Breaking down the comics: Taking the hit (Issue #26)
Moon Knight Issue #26: Hit it! / The Cabbie Killer
Two in one! What a wonderful time to be alive!
Also this cover really gives me modern comic feels and I have no idea why. I feel like I've seen a variant of this cover before or perhaps another comic did a similar theme. Hmmm.
We start with an editor's note from Denny O'Neil! That's either a good thing or a bad thing when it comes to a newer comic that is experiencing its first big few years and establishing characters and villains.
It reads:
Falling on our noses?
In tai chi chaun, a gentle and wonderful combination of martial arts and exercise, there is a concept called "exploring the limits." This means testing how close you can let an opponent come before he hits you and how far you can extend yourself towards him before you lose your balance and fall on your nose. What you learn is where your body is, its boundaries, and the distance it can be extended and yet retain wholeness and identity.
In Moon Knight we're exploring the limits.
We're asking: What kind of adventures can our hero have and still be his own unique self. (Can we do fantasy? Science fiction? Humor?) How long should stories be? (One per issue? Two? Three? Or should a story extend over a number of issues?) How many liberties can we take with the traditional comic book format? (Our black-and-white covers are a solid success. but we're not sure about our other experiments --putting the title on the inside cover, next issue ads on the back cover, text features, cover galleries and whatever we come up with next.)
Lots of questions. Very few answers.
But that's okay. In fact, that's fine. That's what makes working on Moon Knight just about the most exciting job in comics. I've always liked journeys and everyone likes surpirses and Moon Knight is both. The magazine--and character--are fluid, not fully defined and we're busy exploring the limits.
Of course, we may fall on our noses. You'll let us know if we do.
-Denny O'Neil.
Okay! So this is a big thing for early comics! Many of you are only familiar with newer age comics and have graced Golden Age comics with a peak or two. But we’re sitting firm in the early 80s and Moon Knight is indeed a character that is unlike any other that was sitting firm in Marvel’s top tier. Born from a supernatural/horror type portion of Marvel that saw the birth of Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night, and others of the likes, Moon Knight bordered on classic Super-hero and supernatural horror.
The note about Tai Chi and extension is actually really beautiful and a perfect metaphor for Moon Knight. I’ll have to remember that one!
Now, to have a clear call to arms in where to take Moon Knight means that they have had this conversation in the writing room. They don’t know what to do with the comic. They have classic stories and ideas, but they don’t want to start repeating themselves this early int he game, but they also don’t want to jump the shark.
It also means that this particular comic that we are about to read might be an experiment on where to take the comic. So let’s see what the story of the week is!
We open with some utterly outstanding art. I mean, this stuff is GOLD. We got TWO spreads people!
The first page describes the colors of sound. The beat of jazz and how it affects the senses.
"First there is black. Then tehre is light, and all the colors of Jazz. And there is sound in these colos. A wailing trumpet drips cool violet, threaded with smoke. Heavy blue lumbers from the bass... While the clarinet tempts and tantalizes in hot pink counterpoint. But the drum... The drum beats Blood Red."
We move from jazz to images of various uses of the phrase "Hit it!" Hit it to be starting the jazz band swinging. To fix a malfunctioing TV, to encourage a baseball player to hit the ball out of hte park to a child's drawing....
"Double meanings sometimes multiply."
An abusive father and a crying child.
"But even as a trumpet screams through the night...The drum still beats Blood Red.”
"Hit it, Moon Knight. The night is here, the moon is full, and caught between one and the other dark deeds will prowl. Hit it, Moon Knight. Hit it.
Cats in windows, cries from the alley, shadows mixing, and mysteries cloaked for the kill. Hit it, Moon Knight, Hit it.
Fear in lurking, money itching to change hands, twitching and always, always blood to be spilled.
It's hot, Moon Knight, and it's dark and it's now--Don't be late, Moon Knight, Not for your time to howl...
It might be in rage or it might be in pain...But never fear, Moon Knight, it's always the same.
Just hit it, Moon Knight... Hit it!"
Sometimes I think Moench just shows off. And then Sienkiewicz just FLEXES.
We see Moon Knight on patrol. He passes by a building and we hear some men talking.
One complains about the graveyard shift to Joe.
But Joe isn't paying attention. He's having a flashback.
He's reading the newspaper. Specifically the Obituaries. We see a children's drawing of the angry father. Joe throws the paper and runs away.
He runs to a jazz club where the crowd flows out onto the sidewalk.
Joe runs into the crowd and comes across a man in the way.
Moon Knight notices the commotion and heads on over.
"Just down the street the colors are wilder --Neon shrieks without mercy...And the beat is younger, faster, harder... Pounding, driving, relentlessly slamming... Everybody is doing it these days, getting great satisfaction..."
They move past the jazz club to a rock house.
Along the way we see people beaten, bloodied, and terribly wounded.
"By hitting...hitting...hitting it!"
Joe makes it to his destination at last: The funeral parlor.
"I'm coming old man! Coming to pay my respects!"
The blood red drum beats and he bursts into the parlor.
There he finds the coffin of his father.
A priest tries to speak to him.
Joe beats the man down.
Joe is ready to fight. To fight anyone that tries to stop him. That stands between him and his father. Him and his past.
"Did you come to hit me too? Well, come on then--Hit me! Hit me till your arms fall off! You might as well...
He did it often enough! He hit me till I couldn't sleep at night--Any night!
And then he hit me some more! And then he ran away--Left my mother alone! Finally he wouldn't hit me anymore! Finally he wouldn't even give me that!"
Narration: "Blood red... The beat never ends... Pain, catharsis, rage--They shriek through nights lost to time..."
Narration: "Turn away, Moon Knight--You were wrong--It's not your time to howl. There are others with stronger voice, greater cause..."
The priest interrupts demanding that Moon Knight stop him.
Moon Knight: "No... There's been enough hitting tonight... I won't add to it."
While Moon Knight talks to the priest, Joe stands up and punches Moon Knight.
Here we remember that Marc Spector was a boxer. His violence settling from the school yard to the ring until his father turned him out. Marc moved from the ring to the battle field to the mercenary role. Marc runs hot with rage and fire. Who is he here? The raging child fighting back or the monster with nowhere else to put his fire than into those around him?
A Rabbi once told him to stop. A Rabbi that tried to lead him down a path of passive peace when the world around him was violence and pain. A father that could not stand the sight of his son fighting back.
Now we see a priest telling him to fight and him standing up and saying there is enough violence in the world that perhaps just this once there can be peace.
And when violence falls on him, he does not take the passive path. He can’t. Everything Marc is and has been is refusing to look the other way while he is hurt.
Narration: The crowning madness... Long live the king. And so, Moon Knight, the night was yours after all... And once started, the drum beats blood red...Forever."
He is angry with himself. Angry at his loss of control. Angry that he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t stop the violence. He couldn’t stop his own rage. His own need to hit back. To hit it.
What an opener. This one has me feeling a lot here. The direction of past trauma on those around us. The need to get resolution only to have it taken away from us. How it leads to more pain. More hurt. More trauma.
Does this remind anyone of anything?
Yeah. I went there.
PART TWO: Cabbie Killer!
This story is written by Denny O'Neil with artist Keith Pollard and editor Ralph Macchio.
I know what you’re thinking. “Oh no, Jake!”
We open on Jake sitting in his cab late at night.
"This is Lockley. I'm headin' for the garage after I drop my fare."
In the buses waits a man with a bazooka.
Narration: It is quiet in Brooklyn, this cool autumn evening, as Jake Lockley ends a day of driving around New York City--Quiet for exactly four more seconds...Then, two events occur simultaneously. Lockley stamps on the breake to avoid "STUPID DOG" --and the car parked a few feet away erupts in eye stinging flame...
Jake's fare asks if it was an accident or a bomb.
Jake sits stunned. "Neither. Just before the fireworks, I glimpsed a muzzle flash from the bushes. Weird as it seems, somebody shot off an old fashioned Bazooka! The thing that bugs me is, it looked like we were the target.... You got any enemies, mister?"
Jake's fare decides it's probably safer to walk and departs the cab. Probably for the best.
We cut to an hour or so later on a pier somewhere. We see a man in fancy military garb talking to another guy.
He explains that because of the dog, he missed his target and the target got away. He explains that he will try again with success next time.
The other guy tells him he doesn't give second chances and to 'take a hike'.
Military guy isn't happy.
"You have hired me to destroy a taxi cab and so I shall--whether you like it or not. I gave my word--And Commodore Donny Planet always keeps his word. Understood?"
Let me just say: WHAT A NAME.
Oh no. I didn't think it was this issue. I suppose I take solace in knowing now that it isn’t Bill that gave us Speeden. It always seems wrong to see old Moon Knight drawn by someone else. They just don’t get the face right.
But they sure do get the dialogue right. And the name. Steven. Because we all know who the vain one of the group is. Someone has to take care of the body and we all know it isn’t going to be Marc or Jake.
Ladies and Gents and all of the others, I give you Speedo Steven.
The pool scene wasn’t even needed. He literally came home after being shot at by a bazooka, changed into Steven, took a dip into a pool, then ran off to Brooklyn as Moon Knight. There was absolutely ZERO need for Steven to get into the smallest speedo he could find and take a swim. He even demanded that Marlene and Frenchie….wait. He demanded that Marlene meet him by the pool. She showed up in a bikini, expecting lovely pool time. Frenchie just showed up! In full attire. He was just there for the show. He takes it where he can get it, I suppose.
Moon Knight, now flying over the city, spots something burning. On closer look, he finds a cab on fire.
It seems the Bazooka man found a cab to hit.
Saddened by the loss of a cab, he is at least relieved to know that Jake Lockley is not the primary target.
Moon Knight tells Frenchie to take them to the Queens Cemetery.
"For months, I've known that a lot of our local criminal types play poker there every Friday night...They figure they won't be disturbed. Maybe one of them will have some answers for us."
Once there, he directs Frenchie to grab his cab and park it near the north gate.
I just gotta say... I have always loved the idea that all the bad guys get together to play poker and complain about their foes. Takes me back to the Batman Animated Series "Almost got him" episode.
I also gotta say that no one draws Moon Knight's face right in classic outfit with little emotive eyes like Bill. This one is just...lacking. They also over buffed him out in muscles.
Just a small criticism.
I do appreciate that Frenchie does still have his moon hat though. I love that stupid hat.
Moon Knight takes out the guards and interrupts the poker party.
One of the guys at the party knows something and spills it.
"One of my boys was runnin' from the law...Ducked into a garage and hid a certain tape cassette the cops want in a cab. He told us that much before he died from a slug in the chest. Problem was he didn't say which cab or where in the cab he hid it."
Turns out three cabs were in the garage that night. They hired Commando man to track the three cabs down.
The boss man at the table laughs that Moon Knight isn't going anywhere and calls over a hired goon with a gun.
Crawley!
Now Crawley is a sort of undercover informant for Moon Knight and all the baddies at the poker table trust him.
So Moon Knight has a problem. He can't fight Crawley like he was a regular thug. But if Crawley doesn't shoot him then they will know he's working for Moon Knight and lose all trust.
Crawley takes a wide shot and Moon Knight uses the chance and kicks Crawley in the face.
The choices he makes sometimes...
Crawley is knocked out and the thugs all scatter. He takes a moment to make sure Crawley is alright then runs after the main guy.
The boss spots a nearby parked cab and jumps in.
Moon Knight calmly sits at the wheel.
He informs the boss that this is one of the cabs from the garage and that he suspects the Bazooka man is waiting at the garage for a shot.
"You've got a choice: Either tell me where to find your assassin or we cruise 'round and 'round till HE finds US! Might take all night, but I'm in no hurry."
The boss is more than ready to give up the goods and tells Moon Knight where Commodore Donny Planet is.
He finds the Commodore in a boat. They fight and Moon Knight finds the Commodore to be freakishly strong.
Moon Knight strikes at normally vulnerable spots only to get tossed around like nothing.
It's near invulnerable vs. Moon Knight's ability to take the most brutal beating and keep going.
Moon Knight switches tactics and tosses some Judo in, keeping the large man off balance.
He knocks the man off the boat into a fishing net.
"The safe thing-The smart thing- would be to just let him drown." He contemplates for but a moment. "No."
He jumps in and saves the large brute then leaves him for the cops.
And that’s the end of the cabbie killer.
I must say, this one ended on a let down. I feel that if Moench had written it, we’d have ended on Jake finding the tape in his cab or something to indicate that he was the mark all along. Maybe that’s just me.
Especially after the first half with “HIT IT”. That one was really amazing. Fantastic art, a very heavy subject, and only took a few pages to cover it. Even though it didn’t end with a distinct note, it still felt like an end. A story that needed to be told that still somehow painted a picture of Moon Knight despite it being a one off that didn’t give any sort of moral or definitive point. The man still was angry over a past pain that will never be resolved. He’ll end up in prison because of all the people he hurt, and his mental health will never be addressed.
And that editorial at the start! What a piece! Learning to reach only as far as our body can go and learning not to get hit. I'm going to be thinking about that one for a while. Wow.
But that’s the story of Moon Knight, isn’t it? A story of underlining pain and trauma that affects his everyday life but that is never resolved, addressed, or healed. How it radiates out to affect everyone around him and the way he struggles to make the right choice and do the right thing…even though everything around him forces him back into that corner that forces him to fight for his life over and over again.
memes and your regular fandom posts aside, my dash is like 75% shock and horror over brexit and 25% breathless joy over crossingscon and it is making me feel things.
1) even when I feel unlovable, people can love me. 2) people change and friendships change and that's okay. 3) ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. 4) even when everything seems more hopeless than it ever has, God's grace abounds. 5) sometimes you need to get some space and distance yourself from a situation to see it clearly. 6) there is nothing more lovely than knowing you have a hand that's yours to hold. 7) sometimes the only thing you can do for someone is sit in silence and let them know you're there. 8) its hard not to fall in love with someone who sees your broken pieces and isn't afraid of being cut by them but instead tries to put them back together with their love 9) pursue what you're actually passionate about not what people say you should be passionate about. 10) the world so desperately needs the light and hope of Christ 11) its okay to completely walk away from things or people that are toxic to your mental, physical, or emotional health. 12) take time to rest. 13) being honest and vulnerable is one of the most beautiful things a person can do. 14) there are some really good days and some really bad days and you have to fight through the bad days with the knowledge that the good days are coming, even if it doesn't feel like it. 15) pain is overwhelming and seeing others in pain is overwhelming in an entirely new way and it's an unspeakable and unexplainable thing. 16) sometimes you realize most of the reason you were friends with people is because you saw them all the time and when you don't see them as often it changes the whole relationship. 17) its okay if I miss the way things used to be 18) pursue knowledge and understanding 19) being an adult means having to manage your own sleep schedule and money and plans and when you eat and its really hard 20) getting third and having fun is better than winning and being stressed out 21) listening to sad music doesn't make you any less sad 22) mental health is more important than grades 23) laughter heals 24) sometimes the emotions you feel don't make sense and that's okay they're still valid 25) God can bring beauty from ashes 26) its okay not to know what I'm doing with my life right this second 27) letting people see the broken parts of me is a good thing even though its scary 28) working hard at something you love is better than doing something easy that you don't 29) sometimes people don't like you and there's nothing you can do about it 30) i need to take hold of my own life and take responsibility for it because no one else can
