After a few dodgy stories as a back up in Marvel’s off-continuity magazine, The Rampaging Hulk, Moon Knight got a shot at carrying the burden of an on-going series in 1980. Behind the wheel were Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz, which might seem like an obvious choice from a firm vantage point 20 years later, but must have seemed like a risky venture at the time.
With the exception of Master of Kung Fu, Moench was still a dabbler, writing for just about every comic book genre on the market, from Master of Kung Fu to Fantastic Four (where he and Sienkiewicz first paired on a regular basis,) not to mention some of Marvel’s psuedo-adult magazines. Sienkeiwicz was still in the shadow of Neil Adams, and hadn’t really made his mark on any particular book.To call the creative team “unrefined” might be understated. Coupled with Moon Knight’s more-than-passing similarity to Batman, the character entered the solo market on rather shaky legs. For all the “this ain’t your father’s Batman” nonsense touted in the press, Moon Knight had very little offer that Batman could not easily top.
As the series opens, readers got a look at the origin of Moon Knight, but faithful fans of the character were met with a story that bore no resemblance to the events depicted in Werewolf By Night (where Moon Knight first appeared.) We begin in Egypt, following mercenary Marc Spector, an underling to the bloodthirsty warlord Bushman. Despite being a bit of a bastard himself, Spector decides that Bushman is getting too mean and greedy for even his tastes. Spector eventually revolts and finds himself abandoned in the desert, where he stumbles across a cult of moon worshippers. Spector seems to die and is revived by the statue of a moon god named Konshu. When he awakes, he takes on Konshu’s garb and wages a brief war against Bushman and his army.
The origin was rushed, ending halfway through the issue in time for Moon Knight to get involved in a related adventure. In fairness, Marvel wasn’t spending a lot of money of big openings for new series in those days, so Moench didn’t have many pages to work with.
Part of the revision to Moon Knight's origin was the revival of pulp serial devices. Like The Shadow, Doc Savage, and The Avenger, our silver hero got a supporting cast of agents to herald his entrance into the conflict.
Marvel has never been fond of retrofitting its continuity, so when his baffling new origin was introduced, most readers probably chalked it up to apathy or ignorance — if they were aware of the character at all. But in issue four we learn that Moench had been cooking up a story that would tie Moon Knight’s various origins together.
For the unitiated, we learn that Moon Knight was supposedly created by an international crime cabal interested capturing a werewolf for use in their nefarious schemes (Werewolf By Night’s leading lycanthrope Jack Russell.) “The Committee” hires mercenary Marc Spector for the job, equip him with a nifty costume, and set him into action. Spector has a change of heart and decides not to let the werewolf run free, steps out on the bad guys and keeps his new identity.
This, apparently, was all a lie, or at least a misrepresentation of the truth. Moon Knight’s number one aid, Frenchy, reveals he approached the crime cabal with the “idea” of Moon Knight, and tricked them into funding Spector’s scheme to become a crime fighter. The Committee returns in issue #4 to exact petty revenge on Moon Knight, using an army of mercenaries that come across like a homoerotic version of Quentin Tarantino’s “Fox Force Five.”
If the book seemed to have an identity crisis, it was all a part of the plan. Spector had as many identities as he had agents, fragmenting the character to the point of insanity … is he a wealthy socialite, a mercenary, a superhero, a cab driver, an Egyptian god, or something else? If the “complexity” of the character confuses you, don’t be alarmed. At one point Spector gets so confused himself that he’s becomes a drooling vegetable that can’t even tend to his most basic needs.
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