(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! Regularly, 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 JUSTIN O. – Guest Writer

While being an entertaining story overall, this issue feels a little weak compared to those that preceded and follow it. The creative team involved did passable work here, but I feel that it’s average at best.

I have always enjoyed Keith Pollard’s artwork but found his take on Marc Spector a little uninspired. In one panel, I had to do a double-take before I realized what I was looking at was supposed to be Marc’s hair. Frank Giacoa was not an ideal choice for inks with Pollard’s pencils, but there were several panels with Moon Knight in his new cape where the combination worked well.

The dialogue is very repetitive in nature. At one point, Marlene refers to Marc as “darling” five times over the course of two pages; later on, “dahling” is repeated no less than four times. Granted, this is early in the character development of Moon Knight’s love interest, but here depiction here seems light years away from the Marlene we observed in Marvel Spotlight #28 and #29.

Review: Hulk Magazine #12 (Moon Knight Backup Story)

STORY SYNOPSIS: Moon Knight comes to the rescue of Marlene, who has just been wounded by a blast from an antique musket wielded by the lunatic Fenton Crane. Before the mad museum curator fires off another blast at Moon Knight, the lunar avenger jams the firing mechanism with his truncheon and makes short work of his foe in one-on-one combat.

After Crane is knocked unconscious, Moon Knight brings Marlene up to speed on the scheme involving the statue of Horus. Making a gamble that the statue was hidden inside a hollow jade idol, our hero finds instead the business card of Alphonse Leroux, the Chilean ambassador. A plot is quickly formed to pay a visit to the embassy as Steven Grant, and Frenchie picks up both Moon Knight and Marlene in the moon-copter.

Back at Grant Mansion, Marlene uses some of Steven’s connections to get the duo invited to a dinner party at the embassy. The Fist of Khonshu also ponders alterations to his cape with Marlene’s assistance to make it more free-flowing and less restrictive.

During the dinner at the French Embassy, Steven and Marlene eventually make their introductions to Alphonse Leroux – who, naturally, is taken with Marlene’s beauty – and eventually Steven is able to have a private conversation with Leroux. Grant lets Leroux know that he is very interested in purchasing the Horus statue, and a subtle deal is made to accommodate Grant’s interest in the statue at the Chilean Embassy later that evening at Midnight.

Making his debut in his new cloak, Moon Knight sneaks onto the Chilean Embassy grounds that evening but is attacked by a pack of guard dogs, who end up cornering him in a tree. Coating one of his crescent darts with his saliva, he tosses it at an opposing tree inside the dogs’ kennel, and after the dogs chase it, our hero is able to lock them inside. Several guards come outside to investigate the commotion, leaving the lunar avenger free to do his own investigation within the embassy.

Moments later, Moon Knight locates the Horus statue inside a glass display case. He also overhears Leroux in the next room, talking to a third party and informing them of Grant’s intentions to purchase the statue from him – and also his intentions to have Grant “roughed up” a bit. Moon Knight slips back outside to find the guards inside the dog kennel, having spotted the crescent dark stuck in the tree, and locks them inside of the kennel, giving him a chance to launch a surprise attack once they climb out.

A fantastic fight follows, and Moon Knight is able to give the guards a thorough thrashing, without a single one of them able to lay a finger on him. One of them is able to fire some shots off before being kicked in the face, however.

Upon hearing this, Leroux goes outside to find all the dogs locked in their kennel, all of the guards knocked unconscious, and none other than Steven Grant striding through the gate. He informs Leroux that he will pay half a million dollars for the Horus statue, but only if a courier of Grant’s choosing delivers the money to the third party Leroux was talking to on the telephone – that courier being none other than Moon Knight, of course!

FINAL THOUGHTS: There are some definite highlights to this issue, one being the introduction of the free-flowing cloak which would complete what we all know as the “classic” look for Moon Knight. Although I personally enjoyed the original glider-cape, the regular cloak looks so much better on the character and it was nice to see it for the first time.

Another “first” we see in this issue – this is the first time the readers witness Moon Knight dive from the moon-copter into the pool at Grant mansion and surface inside Grant’s bedroom via a secret tunnel! This was a neat concept and a testament to Doug Moench’s creativity.

The real highlight of the issue is the fight at the embassy between Moon Knight and the guards. The reader gets to see just what a force of nature the lunar avenger is in a fight, especially against more than five combatants at once.

Pollard’s art, although a bit clunky in places in the rest of the issue, really shines in this fight sequence, and the missteps in dialogue earlier in the story are redeemed as Moon Knight issues a stern warning to the guard: “Now listen to me, you silly jackasses, and listen good. I’m willin’ to walk right out of here without so much as another scuffed knuckle, but it’s all up to you. So just don’t press your luck.” Naturally, the goons do press their luck and fail, but Moon Knight’s delivery is another reminder of just why he is my favorite Marvel hero. “Even with a gun, saps like you were born to lose!”

Sadly, I still can’t suspend my disbelief enough to buy the tactic Moon Knight used to get the guard dogs to chase his crescent dart: covering it in his own saliva. Did he have rare steak just before going to the embassy? Some beef jerky? I confess to shaking my head at that one.

Overall, this is an important issue as it introduces Moon Knight’s now-classic cloak, and it is a fitting precursor to the fantastic “Countdown to Dark” storyline which follows directly after it. Thankfully, readers won’t have long to wait before the beginning of a period of true greatness and what I consider a “treasure trove” of Moon Knight appearances.

In addition to its original appearance in Hulk Magazine #12, “Embassy of Fear” is available to read in black and white in the first volume of Essential Moon Knight, and reprinted in color in the Epic Collection “Bad Moon Rising”.