(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 REYNALDO G. – Guest Writer

Overall, the Moon Knight back-up story, “Graven Image of Death” in The Hulk! Magazine #11 proves to be an entertaining read, evenly complemented by both writing and art. 

There are shortcomings in the writing, and often there are too many elements shoved in. The dialogue of Moon Knight and the supporting cast are consistent and satisfactorily varied. The plot may be over baked, but the story itself is engaging and the art doesn’t hurt the overall reading experience. 

It’s apparent that writer Doug Moench is having fun with not only the character of Moon Knight but with the world-building that frames the Fist of Khonshu. Investing time to create supporting characters like Curt from the Sun-Times (whom I can only assume was replaced by Detective Flint in Moench’s 1980 title series) and villains such as Anton Varro, Joel Luxor, and Fenton Crane enrich and add tone to the world into which we are drawn. It’s a world that appears in perpetual night.

Synopsis: The Incredible Hulk! #11 (Moon Knight tale)

Moon Knight scours the streets of New York in search of a killer. Three murders have occurred, and Moon Knight eyes a shady customer he believes to be behind at least some of them. Before he can glide down on his cape to apprehend the suspect, the man pulls a gun on a spectacled individual walking out of an office and shoots him dead. Moon Knight can only watch as the man empties the victim’s pockets and flees. Rather than chase him as Moon Knight, the caped avenger restrains himself and flees in the other direction, intent on catching the perpetrator a different way.

The killer finally stops running and hails a cab to hasten his retreat. He gets in and is greeted by a chatty driver, who introduces himself as Jake Lockley. They arrive at the mansion of Joel Luxor and just as the man is about to begrudgingly pay the fare, Lockley shocks him by calling him out as a murderer.

Before the criminal can react, Lockley removes his attire to reveal Moon Knight underneath and he launches himself at the villain,  finally pinning him to a tree with a crescent dart. Moon Knight questions him and it’s discovered that the man was hired by Luxor (owner of the mansion where they have arrived) to kill the poor victim in the street and retrieve a key he was carrying. Moon Knight grabs the key, ties up the criminal and leaves him in the back of the cab as he goes to investigate.

Luxor is seen with an associate playing pool when Moon Knight crashes their game. Busy with Luxor’s associate (who it turns out is his bodyguard), Moon Knight cannot prevent Luxor being shot by a bullet from outside. It kills Luxor but not before the sniper fires off another bullet into the wall nearby.

Moon Knight calls in Marlene to assist with the case – he asks Marlene to come to Luxor’s mansion and search for anything suspicious before calling police to report the murder. Before leaving, Moon Knight pries out the bullet lodged in the wall and discovers it’s an old fashioned round and most likely fired from a musket. With bullet and key in hand, Moon Knight races outside but is surprised to see his cab (and the criminal in it) gone. The Fist of Khonshu calls on Frenchie to pick him up and take him to the Fourth Estate – that being the Sun-Times Newspaper Office.

Moon Knight arrives at the Sun-Times and pays a visit to one of his contacts there, a man named Curt. It happens that the key that was stolen and intended for Luxor belonged to a storage unit at the newspaper’s office.

Curt takes Moon Knight to the locker of Jim Polhaus (a features writer) and it contains a manuscript detailing a statuette of Horus and how Luxor intends to claim it. It goes on to say that the statuette is in the personal care of Fenton Crane, an assistant curator at the museum. Frenchie takes Moon Knight to the museum, and Moonie suspects that the authentic statuette is in Crane’s hands, and a fake is being exhibited to the public.

His suspicions prove correct and Moon Knight’s detective work also reveals a missing musket from the wall – the same sort of gun that could have been fired upon Joel Luxor moments ago. With suspicion mounting, Moon Knight asks Frenchie to take him to Crane’s apartment in the hope of finding more clues, or even Crane himself.

Crane’s apartment is empty – there is no sign of him or the statuette. Finally, Moon Knight checks the closet, where out falls the unnamed criminal Moon Knight apprehended earlier, still bound and gagged.

It turns out he wasn’t contracted by Luxor, but by another rival collector, Anton Varro. Luxor had contracted Crane to kill Polhaus in order to retrieve the key, but Crane was beaten to it by the unnamed criminal, now lying bound at the feet of Moon Knight. Convinced that Crane doesn’t have the statuette, Moon Knight leaves the bound criminal to the police and heads for Luxor’s mansion once again. It’s the only place Crane would go, after all, if he’s in search of the statuette. With Marlene there investigating on his behalf, Moon Knight fears for her safety.

Just as the Fist of Khonshu arrives, he hears a gunshot from inside the mansion. Marlene stands in terror, with a gunshot wound to her arm and a crazed Fenton Crane, armed with a musket, bearing down on her. He demands she tell him the whereabouts of the Horus Statuette or the next shot will be her death!

REVIEW & FINAL THOUGHTS: What is immediately apparent when reading this issue of The Hulk! Magazine is how a great pulpy vibe is created; it’s put together not only through fluid art but also Moench’s grounded writing.

Moench has gone on the record to say that he much prefers the non-powered superheroes (the likes of Batman and Shang-Chi come to mind) and Moon Knight is no different. You could almost replace Moon Knight here with a hard-nosed sleuth and it would still make a good read. Moon Knight tails a suspicious perpetrator; he has connections in the press by way of Curt at the Sun-Times, and he partakes in the occasional fist fight. Nothing makes him stand out from any other hard-boiled detective at work in a city that never sleeps.

There are glimpses of the fantastic – Moon Knight’s outfit for one is as striking as ever, and the use of his gliding cape paints him out as something more than human. But, for the most part, Moench keeps Moon Knight’s nose to the ground, to do all the detective work for us.

Unfortunately, detective work is much needed as Moench overreaches with the plot in this issue. For me, there are far too many double takes and twists.

Take, for instance, the first encounter Moon Knight has with Luxor at his mansion. It seems pretty straight forward that the killer on the street Moon Knight apprehends at the mansion works for Luxor. There has also been a spate of murders too, so again it seems the murderer is tied to this directly.

That’s not the case, as it appears another killer is out for Luxor. The killer whom Moon Knight apprehends, in fact, does not work for Luxor but is actually a rival, Anton Varro. Luxor and Varro are also after a Horus Statuette which as we read, has also a fake version and that museum curator Fenton Crane may possibly have switched the genuine article for the fake.

And what of the key that sets off this chain of events? Moon Knight has to figure this out too, and it turns out the key is connected to a Sun-Times journalist, Jim Polhaus, who wrote code into his article which reveals information about the Horus Statuette…Fenton turns out to be a partner of Luxor too, but it turns out that Fenton may have double-crossed Luxor too by selling him the fake, instead of the real one that both he and Luxor had originally agreed upon …. confused yet?

Upon re-reading, the pieces do seem to fall into place. For anyone reading this issue for the first time, you’d be excused for being lost among the cast members who seem to make up the whole conspiracy. Still, the story is a testament to Moench and his ability to introduce multiple layers to a story. He doesn’t quite get the mix right here, but this tale is one of his early works, and his writing becomes much more refined over the years.

The premise for the Hulk! Magazine featuring a Moon Knight back up story was perhaps two-fold; first, it allowed the House of Ideas to promote a lesser-known character by piggybacking their story with that of a proven success. Secondly, featuring Moon Knight allowed for a nice contrast and offset to the more extravagant and superhuman stories of Bruce Banner’s alter ego.