COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH! | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Jul02

COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Batman vs. Moon Knight

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Jul 2, 2022

COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Batman vs. Moon Knight

FRED VAN LENTE hosts an ’80s night fight! — COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH is a recurring column by Fred Van Lente in which the comics writer/historian takes two classic, related titles and compares them in verbal bloodsport. Actually, it’s not that serious at all. It’s FUN! — By FRED VAN LENTE Moon Knight is often referred as “Marvel’s Batman.” Though with his multiple secret identities—mercenary Mark Spector, cabbie Jake Lockley, millionaire Stephen Grant—and “constant friend and aide” girlfriend, that doesn’t seem as accurate as describing the Fist of Khonshu as “Marvel’s The Shadow”… …which, if you took high school algebra, you’d know to be a transitive property, as Batman is very much “DC’s The Shadow,” to the point where Bruce Wayne’s first appearance in “The Case of the Chemical Syndicate” in Detective Comics #27 is a direct ripoff by writer Bill Finger of a relatively recent Shadow adventure, “Partners of Peril.” In fact, all nocturnal fear-based vigilantes are Sons of The Shadow (name of my college band). My dad owned a multi-record set of Orson Welles starring as The Shadow in the old radio show, which is how I first fell in love with the character, to the point where I started checking out all the old radio dramas I could out of the library on cassette (did your local library do that?) The Shadow, who was either soldier of fortune Kent Allard or playboy Lamont Cranston, depending on whom you asked, had a cool helicopter and a network of agents working for him. Batman kept the millionaire stuff and copter, but dumped the agents and multiple identities except when he busts out the Matches Malone outfit. Moon Knight integrates the Matches concept as a primary part of the strip in the form of his cabbie guise. Writer and co-creator Doug Moench keeps referring to MK as “schizo” almost from the very beginning, in that annoying compulsive-nickname-tic that most writers who learned to write by reading Stan Lee dialogue develop eventually (myself included). Ultimately, this develops (with impressive subtlety, IMHO) into MK not being able to tell his various personas apart. Faster than you can say “Hank Pym Is a Wife-Beater,” in a world awash with costumed personalities this becomes his defining trait—he’s the “Split Personality Superhero” and, in less deft hands, “The Crazy Superhero,” which, while making for...

Feb20

COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Watchmen vs. Squadron Supreme

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Feb 20, 2022

COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH: Watchmen vs. Squadron Supreme

FRED VAN LENTE gets back in the ring! In a lot of respects, this is recurring 13th Dimension columnist Fred Van Lente’s gutsiest COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH — pitting Marvel’s cult-fave 1980s maxiseries Squadron Supreme against what’s widely considered the greatest superhero graphic novel of all time, DC’s Watchmen. But it’s all about the details, isn’t it? So sit back and dig this exploration of two surprisingly similar, yet substantially different, comics classics. Who wins the big brawl? Read on. — By FRED VAN LENTE Hey there! For this latest installment of COMIC BOOK DEATH MATCH, we are simultaneously reading two comics often mentioned in the same breath: Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, and Squadron Supreme by Mark Gruenwald and a bunch of artists, most notably Paul Ryan. Both are dark, self-contained mid-1980s 12-issue maxi-series that challenge the suppositions of the superhero genre; and, not coincidentally, their main characters are analogues for another company’s heroes. Rando humans given superpowers by the Grandmaster to fight the Avengers in Issue #70 of that mag by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema, the Squadron Sinister were obvious stand-ins for Superman (Hyperion), Batman (Nighthawk), Flash (Whizzer), and Green Lantern (Dr. Spectrum). But of course this was far too clean-cut an explanation for Thomas, he of the Grand Unifying Geek, who retconned his own work in Avengers #85. There we learn that in addition to all his other flaws, Grandmaster is a plagiarist: He ripped off the idea for his Sinisters from the Squadron Supreme, a sort of League of the greatest heroes of an alternate reality, where they fight for Justice (get it, get it). Likewise, the main characters of Watchmen are all stand-ins for heroes created for notoriously shady publisher Charlton that were acquired in the 1980s by DC: Captain Atom (Dr. Manhattan), the Question (Rorschach), Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt (Ozymandias), Blue Beetle (Nite Owl), Nightshade (Silk Spectre—sort of) and Peacemaker (the Comedian). Alan Moore crafted a story that was basically “Who Killed Peacemaker?” but DC editor-in-chief Dick Giordano, who had gotten his start at Charlton, immediately saw that Moore’s plans would render most of those heroes useless for further exploitation, and asked Moore to come up with his own characters instead. All the Charlton headliners would in fact go on to become fairly significant players in the DC Universe in one...

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