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Breaking down the comics: Denial is Strange (Issue 36)

Moon Knight, Issue # 36: Ghosts

Written by Alan Zelenetz and drawn by Bo Hampton

Now, I’m a long time fan of Dr. Strange. In fact, he’s number three on my list of favorite comics! (Number two being Scarlet Witch and number one being MK if I even need to mention that). So a Moon Knight with early Dr. Strange cross-over? Yeah, I’ll dip into that no problem!

The first page is a note from the editor, Denny O'Neil. You see, in previous issues, they had asked where fans wanted to see Moon Knight go. They were running low on ideas and didn't know how they wanted to further develop the character, as it looked like he was going to stick around for a while.

Since Moon Knight started in a supernatural horror book (Werewolf by Night), it only seemed fitting that Moon Knight continue to carryon his career as leaning heavily on the supernatural side of things. A fist of the moon and Spector of vengeance, they have decided to let Moon Knight continue on his path of walking the line of what lurks on the other side of the shadows.

"Lots of heroes catch crooks. Moon Knight will be going after a different quarry. We hope you'll go with him."

Also it's interesting to note that they introduce Zelenetz and Bo Hampton as the new MK team, when they only did three issues before the 1980s series ended and things had to get a re-vamp as MK again went in a new direction. Hmm. (He does come back periodically in later runs, but doesn’t stick around.)

For those unfamiliar with Dr. Strange, ....things get strange. An original Marvel character from back in the day, created in 1963 by Steve Ditko himself, he embraced the psychedelic comic art style of that time. Let me put it this way, if Dr. Strange gets involved, you know things are about to get colorful, confusing to look at, and WEIRD.

That out of the way, we open in Nubia, in Ancient Egypt during the twentieth century B.C.

We see a classic Egyptian styled man about to sacrifice a cat for 'the demons of the dark'. He declares himself Amutef, first among necromancers and worthy to be a pharaoh.

Okay. That's a start.

Suddenly a bunch of men run into the room. "Seize him, priests of Khonshu!"

Yeah, it's illegal to slay 'the holy cat in mockery of the gods.'

Amutef declares revenge (Mummy style). "On a moonlit night, ages hence when we meet once again."

Once the mummification of Amutef is done, the head priest prays to Khonshu that 'this enchanted pendant will keep the base Amutef's soul bound within these linen grave clothes for all eternity."

Amutef's spirit enters into the necklace, waiting for his curse to come to light.

And right on cue, we head to the present where we see a beautiful blond woman wearing the necklace.

"I may have been an archeologist's daughter, but these cat mummies can still give me the creeps."

Aw jeeze. It's Marlene.

And we see her there with Steven at the grand opening to an Egyptian wing of a museum as a memorial to her father.

Marlene, why are you wearing an antique Egyptian necklace?

"It will go to the museum one day, Mr. Director. I'm wearing it tonight for the first time since my father found it in one of the tombs of the Seti Kings."

Yeah no.

Their social session is interrupted by a security guard trying to kick out a party crasher.

"Listen, we get all kinds of crackpots crying CURSE every time we open an Egyptian exhibit--"

"But I am Stephen Strange, and my conjurations have led me here. I fear that evil will be born this night--"

(I’ll start by saying the art style reminds me of the comic art from around late 1960s, but I’m also not a fan of how Marlene is portrayed here. She’s too soft and arm candy-esque. I miss the Marlene from Bill’s days where she was capable and intelligent.)

Also, Steven clearly has NOT heard of Strange fully if he dismisses him after that display. You’d think by now that Steven would be like ‘oh. Right. I’ve fought zombies. This isn’t that odd for me.’

A cat (belonging to the security guard?) breaks loose and instantly goes to attack Marlene. Steven backhands it easily before it can sink it's fangs into Marlene.

"In the name of the Vishanti! Don't you see? The animal senses evil."

"Look. How are you at sensing harassment suits, Mister Magic?"

"Dr. Strange, this is a museum, not a circus show."

I love how no one ever takes Dr. Strange seriously when they first meet him. Even in today's age, they just write him off as a cheap palm reader.

Marlene notes she feels terrible and wants to go home. Steven and Marlene head home and Stephen follows above.

Stephen…This is why no one takes you seriously. I hate to hear how he talked BEFORE he became a sorcerer. Can you imagine him in the ER? “By Gray’s Almighty Anatomy, someone hand me the mighty retractor of Senn!”

(Stephen what is that pose? Steven…What is that lurking image of you?)

He scans Marlene while doing what I like to think of as his Vampire flight pose.

"Yes--But wait, there is a mystic aura about this man, Grant, as well. Then there are occult forces at work here that appear to defy even earth's sorcerer supreme, thus--"

He lays a protection spell on Marlene that will keep the possession at bay for the next 24 hours then flies home to do research.

Back in the mansion, Marlene gets into her usual skimpy night gown STILL WEARING THE NECKLACE.

Look, if I ever go to bed still in a necklace that gaudy, please consider me cursed.

Marlene is worried about the curse. She feels terrible and she's a little spooked.

Steven Grant feels differently.

"That black cat at the museum has got you all strung out. You'll sleep it off. As for curses... You should know better than anyone, Marlene, that these days--for sanity's sake, I like to keep a cool distance between myself and thoughts of the supernatural."

Steven no…

Jokes aside, we must remember that DID is a form of self preservation, protection, processing, and denial. When it comes to their DID, Stephen has ALWAYS been the first one to go "Nawh. I'm fine." and then try to strong arm his way through every situation. Marc is the first to go "May as well die" and throw himself head first into a dangerous situation, and Jake is the first to go "It ain't my problem. I'mma chill here with my buds."

Here is classic Stephen Grant, fresh off his most recent run of self doubt and slow crawl into a mental break (for the third or fourth time) and he's living in denial land and choosing a path that he feels is the most conducive to compartmentalize and keep his distance from their trauma.

"I try to forget that the ruthless mercenary I once was--Marc Spector-- apparently died and was reborn in a desert tomb years ago...

Under the gaze of a cold white statue of Khonshu, God of the moon... Whose spirit I use to believe reanimated me."

And yet you won't shut up about it. (I kid, but seriously, Steven.)

"Believed only too well. I relied on that superstition until I'd almost lost my mind --Forgot just where Khonshu ended and Spector or Grant began."

Why does he always forget about Jake?

"But you helped me see that I derived my strength and abilities from my own will and commitments, not from some long-dead mythology. You redeemed my soul and my sanity, Marlene...

And I'm not about to lose either of them again. So no more talk of witchcraft, okay? Just sleep tight while Moon Knight makes the rounds."

Steven sure is in a mood. I don't blame him.

(I also love how depending on who tells it or remembers it, we either see bloody beaten up Marc at the foot of the statue or we see a gently and sexily sprawled out Steven rendition with a gently weeping Marlene memory. I’d love to see how Jake remembers it.)

Moon Knight takes off and a clearly possessed Marlene mutters a classic line about “After thousands of years we have met once more, fool Thosbi. Now Amutef’s spirit, given voice by inhabiting the mortal frame, shall utter incantations of revenge.”

Classic.

Meanwhile, Stephen Strange is doing his own thing.

Stephen is...wordy. I'm going to summarize the WALL OF TEXT that is his ramblings and chantings.

Marlene is possessed by an ancient sorcerer. Steven Grant has been mystically endowed with the spirit of an ancient priest of Khonshu.

Meeting up on this moonlit night spells trouble with a capital T and now the curse is real.

He must get Steven Grant to cooperate with him or it will spell doom for them both.

And then we cut to Moon Knight, still angry about the implication of something supernatural happening to him.

"Steel and glass and concrete. There's reality for you. No room in a city like this for superstitions."

He spots some thugs assaulting a couple and he decides to glide down to intercept.

Yeah that…that seems about right.

He barely manages to dodge a gun shot, his crescent dart whacks a guy right in the face and cuts him, and he barely manages to catch up with the other two fleeing villains.

And of Course Detective Flint arrives to drive in the nail.

"Say, everything okay? Not like you to lose your wind over a trio of amatures."

"Just an accident, Detective--Cape got caught, you go on and treat the punks to a night in the slammer. Put it on my tab."

And to make his night even better, Stephen Strange shows up.

"It was no accident, Steven Grant."

"YOU again!? Am I supposed to admire your persistence or--Wait, you called me Grant?"

"Yes, it was Steven Grant I sought, and I'm afraid your costume does little to disguise HIS psychic aura. But, that is inconsequential--It is your life, not your identity, that is in jeopardy."

I...Could have SO much to say about breaking down that statement and we'd be here all night as I talked about the psychic aura of Steven vs. the others, his life vs. his identity, and all that fun stuff... But I have a feeling the writer wasn't aiming for that line...sadly... SO I'll leave it alone....this time.

He tells Steven that he's in danger and Steven demands to be shown the demons after him.

Stephen tells him that they were the ones that grabbed his cape, but he banished them before they could destroy him.

Moon Knight still isn't buying it.

I swear, half the Dr. Strange cross-over comics are spent with Stephen trying to convince everyone that magic is real and that he isn't full of it.

"I have learned that you are endowed with the spirit of a priest of Khonshu whose mystic powers are needed to save Ms. Alraune from the evil spirit which possesses her."

Honestly, while this isn't the first instance of the OG comic showing the cult of Khonshu and the priests, this is the first time someone has considered Moon Knight to be imbued with the spirit of a priest of Khonshu.

As many of you may be aware, the current run with MacKay pushes heavily into the Priest of Khonshu plot line, which has often been dropped and lost by subsequent writers after this one.

However, Strange is insisting that the priest himself is inside Moon Knight, while it's long been determined that Khonshu himself has imbued Marc and the others with his own power to make Moon Knight his own sort of priest.

Let's see how this issue plays it out.

"I would have mesmerized you without asking in order to summon the Ancient Priest within your being... But even your unconscious will is incredibly strong and I could not break through it."

I'm cackling about this. Imagine Strange trying to get in there and just being met by a really pissed off Jake Lockley.

"Bet on it, Mister." Steven is thinking the same thing. You know it. "My will's like granite, because that's what holds the real world out there together for me. It's my sanity."

Oh Steven...

Moon Knight calls Khonshu a myth and make-believe. "Do you think I'd ever embrace that madness again?"

He calls for Frenchie. He's done with this.

"If the spirit is not exorcised from Ms. Alraune by tomorrow night, she will be the one who knows true madness. Without the mystic aid of KHonshu, my spells can protect her no longer than that." Stephen Strange calls after him.

Moon Knight calls him a "blasted Looney" and takes off.

The next evening at Grant Mansion, the doctor informs Steven that he can't figure out what's wrong with Marlene.

Steven tells her that he'll cut the Moon Knight patrol short and be back before midnight.

(She's still wearing the necklace).

As Moon Knight leaves, Marlene sits up, possessed again, and sending the evil spirits out after the Khonshu priest Thosbi.

This time they attack the chopper.

Oh no. Not the chopper!

While the possessed Marlene chants of vengeance from the balcony, cats start to gather in the nearby tree.

Dr. Strange arrives to the chipper and starts to fight off the invisible demons that only he can see.

Frenchie tells Moon Knight to glide to safety. The chopper is going down. (My dear Frenchie always looking out for his friend.)

Moon Knight refuses to jump and the chopper starts to function again.

A particularly nasty demon shows up to fight Strange.

"Begone, Mage, for my chaotic powers are summoned by a spell more ancient than any your mortal lips can utter." It taunts him.

While Strange battles the demons, Frenchie manages to land the chopper.

Side note, I do love the way they draw Moon Knight’s costume. This is the start of the era where his shorts start to actually look like shorts and not underwear outside his outfit. You also see more black mixed in with his top and leggings. While you see the muscles, he isn’t drawn HUGE and ridiculous. It’s believable.

Also behold Strange before the goatee! It looks wrong…

Anyways, Moon Knight is not pleased to see Strange again.

They argue and give me my most favorite image of Frenchie EVER.

This man. I love this man.

Look at it. The moon hat. The lighting on his face. The relaxed sit. The smoke rings. Not one not two but THREE pens in his pocket. The gloves. The match book in his other hand. This is just another day for him.

The copter nearly crashed for unknown demonic reasons and his BFF super hero buddy is outside arguing with a wizard about being possessed by an ancient Egyptian priest.

Jean-Paul Duchamp I love you.

Strange tells him that if they don't contact the priest of Khonshu within the hour, Marlene is going to be lost to them.

Moon Knight concedes. He jumps in the chopper and they follow Strange back to the mansion. ....Why he doesn't let Strange fly in his chopper but makes him fly...You got me?

They arrive to find the mansion crawling with cats and Marlene in a trance staring contest with one of them.

Moon Knight decides to take a short cut to get to Marlene as fast as he ....OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. THERE ARE SO MANY Other WAYS TO ENTER YOUR MANSION! YOU BUILT IT!

(Adds another hash tag to the list)

Moon Knight crashing through his own window with his nunchucks out in a room full of cats. I just... He is the ultimate catboy.

They send away the cats, who were apparently there to attack the evil.

Stephen sets the room up for the ritual and Steven carries Marlene to a chair. "Save her, Strange... Even if it costs me my mind."

We get some interesting art here... They made Steven look like a bad anime magical girl transformation reaction or something. I can't even begin to describe this. I apologize for what I’m about to show you.

Flew too close to the sun with Frenchie. Now we must all pay the price with anime boy Steven Grant.

So Strange does his thing and forces the demons to show themselves.

"Do you think to conquer Amutef with glibness of tongue, mage?! I who was first among necromancers, who dared blaspheme the names of Khonshu and Osiris.." He summons his own demons to battle Strange.

He summons the priest of Khonshu through Moon Knight and we get some CLASSIC Dr. Strange art. We got the symbols, we got the squiggle lines, we got the colors, we got the eyes, we got the floating heads and we even got the floating hour glass.

As much as I love Dr. Strange, it takes me a while to read his old comics. My processing skills can't handle the barrage of EVERYTHING on every page. I’m glad it’s just a little in this comic.

We watch the two men do battle through time and space and in King Arthur's backyard for some reason... We see the great pyramids and some temples that my geographically challenged mind does not recognize...

Just as the battle is picking up...

"What?! I sense emotions of abnormal pitch. No! They flow from the mind of Grant. The strain on his will is too great! But he can't succumb now---!"

We see chanting and...wait... those words... They sound familiar...

"Khonshu, Nehem kua her entet ari-na maat! Amutef, thosbi! Affirms thee no longer to be!"

Parts of that sound suspiciously like something Harrow chanted from the MCU show. HMMMMMM....

Yeah, the battle is over and Marlene and Steven come out of their trances.

"You've survived, Steven Grant, and your mind is whole, stronger than before. You have experienced life AND death, the natural and supernatural. You have mastered your will and become a complete man."

Then Strange essentially does the "I must go now" thing and zips away to fight the occult forces of evil elsewhere.

We are left with Steven thinking things over.

"Occult forces. Like Marc Spector's dying and being reborn through the ghost of an ancient priest. You know, Marlene? I believe him. I don't for one minute like the idea...But I believe him."

The End!

Okay you guys… This was a wild one. It was a disaster start to finish but it did what comics are meant to do and it made me laugh and it was fun.

The art was…all over the place. It worked for an issue with Dr. Strange, but they made everyone FAR too baby faced and pretty. What’s weird is that the next issue is the same artist but he gets his shit together and it’s back to Moon Knight nitty gritty. What the hell happened? Let’s blame Dr. Strange on this one.

But….

Can you imagine THIS being the face of Steven Grant, Marc Spector, and slap a mustache on that and you got Jake Lockley!? THIS?!

He’s so judgy!

I’m dying out here you guys. Someone draw a mustache on that and I’ll love you forever. I think this broke me.

So… Aside from the… What ever all this was… It reminds me of the issue recently with Mackay. Where we got to go into Moon Knight’s mind-scape and we got to see Marc, Steven, and Jake all work together to defeat outside forces. They worked as a team and it was their special weapon. Going after Marc? No you aren’t. You’re gonna get punched in the face by Jake and Steven (steven gonna look at you like a highly disapproving father). In this early run, we don’t have the wonderful understanding and research into DID to fully comprehend or experience this, but looking back, I like to imagine it’s there under the surface.

I also look at the priest as not being the one that revived them. Again, I cite Khonshu himself. The priest issue can be folded into current and then building lore of the Priesthood of Khonshu. This was an early and powerful priest that happened to have a grudge against this particular bad guy. Perhaps this is where Mackay starts taking his ideas and lore from. We’re already seen other ideas from the OG run that he’s explored. If this is the case, it’s nice to see him doing his research and getting back to basics.

So what did you guys thing? Did it make you laugh too? Are we all cursed by the Magical Anime Steven image?

Next time I’m dipping back into the past to cover some of the issues I skipped. We’re getting to the home stretch you guys.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight Comics #Analyzing the comics #Marc Spector #Steven Grant #Jake Lockley #Marlene Alraune #Jean-Paul Duchamp #Dr. Strange #This issue broke me you guys #I've been laughing for an hour #LOOK AT HIS FACE #WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE THAT #Oh my god #I want to put that image of Frenchie on my wall

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