(EDITOR’S NOTE: Paint Monk’s Library, in collaboration with the enthusiastic staff over at the Into the Knight Podcast, is tackling the Moon Knight chronology! Each week we’ll take an in-depth look at the Fist Of Khonshu in a series of reviews, all in order of character appearance! These reviews will appear on Monday each week until we’ve covered them all, or until the enthusiastic Loonies get too exhausted to write. Whichever comes first!)

By JOSH FIELDING – Guest Writer

Today we’re looking at the next installment in Moon Knight’s chronology – Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man #22. This issue features the first meeting of Moon Knight and Spider-Man. It’s a perfect storm of talent, with the legendary Bill Mantlo writing and Mike Zeck delivering dynamic art.

Synopsis: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #22 

The set-up is simple but classic. Moon Knight stakes out a gangland hit, watching from the shadows. The intended victim is Lindy, who has taken a plea bargain to inform on the Maggia. Moon Knight tackles the gang members before they can get a shot off – but he is distracted during the scuffle, and one of the hitmen manages to shoot Lindy. He tries to hit Moon Knight too, but the enraged vigilante takes him down easily.

The Fist of Khonshu rushes to Lindy, who uses his dying breath to tell Moon Knight that the Maggia are onto his secret identity as cab driver Jake Lockley (though they don’t know that he has more than one identity). Frenchie picks him up in the helicopter, and our hero flies away to make a new plan of action.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker has gotten back from a Maggia-related team-up with Iron Man. He is relaxing with a much-needed shower when Betty Brant shows up for a movie date, one he has completely forgotten about. Little does he know that his night will involve a lot more than going to the movies!

While Peter and Betty attend a Chaplin Festival, Flash Thompson takes a “study break” with his girlfriend Sha-Shan. Across the river, Hector Alaya (The White Tiger) bemoans being turned away by the woman he loves. These last two plot points have a lot more to do with the ongoing Spider-Man comic than the main Moon Knight-focused story, so we’ll move on.

After an awkward date with Betty, Peter suits up as Spider-Man and happens to swing past Jake Lockley being assaulted by Maggia goons. While Spidey tackles the gang members, Jake runs out and changes to Moon Knight. He beats a gangster into submission, but Spider-Man intervenes before he can get the man to talk.

He is still a relatively new crime-fighter, so the wall-crawler doesn’t recognize him, and mistakes him for a Maggia assassin. Thus follows the classic fight and misunderstanding that so often comes with the first meeting of heroes. Any well-read comic book fan can tell you that the second part of this story will likely feature the two having put their differences aside to battle a common enemy. But for now, the two heroes clash, when if they just talked it out they’d realize they’re on the same side.

During their fight, one of the gang members escapes and calls a superior. When they finally discover him, he calls Moon Knight by name and Spidey realizes who he is fighting. Before he can question further, they are both blown away by a Maggia higher-up…. Cyclone!

CAPSULE REVIEW: Moon Knight was last seen making his  “Lone Ranger exit” from a team-up with the Defenders, so this issue picks up sometime after that.

Bill Mantlo is best known for his classic run on Hulk and for creating characters like Rocket Raccoon and Cloak and Dagger. He shows his deft grasp of character here, with a well-written clash of personalities between Moon Knight and Spider-Man. It’s a smart pairing of characters for a story involving violent gangsters. Moon Knight isn’t really one to readily team-up, and Spider-Man has some great dynamics with characters like Punisher and Wolverine, even if he doesn’t agree with their methods.

It’s no surprise that Mike Zeck draws a great Spider-Man considering he worked on “Kraven’s Last Hunt”, one of the Web Head’s most iconic stories. He’s a versatile artist, and he knocks Moon Knight out of the park too, giving him the right air of mystery and brutality to contrast with Spidey’s playfulness and agility. Marvel Comics at the time very much had a “House Style”, but Zeck manages to play to the brand while remaining distinctive.

The story itself is fun, and features a satisfying clash between two heroes of different strokes. As this is a two-parter, it’s perfectly lined up for a thrilling conclusion and proper first team-up between Moon Knight and Spider-Man.

Despite being the guest character, this issue has much more of a Moon Knight tone than a Spider-Man one, and I’m curious if it will balance itself out in the next issue. The characters mesh organically, and I’m happy to wave away the fact that Spider-Man just happens to swing by. New York is full of heroes, so it’s not really surprising that they run into each other so much. Plus, he has a bone to pick with the Maggia anyway, so it’s pretty organic to his ongoing story.

The only quibble I have is that the single page devoted to Flash Thompson and White Tiger’s subplots feels very thrown in to keep regular readers happy. I think it would work better if they were weaved in more naturally or just left out of the crossover issues. The caption literally says “why don’t we check in on the other regulars”, so at least it’s self-aware.

Overall, this is a fun issue and a landmark first meeting between Moon Knight and one of Marvel’s most popular heroes. In 1978 it was still pretty early days for Marc Spector, so seeing him integrated more into the Marvel Universe as a whole would have been a treat for readers.

We’ll see how this all wraps up in our upcoming review of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #23!