Crossfire, and Moon Knight immediately recognizes his voice as being somebody he worked alongside during his time as a mercenary. Before Ben or Moon Knight can do anything else, though, they’re both felled by gas pumped into the room by Crossfire.
The pair comes to, finding themselves chained up by Crossfire and his men. The villain reveals that he intends to brainwash the Thing so that he can use him to take on others of his ilk; Crossfire has a hate on for super heroes in general, calling them disruptors. Moon Knight is correct, the man before them had once been a C.I.A. brainwashing specialist named William Cross. But Cross, who believed in using an enemy’s methods against them, had become corrupted and was seemingly killed years ago. But now he’s back, and with a crazy plan to eliminate all of the super heroes in the world by turning them against one another.
The Thing and Moon Knight have heard enough. They break free of their restraints and begin a pitched and running battle deeper into the heart of crossfire’s complex, intent on locating and subduing the man himself. But not only does Crossfire have cannon fodder by the dozen, but he’s also using high-intensity soundwave attacks to weaken the wills of both heroes as they draw closer. Eventually, though they manage to plow their way into Crossfire’s inner sanctum, the sonics take their toll and the Thing goes down.
But not Moon Knight! Turns out that when Marc Spector was a merc, he was trained by William Cross to resist and withstand such brainwashing attacks–even Cross’ own. The tables turned, Crossfire attempts to make a break for it, but he’s seemingly the victim of his own grenade, intended for the Thing and Moon Knight. On the other hand, there isn’t any body, so both heroes are skeptical that this is the last they’re going to see of Crossfire. And they were right–the character showed up a bunch of times after this, though often just as a more generic villain without his specific hatred for super heroes (which itself was never really motivated in this story.)
The Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Letters Page this time around features correspondence from a college-age Kurt Busiek, years before he’d enter the field as a professional writer. Kurt really liked Jack of Hearts and advocated for him to star in a series of his own. Long years later, Kurt would bring Jack into the Avengers during his time writing that series.
It was also a new month, so there was also a new edition of the Marvel Bullpen Bulletins to read, this one spotlighting UNCANNY X-MEN #122 among other things. It also included the now-typical explanation for the recent price increase to an outrageous 40 cents per copy as well as news about some upcoming team-up stories, the arrival of writer Michael Fleisher to Marvel and an explanation of the various credits that appear in the Marvel books. And Stan Lee begins to tease the new HEAVY METAL-style magazine that the company is creating, which will eventually become EPIC ILLUSTRATED.
The Tom Brevoort Experience 
Never understood the attraction of Moon Knight.
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I like the latter issues of the Doug Moench-Bill Sienkiewicz run, when Sienkiewicz began shaking off the Neal Adams influence. The artwork is very expressive. Moench did a pretty good job on the scripts. But the character is essentially just a reworking of Batman.
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Somewhere around #12 on the monthly ongoing MK series, Bill starting making MK’s “body suit” mostly black, more than just shadows on a white suit. And Doug’s narration referred to MK as “jet and silver”. THAT’S how I’ll always prefer MK. Including a silver crescent emblem against a black background. That’s the only way MK visually works for me. And it’s the minority of his appearance throughout the decades.
In the “recent past”, Marvel’s come close, but they still miss the “Mark” (weak pun). The “body suit” or whatever it is, is again mostly black. They added what looks like white chest armor, with a white crescent. But the emblem needs to pop. So after a few more years, they changed the crescent to black, I guess to show a “3 quarter” moon.
Is it SO HARD to just have the silver/white crescent on black backing? Would they somehow have to pay Bill money for that? Is it pride? Or are they really that clueless. A company that employs artists, and the notion of high contras color sis lost on them?
Sorry. This has REALLY annoyed me for almost 50 years. I HATE the all-white, KKK ghost look. And I’ve mostly refused to buy any MK issues that use it. Exceptions for the abbreviated Zelenetz/Warner run (fave issue was by Owsley & Beachum), and the too-brief DeMatteis/Ganey 4 issues in the early 90s.
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Somewhere around #12 on the monthly ongoing MK series, Bill starting making MK’s “body suit” mostly black, more than just shadows on a white suit. And Doug’s narration referred to MK as “jet and silver”. THAT’S how I’ll always prefer MK. Including a silver crescent emblem against a black background. That’s the only way MK visually works for me. And it’s the minority of his appearance throughout the decades.
In the “recent past”, Marvel’s come close, but they still miss the “Mark” (weak pun). The “body suit” or whatever it is, is again mostly black. They added what looks like white chest armor, with a white crescent. But the emblem needs to pop. So after a few more years, they changed the crescent to black, I guess to show a “3 quarter” moon.
Is it SO HARD to just have the silver/white crescent on black backing? Would they somehow have to pay Bill money for that? Is it pride? Or are they really that clueless. A company that employs artists, and the notion of high contras color sis lost on them?
Sorry. This has REALLY annoyed me for almost 50 years. I HATE the all-white, KKK ghost look. And I’ve mostly refused to buy any MK issues that use it. Exceptions for the abbreviated Zelenetz/Warner run (fave issue was by Owsley & Beachum), and the too-brief DeMatteis/Ganey 4 issues in the early 90s.
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I blame the double comment on a glitch. I have to log in multiple times. I still can’t “like” this post by Tom. Not quite as annoying as MK’s all-white costume, but close enough.
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Sienkiwicz art makes me drop a book ASAP. I’m a minority but I loathe his stuff.
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@FraserSherman, Bill’s art can be highly stylized, often abstract, but when it’s more naturalistic, there nobody fundamentally better.
i get that it’s subjective. His more extreme stuff doesnt appeal to me. But his MK in the teens & 20’s was draw droppingly good to me.
He knows anatomy , perspective, facial expressions, & how to make static images feel kinetic.
i remember being disappointed by his pages in “Batman” # 400. Too exaggerated. But I guess he had to make it interesting for himself.
That might be why I like his inks over other artists. Their drawing benefits from his sense of lighting & adds that extra energy he brings, without completely smothering their foundation.
Examples include Lee Weeks (who’s art I love anyway), Denys Cowan (Bill might be my fave inker for Denys), & JR,Jr.
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The artwork was always the sell on his first solo book. Sadly, now they just lean into the crazy, even more so than they do with Batman these days.
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I preferred the original take on Moon Knight through his first solo series. When it was decided he had MPD (which has lasted longer than the medical community thought it was real) I lost all interest in the character. Khonshu being real made it definite I’d never personally enjoy the character ever again.
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The multiple identity thing clearly started out as inspiration from the Shadow — I thought turning it into MPD was an interesting way to go somewhere new with it, but what they did felt pretty repetitive to me.
I have not, however, stayed up on things Moon Knight, so maybe they did more interesting stuff than I saw.
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I was also thinking the multiple identities ( aliases ) was a Pulp thing too, but unlike the Disney stream series where he had zero knowledge of what his other MPD were doing in this story he clearly was aware ( making it more like The Saint minus aliases that use his initials S.T., unlike The Shadow who resembles Lamont Cranston but disguises himself to look like businessman Henry Arnaud; elderly Isaac Twambley and Fritz an old, seemingly slow-witted uncommunicative janitor ). Plus like in his Defenders appearance and here he did do The Batman escape artist thing.
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Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man#22-23 ( September -October 1978 ) there was zero evidence of MPD in Moon Knight ( Marc Spector –Frenchie called him Marc then Jake #22, Jake Lockley ( cab driver in#22 ) & Steven Grant – name mentioned #23 ), so doesn’t that violate Robert Kanigher’s 1943 rules for writing comic books? Me, I would have the whole Multiple Personality Disorder be a Khonshu punishment and not a real mental illness he has. Last weekend to now I tried to think of a character that has multiple aliases using their real face ( no disguises to alter their appearance ) and all I could think of are either con artists, undercover law enforcement & spies ( some who might alter hair colour or grow facial hair ). Moon Knight had an advanced looking helicopter in the Peter Parker The Spectacular Spider-Man issues ( Plus in #23 in his mansion a Batman inspired hidden command center ).
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I almost forgot, Kurt Busiek’s The Shadow reference: Marc Spector as a former soldier and The Shadow/Kent Allard as a former WW1 famed aviator, Jake Lockley the cab driver is like The Shadow’s aide/chauffeur/cab driver Moses “Moe” Shrevnitz ( a.k.a. Shrevvy ) and Steve Grant is Lamont Cranston.
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Heh. I’ve been kind of dreading this one. Did it as a lark, & a favor to Roger, before it sunk into my head I could maybe make a living at this. (That happened when the check showed up.) As you note, the main appeal is the gag of my sharing a name with a protagonist of the story, which (kind of as intended) caused some confusion at the time.
Point of fact, Doug had never met or heard of me when he named Moon Knight. As I understand it – you’d have to verify it with him, I never have – the multiple identities of the character are all names of Doug’s college roommates. Similarly, when Steve Gerber semi-renamed Captain America Steven Grant Rogers, it was also nothing to do with me, Steve Grant was the name of one of his childhood friends, who also wrote letters to comics in the ’60s & ’70s. (Except he lived in St Louis.)
At any rate, I’d wouldn’t consider this a great story by any stretch. I think the word I’d use is perfunctory. It did the job of filling 17 pages, which, at the time, was the job Roger needed it to do.
(Crossfire, BTW, William Cross, was named for one of MY college roommates. By then it sort of seemed like a tradition. Just saying.)
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I mainly remember Jim Craig as the artist who had the misfortune of having to follow Paul Gulacy on Master of Kung Fu, and who in turn was eventually replaced by Mike Zeck. He wasn’t as mind-blowingly good as either of those gentlemen, but I thought his work was perfectly fine. Looking him up, I see Craig made a bit of a comeback in the ’90s, which I didn’t know about.
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I remember him as a solid storyteller without a chance to stand out with the stories I recall his drawing. My dislike of Marcos’ art means I think the inking hurt his appeal here.
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Some might see Batman in Moon Knight, even I did back then until a mythology book let me know that the Egyptian God Khonsu ( Chonsu, Khensu, Khons, Chons, Khonshu or Konshu — means Traveller ) is who the ancient Egyptians prayed to deal with demons/drives away evil spirits & cures illness ( Also either the Roman or Greeks identified Khonsu with Hercules ) — which I pointed out to Marvel in a letter years ago. So Moon Knight’s first appearance in Werewolf by Night#32 ( August 1975 ) battling the Werewolf ( Jack Russell ) is an incredible coincidence. Plus unlike The Batman, Moon Knight’s strength increases with the phases of the moon.
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The Mooncopter ( first appearance according to marvel.fandom.com is the same as Moon Knights, but the specs are in Marc Spector: Moon Knight Vol.1#1 ) is probably why people see him as another Batman. The Defenders#47 ( May 1977 ) was the first time I saw Moon Knight. Unrelated by currently watching Avengers movies marathon.
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Is the enhanced strength tied to the lunar cycle still current? I think it was new to the 1985 Vol 2 series, issues 1-4 (of 6 total) written by Alan Zelenetz, edited by Denny O’Neil. I’m prettysure he didn’t have the enhanced strength in Doug & Bill’s vol 1 ongoing monthly. IHe got beat up way too often. 😉 have no idea if he was physically enhanced in his Werewolf or Defenders appearances.
As a “natural”, not physically enhanced athletic vigilante with a mask and cape, with a strong association with the night (excluding the Adam West TV show, the Super Friends, cartoons, and Bob Haney’s stories), MK is, in broad strokes, similar to Batman. The moon copter/chopper and the crescent throwing darts helped reinforce the similarities. They’re closer to each other as comics hero types than they’d be to most prominent comics heroes within their respective universes.
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I don’t have his Werewolf by Night appearance but in The Defenders#49 ( July 1977) page 17 panel 3 – Moon Knight says, “Whew! Even with my super-strength at PEAK CAPACITY during full moon, I’d be hard-pressed to pull a stunt like that!” ( Valkyrie ripping a tire off a car to throw it at the Hulk ).
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Marvel had more than a few reluctant heroes filling up the pages in the 80’s and Moon Knight broke that mold. He got more and more exciting throughout the Moench and Sienkiewicz… especially around #17 and beyond…. but in his earlier appearances he sort of worked against the grain of other Marvel heroes… and it worked for me generally. There were too few guys running around Marvel that weren’t extraordinarily super powered… and Moon knight used to just be a tough guy with maybe a little something extra.
I haven’t followed the character in years… decades even.
Crossfire isn’t a great villain but the Thing is a good teammate with just about everyone and that includes Moon Knight.
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I’m surprised that no writer thought to team-up Crossfire with Gideon Mace [ The Spectacular Spider-Man#52 ( March 1981 ) “The Day of the Hero Killers! — issue that White Tiger gets shot ] before he got killed. Then there is the other hero killer, Zeitgeist/Everyman [ Captain America#442 ( August 1995 ) “Broad Stripes and White Stars ]. Crossfire’s mind control machine uses sound and so does Golden Age Human Torch & Toro Nazi foe Professor Fear [ Captain America Comics#32 ( November 1943 ) “Mind Smasher” ] mind control machine and Angar the Screamer used his own power to brainwash Collen Wing into hating Iron Fist [ Iron Fist#5 ( June 1976 ) ].
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I don’t know lost his original motivation, but he was still in character in his next appearance [ Hawkeye#4 ( December 1983 ) when Hawkeye lost most of his hearing. Last issue of this limited series ]. Plus unlike Gideon Mace & Everyman, Crossfire wanting to get Heroes to kill each other seems far more sinister and predates The Secret Service volume 1 ( 2012-13 — Dr. James Arnold, a very wealthy cellphone entrepreneur who plans to use a satellite signal to make the poor of humanity slaughter each other to solve the overpopulation problem — character changes in the Kingsman: The Secret Service – 2014 film ). So Crossfire is clearly a movie class villain.
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I don’t know when he lost his original motivation ( I hate when the words in my head don’t make it to the page I’m writing on ).
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I could also see him taking jobs for Justin Hammer. Or members of the Maggia. Maybe even going up against the Punisher. Daredevil.
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I have this issue and his Hawkeye limited series appearance, so I took a look at and read what he said his plans were ( Brainwashing the FF to attack the Avengers to get the public to turn against Superheroes — you would think that Civil War, years later would have done that and no mind control machine was used ). Creating an incident to turn the public to your cause is the plot in Castle ( Season 3 episode 16-17 “Setup” & “Countdown” February 21 & 28, 2011 ) and The Long Kiss Goodnight — 1996 film ) — create a terrorist attack and leave a dead Muslim behind to take the blame. On the subject of the technology used in the film Kingsman: Secret Service ( & Secret Service comic books it was based on ), it seems to be similar to Madbomb technology and its Timely Comics counterparts [ Marvel Mystery Comics#41 ( March 1943 ) Vision story “Master of Madness” vs. Dr. Ross Ekker ] & [ Young Allies#14 ( Winter 1944) Young Allies 4th story “The Monster of the Maniac Murders” – Dr. Wilton Wilkes, Suki & Imperial Japanese Soldiers ] ( plus Dr. Jonas Harrow’s Madness Inducing Variator Beam in The Amazing Spider-Man#206 ( July 1980 ) which as far as I know have lead to property damage ( Madbombs ) and bruises but no deaths ( Was the technology not dialed up high enough to drive people to kill? ).
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