MOON KNIGHT #31-33 (1983): Doug Moench leaves

Bill Sienkiewicz is gone, but Marvel tries to hide it by keeping him on the covers. And he inks #33.

And he’s on the promotional art (above).

Again: He’s not on the interiors. The story suffers greatly because of it.

This was the beginning of the end.  They’d had a few fill-ins now and then, but until now, Moon Knight had been basically a Doug-and-Bill joint, and that was what we all expected from the book. 

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Doug Moench’s script, about a street gang called The Savage Studs, is just OK. It seems he was inspired by his co-creator.

Kevin Nowlan’s art is good, but can’t compare to what came before. Nowlan’s art was a huge tonal change.

Incidentally, these two creators did a brief stint together on Fantastic Four, and it never worked well.   

The Moon Knight series didn’t recover from the loss of Sienkiewicz. 

I want to repeat: It’s not that Kevin Nowlan isn’t a good artist, it’s just that he’s not Bill.

The book feels ordinary now, whereas before it was groundbreaking.

Nowlan tries to duplicate the choreography and beauty-in-violence work of Sienkiewicz, but he just can’t.

Moon Knight wouldn’t be great again for many, many years.

Also: Some godawful backup stories. The creators are listed in the creator tags below. The rating for these issues is based solely on the main story.

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