Longbox Junk - The Spectacular Spider-Man #35

Welcome to Longbox Junk! It's the blog where I just keep on writing comic reviews nobody asked for!

Sorry about the delays again.  There's always a huge bump in business toward the end of summer when people who put stuff off for the past few months are rushing to get in some fun time with the kids before they go back to school.  It's just one of those strange things about hotels that the END of summer is one of the busiest times of the year.

ANYWAY. . .

I felt like getting a little random this time out, so I basically generated a random number between 1 - 40 (the number of boxes I keep in my comic-cave) online. That got me one of my "S" boxes.   Then I closed my eyes and pulled out a comic.

And here we are.

Truthfully, I'm not much of a Spider-Man fan.  Don't get me wrong. . .a cool comic story is a cool comic story, and Spidey has some pretty cool stories.  I'm just not one of those guys who goes out of my way to collect massive full runs of the many Spider-Man titles.  Most of the issues I have, I've either gotten by accident as part of a larger lot, or they had a great cover that caught my eye.

This is one of those great cover issues.  I've never actually read this comic, but I have had it up on my rotating "Wall O' Covers" in my office several times.  So, now the question becomes: Is the story as cool as the cover?

Let's find out!

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #35

Marvel (1979)

COVER: Carmine Infantino

LABYRINTH

SCRIPT:  Tony Isabella

PENCILS: Lee Elias & Mike Esposito

INKS: Mike Esposito

THE COVER:

Like I said above, I might not be a big Spider-Man fan, but I AM a fan of great comic covers. . .and in MY book, this is a great Spider-Man cover!  I mean, just LOOK at it! What's not to like?  Eye-catching contrasting blacks, reds and yellows. . .the hero in an iconic pose, leaping at the reader. THIS is a cover that delivers a nice punch of great Bronze Age art in the Mighty Marvel Manner!

So yeah. . .great cover.  Let's get inside and see what's going on with the story!

THE STORY:

We begin our tale with the Spectacular Spider-Man, wracked with pain and falling, mid web swing. We see a mysterious figure who realizes that if Spidey falls to his death, he will be robbed of revenge.  

He releases the hold on Spider-Man's mind and the disoriented wall-crawler smashes through a window and into a building, only to be confronted by two police officers intent on arresting him!

As Spidey tries to reason with the police, the mysterious figure once again invades his mind, commanding him to kill!  Spidey manages to fight back the mental commands enough to avoid killing the officers, but the mysterious voice in his head demonstrates his ability to mentally control Spider-Man by forcing him to throw himself against walls!

Spidey, helpless to resist the mental commands, follows the voice in his head to an old neighborhood, and then to a run-down shack.  Inside that shack, he finally meets his tormentor. It's a foe that he had fought once before (in Amazing Spider-Man #138), now back for revenge. . .the mutant mindbender called MINDWORM!

As Spider-Man tries and fails to fight free of Mindworm, the villain gloats and gives Spidey (as well as the reader) a quick recap of his short-lived criminal career, brought short by the hero now helpless before him. . .

A psychic parasite who gained strength from draining the emotions and thoughts of those in his area, Mindworm had taken a large group of people to feed on until Spidey had fought and defeated him, leaving him unable to feed on emotions, which nearly killed him.

After their battle, Mindworm spent several months in the hospital close to death, but during that time, he had found the strength to increase his mental powers and escape custody!  With newfound energy, Mindworm was determined to have his vengeance on Spider-Man!

The villain's origin flashback monologue now at an end, Mindworm blasts Spidey out of a window, where the hero falls into a strange maze-like place.  Almost immediately, a woman rushes out of the shadows, she recognizes Spider-Man and cries out for help!

She introduces herself as Dr. Joyce Phillips, Mindworm's doctor at the time the villain escaped from the hospital.  Spider-Man tries to make sense of it all, but there's little time for conversation with his new companion as gigantic rats leap out and attack them!

It's a brutal, savage battle against the giant rats, but Spider-Man manages to win the fight and save the frightened Doctor from the oversized vermin!

With the immediate danger overcome, Doctor Joyce tells Spider-Man that she's not a medical doctor, but a psychiatrist who was trying to help Mindworm through his personality conflicts before he escaped.  

She recognizes the rats as one of Mindworm's mental traumas. . .he had been bitten by a rat as a child. She believes that she and Spidey are trapped in a labyrinth of Mindworms own neuroses!  

Further speculation on their strange situation is interrupted by a howling blast of wind that carries the two of them to parts unknown!

Spider-Man and the doctor regain consciousness only to find themselves confronting a grotesque blob-like creature!  

As it speaks with the voice of Mindworm and shouts it's hate of all mankind, Doctor Joyce tells Spidey that this is Mindworm's final embrace of inhumanity and alienation, and that they must help him before he is completely engulfed by madness!  

All Spidey knows is that he's finally in a position where he might actually be able to fight Mindworm and escape the prison of the villain's mind . . .

Unfortunately for Spidey, in the mental maze of Mindworm, he's at a disadvantage.  Mindworm sprouts tentacles and pummels Spidey.  Worse, the wallcrawler still doesn't have a way to fight against Mindworm's mental attacks!

Doctor Joyce shouts to Spidey that the only way he's going to be able to defeat Mindworm is mentally! If Mindworm is in Spidey's head, then THAT'S where he has to fight the villain!

And so Spider-Man opens his mind and is able to see some of what makes Mindworm tick.  He taunts the villain about his parents. . .accidentally killed with his powers.  An enraged Mindworm struggles against the truth, that his anger at the world is anger at HIMSELF!

In accepting the truth, Mindworm sees that he's still capable of being human, and in doing so, he defeats his greatest enemy. . .his own anger at himself.

The battle against Mindworm won, Peter Parker wakes up in an icy sweat in his own bed. . .it was all just a nightmare! OR WAS IT?

Peter suits up as Spidey and swings across town to the psychiatric hospital where Mindworm was confined after their original battle.  He's determined to get to the bottom of things.  Sneaking outside of Mindworm's window, Spidey is surprised to see Doctor Joyce. . .but she's just a nurse and not a psychiatrist.  

As he wonders just what is going on, Spidey is shocked to realize that Mindworm can read his thoughts as he invites Spider-Man into the room to ask his questions.

A calm and composed Mindworm tells Spider-Man that he never intended to drag the hero into his own internal struggle, but he's glad that it happened by accident.  

By fighting with Spider-Man, Mindworm was able to defeat his inner demons, but more importantly, he learned from Spider-Man that with great power comes great responsibility. . .and it's time to use his power responsibly.

Spider-Man is surprised by the turn of events.  He came expecting another fight, and discovered that he'd helped a villain turn the page from evil without even realizing it.  Taking the unexpected victory as it is, Spider-Man and Mindworm part ways peacefully.  All's well that ends well.

The End.

THE REVIEW:

Okay, okay. . .not bad.  Not bad at all.  Let's break it on down!

I think I've mentioned a time or two that Tony Isabella is one of my favorite Bronze Age writers.  The thing I like most about his stories is that there's ALWAYS a little something to think about.  Even in this filler one and done Spider-Man comic, he takes an otherwise average superhero punch-up and throws an unexpected villain redemption ending at us!  Nicely done, Mr. Isabella!

Taken as a whole, the issue's story is decent.  Not really too memorable or groundbreaking.  A solid bit of  Bronze Age superhero storytelling.  Good for what it is, but ultimately nothing much to remember.

 But that ending. . .those last two pages.  A villain able to go into Spidey's head and taking the classic "With great power comes great responsibility" to heart and deciding to change his ways.  Now THAT'S a tasty and unexpected turn.  

On the art side of things, we have cover to cover of some good, clean Bronze Age artwork.  It might not be the GREATEST art out there, but it tells the story nicely and there's nothing wrong with it.  Like I always say. . .not EVERY comic has to be a masterpiece.  I'd rather have a good, solid piece of work than have someone try TOO hard to be different.  This is exactly the kind of art I want in a good old piece of superhero fun like this.

CONCLUSION

What we have here is a story that COULD have just been what it is. . .a filler.  But thanks to Tony Isabella, what we got was a little more meat on the bone than what I would have expected from a late 70s Spider-Man comic.  The ending of this story just tells me once again why Mr. Isabella is one of my favorite Bronze Age writers.

If you're a Spider-Man fan, a fan of Bronze Age superhero comics, or a fan of Tony Isabella (or maybe all three!), then I can certainly recommend this comic as a tasty little nugget of Bronze Age Longbox Junk gold.   From the outstanding cover, to the thoughtful ending, to the solid art throughout, there's NOTHING I can find to gripe about.  They can't all be winners, but this one is!

Up Next. . .

I like where going random took me this time.  I think I'll try it again.

In the box I go, what I pull, nobody knows!

Be there or be square.

Longbox Junk - Marvel Team-Up #128

Welcome to Longbox Junk! It's the place to find all the comic reviews you never wanted!

It's still July, and it's still HOT!

Here in Utah (on the 26th of July), the fireworks are finally winding down, and that means that my yearly Longbox Junk spotlight on Captain America is ALSO winding down. . .but I'm not done just yet!

Let's crank up the Longbox Junk time machine for a short hop back to 1983.  There we will find Captain America teaming up with Spider-Man to tackle not only a verminous villain, but also to weather the stormy seas of LOVE!

Ready? Let's do it!

MARVEL TEAM-UP #128

Marvel (1983)

COVER: Eliot R. Brown

SWEET TEMPTATION

SCRIPT: J.M. DeMatteis

PENCILS: Kerry Gammill

INKS: Mike Esposito

THE COVER:

Marvel put out a few of these composite photo covers (DC did a few as well).  They ARE unusual and interesting for what they are, but truthfully I've never really liked them.  The use of live models for this one just makes it even worse than the others.  

It's cool that they tried something different and I realize that there's actually a collecting niche for these covers, and that there are people who really dig them, but I think that they were reaching beyond the grasp of available technology, and it didn't come out great. . .in MY humble opinion.

 Let's get inside!

THE STORY:

We begin our tale with a trip to the fair, following Peter Parker and Steve Rogers as they try to enjoy a bit of time off from being superheroes.  Unfortunately Peter isn't having much fun.  He's a bit torn about falling in love with a criminal (Black Cat) and what that means for him as a hero. His friends Mia and Roger try, but they don't have much luck cheering Peter up.

Steve Rogers ALSO isn't having as much fun as he should be.  His girlfriend Bernie is excited to be spending time with Steve away from him being Captain America, but Steve is reluctant to completely commit.  His last relationship (with Sharon Carter, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) ended in death and disaster.  He doesn't want a repeat of the same happening to him again.

Pete and Steve run into each other as they wander through the fair, they know each other from work at the Daily Bugle (where Steve had worked doing some illustrations in the recent past), but not as Spider-Man and Captain America.  Pete, Steve, and company decide to join up and enjoy the fair together.

BUT. . .

Their fun is soon interrupted by a swarm of rats sweeping through the fair! Pete's Spidey-Sense alerts him to danger!

The rats are quickly joined by a feral pack of dogs, led by a twisted creature. . .half man and half rat!

Steve recognizes the man-rat as Vermin.  An unfortunate victim of Baron Zemo's experiments in a Mexican castle.  A normal man whose brutal and evil nature was brought to the fore by mad science!

Vermin and his minions begin to wreak havoc through the fair.

Both knowing this is a job for a super hero, Pete and Steve tell their loved ones to leave, and then rush to find a place to change into their "business clothes".  Both of them find a nearby men's room, quickly change, and then run into each other as they head into battle! They immediately decide to team up to take down Vermin and his minions.

And the battle is joined! It's not an easy fight, but eventually Cap and Spidey gain the upper hand.  Vermin and his minions retreat and vanish before the heroes can give chase. 

 In the aftermath of the fight, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. shows up on the scene. . .Gail Runciter.  She and Captain America had been at odds over her actions during Cap's assault on Zemo's Mexican castle recently.  Cap's reaction to her interference had been overly-strong.  They agree to talk it out.

At Gail's nearby apartment, she and Cap have a heart to heart talk.  They come to terms over their conflict, but then Cap is surprised when Gail reveals that she has feelings for Cap. . .strong feelings that have nothing to do with their work together.

Cap is surprised to realize that he also has feelings toward Gail.  Feelings that definitely conflict with his growing relationship with Bernie.  The two of them have a moment, but Cap resists the temptation  and leaves to sort things out in his head.

MEANWHILE. . .

Peter arrives back at his apartment to find Mia waiting alone for him.  Her boyfriend Roger has left and she stayed to make sure Peter was okay after the commotion at the fair.  As Mia tends to Peter's wounds, he begins to wonder what it would be like to be with her. . .a normal woman. . .no super-hero/villain drama.  

The two of them begin to have a little moment of their own. . .a moment that is interrupted by a news bulletin about Vermin taking over a nearby grocery store!  Peter leaves his feeling behind for the moment and quickly rushes a confused Mia out of his apartment.  It's back to work as Spider-Man!

As Spidey swings into action and arrives at the grocery store, Captain America also arrives on the scene, having also heard the bulletin.  The two of them agree to team up again and finish what was started earlier at the fair.  

The two of them head in, even though it's an obvious trap.  Spidey's Spider-Sense kicks in and warns of Vermin's ambush, and then it's ON!

As Cap and Spidey battle vermin, they both find themselves distracted and making little mistakes that they shouldn't.  They both realize that their moments of temptation are weighing on them more than they thought and affecting them in ways they don't like.

But despite the distractions, both Spidey and Cap shake it off and manage to finally win the day!

The heroes leave Vermin to the authorities and head out together to discuss what happened. . .

As the two heroes relax on a nearby rooftop, they talk about how maybe they were off their game a little bit because they saw something of themselves in Vermin. . .something neither of them liked very much.

Cap and Spidey say their farewells and head back to those who love them, both heroes putting their moments of temptation behind them as lessons learned.  All's well that ends well.

The End. 

THE REVIEW:

THIS is the kind of comic book that brings me right back to my Bronze Age childhood.  It's full of action, has a splash of drama, and is generally somewhat silly and forgettable.  But over all of that, it's FUN.  It's Captain America and Spider-Man teaming up to beat down a villain.  The outcome is never in doubt.  You KNOW the heroes are going to save the day.  It's just good old Bronze Age fun!

That said, J.M. DeMatteis DOES add a little depth to the story by focusing not only on Cap and Spidey, but ALSO Pete and Steve as they resist temptation and ponder what it means to be in love as a superhero.  

DeMatteis was the writer on the mainline Captain America title at the time, and from the few issues I have of this period in Cap's history, it seems he was wanting to more fully explore Captain America's "secret" identity of Steve Rogers than other writers before.  I like that he carried that through to this seemingly inconsequential team-up issue and made it more than a punch-fest.

On the art side, Kerry Gammill provides some solid work that even has a few pretty great moments. . .my favorite is the page I scanned above where Cap and Spidey are both using the same men's room stalls to change in without realizing it.  A great, funny moment!  His scenes of Spidey swinging through the city are also very nicely done.

CONCLUSION

Like I said in my review of Captain America and Hawkeye, not every comic has to be a masterpiece.  Sometimes you just want to have some forgettable fun with some colorful superheroes.  That describes THIS comic perfectly.  

It's not the greatest comic story ever written. . .but it doesn't have to be.  It's not the greatest art I've ever seen. . .but it doesn't have to be.  It's not the most memorable comic in my collection. . .but it doesn't have to be.  It's just a quick, fun read, full of Bronze Age memories for those who happened to be there at the time.

I can certainly recommend this issue to any fan of Spider-Man or Captain America (or Bronze Age superhero comics in general) as a fun little team-up comic with just a splash of "secret identity" drama.  

As far as I can tell, it's never been collected, so you'll have to read it online or find the actual issue in a back issue bin (like I did. . .for TWO lousy dollars).  But if you're looking for some good old Bronze Age superhero fun, go ahead and grab this one if you spot it.  It's a nice little nugget of Longbox Junk.

Up Next. . .

A few weeks ago I picked up a half-dozen of Marvel's Indiana Jones comics at a yard sale.

How about we take a look inside one and see what's going on? 

Be there or be square!

Longbox Junk - Spider-Man 2099 #1

Welcome to Longbox Junk, the blog FULL of comic reviews you never asked for!

Marvel 2099.

If you've ever been Longbox Junkin' through a bargain bin, I can GUARANTEE you've seen some Marvel 2099 comics.  Like Marvel's New Universe, the early "We wanna be Marvel" Image, and just about anything from Valiant or Malibu, Marvel 2099 comics are some of the ubiquitous bread and butter books that can be found in almost ANY bargain bin out there.

But what IS Marvel 2099? Why are there so many of them in the buck-a-book-bins?  Are they worth reading? SO MANY QUESTIONS!  Well, I've decided to dive into the world of Marvel 2099 over the next few Longbox Junk posts and see if I can find some answers.

Let's tackle the first question first.  What IS Marvel 2099?

The basic answer is that Marvel 2099 was a project by Marvel Comics launched in 1992 to showcase the mainstream Marvel Universe 100 years in the future (107 years, actually.  But who's counting?). In a nutshell. . .science fiction superhero comics.

The setting was a dark, dystopian, cyberpunk future where powerful corporations basically run the world.  The superheroes of the past are long gone (due to some sort of calamity that isn't really explained. . .it has something to do with Doctor Doom) and are pretty much legends of a time called "The Heroic Age". But now a NEW age of heroes is at hand!

Marvel 2099 launched with four original series. . .Spider-Man 2099, Doom 2099, Punisher 2099, and Ravage 2099.  Of the four, only Ravage was based on an entirely new character and not a re-imagined future version of an existing character.  Not to digress, and we'll discuss this more later, but Ravage 2099 also has the distinction of being Stan Lee's last work on a monthly comic series.

The 2099 imprint was an immediate hit with readers, with Spider-Man 2099 being the most popular title, and remaining the most popular 2099 title to this very day, where Spider-Man 2099 has been in several series post-2099 collapse, and still makes fairly regular guest appearances.

The rest of the 2099 titles were also popular enough that Marvel continued to release 2099 titles until 1998.  Another victim of the collapse of the comic industry in general around that time.  They were comics that were highly-regarded by fans at the beginning, and hardly-noticed at the end.

Over the next few Longbox Junk entries, I'm going to take a look at the first issues of some of these 2099 comics.  First up is the top dog of the bunch, the aforementioned Spider-Man 2099.  

It's the only 2099 character that has managed to outlive the imprint itself, and the only one that is even the least bit "collectible" today.  And when I say "collectible", what I mean is that a nice clean graded and slabbed 9.6 copy of Spider-Man 2099 #1 will get you about $100.  That ain't retirement money, folks.

SO. . .

It's not worth much to collectors, but still seems to be pretty popular.

Now the question becomes, "Is it any good?"

Spider-Man in a dark, cyberpunk future.  Let's check it out!

SPIDER-MAN 2099 #1

Marvel 2099 (1992)

COVER: Rick Leonardi

Begin the Future History of Spider-Man 2099

SCRIPT: Peter David

PENCILS: Rick Leonardi

INKS: Al Williamson

THE COVER:

90s-TASTIC! My apologies for the poor scan that doesn't properly show off the shiny red foil border.  I tried several times and this is the best I could do.  I looked online and it seems a lot of people have the same problem.  That red foil just does NOT scan well.  Trust me, it looks SO good. BUT I DIGRESS!

What we have here is a wonderful portrait of Spider-Man 2099 leaping into action, nicely showcasing the new Spidey's cool costume design!  The bright yellow title has a really interesting look and contrasts perfectly with the shiny red foil that you can't really see here.  THIS is a cover that jumps out and catches the eye!

It's such a great cover in just about every way (There ARE the weird 90s feet, but nothing is perfect, right?). I just love this cover! I'm not even a Spider-Man fan, but this awesome 90s cover makes me want to get inside and check this comic out, so let's GO!

THE STORY:

New York (er. . .NUEVA York), 2099.  We begin our tale in progress as the Alchemax Corporate police force called Public Eye pursue a mysterious and highly-agile costumed figure through the towering downtown skyscrapers.  He manages to eventually elude them by going to ground and blending into the crowd at a shopping mall. . .

The mysterious figure makes his way home to Babylon Towers, a luxury apartment building owned by the Alchemax Corporation.  Here, we learn that his name is Miguel O'Hara and are introduced to his virtual personal assistant, Lyla, as Miguel watches video messages he's received over the past five days.

The messages from his employer Tyler Stone, his brother Gabe, and his fiancée Dana introduce us to several supporting characters.  They are all deeply concerned in one way or another about some sort of serious situation or incident that Miguel was involved in.  Miguel ignores the messages and begins making a journal entry. . .

O'Hara is (or WAS) a hotshot genetic scientist working for Alchemax Corporation.  He was working on a project to create a superior "Corporate Raider".  A genetically-enhanced special operative to do Corporate dirty work.  He was basing his research on a figure of the long past "Heroic Age" called Spider-Man, who seems to have been genetically-enhanced with spider DNA somehow.

The head of O'Hara's research department, Tyler Stone, demands that the project be tested on a human subject.  Miguel protests that the project isn't ready for human trials yet, but Tyler is O'Hara's superior and insists the trial go forward on a convict that has been chosen.

Miguel reluctantly agrees and performs a modified trial run on the convict meant to enhance his DNA for increased strength by combining it with an ape.  The experiment goes badly and the convict is transformed into a twisted mutant with superhuman strength that attacks Miguel, but dies quickly after breaking free.  Miguel is horrified, while the other scientists are pleased with the progress.

Miguel is so shaken by the incident he was forced to take part in that he immediately goes to Stone's office and resigns from Alchemax.  Tyler seems sympathetic to Miguel's reasons for resigning and even shares a drink with him.

Unfortunately for Miguel, Tyler reveals soon after their toast that the drink contained Rapture. . .an extremely powerful and highly-addictive drug created by Alchemax.  A drug that bonds with the DNA and makes escape from addiction to it almost impossible.  And since Alchemax is the only one who manufactures Rapture, Tyler is certain that Miguel will "reconsider" his resignation.

Horrified by the thought of becoming a chemically addicted slave to Alchemax, Miguel tries to fight the effects of the Rapture and fails.  He violently attacks his fiancée when she tries to calm him down.  Miguel reveals how he's been tricked into being addicted to Rapture.  Dana understands, but is unable to help him.  

Miguel resolves to not become a slave.  He comes up with a desperate plan to sneak back into his Alchemax lab and subject himself to the DNA combining process he's been working on.  The experiment has Miguel's DNA profile encoded in its files, so he can replace his Rapture mutated DNA with a copy of his own clean and unaltered DNA.

It's a good plan, and it seems to be working.  Unfortunately for Miguel, another scientist on the project finds O'Hara during the process.  The scientist, Aaron Delgato, is a rival of O'Hara's and believes that he's been pushed aside and his contributions to the project ignored while Miguel takes all the credit.  

Delgato sabotages the experiment by shutting off the safety overrides and injecting a random DNA profile into the process. . .the spider DNA O'Hara was hoping to use to create an enhanced Corporate Raider. 

 The sabotaged equipment explodes, but the sequencing had completed. Delgato is stunned to see O'Hara stagger from the wreckage. . .somehow alive!  He confronts Miguel, gloating about how Stone will put O'Hara away forever for destroying the lab, but is horrified to discover that Miguel O'Hara has been mutated by the experiment into a horrific human-like creature with fangs and claws. . .Dun-Dun-DUUUUUN!!

The End. . .To Be Continued.

THE REVIEW:

It's plain to see that Marvel learned some lessons from their failed "New Universe" initiative a few years prior to Marvel 2099.  They weren't taking any chances THIS time around!  Marvel hedged their bets by rolling out Spider-Man 2099 first, with legendary modern comic veteran writer Peter David on the story.  And they were absolutely right that the magic was there this time!

I'm not a big Spider-Man fan, so I know Peter David more as an Incredible Hulk writer (where he had an award-winning TWELVE YEAR run), and I could definitely see shades of the Hulk in this story of science gone wrong.  I'd go so far as to say that this seems more like a proxy Hulk story than a Spider-Man story at all!

Yeah, it's DNA manipulation instead of Gamma Rays, but the same sense of scientific body horror is present in Miguel O'Hara's origin.  And THAT'S what I really like about this story.  David didn't take the easy path of making the 2099 Spider-Man a clone or a descendant of Peter Parker, but something entirely different.   

Instead of a wisecracking teenager learning that "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility", we get a desperate adult scientist trying to save himself from becoming a chemically addicted corporate slave in a horror-tinged origin story that really seems more like one for a Spider-Man VILLAIN. 

It works! This is a GREAT origin story that ends on a cliffhanger that makes me want MORE!

On the art side of things, Marvel further hedged their bets on Spider-Man 2099 by putting veteran artist Rick Leonardi on the job.  I know Leonardi more for his DC work (and the original 4 issue Cloak and Dagger series), but Marvel definitely picked the right man for the job here! 

His pencils are the PERFECT compliment to the science fiction horror story being told here.  There's some superhero action frontloaded in this issue, but this tale really needed someone who could make the NON-superhero parts that are the majority of the issue sing just as fine.  

CONCLUSION

Those of you who have been reading Longbox Junk for a while now know that I have boiled down my requirements for a good first issue into the following TWO things:  Does it introduce new characters and their situation well?  Does it make me want to read more?  For Spider-Man 2099 the answers are yes and yes!

Marvel hedged their bets on this book being what was going to kick off Marvel 2009 with a bang and they were absolutely right.  Their choice of Peter David and Rick Leonardi as the creative team gave this comic (and Marvel 2099 in general) a hell of a running start!

In this issue, we get a great science fiction horror story with shades of the Incredible Hulk as a new character's origin.  The setting is solid, the conflict rings with horrible truth, and the main character is interesting enough that I want to read more. 

Spider-Man 2099 #1 is a win from cover to cover and fully deserves a Longbox Junk gold seal of approval.  If you're a fan of horror-tinged cyberpunk science fiction then check this one out even if you aren't a fan of Spider-Man!  It's been collected, it's online, and you can even still find copies of #1 in the bargain bins (I found one just last week in a two dollar box), so it's not hard to find.

Up Next. . .

Spider-Man 2099 got our little trip into the dark future of Marvel comics off to a good start. Now it's time to get into the gritty, violent streets of the city. 

What happens when a cop on the edge discovers the journal of a certain Frank Castle 100 years in the future? Let's find out in the first issue of Punisher 2099!

Be there or be square.

Longbox Junk - Marc Spector: Moon Knight, Part 6 (Issues 51 - 60)

 Welcome to Longbox Junk, the place to find comic reviews you've never asked for!

Well, here we finally are! The last batch of ten issues from my epic dive into Marc Spector: Moon Knight.  It's been fun immersing myself in the world of the Silver Avenger, but at the same time, I'll be glad to move along to something different after spending a couple of months with Moon Knight.

To read where I've been so far, you can click HERE (Part 1)  HERE (Part 2) HERE (Part 3)  HERE (Part 4)  and HERE (Part 5)  With each part a ten issue review. Here's a short recap of my thoughts so far. . .

We started things off with Chuck Dixon giving us a stripped down version of Moon Knight as a classic two-fisted adventurer without any of the supernatural or mental health trappings usually associated with Moon Knight.  It was pretty basic, but fun.

Then J.M. DeMatteis took over for a short while, giving us a Moon Knight that tried and failed to emulate the psychodrama of the character's previous run.  Ultimately, it was a confusing mess.

After DeMatteis departed, Terry Kavanagh jumped into the writer's seat and has been with us ever since.  His turn at the wheel has been characterized by constant attempts to put a permanent mark on the Moon Knight mythos.  Unfortunately for Kavanagh, none of his efforts have stood the test of time.

I've been told by my comic-lovin' daughter that my last batch of reviews were a little overboard on length, so I'm going to try and boil things down a bit more for this final sprint toward the finish.  It's just that sometimes when I consider that I'm literally the ONLY person who's ever done an in-depth look at a comic, I get invested in even the most average of Longbox Junk and turn into a kinda lousy editor.

ANYWAY. . .

Enough introduction.  Let's see what this final handful of Marc Spector: Moon Knight comics has in store for us.  Ready? Let's do it!

MARC SPECTOR: MOON KNIGHT

PART SIX (ISSUES 51 - 60)

MARVEL (1989 - 1994)

ISSUE FIFTY-ONE

SILVERBIRD

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: Dave Hoover

INKS: Keith Williams

COVER: Dave Hoover

THE STORY:

When Satellites begin crashing to Earth, Moon Knight becomes involved after the destruction of a large part of South Brooklyn.  His Shadow Cabinet contacts set him on a trail of clues leading to a reclusive Billionaire named Harlan Silverbird.

Moon Knight makes his way to Silverbird's private manmade Caribbean island, where the billionaire has forced NASA scientist Randi Moore to help him create a vibranium ray to shoot down satellites, as well as a "Silvermoon" satellite he plans on launching that will prevent any other satellites from being launched without permission/payment.  All part of Silverbird's nefarious plan to hold the world's satellite communications hostage.

After Moon Knight fights his way to Silverbird's compound, he battles the mad billionaire, but finds that Silverbird has a vibranium force field that prevents any of Moon Knight's weapons from touching him.  When Moon Knight is told by the captive scientist that Silverbird is just stalling him and the Silvermoon satellite is launching, he leaves Silverbird and rushes to stop the launch.

Moon Knight is too late to prevent Silvermoon from launching, but he turns the vibranium ray onto the island's control tower, causing a massive feedback that destroys the satellite and begins melting the island itself!  Moon Knight manages to rescue the kidnapped Dr. Moor, but despite his best efforts, Silverbird is destroyed along with his island.

The End. . .

THE REVIEW:

An extremely obvious and almost aggressively average filler issue starts off this final handful of Marc Spector: Moon Knight comics on the wrong foot.  The letters page explains that a filler was needed for the regular art team so they could have a break, and the cliffhanger with Gambit and Werewolf by Night that issue #50 ended on would be back on deck starting next issue.  

I think this might be the first time I've ever seen an editor just flat-out admitting that readers were getting a filler issue.  It's just sort of a strange thing to see and actually the most interesting thing about the issue in general.   The story itself looks like it was randomly-generated by some sort of chart where you pick one thing from this column and two from that one.  The art isn't bad, but it doesn't even try to be anything but average.

Overall, what we have here is a filler issue with a story and artwork so utterly average that I had to go back and read it a second time for the review because I'd already forgotten the details immediately after I got done reading it the first time (which was only about 10 minutes before I started writing this).  This will probably be the most word space that anyone will ever devote to this issue.  You're welcome.

MOVING ALONG. . .

ISSUE FIFTY-TWO

KNIGHT'S GAMBIT

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: James Fry III

INKS: Chris Ivy

COVER: James Fry III

THE STORY:

We continue directly from the previous issue. . .er. . .Issue #50. . .with Jack Russell (AKA Werewolf by Night) and Gambit fighting in the deserted Spector mansion.  

The scene shifts to Shadowkeep, where Marc Spector has decided it's time to turn some attention to his Corporation.  He makes a rare appearance at the office and discovers a state of chaos.  After taking control of the situation, he's informed that the newest corporation in town, PhalkonCorp, is making moves to take over SpectorCorp.  Marc assigns a team to investigate the threat.  Back at Shadowkeep, Frenchie decides to try and track down Chloe for more answers about his new Templar abilities.

MEANWHILE. . .At PhalkonCorp, Marlene Alraune (AKA Marc's former lover) is upset when she learns she's going to head the team to take down SpectorCorp.  She informs Mr. Phalkon (AKA Seth The Immortal, Templar Troublemaker) that she refuses to be used unfairly because of her previous relationship with Marc Spector.  Phalkon agrees. . .for now.

After the chaos at SpectorCorp, Marc heads out on patrol as Moon Knight, glad for a night of nice, peaceful punching.  In Central Park, he encounters two strange superhuman beings. . .Glaze (who is able to secrete a gel that hardens around her target) and Cubist (who emits pheromones that confuse his enemies).  Moon Knight defeats them pretty easily and gives chase when they retreat.  But his pursuit is interrupted by a riot at a homeless camp.  Moon Knight helps the police save the residents before heading home for the night.

Back at Shadowkeep, Frenchie tells Moon Knight that he's discovered an unknown problem in the base's computer systems, but before they can investigate more, the intruder alarm from Spector Mansion goes off!  Moon Knight quickly heads out and arrives to find Gambit and Werewolf by Night fighting in his parlor.

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

First off. . .great cover!  I really like the playing card frame and Werewolf by Night looks fierce!

This issue seems to be trying to set up a lot of upcoming story beats. . .I'm thinking they MIGHT have tried to cram too much into it.  Unfortunately the promised three-way crossover between Gambit, Moon Knight, and Werewolf by Night promised by that sweet cover AND the cliffhanger ending to issue #50 is barely to be found, with only a couple of pages devoted to it.   A bit disappointing because I was looking forward to Werewolf by Night showing up (as I'm sure many other fans were at the time).

James Fry and Chris Ivy make a welcome return on the art side of things, but for some reason there are places that their usually-stellar visuals take a severe dip in quality (For example, the police cars in the page scanned below).  Maybe they needed a longer break?  Or maybe they weren't putting in their best effort, knowing they only had two more issues to go before being replaced?

Overall, we have an issue that's jam-packed with story threads for the series moving forward. . .maybe TOO jam-packed, because the main event advertised (a Moon Knight, Gambit, and Werewolf by Night crossover) is barely even there.  Hopefully things open up a bit more next issue.

NEXT!

ISSUE FIFTY-THREE

WEREWOLF BY KNIGHT

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: James Fry III

INKS: Chris Ivy

COVER: James Fry III

THE STORY:

Continuing from last issue, responding to an alarm at his unoccupied mansion, Moon Knight discovers Gambit and Jack Russell (AKA Werewolf by Night) fighting in his parlor.  Moon Knight jumps into the fight and it becomes a three-way brawl until he uses the weapons on his "Angel Wing" aircraft to bring things to a halt.  

Moon Knight demands explanations and Gambit tells him that he's there to inform him that during their fight at Four Freedoms Plaza a while back (in issue #41, part of the Infinity War crossover), Psylocke discovered some severe health problems, as well as something even darker, when she probed his mind.  Moon Knight tells Gambit that the problem is taken care of and now get the %#$* out of his house.

Turning to Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight learns that he's there because he's tracking some sort of supernatural demonic stench that led him straight there, and since he's now got a mission to destroy unchecked supernatural demonic creatures, Moon Knight has to go down!  

Again, Moon Knight says that the problem has been taken care of, but if the Werewolf REALLY wants to take down some monsters, he can help Moon Knight hunt down the two strange beings he fought in Central Park earlier that night (last issue).  The Werewolf agrees and it's team-up time!

On the way to Central Park, Moon Knight has Frenchie contact the Shadow Cabinet for leads on their prey.  He learns the location of Glaze and Cubist, but suspects that they may be more Hellbent sent to hunt him on the orders of Seth the Immortal (AKA Seth Phalkon).  He keeps the information from Moon Knight because he wants to follow up on it himself as he tries to learn more about his new Templar powers.

After arriving at Central Park, Moon Knight and the Werewolf stumble onto a large group of superhuman creatures that announce themselves as Hellbent before attacking!  There are seven of them and the heroes are severely outnumbered. They quickly find themselves on the losing side of the fight!

IN THE MEANTIME. . .Downtown, we see SpectorCorp's investigators begin looking into PhalkonCorp and quickly discovering that there's a lot more going on than they thought.  At the same time, at PhalkonCorp, Marlene Alraune is also beginning to discover the same thing, and is becoming uneasy with her role at PhalkonCorp.

BACK AT CENTRAL PARK. . .With Moon Knight and the Werewolf all but defeated, Gambit's timely arrival to the fight turns the tide in favor of the heroes!  As the heroes battle the demonic Hellbent, the Templar creature known as Manx jumps in and slaughters the fleeing demons before informing Moon Knight that this was only one small enclave and the city is in extreme danger of being overrun by the Hellbent.  After relaying this news, Manx disappears.

Gambit leaves to inform the X-Men about the Hellbent danger, and Werewolf by Night promises Moon Knight to come if needed to fight more Hellbent before also leaving.  Moon Knight returns to Shadowkeep, where Frenchie is still trying to track down the source of the mysterious failures that have been plaguing their equipment and computers recently.

The End.

THE REVIEW:

What we have here is an issue that packs in threads of FIVE different storylines. We have (1) Frenchie trying to learn more about his new Templar superpowers. (2) A potential invasion of New York City by the demonic Hellbent. (3) The SpectorCorp investigation of rival PhalkonCorp. (4) PhalkonCorp moving into position to take over SpectorCorp with the help of Marlene. And (5) The mystery of Moon Knight's equipment and computers at his base being sabotaged.  All that PLUS crossover action with Gambit and Werewolf by Night.

It seems a bit overstuffed and heavy, with not enough time being spent on any one storyline to give any of them much weight, and giving the comic a rushed and hectic feel as the story skips back and forth between them for short scenes.  Worse, what SHOULD be the focus of this issue (and the last one as well), which is the advertised crossover with Gambit and Werewolf by Night, suffers from the same rushed, cramped feeling as everything else because it has to be running alongside all the other story threads.

Overall, we have an issue that isn't BAD, it's just really unfocused.  The writer is trying to run too many storylines at once and they all suffer for it.  The crossover aspect was almost buried and was pretty disappointing for something that SHOULD have been an exciting reunion of two characters with an interesting history together (Moon Knight and Werewolf by Night).

MOVING ALONG. . .

ISSUE FIFTY-FOUR

MECHAMORPHOSIS

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: James Fry III

INKS: Chris Ivy

COVER: James Fry III

THE STORY:

We begin in Shadowkeep, where Moon Knight and his Shadow Cabinet medical expert are dissecting the corpse of Network, one of the Hellbent assassins defeated by Moon Knight and Bloodline (AKA Frenchie) in issue #50.  She confirms that the creature is demonic in nature.

ELSEWHERE. . .Frenchie tries to find Chloe (AKA his former lover and Templar warrior) at her apartment. Everything is locked up, so he decides to climb the fire escape to the roof despite his not being able to use his legs.  He's unaware that Chloe is observing his efforts from across the street without interfering, as some sort of test of Frenchie's resolve.

Back at Shadowkeep, a strange creature somehow possesses Moon Knight's new *sigh* "Moonmobile" and begins to wreak havoc through the city using the high-tech weaponry of the car.  Moon Knight sets off in pursuit, only to witness the car transforming into a tank!

IN THE MEANTIME. . .We see the final pieces being moved into place for PhalkonCorp's takeover of SpectorCorp, with Marlene witnessing her mysterious employer Seth Phalkon (AKA Seth The Immortal) meeting with two of the more human-looking Hellbent agents.  We also see SpectorCorp's investigators breaking into Phalkon Tower and discovering that Marlene Alraune is employed by PhalkonCorp.

Back with Moon Knight and the possessed *sigh* Moonmobile, the battle rages.  The Moonmobile/Tank transforms into a gigantic robot, and then a huge crab-like construct before Moon Knight manages to defeat it and discover the strange creature at the controls, which manages to escape and begin taking over the whole city by possessing the power grid!  Moon Knight stops it by shutting down the power in a ten-block area.

After the battle, at Shadowkeep, Moon Knight and his Shadow Cabinet contacts determine that the creature was a gremlin, and was surely also the cause of all the recent mysterious equipment and computer failures.  Moon Knight probably accidentally picked up the gremlin after visiting Doctor Strange (in issue #47), because Strange's Sanctum is know to be crawling with gremlins.

Back with Frenchie, he finally makes it to the roof, only to be confronted by two Hellbent!  Chloe decides to leave and let him survive or die as a test of his new abilities.  She's got some other stuff to do and doesn't have time to be fighting Hellbent.

To Be Continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

What the %$#* did I just read?  This was bad.  It was "Moonmobile" bad.  Just linger there a moment, folks. . .Moonmobile.  Mooooooooooooooonmobile.  Swish it around a little.  Terry Kavanagh decided to give Moon Knight a silver convertible with moon-shaped headlights and a gigantic fin on back.  

Moon Knight has suffered a few indignities during the course of this series.  There was the whole teen sidekick thing. . .then there was the time he realized he'd been worshipping the wrong Khonshu all this time (whoops!). . .and let's not forget getting hauled into Avenger's Headquarters by fake Thor to get verbally abused by fake Captain America.  Those aren't going onto anyone's list of top ten awesome Moon Knight moments.  

But while those moments weren't great, giving Moon Knight a Moonmobile (and actually just CALLING it a Moonmobile) just sort of makes me feel bad for Moon Knight. . .like I want to give him a hug and tell him things will get better in the future after this series is done.  

Bear witness, good readers.  This existed. 

Overall, there's a lot wrong with this issue (which is a pretty obvious and fairly obnoxious filler before bringing in the new art team next issue), but I can't get past the Moonmobile far enough to get into anything else.  I think this might be the first time I've actually felt sorry for a fictional character.

NEXT!

ISSUE FIFTY-FIVE

PHALKCON CORPSE

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: Stephen Platt

INKS: Chris Ivy, Al Vey & Scott Koblish

COVER: Stephen Platt

THE STORY:

We begin at PhalkonCorp, where Marlene is regretting her decision to help take down SpectorCorp.  At the same time, Marc Spector's investigative team have broken into PhalkonCorps headquarters.  They unknowingly trip an alarm and Seth Phalkon (AKA Seth The Immortal) himself confronts them. . .draining the life force of one of Spector's men and leaving the other an insane wreck.  Marlene also hears the alarm and discovers the two investigators, but Phalkon has already left.

IN THE MEANTIME. . .Frenchie (AKA Bloodline) is getting severely beaten by two Hellbent (named Agony and Flare) at Chloe's apartment.  After being thrown out a window and hanging from a fire escape, the pain and stress activate the Bloodline link and he transforms into the gigantic, savage form of his insane great grandfather, Pierre Latrec.

WHILE THAT'S GOING ON. . .Marc Spector is downtown at the police station identifying the body of his dead investigator and seeing the insane shell that the other has become.  Blaming himself for their awful fate and now knowing there's something EXTREMELY shady going on at PhalkonCorp, he vows to avenge his friends and get to the bottom of things as Moon Knight!

BACK WITH FRENCHIE. . .ER. . .BLOODLINE. . .In his gigantic, transformed body, the two Hellbent are no match for the savage creature that Frenchie has become.  He kills one of them (Flare) and brutally injures the other before the police arrive and he makes a quick escape.

LATER THAT NIGHT. . .Moon Knight breaks into PhalkonCorp headquarters and has to fight his way through an extremely extensive gauntlet of high-tech automated security measures as he makes his way to Seth Phalkon's office.  When he arrives, he confronts Phalkon, but is shocked to discover that he looks exactly like Marc Spector!

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

Remember back in the review for issue #46 where I said that after Marvel failed to pull the trigger on a 90's style replacement Moon Knight they came up with a different 90's specific solution for the character later on? 

Well. . .HERE WE ARE!

Image Comics hit the scene in 1992 (about a year before this comic came out) in a big way, kicking the door in on the comics industry with a defection of major comic talent (primarily artists) from DC and Marvel (mostly Marvel) by way of the sweet siren song of (among other things) independent ownership of their work.  Their comics were blowing up the collector market and making a HUGE splash in the comic shops.  Marvel and DC were left scrambling to catch up to the new kid on the block. . .especially Marvel, who were pretty much specifically targeted by Image.  

These days, Image has carved out a well-deserved niche as the publisher to read if you're tired of superheroes.  But in Image's early days, it was all superheroes, all the time.  Nothing but spandex.  You could almost hear every title scream, "LOOK! WE WANT TO BE THE NEW MARVEL!"  Honestly, most of their output was directly aimed at trying to capture Marvel's audience with thinly-disguised "edgier" versions of Marvel's properties with a heavy focus on action and artwork instead of story.

Marvel (and DC to a lesser extent) fought back by. . .well. . .copying Image.  They brought in a new batch of "hot" artists and started making edgier and more action-oriented comics of their own.  Marc Spector: Moon Knight was one of the many titles involved with this 90's comic book artist arms race.  

So what we have here is one of the more "collectible" issues of this run with the introduction of artist Stephen Platt.  I'm not entirely sure if Marvel brought Platt in for an 11th hour effort to save the title, or as a way of testing reader response to his work before moving him to a more popular book.  

In any case, Platt didn't stay with Marvel long (just these few Moon Knight issues), thanks to a second wave of Image luring Marvel talent to their company. . .sort of hilariously letting Marvel do all the work of finding and recruiting hot new artists in order to compete and then grabbing THOSE artists as well.

Platt's comic debut with this issue made a pretty huge splash.  Sales of this title surged upward and the few issues that Platt did both covers and interiors for hit the top of Wizard's Top Ten list (I miss Wizard), with Platt also hitting Wizard's Top Ten artists list for a respectable amount of time.  His style is an exaggerated, hyper-detailed style that is pretty obviously "inspired by" (putting it kindly) Todd McFarlane. . .who at the time was pretty much a comic book deity in the eyes of many fans, so ANYTHING close to his work was red hot.

Okay. . .enough about the elephant in the room.  Let's look at the comic itself.

Honestly, it's not good.  Not quite "Moonmobile" bad, but still not great.  Platt's art is a major distraction from the story, and you can tell that he's got a way to go before he reaches the level of Todd McFarlane that he's trying to get to.  The story is continued from threads laid out in previous issues, but you can pretty easily tell that the writing has been sort of shoved into the passenger seat in favor of the new superstar artist driving this series.  You can definitely feel Terry Kavanagh shifting gears. . .especially in upcoming issues. . .to try and emulate the "Edgier" and more action-packed Image style that the art is pushing.

WELCOME TO THE 90's, FRENCHIE!

Overall, we have a pretty bad change in direction late in the game for this series.  Marc Spector: Moon Knight basically becomes an Image comic for these final few issues, and it just ain't a good fit. Artist Stephen Platt may have made a big entrance with this issue, but reading it 28 years down the road just makes me sort of shake my head and chuckle in a somewhat nostalgic way as I remember the 90's.

MOVING ALONG. . .

ISSUE FIFTY-SIX

SKELETONS IN THE CLOSET

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: Stephen Platt

INKS: Chris Ivy, Al Vey & Scott Koblish

COVER: Stephen Platt

THE STORY:

Continuing from last issue, Moon Knight is fighting Seth (The Immortal) Phalkon, who looks just like Marc Spector!  During the fight, Moon Knight reveals that he's actually Marc Spector, leading Phalkon to reveal in turn that he is Marc's great-grandfather, and that Marc is the last of a line of Hellbent/Human hybrids!  Seth tries to drain Marc's life force, but there is some sort of bio-feedback explosion that sends Moon Knight out the window. . .

IN THE MEANTIME. . .Frenchie (AKA Bloodline) is using Shadowkeep's computers and Shadow Cabinet medical contacts to try and find answers as to why he transformed into the brutal form of Pierre Latrec instead of the swashbuckling Henri Remont, and if there's any way to control the Bloodline transformations.

ELSEWHERE. . .we catch up with Chloe (AKA Frenchie's former lover and a secret Templar warrior) training with three renegade Hellbent (called Vortex, Shard, and Dementia) who have joined the Templar cause and now call themselves "The Cadre".

BACK AT PHALKONCORP. . .Moon Knight survives the fall through the window and begins to make his way back up to keep fighting Seth.  On the way, he tries to contact his Shadow Cabinet and discovers that PhalkonCorp ALREADY has a direct link to Shadowkeep. . .one of the Shadow Cabinet is a traitor!  

He calls them together for one last meeting, but when he's unable to discover the mole, he severs all contact with them permanently.  As he does so, he accidentally discovers that Marlene is actually the one who gave PhalkonCorp the inside connection!

WHILE THIS IS GOING ON. . .Frenchie is interrogating the captured Hellbent called Agony, desperately trying to find answers about the Templar/Hellbent conflict and his place in things.  He discovers that the Hellbent originate from a place hidden in the Amazon rain forest called Hellhole, so he takes the jet and heads for South America to investigate. At the same time, Marlene is at her penthouse apartment, agonizing over her part in helping hand over SpectorCorp to Phalkon.  Marc Spector appears, but he's acting strange.  

BUT THEN. . .Moon Knight ALSO appears at the penthouse and the other "Marc" is revealed to be Phalkon.  To Marlene's horror, Seth reveals his true demonic nature as he and Moon Knight battle.  She helps to defeat Seth by attacking him with the weapons of Moon Knight's Angelwing aircraft, but before Marlene and Marc can talk about what's happened, a mysterious voice calls out to Moon Knight and he disappears (for an Infinity Crusade crossover next issue) into thin air!

Before Marlene can begin processing what just happened, a reptilian Hellbent called Hook attacks, rescuing Seth and throwing Marlene off the roof!

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

First, there's no denying that's one SWEET cover! It makes fairly regular appearances on my rotating "Wall O' Covers" display in my office at work.  Probably the best cover of the whole series, in my humble opinion.

Like I said last issue, it's pretty clear that Kavanagh is having to shift gears in order to emulate the edgier and action-packed Image style that Platt's art is pushing.  This means a LOT of exposition as he changes focus toward the demonic Hellbent becoming the main antagonists of the story. . .giving Moon Knight (and by extension, Stephen Platt) plenty of awesome monster fights to engage in as this series staggers toward the rapidly-approaching finish line.  

And yet, even as the story takes a back seat to the art, Kavanagh STILL can't give up on the idea of making a permanent mark on the Moon Knight "canon".  His making Marc Spector discover he's actually a demon/human Hellbent hybrid himself in this issue is ridiculous and reeks of a writer desperately trying to make ANYTHING he's done stick.  Unfortunately (for Kavanagh, anyway), this ill-advised Hellbent "revelation" was never referenced again outside of this series.  

Overall, it's a mess.  Ridiculous revelations out of nowhere about Marc Spector's half-demon Hellbent ancestry fly in the face of just about everything that's EVER previously been established about the character. Add in distracting art and a new all-action. . .all monster-fightin' focus and it makes this issue a hard one to get through. At this point, I'm only still in this because there's just 4 issues to go and I ain't a quitter!

AND NOW IT'S CROSSOVER TIME AGAIN!

ISSUE FIFTY-SEVEN

BLACK SHEEP

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: Stephen Platt

INKS: Chris Ivy, Al Vey & Scott Koblish

COVER: Stephen Platt

THE STORY:

Continuing from last issue, Marlene is rescued from falling to her death by Marc Spector's personal assistant, Donna Kraft. . .who just so HAPPENS to be an old friend and college rival of Marlene's.  They decide to team up and prevent PhalkonCorp from taking over SpectorCorp.

ELSEWHERE. . .Moon Knight arrives at Paradise Omega, where he is informed that he has been chosen (along with many other heroes) for a chance at redemption for his sins by a being called "The Goddess" (Who is actually another manifestation of Adam Warlock left over from Infinity War).  He waits at Goddess' Cathedral to be called to duty.

IN THE MEANTIME. . .Frenchie and his captive Hellbent, Agony, are flying over the Amazon rain forest toward Hellhole. . .the realm of the Hellbent.  Agony taunts Frenchie to the point that the stress activates the "Bloodline" trigger in his DNA, transforming him into his pirate ancestor, Henri Remont.

Agony uses the confusion of the transformation to make her escape by ejecting from the jet, while Bloodline/Remont struggles with the unfamiliar controls of the aircraft before crashing in the jungle!

Agony makes her way to the nearby hidden temple entrance to Hellhole, where the badly-wounded Seth Phalkon (AKA Seth the Immortal)  has been taken by the Hellbent Hook after his losing battle with Moon Knight in New York.  Agony sacrifices herself to Seth, letting him drain her life force to atone for her failure and letting herself get captured.

WHILE ALL THAT'S GOING ON. . .Back with Moon Knight at Paradise Omega, the Goddess calls a group of heroes from the gathering to "Enlighten" a non-believer in their ranks.  Moon Knight isn't part of the group called, but he demands his chance for redemption and jumps into the portal they are teleporting through.  When they arrive, Moon Knight is informed that even though he wasn't invited, the Goddess is amused and willing to give him his chance.  All he has to do is take down his old friend, Spider-Man!

Moon Knight (along with X-Factor mutant, Multiple Man) pursues Spider-Man, trying to prevent him from reaching the Goddess' Cathedral. . .but in the end, Moon Knight loses the running battle and is teleported away from Paradise Omega for his failure.

BACK IN NEW YORK. . .Chloe's "Cadre" of turncoat Hellbent are attacked by the Templar Shadowspawn called Manx.  They put up a good fight, but are defeated.  Chloe steps in at the last moment and prevents Manx from killing the Hellbent. . .telling him that since she's the only Templar in New York, she's in command of him now and he'll be joining their fight that they plan on taking to Seth The Immortal in Hellhole.

At the end of things, we find Marc Spector in some sort of limbo begging for another chance at redemption and being taunted by The Goddess until he finally admits that he's not even fully human and doesn't deserve her mercy.

To be continued. . .

THE REVIEW:

This issue is probably the most "valuable" to collectors who care about these things.  It has a very nice Todd McFarlane "homage" Spider-Man cover, and it's a tie-in to "Infinity Crusade", the third part of the MASSIVE "Infinity" Trilogy of crossovers (thank goodness it's only one issue).  Even so, I fail to see why this muddled mess of a comic is worth about $70 raw (according to the fine folk of COMIC BOOK REALM ) and upwards toward $200 for a graded copy (According to Ebay).  I got mine from a dollar box, so how-bow-dat?

ANYWAY. . .

Collector "Value" aside, there's honestly not much to like about this issue.  Beyond the crossover aspects. . .which receive absolutely NO context in the issue itself, unlike the Infinity War issues where there was at least an ATTEMPT to get readers up to speed. . .just about all that's going on here is herding Moon Knight and his supporting cast toward "Hellhole" in Brazil for what promises to be a climactic showdown with Seth the Immortal.  Okay.  Fair enough.  It's set-up.  

The problem here is that the main villain and the conflict around him just isn't very interesting.  90% of this issue is action. . .it bounces from scene to scene and doesn't give the reader time to care about ANYTHING.  Hardly surprising. Since issue #55 the story has taken a back seat to the artwork anyway. The convoluted and ridiculous plot only serves as an extremely flimsy framework to hang monster-fightin' action scenes on at this point.

Unfortunately, for a comic trying to lean hard on the new artist, his work in this issue is pretty inconsistent. . .with a few panels looking sketchy and unfinished.  Generally-speaking, compared to the past couple of issues (where the art was distracting, but pretty good in a 90's-tastic way), this one looks a bit half-baked.  

Nice cameo by "unfortunate 90's costume with that infamous bewb window" Sue Storm, though.

Overall, we have a comic that is inconsistent in both art and story (the "rules" for Frenchie's Bloodline transformations are just swingin' in the wind), with about half the issue (the Infinity Crusade elements)  having almost no context at all.  This may be a pretty "Valuable" issue to comic collectors, but for actual comic READERS, it's pretty lacking.

CROSSOVER DONE.  NEXT!

ISSUE FIFTY-EIGHT

DEATH IN THE FAMILY

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: Fred Haynes

INKS: Scott Koblish

COVER: Stephen Platt

THE STORY:

Continuing from last issue, Moon Knight is teleported away from the Infinity Crusade and back to Earth. He very conveniently appears in the Amazon, right where all the rest of his supporting cast are at, right in the tunnels leading to Hellhole!  He doesn't know why he's there, all he knows is that there's a bunch of monsters he needs to punch standing in front of him!  So he starts punching monsters.

MEANWHILE. . .Above Hellhole, we learn the Frenchie survived the crash of his jet by bailing out in a high tech "Micro-Tank" that he just HAPPENED to have aboard.  He uses the tank to storm the entrance to Hellhole, blasting his way through the Hellbent guards.  Unknown to Frenchie, Chloe, Manx, and the three rogue Hellbent calling themselves "The Cadre" are following behind Frenchie. . .letting him destroy the guards as he assaults Hellhole in search of the missing Templar archives.

Frenchie eventually runs into Seth The Immortal and his bodyguard of more powerful Hellbent known as Hellbent Primes.  A battle breaks out and Frenchie is defeated by the greater power of Seth and the Hellbent Primes.  But as Seth tries to deliver the killing blow, Frenchie's Bloodline DNA triggers and he transforms into the savage form of his insane ancestor, Pierre Latrec!  He begins punching monsters with renewed vigor!

AND THEN. . .Chloe and her rogue Hellbent allies jump into the fight, giving Bloodline/ Latrec, the chance to escape while they take over punching monsters so he can continue searching for the hidden Templar archives . . .even though it's not really clear WHY.  Seeing that the battle is lost, Seth teleports away.  

WHILE THAT'S GOING ON. . .Moon Knight has managed to fight his way through the Hellbent guards, but then runs into Bloodline/ Latrec. . . not realizing it's actually the transformed Frenchie.  Moon Knight thinks Bloodline is just another sort of monster that needs punched, while at the same time Bloodline thinks Moon Knight is ALSO some sort of new Hellbent guard keeping  him from the archives that needs punched.  The two begin punching each other.

Moon Knight is all but beaten by the savage Latrec, but just as he's about to be defeated, he embraces his Human/Hellbent nature and drains Bloodline's life force. . .only to watch, horrified, as Latrec transforms back into Frenchie, who is apparently dead!  Seth steps forward from the shadows where he's been watching the fight the whole time, congratulating Marc on finally giving in to his true nature.

To be continued. . . 

THE REVIEW:

Most of this issue revolved around Moon Knight, Frenchie, and Chloe fighting their way through Hellbent and converging on the Templar archives, so there was very little story to be had. . .most of the dialogue was various Hellbent monsters shouting out what their powers are as they attack, and Moon Knight and company shouting back as they punch their way through.  The climax is wrapped around Marc Spector embracing his hybrid Hellbent/Human nature by using his new demonic powers. . .and that's the biggest problem with this issue.

Terry Kavanagh's last minute "Hail Mary" attempt to put his permanent mark on Moon Knight by turning him into a half human/half demon hybrid with life-draining powers is SUCH a big pill to swallow that I no longer find it surprising that this run of Moon Knight comics is hardly mentioned or referenced ANYWHERE.  Even the general Wikipedia article on Moon Knight comics barely touches on this series and is mostly a reference to Stephen Platt in the FOUR sentences devoted to the entire 60 issues.  It seems that the comic world just sort of wants to forget this run ever even existed, for all the information there is to be found on it NOT mentioning Platt.

Speaking of the only reason this series is ever even mentioned in passing. . .Stephen Platt just does the cover on this issue (and the next).  It seems that Mr. Platt was notorious for missing deadlines and even on his big comic debut, he needed a fill-in artist for 1/3 of the issues he worked on.  No wonder he pretty much vanished from the comic business in 2003 after taking roughly 3 years between issue #5 and #6 of his own Image series, SOUL SAGA .

To tell the truth. . .I like the simpler, cleaner lines of fill-in artist Fred Haynes better.  A shame when a comic's biggest selling point gets outdone by a temp.

But I think someone forgot to tell Haynes that Moon Knight is supposed to be wearing armor.

Overall, we have an issue that stands as a sort of testament as to why this series is barely mentioned. Terry Kavanagh trying to create a half human/half demon Marc Spector as a last-ditch effort to make a permanent mark on the character finally broke the camel's back.  He should have quit trying after the Moonmobile.

NEXT!

ISSUE FIFTY-NINE

BAD BLOOD

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: Fred Haynes

INKS: Fred Haynes & Scott Koblish

COVER: Stephen Platt

THE STORY:

Continuing from last issue, Moon Knight is horrified do discover that he used his new demonic powers to drain the life from his best friend, although to be fair, Frenchie WAS attacking him in the form of a gigantic humanoid monster.  Moon Knight's rage kicks things up a notch and he renews his attack on Seth the Immortal (AKA Marc Spector's half-demon great grandfather).

Chloe, Manx, and her Hellbent Cadre show up and save Frenchie. . .er. . .Bloodline as Marc and Seth fight their way toward the Templar Archive and you know what?  This story has become so  unhinged that I don't even want to continue.  It's just basically an extremely flimsy framework to hang the constant monster-fightin' scenes on that the new hotshot artist couldn't even bother to come in and draw.

But I guess here we are, so I'll boil it on down quick just so I can be done with it.  Everyone discovers that the Templar Archives are nothing more than a mirror.  Moon Knight defeats Seth.  Bloodline reveals that the Archives were inside him this whole time.  For some reason, the whole place starts falling in. Seth dies in a most anti-climactic way as he's buried in rubble. Moon Knight and Company escape via a hidden magical Templar portal just in the nick of time.  Then we get an epilogue showing that Donna Kraft and Marlene Alraune are now the joint owners of SpectorCorp. Aaaaand. . .that's it.

To be concluded. . .

THE REVIEW:

I've spent more time than literally ANYONE else trying to decipher the bizarre plot of this series and write it out so it makes sense as it gasps and wheezes its way to the finish line.  The nonsense in this issue has FINALLY made me lose patience. 

It's a strange thing in that the storyline is convoluted, yet at the same time, flimsy and weak.  I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like it.  The writer just keeps piling more and more stuff on!  I called it bizarre a few line up, and that's really the best way to describe it.  How else to describe a narrative that introduces a NEW story thread about a powerful "Hellbent Prime" leader called Nightshadow (his introduction pictured below) out of nowhere, with literally no context. . .POOF!  HERE'S THIS NEW GUY! In the next to last issue of the series?  

And that's just one example! There are actually two MORE storylines starting in this issue that I'm not even going to get into.  The series is almost over and it's time to tie up story threads. . .not to just keep on adding them!

Reading this issue is sort of like secretly listening in on three nine year old kids having a G.I. Joe battle in a backyard sandbox and trying to make sense of their rambling narrative as they slam their toys into each other.

Wait. . .now who is THIS guy? Isn't this series all but over?

Overall, trying to make sense of this issue made my head hurt.  The flimsy, yet overloaded, story in this issue would definitely be a contender for a "Top 10 Worst Longbox Junk Comics of The Year", if I decided to actually make such a list (and now I'm thinking about it, I might just do that). As far as I'm concerned, I'm just glad that this whole misguided storyline will be put out of its misery soon.  This went really wrong really fast.  

AND FINALLY. . .

ISSUE SIXTY

THE FINAL PHASE

SCRIPT: Terry Kavanagh

PENCILS: Stephen Platt

INKS: Stephen Platt

COVER: Stephen Platt

THE STORY:

Continuing from last issue, Moon Knight and Company have escaped the destruction of Hellhole through a Templar portal that sends them all directly to Moon Knight's Shadowkeep headquarters, where Marlene is waiting for them (dressed in a spandex superhero costume for some reason. . .making this issue a teeth-gritting read right from the FIRST couple of pages).

While Marlene reunites with Marc and tells him that he's no longer in control of SpectorCorp, Chloe, Frenchie, and their Hellbent Cadre allies discuss the future.  Frenchie revels in his new Bloodline powers unlocked by the discovery of the Templar archives (powers that will never be mentioned again in any Moon Knight story).  Chloe and the Cadre decide to carry out a mission to search out any remaining Hellbent and either destroy them or try to recruit them to the Templars (A mission that we will never know anything more about since this is the last time Chloe or the Cadre are ever mentioned).

Marc and Frenchie have a heart to heart talk, where Marc reveals that he's half-demon (something never mentioned again) and THAT might be what saved him from death all those years ago instead of Khonshu.  Frenchie tells Marc that he's to call him Bloodline from now on (until the next Moon Knight series, where he's just Frenchie again) and that he's now just as much a bad@$$ hero as Moon Knight (Again, until the next series where he's just a helicopter pilot).

BUT THEN!

Seth The Immortal (who everyone thought was dead) appears on Shadowkeep's computer monitors, along with a countdown to "Zero Hour", which Seth (somehow now alive as a computer construct) gleefully informs Moon Knight is when his electronic "techno-mutation" consciousness will spread from Shadowkeep and ACROSS THE WHOLE WOOOOOOORLD!  

Moon Knight sets the self-destruct as everyone evacuates.  Shadowkeep is destroyed in a massive explosion, but the Hellbent Cadre use their powers to keep the damage to the surrounding area to a minimum.  Unfortunately, Marc didn't make it out in time, and. . .well. . .he's dead, Jim.

A sad epilogue at Marc Spector's grave tells us that Marlene will use SpectorCorp's money to be the force for justice that Moon Knight tried to be (At least until the next Moon Knight story, where SpectorCorp is dissolved by Marc after he rises from the dead AGAIN. . .but THAT'S another tale).  

An epilogue to the epilogue gives Moon Knight fans one final last moment kick in the teeth by revealing that the powerful Hellbent leader called Nightshadow that appeared out of nowhere last issue is actually. . .wait for it. . .wait for it. . .here it comes. . .Randall Spector! And we're finally done with this mess.

The End.

THE REVIEW:

Thank God it's over.  

These final two issues have been some of the hardest comics I've gritted my teeth through in quite a while.  There's a LOT of dangling story threads here that lead me to believe that either Marvel had plans for another series focusing on Chloe and the Hellbent that never happened or that Terry Kavanagh was being a bit petty and trying to make it hard on the next Moon Knight writer.  Maybe a bit of both. But if it WAS Kavanagh being petty, it didn't work.  The next Moon Knight story pretty much just ignores this whole run, beyond Moon Knight being dead and having to be resurrected again.

The "story" in this issue is beyond ridiculous. . .starting right off with Marlene wearing a skin tight spandex superhero suit (see below) for no apparent reason.  There's no explanation given for why or how Seth has suddenly transformed from an immortal vampiric demon into an electronic "techno-mutation" consciousness.  

There's no real reason given as to why Moon Knight can't outrun a guy in a wheelchair to escape an explosion, or for that matter, why his shiny 90's Adamantium Superhero Armor couldn't save him from the blast. . .especially since it saved him from gigantic explosions in previous issues at least twice since he got it.  

And then there's Kavanagh's final middle finger to Moon Knight fandom on the last page of the issue. . .Randall Spector somehow brought back to life as an armored superhuman demonic creature.  

This issue was a sloppy mess from start to finish, but that final epilogue was just insulting.

Overall, this was probably one of the absolute worst final issues I've ever read.  The story is bizarre and, even in the LAST issue, Kavanagh can't resist trying to make permanent changes to the Moon Knight "canon" with dangling story threads and a last moment ridiculous reveal.  Worse, Stephen Platt's art (especially with him inking his own pencils) is extremely distracting and sometimes doesn't even fit what the characters are saying or doing.  

Between the continued attempts to force change to the permanent Moon Knight narrative and the over-indulgent artwork, this whole issue positively reeks of egotistic posturing by the creative team.  It's a pretty poor finish, to say the least.  The only good thing about this issue is that it's the last one.

CONCLUSION

And here we are. . .the end of Marc Spector: Moon Knight.  It's been a pretty long and strange trip from the beginning, but this final handful of issues pretty much tells me what I've been wondering from the first issue:  Why is there so little mention of this title, even though it stands as Moon Knight's longest-running series to date?

Well. . .now I know why.  By the time Marc Spector: Moon Knight limped over the finish line, writer Terry Kavanagh had twisted the character SO much in his constant efforts to make a permanent change that would stick, that Moon Knight was pretty much damaged beyond repair.  This is NOT the Moon Knight that Moon Knight fans wanted.  I would even go so far as to say that Moon Knight fans NEVER got the Moon Knight they REALLY wanted from issue one to issue done.

This last handful of ten issues pretty much boil down to a self-indulgent writer with an agenda of his own. Instead of trying to give fans what they wanted, Terry Kavanagh was obviously more concerned with what HE wanted for Moon Knight.  Add in a self-indulgent artist and the final few issues went from being a mess to being an egotistical disaster.

Frankly, I see it as a bit of miracle that Marvel didn't pull the trigger on a replacement Moon Knight or giving up and killing the character off earlier than they did.  Kavanagh must have been working some favors in the Marvel offices to keep this series staggering along past issue #47.

Up Next. . .

I didn't want to make this entry TOO much of a scroll bomb, so I'm going to go over my final thoughts on all sixty issues of Marc Spector: Moon Knight taken as a whole before I move along to something else.

Be there or be square!