This weekend’s light-hearted, escapist superhero post here at Balladeer’s Blog takes a look at the earliest 1970s appearances of the Marvel character Moon Knight.
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT Vol 1 #32 (Aug 1975)
Title: The Stalker Called Moon Knight
Villains: The Committee
NOTE: Jack Russell (Americanized from Russoff) was an established Marvel character who suffered from the family curse of lycanthropy. Jack faced several horrors while seeking a cure for his family curse.
Synopsis: In Los Angeles, Jack’s recurring foes the Committee have returned and still want to force Jack to become their unwilling Werewolf assassin. This time around they have hired a ruthless mercenary named Marc Spector and provided him with a costume, silver cestus gloves, silver boots, a silver truncheon and silver crescent moon blades so he can capture the Werewolf for them.
NOTE: This origin for Moon Knight would be retconned in the future, replaced with Khonshu the Moon God empowering and equipping Marc Spector when he was mortally wounded while robbing tombs in Egypt.
Moon Knight arrives at Jack’s Los Angeles apartment, where Jack shows up shortly before the Full Moon rises and turns him into the Werewolf. The pair fight it out through the streets of L.A. while Moon Knight’s helicopter pilot Frenchie abducts Jack’s sister Lissa and girlfriend Topaz.
Moon Knight’s silver weaponry enables him to eventually defeat the Werewolf, given its vulnerability to silver. He knocks out the beast and begins to carry him up the rope ladder to Frenchie’s helicopter hovering overhead. Continue reading
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