Moon Knight is a great idea that initially suffered from a great need to not be Batman while riffing as hard as it could on Batman. I'm just happy they never had a sidekick called "Beam".
While the name "Spector" seems like one of those silly names made to match the ghostly character, it is actually a jewish-czech surname (with variations of spelling) originially meaning "inspector". So later on in his series, when Michael Fliesher made Marc the son of a Czech-jewish rabbi it actually made a lot of sense.
Conquer-Lord fits right in with the eccentric, vaguely Bond-villain-ish bad guys that Moench came up with in the Master of Kung Fu series: Carlton Velcro, Mordillo, War-Yore, etc.
Early Moon Knight had more in common with the Shadow than Batman. The multiple aliases (Including millionaire Lamont Cranston); his regular girlfriend was Margo and she knew his identity; he battled a secret council; the cabbie; among others.
Fun fact my cats are super low key named for Superman & Batman. Their names are "El" and "Matches". While only a scant 20% get the Superman reference, my Batman reference is so obscure that even my friends claiming to be big Batman fans weren't able to deduce how my cat "Matches" was named after Batman. My dynamic duo's cover will never be broken.
Moon Knight has had an interesting history with his popularity. He's gone from unknown to one of Marvel's more popular characters to almost unknown again so many times! Maybe it was the costume, but after he appeared, he DID keep popping up quite a bit. SOMEONE at Marvel wanted that character to succeed! After the Werewolf by Night stint and this Marvel Spotlight outing, he made the rounds in the Marvel Magazines quite a bit. The big deal about those was the fact that Marvel skirted the comics code with those, so you could have more violence and semi-nudity in them. He became a regular back-up feature in the Hulk magazine. Which at the time was pretty prestigious, since it was promoting the tv show with stories closer to the Hulk show than the regular comic. And the Moon Knight stories in those books is pretty gritty, just kept toned down a little since Marvel probably assumed kids would be buying it. When his solo series started though, it was a big seller! The art was dark and gritty and the stories matched! Pretty dark stuff for a comic book in those days. If anything, the downfall of Moon Knight was the same thing that killed several other Marvel titles of the time. The Direct Market switch. The day of the comic shop was looming and Marvel tried an experiment. They took three of their best-selling books at the time, Moon Knight, Ka-Zar, and Micronauts and made them books that were sold only in comic shops, not in drug stores, gas stations, and news stands like most books. And....This killed those titles. Reading this, you probably chuckle. "Those books were popular?" At one time, yes. And toward the end of all of their runs, after a couple of years, Marvel tried an experiment to get them back on the news stands for a month to see if they could jog their popularity. But alas, it was too late. One book available after two years didn't get people back to buying them. So, Marvel cancelled all of those titles. Shortly thereafter, Marvel brought Moon Knight back to news stands in the Fist of Khonshu book, which was short-lived. Micronauts also came back in a number one and made it a little over a year. But this cautionary tale goes to show that even the most popular books can be totally destroyed by botched experiments. Moon Knight would get another series later on that would do passably well. But he just never quite caught on again like before. The recent Jeff Lemire book got him noticed again, so we'll see if between his new series and the Moon Knight show if they can keep interest going. He is definitely an interesting character, though. Moon Knight brought a touch of realism to the multiple identity aspect of superheroes. He had so many identities, they began to blur the line between roles and actual individuals. And they continue to explore that today. If anything, Marvel has taken their "Batman" to the next level by exploring the cost of trying to live multiple lives. God knows that as many faces as Bruce Wayne wears, he would be totally insane by this point. And many would argue that he is. Moon Knight actually explores this and that has brought a facet to the character that makes him way more than just Marvel's Batman. Hopefully his new adventures get a chance to breathe and he doesn't get the axe right when things are getting good.
I think another major influence for this time had to be The Shadow! He had many similar points, including having a rich secret identity (Lamont Cranston) that wasn't his real identity, having 'agents' and including a cabbie (but now, Moon Knight is 'the cabbie'). The Shadow was also a major influence on Batman, so it all comes together.
So glad you made a special mention of the greatest Moon Knight panel ever! That image of him in the darkened doorway has loomed large in my memory ever since I first saw it way back when. Black shirt Moon Knight rules!
Playing heavily into some more Shadow traits, the disguises, the origin not as a rich guy but as a military/intelligence guy who then takes on the identity of a rich one as a cover. Frenchie being more like a Shadow Agent than say, Alfred or Robin. Eventually putting a more mindbending twist on him.
A man with multiple identities, the main one of which is a millionaire? A girlfriend who knows the truth and occasionally gets in on the action? A costume that makes the most of the dark? It's the Shadow! Not close enough to be anything more than a complete coincidence, yet I couldn't help but think it
Another element to this story that gets carried forward: Moon Knight's opponents are typically just as mentally unbalanced as Moon Knight himself. Conquer-Lord was a forerunner for folks like Scarlet, Black Spectre and other less laughable foes.
While I think the first few Moon Knight comics did a decent job at differentiating him from Batman, the more modern take on the character does it way better. Having him be a more mystical character is great since Batman rarely handles mystic threats (unless if he's roped into the Justice League Dark series). Having the mystic element mixed with his mental illness makes him way different than Batman ( at least in my opinion). If I had to recommend a Moon Knight book I would go with Moon Knight: The Bottom by Charlie Huston and David Finch. That is my favorite Moon Knight story of all time.
Head cannon - The company that employed Jake the taxi driver is owned by Steven the millionaire. Steven leaves word not to fire Jake - Jake in turn pays (from Steven's money) enough 'fare' money to make it look like when he does work he's a go getter. As long as no one sees them together its good. Truth be told I was never a fan of the split personality thing - I now see why they did it - so I'll think about that. If you ever do a follow up on Moon Knight can you dive into the Egyptian background. It was always confusing for me as with retcons on retcons its sometimes hard to follow. As always thanks for doing what you do!!
THe split personality twist on the alternate IDs helps reduce the plagiarism/derivativeness issue of the character In this story he's FAR too much like pulp LEGEND The Shadow, especially the original Pulp shadow rather than the Radio version is that his "Real" persona is the soldier. Marc Spector Marine and CIA agent being equivalent to the true Shadow: Kent Allard WW1 pilot Veteran, with Steven Grant as Lamont Cranston. (Though without the angle of there being a real Steven Grant that Marc is impersonating, while Lamont Cranston was a real dude in the pulps, Kent Allard just looked a lot like him and stole his life while he was away in Europe, then pressganged him into service as an agent.)
His all too brief stint in the West Coast Avengers was great. But the early 80's Sienkiewicz drawn series was the cherry. And Doug Moench is a very deep thinking and into asiatic culture. And I would like it if you covered the 80's title. And his run in WCA.
Speaking of Jarvis and the butler doing it, you should do a video on the story that introduces Ultron, in Avengers #54 and #55. Jarvis sells out the Avengers to the Masters of Evil, gets betrayed by their then current leader, the Crimson Cowl, and then is revealed as the Crimson Cowl (with the other one being a robot dummy), all in one issue! Then in the next issue it turns out the robot dummy the Crimson Cowl was using was actually Ultron, who was the real Crimson Cowl after all, and he’d just hypnotized Jarvis, because a stern look was enough to hypnotize people back in the 60s. Seriously, in one of the First Doctor serials, the main characters get shrunk down and are almost hypnotized by looking into the eyes of a completely ordinary cat.
One of those very rare times that you make a very topical video lol Kinda glad you don't see Moon Knight fight villains like these, or operate like this anymore, because now he's found his proper corner in Marvel, and he traded up with Tigra in the comics.
I like him moving away from "Let's just go straight to ripping off The Shadow, it worked for Batman!" More into PymGra though. Initiative and Avenger's Academy were my JAM.
@@chidaluokoro9104 He's like if Batman suffered from DID, had his parents alive, was a veteran turned mercenary, had his mind touched by a god after being resurrected, and didn't have qualms about killing monsters.
Conquer Lord is straight out of Adam West Batman or Schumacher Batman. Moon Knight is a great concept. When you speak about his cab driver persona I envision people on the corner tapping their toes looking at their watches like $hit I'm gonna be late!!!
Moon Knight err The Moon Knight is the comic book character is what got me back into comics so love learning more about him and eagerly awaiting the series! Thank for the video!
I watched the trailer just before this video, and whenever you mentioned his girlfriend, I kept thinking of the line in the trailer where he's asking why she called him Mark... And after what you said about it being interesting to have the love interest know about his different personalities, I can't help but think about how difficult that'd be if they did give the character actual multiple personalities. She'd constantly be having to reassure him that she wasn't cheating on him after calling him by the wrong name when she didn't know which personality she was talking to at any given time. It would be kinda cool if he had three different personalities but they all fell in love with the same woman, though.
Conquer Lord looks like a lucha libre wrestler from the 70's or the 80's. Would love to see more Moon Knight-video and hearing your Moon Knight-voice ;) XD =)
Why did Werewolf-by-Night call Moon Knight "Rabbit"? The explanations offered sound a little complicated and convoluted. Simple reason: wolves kill and eat rabbits. Jack was trying to psych Marc out by referring to him as prey.
I always read The Moon Night as more like The Shadow than The Batman (gotta' love The Definite Article). And I'm being distracted by your reflection in the toy packaging behind you.
Seinkewicz did start out emulating Adams. The two did those back covers as tongue in cheek fun over the comparisons. After all, people like Bucema, Steranko, Romita Sr., etc., all started imitating Kirby (becoming the Marvel House Style), before their material became more distinctive. The end product lending it self to better storytelling. Moon Knight, I’ve always felt, bore more story resemblance to the Shadow than Batman. The Shadow occasionally disguised himself, was a wealthy “man about town”, employing a number of operatives. Included: a cab driver, a sharp shooter, and an information/communication specialist. Not to mention his “female companion”, socialite Margo Lane, who was apprised of his secret activities. Sound familiar? Also, a French guy named Frenchie? What are the odds? (Says a Star Trek fan)
I also thought of The Shadow through the operative angle. And it's worth mentioning that Sienkowicz's art style DID become more distinct through the pages of the regular Moon Knight series, complete with back covers on issues that announced the next issue.
@@johnathonhaney8291 Definitely! I fondly think of that as his Cinematic/Noir Phase, soon to be followed by his Experimental Phase. And now continues the expressive painter (even when he’s not using paint)….
The thing that makes him most like The Shadow, especially the original Pulp shadow rather than the Radio version is that his "Real" persona is the soldier. Marc Spector Marine and CIA agent being equivalent to the true Shadow: Kent Allard WW1 pilot Veteran, with Steven Grant as Lamont Cranston. (Though without the angle of there being a real Steven Grant that Marc is impersonating.) Making them all part of his DID helps alleviate the similarity a bit.
She addressed this in an interview a few days ago. She's apparently always been fond of wigs, but ever since the pandemic kept her from getting out to the hair dresser she's been relying more and more on wigs. Her hair type is not one that lends itself to self-styling. Which doesn't fully answer your question, but may give you some insight into what's going on.
Moon Knight certainly had his share of goofy in early appearances. The next one, in Defenders #47, has him in Hackensack, NJ thinking of the place as "his territory". Considering that the city had about 36 thousand residents at the time, that would make for some very interesting untold tales. As for his superstrength, it was barely mentioned and may well never have existed. But he claims to have it in #29, as Sasha shows in one of the panels; and in 1981's Moon Knight #6 he decides/finds out that he no longer has it. He may have been deluded (easy to believe given his character), or he may have been resistant to lycanthropy due to the silver in his costume, or Konshu's protection, or both. Or maybe he was just lucky enough to have been exposed just enough to gain some temporary benefits. That happens in comics.
Also, "Rabbit" was slang for a smaller, leaner, often seen as weaker type male. Or, at least one you would assume could not fight. It was the Werewolf basically calling Moon Knight too small to fight. He was taunting him.
I would like to see more Moon Knight. I never really knew much about the character, and his backstory is so convoluted it seemed impenetrable. Breakdowns like these help in understanding the character quite a bit.
6:35 reminds me of that old "Judge assassination militia" story where it turned out everyone was an agent from a different outfit trying to sting the others unknowingly.
More Moon Knight! When Sasha was bringing up "merch", thought of the series ROM The Space Knight. Was around 10 when it was out and though I recall enjoying the series, I recognized the"merch" push even at that age.
Marvel spotlight 29 is another one of those comics from the stack in my older brother's closet that got me into comics. I love that panel of moon night standing in the doorway with the highlights of his costume popping. For me the big difference between moonlight and Batman is that Batman was pulling more from pulp heroes like the avenger and the black mask and moon night is obviously pulling from the shadow. Check it out, the shadow is all about disguises and multiple secret identities besides just the obligatory millionaire man about town.
Moon knight is so awesome and, in my opinion, often misused. I think he has a greater potential as a character that is often close but inevitably falls short. And from the trailer I think the Disney Plus show will be good but land so far from what I love about the Character
Hi Sasha, Luv The Wig… I’m a Big fan of most The Moon Knight costume renditions, Not Feeling the MCU Mask…Like with BlackCat last vid the Bones are solid but work to be done ( probably still is)…I thought you should have given Conquer-Lord more of a Ricardo Montalban Senior Senior Senior ish voice , I mean the Luchador Mask , Crocodile Pit ( thanks to Ron Stoppable), Elaborate Death traps ( very 60’s Batman TV) , & He’s Classy with the Giant Chess Board 🤔 wonder if this is where J.K.Rowling got Wizard Chess Idea ( Moon Knight needs Ron Weasley)…Maybe Steven Grant Own’s the Taxi Company 🤔…I’m showing My Full Geek Nerd in this comment…Keep Up The Great Work Sasha 🖖🏾
11:14 "You are but a pawn in Conquer-Lord's master plan! And a pawn is doomed to die!" He must be a lousy chess player to think that, given that queening a pawn is a major part of chess strategy... and Sasha makes this point immediately ...
Also, even if your gf can take care of herself, it's pretty cold to send her into a place already occupied by armed goons just so she can snoop around.
I bought these at the local convenience store way back when. Loved the character, and laughed at most of the story. Thought is was tongue in cheek/comedy.
Rainbow batman story from Detective comics next? Its hilarious his thinking/origin of suit idea and id love to hear all your input and extra backstory and how its in the culture still now. Or even a wolf and cub series based on the films or old books? Love the channel btw!
Sasha, here by officially requesting a deep dive into Alpha Flight. Please? I really like the idea of a hero team where the members are themed after the regions they hail from.
Since MK is a Manhattan hero I think it’d be really cool to have a secret identity show up only in Sony Spider-Man movies and using MK to pull those universes together again when necessary
16:46 in Japan Rabbits are associated with the moon because you can sort of see the silhouette of a rabbit on the moon if you're looking for it. Could be that. He's also very late to very important date in this issue.
Who else is excited for the Oscar Isaac Moon Knight? Been loving the Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio run so the hype it real. Prepare for the Fist of Khonshu.
All I can think about for the candidate's name change -- Glligan's Island was still big in pop culture when this issue came out. Did they think Charles Thurston was too close to Thurston Howell III (the millionaire from the show)? If it was a one-off then it wouldn;t matter, but if they were thinking of having him come back they might have wanted to avoid any comparisons. I know, that's weak beer, but it's all I got!
Marlene should've left him. Of all the superhero love interests to be captured, kidnapped, threatened, etc... She's the one who gets hurt/maimed the most. Ax to the spine, knife to the side, gunshots.... That woman suffered so much, these days they should draw her as a walking scar. Oh, and look up the two part Moon Knight/Heroes for Hire story about Marc falling in an abandoned water tower in the middle of the city, and it taking his own support cast (complete with helicopter) and two superheroes to save him. It's on par with Hal tripping all the time.
The end of the Warren Ellis run, From The Dead, showed that she DID finally leave him, married another guy even. She finally realized that he was never going to stop, addict that he was.
@@JS-hw8ve Ellis himself would probably agree with that assessment. Before recent disappointments, I thought he'd managed the same trick Grant Morrison did in aging somewhat gracefully while retaining his talent. Then...well, we both know what happened next, don't we?
I would love to see more insight of 80s moonknight due it being the start of crazy marc and the kahnchu dynamic. Also it would be dope if went over moonknight funny dynamic with the publisher. Love the content.
It's true that Moon Knight is not Marvel's Batman; he is The Shadow. Much like how Doug Moench was inspired by Mack Bolan: The Executioner in creating the Punisher, Moon Knight has many similarities with The Shadow. Both are soldiers of fortune who are believed to have died overseas. They then return to New York under the guise of a "wealthy young man-about-town." They also take on a masked persona to fight crime, a blue-collar persona to collect information and develop a network of informants/agents. Both of them get around down discretely on the streets in a taxi cab and have unique air transportation (Gyrocopter/Mooncopter). For comparison: Shadow -> Moon Knight Kent Allard -> Marc Spector Lamont Cranston -> Steven Grant Fritz -> Jake Lockley and among the supporting cast: Harry Vincent -> Bertrand Crawley Moses "Moe" Shrevnitz, a.k.a. "Shrevvy" -> Jean-Paul Du Champ a.k.a. "Frenchie" Margo Lane -> Marlene Alraune Burbank -> Gena Landers Or I could be completely off my rocker. Anyway, thank you for attending my TedTalk.
I'm just now reading this from the omnibus. Maybe its just because I've been listening to a lot of RazorFist, but the whole multiple-secret-identities thing felt very classic-pulp. Maybe a little bit like The Shadow.... So far, I actually find the idea of assuming multiple secret identities as part of a crime-fighting-scheme a lot more interesting than the ret-conned multiple-personality-disorder...
No, it's 100% intentional. Not as blatant as the original Batman story. But "He was a fighting man of some sort, came back, established a false identity as a rich man" is straight up The Shadow, though for The Shadow he was more slipping into the life of an existing rich man.
I'm hip for more The Moon Knight. I don't need to lay no bread to jive with this turkey... I have to stop. Sorry. 🙃 Umm, yeah, I'd love to see some more of him. My older cousin collected the original series, I remember him showing me those comics. It's the reason I bought the next one [where they retconned Marc Spector's origins, adding Knoshu (It's been a while so I'm not sure how it was spelt) Egyptian 'God of the Moon'), retooled the alternate personas (with their own set of skills) as being tied to the phases of the moon, but he's able to bring out personas as necessary].
I've always like Moon Knight's design and I'm glad he eventually got a full cape instead of those vane...things. Despite what Edna Mode might say, capes are cool.
I like that they indicated that there was some things about Moon Knight that sounded like aspects of him might be considered supper human, but are vague enough to pass as myths. Thus the audience have some confusion about what Moon Knight is/isn't capable of. In the way he's embellished this inconsistency makes sense; he can go anywhere from an avengers level threat to tangling with crooks, to fighting super natural monsters, depending on how in tune with his God he is. The instincts and strength of a wearwolf? Sure, sounds like the kind of thing he would put in just to throw people off.
Moonlight's power waxing and waning with the moon remind me of DC's character Jack O'Lantern don't know if he's still active or whatever but his powers were strongest at midnight and almost non-existent at noon. Golden Age hero. It's been a long time since I read them but in the original Shadow novels he had multiple aliases Lamont Cranston being among them.
Hey moon man is the best crazy hero there is. Oh yeah thanks sasha for these weird and obscure comic reviews, btw love your claylist and will you ever review the cartoon clayfaces?
I've forgotten pretty much everything I've read about 90s Moon Knight except that they leaned much more on the Marc Spector alias than the others and that my young early teenage brain originally had difficulty telling Moon Knight and Sleepwalker apart at first. The upcoming Disney Plus seems like it's going to lean more heavily on the very easy to make comparison, almost as if live-action Moon Knight is gonna be a combo of the two.
Another thing that doesn't get fleshed out, at all in this story, is: who is the 10 year old boy who came up with the name "Conquer Lord?" We may never know.
Moon Knights later appearances had him becoming so unbalanced that his peers should have locked him up forever. In Bendis series he is seen fighting other heroes or thinking they r teaming up with him only to show him standing around talking to himself while in COSTUME.
Moon Knight is a great idea that initially suffered from a great need to not be Batman while riffing as hard as it could on Batman. I'm just happy they never had a sidekick called "Beam".
It's funny you say that though because now it's all I want.
That’s an amazing sidekick name 😂
Now I want moon knight to have a sidekick
@Justin Arzola really? Who?
@Justin Arzola But he did pop back up again as a villain in a rather awesome Spider-Man arc featuring Moon Knight and a WHOLE lot of others.
While the name "Spector" seems like one of those silly names made to match the ghostly character, it is actually a jewish-czech surname (with variations of spelling) originially meaning "inspector". So later on in his series, when Michael Fliesher made Marc the son of a Czech-jewish rabbi it actually made a lot of sense.
Conquer-Lord fits right in with the eccentric, vaguely Bond-villain-ish bad guys that Moench came up with in the Master of Kung Fu series: Carlton Velcro, Mordillo, War-Yore, etc.
Early Moon Knight had more in common with the Shadow than Batman. The multiple aliases
(Including millionaire Lamont Cranston); his regular girlfriend was Margo and she knew his identity; he battled a secret council; the cabbie; among others.
Moon knight doesn't do things for "kicks", only evil 60s teens do that!
Shenanigans.
Does Cobra Commander know Conquer Lord raids his closet?
Fun fact my cats are super low key named for Superman & Batman. Their names are "El" and "Matches". While only a scant 20% get the Superman reference, my Batman reference is so obscure that even my friends claiming to be big Batman fans weren't able to deduce how my cat "Matches" was named after Batman. My dynamic duo's cover will never be broken.
In Hebrew, "El" also means "light" as I recall, which is an ironic name for a cat.
Moon Knight has had an interesting history with his popularity. He's gone from unknown to one of Marvel's more popular characters to almost unknown again so many times! Maybe it was the costume, but after he appeared, he DID keep popping up quite a bit. SOMEONE at Marvel wanted that character to succeed! After the Werewolf by Night stint and this Marvel Spotlight outing, he made the rounds in the Marvel Magazines quite a bit. The big deal about those was the fact that Marvel skirted the comics code with those, so you could have more violence and semi-nudity in them. He became a regular back-up feature in the Hulk magazine. Which at the time was pretty prestigious, since it was promoting the tv show with stories closer to the Hulk show than the regular comic. And the Moon Knight stories in those books is pretty gritty, just kept toned down a little since Marvel probably assumed kids would be buying it.
When his solo series started though, it was a big seller! The art was dark and gritty and the stories matched! Pretty dark stuff for a comic book in those days. If anything, the downfall of Moon Knight was the same thing that killed several other Marvel titles of the time. The Direct Market switch. The day of the comic shop was looming and Marvel tried an experiment. They took three of their best-selling books at the time, Moon Knight, Ka-Zar, and Micronauts and made them books that were sold only in comic shops, not in drug stores, gas stations, and news stands like most books. And....This killed those titles. Reading this, you probably chuckle. "Those books were popular?" At one time, yes. And toward the end of all of their runs, after a couple of years, Marvel tried an experiment to get them back on the news stands for a month to see if they could jog their popularity. But alas, it was too late. One book available after two years didn't get people back to buying them. So, Marvel cancelled all of those titles.
Shortly thereafter, Marvel brought Moon Knight back to news stands in the Fist of Khonshu book, which was short-lived. Micronauts also came back in a number one and made it a little over a year. But this cautionary tale goes to show that even the most popular books can be totally destroyed by botched experiments. Moon Knight would get another series later on that would do passably well. But he just never quite caught on again like before. The recent Jeff Lemire book got him noticed again, so we'll see if between his new series and the Moon Knight show if they can keep interest going.
He is definitely an interesting character, though. Moon Knight brought a touch of realism to the multiple identity aspect of superheroes. He had so many identities, they began to blur the line between roles and actual individuals. And they continue to explore that today. If anything, Marvel has taken their "Batman" to the next level by exploring the cost of trying to live multiple lives. God knows that as many faces as Bruce Wayne wears, he would be totally insane by this point. And many would argue that he is. Moon Knight actually explores this and that has brought a facet to the character that makes him way more than just Marvel's Batman. Hopefully his new adventures get a chance to breathe and he doesn't get the axe right when things are getting good.
I think another major influence for this time had to be The Shadow! He had many similar points, including having a rich secret identity (Lamont Cranston) that wasn't his real identity, having 'agents' and including a cabbie (but now, Moon Knight is 'the cabbie'). The Shadow was also a major influence on Batman, so it all comes together.
True. The Shadow inspired Batman, and Moon Knight seems more like the Shadow than Batman.
@@ramblingRJ "Inspired" is putting it lightly given Batman's origin story is open plagiarism of a shadow story.
@@DIEGhostfish I didn't want to use the word, but you're right. It was blatant plagiarism.
@@DIEGhostfish a particular story? do you know the title?
Shadow influence lives on to this day. Hopefully we get a decent reboot some day.
So glad you made a special mention of the greatest Moon Knight panel ever! That image of him in the darkened doorway has loomed large in my memory ever since I first saw it way back when. Black shirt Moon Knight rules!
Playing heavily into some more Shadow traits, the disguises, the origin not as a rich guy but as a military/intelligence guy who then takes on the identity of a rich one as a cover. Frenchie being more like a Shadow Agent than say, Alfred or Robin. Eventually putting a more mindbending twist on him.
My favorite is that his ancient weapons were designed by Hawkeye during timetravel to ancient Egypt.
A man with multiple identities, the main one of which is a millionaire?
A girlfriend who knows the truth and occasionally gets in on the action?
A costume that makes the most of the dark?
It's the Shadow!
Not close enough to be anything more than a complete coincidence, yet I couldn't help but think it
Neither Batman nor Moon Knight would exist without the Shadow.
I always assumed that was the inspiration. Batman, not so much.
Another element to this story that gets carried forward: Moon Knight's opponents are typically just as mentally unbalanced as Moon Knight himself. Conquer-Lord was a forerunner for folks like Scarlet, Black Spectre and other less laughable foes.
While I think the first few Moon Knight comics did a decent job at differentiating him from Batman, the more modern take on the character does it way better. Having him be a more mystical character is great since Batman rarely handles mystic threats (unless if he's roped into the Justice League Dark series). Having the mystic element mixed with his mental illness makes him way different than Batman ( at least in my opinion).
If I had to recommend a Moon Knight book I would go with Moon Knight: The Bottom by Charlie Huston and David Finch. That is my favorite Moon Knight story of all time.
That's a good one but I prefer the Warren Ellis run, From The Dead, which seems to highlight all his history.
Head cannon - The company that employed Jake the taxi driver is owned by Steven the millionaire. Steven leaves word not to fire Jake - Jake in turn pays (from Steven's money) enough 'fare' money to make it look like when he does work he's a go getter. As long as no one sees them together its good. Truth be told I was never a fan of the split personality thing - I now see why they did it - so I'll think about that. If you ever do a follow up on Moon Knight can you dive into the Egyptian background. It was always confusing for me as with retcons on retcons its sometimes hard to follow. As always thanks for doing what you do!!
I thoroughly support this headcannon.
THe split personality twist on the alternate IDs helps reduce the plagiarism/derivativeness issue of the character
In this story he's FAR too much like pulp LEGEND The Shadow, especially the original Pulp shadow rather than the Radio version is that his "Real" persona is the soldier. Marc Spector Marine and CIA agent being equivalent to the true Shadow: Kent Allard WW1 pilot Veteran, with Steven Grant as Lamont Cranston. (Though without the angle of there being a real Steven Grant that Marc is impersonating, while Lamont Cranston was a real dude in the pulps, Kent Allard just looked a lot like him and stole his life while he was away in Europe, then pressganged him into service as an agent.)
His all too brief stint in the West Coast Avengers was great. But the early 80's Sienkiewicz drawn series was the cherry. And Doug Moench is a very deep thinking and into asiatic culture. And I would like it if you covered the 80's title. And his run in WCA.
If the Disney+ series doesn't feature Conquer-Lord what's even the point?
Speaking of Jarvis and the butler doing it, you should do a video on the story that introduces Ultron, in Avengers #54 and #55. Jarvis sells out the Avengers to the Masters of Evil, gets betrayed by their then current leader, the Crimson Cowl, and then is revealed as the Crimson Cowl (with the other one being a robot dummy), all in one issue! Then in the next issue it turns out the robot dummy the Crimson Cowl was using was actually Ultron, who was the real Crimson Cowl after all, and he’d just hypnotized Jarvis, because a stern look was enough to hypnotize people back in the 60s. Seriously, in one of the First Doctor serials, the main characters get shrunk down and are almost hypnotized by looking into the eyes of a completely ordinary cat.
One of those very rare times that you make a very topical video lol
Kinda glad you don't see Moon Knight fight villains like these, or operate like this anymore, because now he's found his proper corner in Marvel, and he traded up with Tigra in the comics.
I like him moving away from "Let's just go straight to ripping off The Shadow, it worked for Batman!"
More into PymGra though. Initiative and Avenger's Academy were my JAM.
Things have changed since the Tigra, WCA days. He was recently the Phoenix.
@@JS-hw8ve Well that sounds like a gimmick.
@@DIEGhostfish it certainly doesn't sound good.
Please please please cover the Defenders issue where Moon Knight escapes a death trap with a beer can!
I've been trying to read some Moon Knight in preparation for the show. This is great! Love your stuff.
Have you been reading the MacKay and Cappuccio run? It is absolutely amazing.
@@thebandwagonfanpodcast I'll check it out, thanks for the suggestion.
@@claytonbutler5995 No problem, let us know what you think!
I want to know more about marvels batman
@@chidaluokoro9104 He's like if Batman suffered from DID, had his parents alive, was a veteran turned mercenary, had his mind touched by a god after being resurrected, and didn't have qualms about killing monsters.
Conquer Lord is straight out of Adam West Batman or Schumacher Batman.
Moon Knight is a great concept. When you speak about his cab driver persona I envision people on the corner tapping their toes looking at their watches like $hit I'm gonna be late!!!
Moon Knight err The Moon Knight is the comic book character is what got me back into comics so love learning more about him and eagerly awaiting the series! Thank for the video!
I watched the trailer just before this video, and whenever you mentioned his girlfriend, I kept thinking of the line in the trailer where he's asking why she called him Mark...
And after what you said about it being interesting to have the love interest know about his different personalities, I can't help but think about how difficult that'd be if they did give the character actual multiple personalities.
She'd constantly be having to reassure him that she wasn't cheating on him after calling him by the wrong name when she didn't know which personality she was talking to at any given time.
It would be kinda cool if he had three different personalities but they all fell in love with the same woman, though.
"It was MEEE!!! I WAS THE TURKEY THE WHOLE TIME!!!"
Love the video but everytime I see him it comes to mind
Conquer Lord looks like a lucha libre wrestler from the 70's or the 80's. Would love to see more Moon Knight-video and hearing your Moon Knight-voice ;) XD =)
Why did Werewolf-by-Night call Moon Knight "Rabbit"? The explanations offered sound a little complicated and convoluted.
Simple reason: wolves kill and eat rabbits. Jack was trying to psych Marc out by referring to him as prey.
I always read The Moon Night as more like The Shadow than The Batman (gotta' love The Definite Article). And I'm being distracted by your reflection in the toy packaging behind you.
He's definitely trying to be more The Shadow than Batman (Which is hard given how much of Batman was plagiarized from the Shadow)
Seinkewicz did start out emulating Adams. The two did those back covers as tongue in cheek fun over the comparisons. After all, people like Bucema, Steranko, Romita Sr., etc., all started imitating Kirby (becoming the Marvel House Style), before their material became more distinctive. The end product lending it self to better storytelling.
Moon Knight, I’ve always felt, bore more story resemblance to the Shadow than Batman. The Shadow occasionally disguised himself, was a wealthy “man about town”, employing a number of operatives. Included: a cab driver, a sharp shooter, and an information/communication specialist. Not to mention his “female companion”, socialite Margo Lane, who was apprised of his secret activities. Sound familiar?
Also, a French guy named Frenchie? What are the odds? (Says a Star Trek fan)
I also thought of The Shadow through the operative angle. And it's worth mentioning that Sienkowicz's art style DID become more distinct through the pages of the regular Moon Knight series, complete with back covers on issues that announced the next issue.
@@johnathonhaney8291 Definitely! I fondly think of that as his Cinematic/Noir Phase, soon to be followed by his Experimental Phase. And now continues the expressive painter (even when he’s not using paint)….
The thing that makes him most like The Shadow, especially the original Pulp shadow rather than the Radio version is that his "Real" persona is the soldier. Marc Spector Marine and CIA agent being equivalent to the true Shadow: Kent Allard WW1 pilot Veteran, with Steven Grant as Lamont Cranston. (Though without the angle of there being a real Steven Grant that Marc is impersonating.)
Making them all part of his DID helps alleviate the similarity a bit.
Best wig yet, love this one, wonder does Sasha wear these wigs around normally or is it just for videos.
She addressed this in an interview a few days ago. She's apparently always been fond of wigs, but ever since the pandemic kept her from getting out to the hair dresser she's been relying more and more on wigs. Her hair type is not one that lends itself to self-styling. Which doesn't fully answer your question, but may give you some insight into what's going on.
Moon Knight certainly had his share of goofy in early appearances.
The next one, in Defenders #47, has him in Hackensack, NJ thinking of the place as "his territory". Considering that the city had about 36 thousand residents at the time, that would make for some very interesting untold tales.
As for his superstrength, it was barely mentioned and may well never have existed. But he claims to have it in #29, as Sasha shows in one of the panels; and in 1981's Moon Knight #6 he decides/finds out that he no longer has it.
He may have been deluded (easy to believe given his character), or he may have been resistant to lycanthropy due to the silver in his costume, or Konshu's protection, or both.
Or maybe he was just lucky enough to have been exposed just enough to gain some temporary benefits. That happens in comics.
That Crawley guy's good! I would TOTALLY want to read an entire series about him!
Also, "Rabbit" was slang for a smaller, leaner, often seen as weaker type male. Or, at least one you would assume could not fight. It was the Werewolf basically calling Moon Knight too small to fight. He was taunting him.
The "Hello, there" was unexpected, but very much welcome.
Friendly advice for Conquer Lord: Less is more! (For name and costume!)
I would like to see more Moon Knight. I never really knew much about the character, and his backstory is so convoluted it seemed impenetrable. Breakdowns like these help in understanding the character quite a bit.
6:35 reminds me of that old "Judge assassination militia" story where it turned out everyone was an agent from a different outfit trying to sting the others unknowingly.
More Moon Knight!
When Sasha was bringing up "merch", thought of the series ROM The Space Knight.
Was around 10 when it was out and though I recall enjoying the series, I recognized the"merch" push even at that age.
Moon Knight has been one of my favorite characters with his personality problems and his sometimes mystical powers.
Marvel spotlight 29 is another one of those comics from the stack in my older brother's closet that got me into comics. I love that panel of moon night standing in the doorway with the highlights of his costume popping.
For me the big difference between moonlight and Batman is that Batman was pulling more from pulp heroes like the avenger and the black mask and moon night is obviously pulling from the shadow. Check it out, the shadow is all about disguises and multiple secret identities besides just the obligatory millionaire man about town.
I mean the first Batman story was just a straight up lift of a shadow one.
Your videos are always great plus you are hilarious thank you and I've ordered one of your shirts should be here any day now
Crawley knows all these things because he's related to Johnny the shoe-shiner in Police Squad.
Moon knight is so awesome and, in my opinion, often misused. I think he has a greater potential as a character that is often close but inevitably falls short. And from the trailer I think the Disney Plus show will be good but land so far from what I love about the Character
Today I announced to my colleagues at work that I only want to be known as "Conquer Lord!"
Hi Sasha, Luv The Wig… I’m a Big fan of most The Moon Knight costume renditions, Not Feeling the MCU Mask…Like with BlackCat last vid the Bones are solid but work to be done ( probably still is)…I thought you should have given Conquer-Lord more of a Ricardo Montalban Senior Senior Senior ish voice , I mean the Luchador Mask , Crocodile Pit ( thanks to Ron Stoppable), Elaborate Death traps ( very 60’s Batman TV) , & He’s Classy with the Giant Chess Board 🤔 wonder if this is where J.K.Rowling got Wizard Chess Idea ( Moon Knight needs Ron Weasley)…Maybe Steven Grant Own’s the Taxi Company 🤔…I’m showing My Full Geek Nerd in this comment…Keep Up The Great Work Sasha 🖖🏾
11:14 "You are but a pawn in Conquer-Lord's master plan! And a pawn is doomed to die!" He must be a lousy chess player to think that, given that queening a pawn is a major part of chess strategy... and Sasha makes this point immediately ...
Also, we all know what a merkin is, right? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkin
Also, even if your gf can take care of herself, it's pretty cold to send her into a place already occupied by armed goons just so she can snoop around.
I bought these at the local convenience store way back when.
Loved the character, and laughed at most of the story.
Thought is was tongue in cheek/comedy.
I say, more moon knight! Let's go down this rabbit hole (Pun intended)
We're all a little mad down here.
Stroking rats is 100% a step down from stroking a cat.
Wait, that’s a Marvel villain?! Conquer Lord’s design was giving me Silver Age DC when you posted it.
Me Too 😎 🖖🏾
Almost every meme moon knight page is something I believe moon knight would say 100%
Random bullshit go!
All those traps in the chess game? That's barbaric. Wait... THAT'S WIZARD'S CHESS!
I had to come back because I realized that you used an Obi-Wan sound in a comic that's the source material for a TV show starring Poe Dameron
Rainbow batman story from Detective comics next? Its hilarious his thinking/origin of suit idea and id love to hear all your input and extra backstory and how its in the culture still now. Or even a wolf and cub series based on the films or old books? Love the channel btw!
Sasha, here by officially requesting a deep dive into Alpha Flight. Please? I really like the idea of a hero team where the members are themed after the regions they hail from.
Yeah, Alpha Flight!
If only their creator wasn't such a jerk.
@@DIEGhostfish, a dive into Byrne would be interesting as well. So much tea! So much salt!
@@timross5351 Between Vision Quest and Supes and Barda being mind controlled into raping each other I don't know how anyone can be a fan
@@DIEGhostfish, I imagine there are fans who are unaware of some of his works.
Since MK is a Manhattan hero I think it’d be really cool to have a secret identity show up only in Sony Spider-Man movies and using MK to pull those universes together again when necessary
Love the breakdown so far. More Moon Knight content please!
Minor hiccup just after the 8:00 mark when discussing matches malone
16:46 in Japan Rabbits are associated with the moon because you can sort of see the silhouette of a rabbit on the moon if you're looking for it. Could be that. He's also very late to very important date in this issue.
The homeless guy has the power to communicate with rats. And everyone knows rats are incredibly gossipy.
Who else is excited for the Oscar Isaac Moon Knight? Been loving the Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio run so the hype it real. Prepare for the Fist of Khonshu.
As long as he’s still Jewish, I’m very excited for the show
me
Can you ever prepare to be fisted by Khonshu... I mean what?
@@Werewolf914 No shame. Like what you like.
@@gemmamoon5998 That's another bit that I'm hoping to see. Mark's relationship with his dad is very significant to the story.
Yes ! Totally feeling the wing. I really enjoyed this video
All I can think about for the candidate's name change -- Glligan's Island was still big in pop culture when this issue came out. Did they think Charles Thurston was too close to Thurston Howell III (the millionaire from the show)? If it was a one-off then it wouldn;t matter, but if they were thinking of having him come back they might have wanted to avoid any comparisons. I know, that's weak beer, but it's all I got!
I actually have 2 Moon Knight #1 comic books that I got 31 year's ago when I first started collecting comic books.
Did you watch pacemaker, there was a Dollman reference that I thought you'd appreciate.
I haven't yet, but I am excited to hear Dollman's existence is known to others lol
Marlene should've left him. Of all the superhero love interests to be captured, kidnapped, threatened, etc... She's the one who gets hurt/maimed the most. Ax to the spine, knife to the side, gunshots.... That woman suffered so much, these days they should draw her as a walking scar.
Oh, and look up the two part Moon Knight/Heroes for Hire story about Marc falling in an abandoned water tower in the middle of the city, and it taking his own support cast (complete with helicopter) and two superheroes to save him.
It's on par with Hal tripping all the time.
The end of the Warren Ellis run, From The Dead, showed that she DID finally leave him, married another guy even. She finally realized that he was never going to stop, addict that he was.
@@johnathonhaney8291 Ellis is a problematic man but a hell of a good story teller. His Mk run is maybe my favorite
@@JS-hw8ve Ellis himself would probably agree with that assessment. Before recent disappointments, I thought he'd managed the same trick Grant Morrison did in aging somewhat gracefully while retaining his talent. Then...well, we both know what happened next, don't we?
I would love to see more insight of 80s moonknight due it being the start of crazy marc and the kahnchu dynamic. Also it would be dope if went over moonknight funny dynamic with the publisher. Love the content.
hilarious episode! you always bring the A-Game, even for B-Listers! oh, Moon Knight, you so crazy!
“THERE IS NO MR.QUIN I AM CONQUER LORD!”
Woah, her hair is magnificent this video, I mean dang the blond mixed in with the different colors and highlights simply glorious 🤩🤩🤩
The Batman Moonknight crossover back in the day was cheesy but cool
Love the look Sasha
Nice breakdown. Thank you!
I'd love to see you cover the current Kami Garcia Teen Titans comics about beast boy and raven
I'd love to see you talk about the Mr. Knight persona.
Thank you for bringing Conquer-Lord into my life. Need to see that outfit cosplayed immediately
There was an episode BTAS where batman ended up having to play a knight on a chessboard. I think it was the riddler's second appearance
moonknight costume is fire
It's true that Moon Knight is not Marvel's Batman; he is The Shadow. Much like how Doug Moench was inspired by Mack Bolan: The Executioner in creating the Punisher, Moon Knight has many similarities with The Shadow.
Both are soldiers of fortune who are believed to have died overseas. They then return to New York under the guise of a "wealthy young man-about-town." They also take on a masked persona to fight crime, a blue-collar persona to collect information and develop a network of informants/agents. Both of them get around down discretely on the streets in a taxi cab and have unique air transportation (Gyrocopter/Mooncopter).
For comparison:
Shadow -> Moon Knight
Kent Allard -> Marc Spector
Lamont Cranston -> Steven Grant
Fritz -> Jake Lockley
and among the supporting cast:
Harry Vincent -> Bertrand Crawley
Moses "Moe" Shrevnitz, a.k.a. "Shrevvy" -> Jean-Paul Du Champ a.k.a. "Frenchie"
Margo Lane -> Marlene Alraune
Burbank -> Gena Landers
Or I could be completely off my rocker.
Anyway, thank you for attending my TedTalk.
Yes, more Moon Knight please.
Do the MK stuff from Defenders 47-51 next please
I want conquer lord to be the true villain played by Ethan Hawke in the Moonknight show
Can you please look at the Marvel Spotlight version of ol' Moonie? That was where I first met him and I thought he was pretty .... hip ( ?)
You should talk about the 80's solo series .
I'm just now reading this from the omnibus. Maybe its just because I've been listening to a lot of RazorFist, but the whole multiple-secret-identities thing felt very classic-pulp. Maybe a little bit like The Shadow.... So far, I actually find the idea of assuming multiple secret identities as part of a crime-fighting-scheme a lot more interesting than the ret-conned multiple-personality-disorder...
No, it's 100% intentional. Not as blatant as the original Batman story. But "He was a fighting man of some sort, came back, established a false identity as a rich man" is straight up The Shadow, though for The Shadow he was more slipping into the life of an existing rich man.
Eagerly awaiting a reprint of that Vol. 2 omnibus so I can get the Frank Miller DM variant cover.
I'm hip for more The Moon Knight. I don't need to lay no bread to jive with this turkey... I have to stop. Sorry. 🙃
Umm, yeah, I'd love to see some more of him. My older cousin collected the original series, I remember him showing me those comics.
It's the reason I bought the next one [where they retconned Marc Spector's origins, adding Knoshu (It's been a while so I'm not sure how it was spelt) Egyptian 'God of the Moon'), retooled the alternate personas (with their own set of skills) as being tied to the phases of the moon, but he's able to bring out personas as necessary].
Crawley’s artwork made me chuckle!
Love the outtro music 🎶
I've always like Moon Knight's design and I'm glad he eventually got a full cape instead of those vane...things. Despite what Edna Mode might say, capes are cool.
"If you want me to like Moon Knight, you can't have lines like that." 😂🤣
I like that they indicated that there was some things about Moon Knight that sounded like aspects of him might be considered supper human, but are vague enough to pass as myths. Thus the audience have some confusion about what Moon Knight is/isn't capable of. In the way he's embellished this inconsistency makes sense; he can go anywhere from an avengers level threat to tangling with crooks, to fighting super natural monsters, depending on how in tune with his God he is.
The instincts and strength of a wearwolf? Sure, sounds like the kind of thing he would put in just to throw people off.
Moonlight's power waxing and waning with the moon remind me of DC's character Jack O'Lantern don't know if he's still active or whatever but his powers were strongest at midnight and almost non-existent at noon. Golden Age hero. It's been a long time since I read them but in the original Shadow novels he had multiple aliases Lamont Cranston being among them.
Great week to release this video
Hey moon man is the best crazy hero there is. Oh yeah thanks sasha for these weird and obscure comic reviews, btw love your claylist and will you ever review the cartoon clayfaces?
I've forgotten pretty much everything I've read about 90s Moon Knight except that they leaned much more on the Marc Spector alias than the others and that my young early teenage brain originally had difficulty telling Moon Knight and Sleepwalker apart at first. The upcoming Disney Plus seems like it's going to lean more heavily on the very easy to make comparison, almost as if live-action Moon Knight is gonna be a combo of the two.
If u cover more moon Knight please discuss how his early stories were back up stories inHulk magazine/comic in 1978
Another thing that doesn't get fleshed out, at all in this story, is: who is the 10 year old boy who came up with the name "Conquer Lord?" We may never know.
Conquer Lord needs to come back.
Has nothing to do with Moon Knight but love the wig! It really suits you!
Moon Knights later appearances had him becoming so unbalanced that his peers should have locked him up forever. In Bendis series he is seen fighting other heroes or thinking they r teaming up with him only to show him standing around talking to himself while in COSTUME.
16:35 is that a Zelda reference?
I want to see the universe where Conquer-Lord became a reoccuring villain.