Interesting to see his behind-the-scenes comments. I've read the first omnibus, which goes up to #37, and indeed I noticed the formula and that it didn't start getting really good until about 2/3 of the way in. At some point both the stories and the art vastly improved.

Later on, John Byrne wanted the costume to be a living organism which healed itself, but he and Chris Claremont departed before they could establish this. Byrne's friend Roger Stern used the idea for Spider-Man's alien symbiote, later Venom.

The reverse smash seems to be double handed. That panel looks a bit Adamsesque to me- does anyone know if there's any truth in the rumour that Neal ghosted the pencilling on a couple of pages and the inking of a few panels of this issue?

A caption by Roy Thomas in Iron Fist's first appearance had him using the monkey blow, so Moench definitely didn't invent it.


According to codystarbuck's review of Marvel Premiere #16 in his Land of Misfits thread, Hama had a martial arts background, having studied studied Kodokan judo, Kyudo archery and Iado swordsmanship, but not kung fu. 

Hama said he drew one of his issues from a single-paragraph plot that was given to him over the phone.
link

Nothing I've learned about Moench suggests that he had any more knowledge of martial arts than could be gleaned from the David Carradine Kung Fu series.

Werewolf By Night #23 (November 1974)



"The Murderer is a Maniac!"

Script: Doug Moench
Pencils: Don Perlin
Inks: Vince Colletta
Colors: Linda Lessmann
Letters: Artie Simek

Grade: C-


We're starting to see signs of Moench caving under the pressure of all his new deadlines. In the previous review, we saw Moench starting to write Iron Fist almost exactly the same as he was writing Master of Kung-Fu. Here we start to see even more problems, beginning with a half-considered villain whose motives are exactly the same as those of the villain Moench created in last month's Monsters Unleashed.

While the irony there was at least that the villain's ugliness was in his own head:



this guy is a far more one-dimensional immitation:




Worse than that, while Moench had spent the past three issues playing with unique new ways to characterize the werewolf, here he defaults back to the sarcastic and nonchalant narration of Jack Russell describing a pretty non-threatening werewolf who ends up playing the role of the hero:



It's an extremely safe, easy, and utterly uninspired approach to the character, whereas last issue Moench didn't flinch at depicting the werewolf as a remorseless killer.

Moench at least continues to acknowledge that here:



though Buck still feels the need to characterizae the werewolf as a non-traditional hero whose actions ultimately saved the day.


Sure, Moench manages to throw in one stinging commentary on the politics of the day:



and wrap things up with his usual visual premise (around which he tends to center his stories):



but it was all so very forgettable and largely recycled, a far cry from the promise Moench was showing on this title for the last two issues. I feel like I just wrote the same thing about his work on Iron Fist in my previous review. Obviously, Moench will get over this hump and become an even stronger writer than we've yet seen in these reviews, but this would appear to be an awkward in-between phase that hopefully will not last long.


Minor Details:

1. I'm a little surprised that this got past the Comics Code:




2. It's going to be hard to continue to take the werewolf seriously when a non super-powered, non supernatural dude with muscles and a bone cudgel is capable of instilling this much fear in it:




3. What's with the ongoing shift in dialect for this character?





I'm guessing Moench was trying to show the actor shifting in and out of character, but this could have at least been clarified by the narration. If this guy is insane enough to be murdering people, does he gain any kind of awareness or sanity whenever his non-theatrical dialect returns? Moench never does anything with this.

In the interview with Gulacy in Comic Book Artist #7, he said he'd done miscellaneous stuff for Dracula Lives and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu before his colour debut in Fear #20, so perhaps this story had been on the shelf for a while.
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Master of Kung-Fu #23 (December 1974)




"River of Death!"
Script: Doug Moench
Pencils: Al Milgrom
Inks: Klaus Janson
Colors: Linda Lessman
Letters: John Costanza (pages 1-22); Charlotte Jetter (uncredited, pages 23-32)

Grade: A-

There is a positively different energy about this issue. Now that Moench has found the inspiration to put Shang-Chi and this feature on a new path, actively working for Sir Denis and British Intelligence to take down Fu Manchu instead of just haphazardly stumbling upon his father's antics while trying to seek peace each issue, the script comes alive with new energy. Despite juggling Frankenstein, Werewolf by Night, Haunt of Horror, Astonishing Tales, Deadly Hands of Kung Fu, Monsters Unleashed, and Planet of the Apes in addition to this magazine, Moench's managed to find a center for this one, and so we see newfound craft and care seeping into this issue as a result.

Let's start with something that might be surprising to the casual Moench reader: this is really the first time we see Moench actively invested in developing a supporting cast. Prior to now, the bulk of Moench's work was done on one-shot characters and stories where there was no reason to develop an ensemble cast, and plot therefore took center-stage. Thus, while Moench will go on to create highly endearing casts of characters in books from Planet of The Apes, to Batman, to Six from Sirius, arguably making character development his greatest strength as a writer, this is really the first time we see him trying his hand at it, and boy does he deliver.

He begins by playing a trick on the reader, making this story appear to begin as so many previous Shang-Chi adventures have begun, with a mysterious assailant about to attack Shang-Chi out of the blue. Except, this time, it's Black Jack Tarr: a playful reminder that the scope of this series has just changed:



This gives Black Jack an opportunity to flip out on Shang-Chi and remind the reader, right from the start, that he neither likes nor trusts him.

And yet, that changes quickly enough, as the trio of Shang-Chi, Black Jack, and Sir Denis are forced to work with a blatantly racist operative, compelling Black Jack to reveal a different side of himself:



He may not exactly like Shang-Chi, but he doesn't hate him either. There is room here for their relationship to grow.

In fact, Black Jack ends up proving to be the most endearing and memorable character of the issue while Shang-Chi and Sir Denis both remain rather one-note in contrast:




However, we do get this surprising moment, in which Shang-Chi saves Sir Denis' life, not out of some sense of obligation nor for the sake of the mission, but simply because he doesn't want him to die:



Bonds are developing between these characters, and we're only 1.5 issues into this new direction for the franchise.


That does leave me with some questions about Sir Denis, though. In all respects, he comes off as totally helpless:



The plot requires his presence because he has the information and the resources necessary to advance these adventures, but what the heck is he doing functioning as an agent in the field when he comes off as frail and utterly incapable of defending himself?

It's disappointing that Moench seems to have channelled so little of his first comic book love, Uncle Scrooge (1), in writing this. Uncle Scrooge was a necessary addition to the Donald Duck adventure stories of the 1950s and 1960s because he (like Sir Denis) could provide missions, intelligence, and resources to characters who otherwise would have been unlikely to stumble upon exciting adventures and new locals on their own. The difference here is that Scrooge was also tough and wasn't afraid to take the lead. Donald Duck and his newphews may have been younger, but they were rarely implied to be more capable than Scrooge; they were just there to provide company and to do the grunt work. Sadly, Sir Denis, proving to be far more of a liability, makes a lot less sense than Scrooge McDuck at this point, even if he was likely (whether consciously or unconsciously) inspired by him.


One last thing worth noting here is how accomplished Moench is becoming in his use of sequential panels like these:



He's been toying with this cinematic style of pacing ever since teaming up with Rich Buckler on Deathlok four months earlier to the point that now, seemingly regardless of what artist he pairs with, we see it used with increasing frequency and mastery. As I've noted repeatedly, Moench is an incredibly visually-oriented writer who, at various points, has provided complete break-downs to his artists and/or scripts with entire paragraph write-ups of how pages and panels should be arranged. At Marvel, Moench would go on to feel he would eventually develop a more symbiotic relationship with his artists, asking them what they wanted to draw and building scripts around that (2). Whether or not Al Milgrom requested Moench write a second script in three months centered on Shang-Chi fighting a giant underwater predator:


This issue



from Master of Kung Fu #21


synergy between writer and artist is thoroughly apparent in this obscenely powerful, expertly paced moment in the issue:



Moench's cinematic pacing is abundantly apparent here, and Milgrom helps take it to the next level.



Minor Details:

1. How many stories has Moench written over the past few months in which the villain is somehow inspired by having a deformed face?



This is at least the third, after Monster's Unleashed #8 and Werewolf by Night #23.


2. The Si Fan are way more incompetent here than previously depicted. They attack Shang-Chi clumsily and without any kind of plan, and one begs Shang-Chi not to hit him, gladly spilling the beans about Fu Manchu's plans.


3. Moench's narration at the start of this issue is every bit as absurd and labored as some of the earlier stuff he wrote for Shang-Chi (especially in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu).



Now that the franchise has found a new direction in which Shang-Chi won't often need to be alone with his thoughts, I hope we'll see less of this.






(1): Cooke, Jon. "The Peruvian Connection: Confessions of a Horror Writer." The Warren Companion. Vol. 1. Raleigh: Twomorrows, 2001. 118-125. Print.

(2) Findlay, K. (2020, February 13). Interview: Doug Moench on master of Kung Fu. The Epic Marvel Podcast. Retrieved February 18, 2023, from epicmarvelpodcast.com/interview-moench2/

Adventure Into Fear #25 (December 1974)




"And What of a Vampire's Blood...?"
Script: Steve Gerber (plot); Doug Moench
Pencils: Frank Robbins
Inks: Frank Giacoia
Colors: Linda Lessmann
Letters: Artie Simek

Grade: D+

As the letter column for this issue explains, there had already been a plan in place for Moench to take over Morbius' adventures both here and in Vampire Tales while Steve Gerber moved to The Defenders, but a deadline issue with Giant-Size Defenders #3 allegedly prevented Gerber from scripting this issue, requiring Doug to step in earlier than expected. Similarly, Frank Robbins begins penciling as of this issue and is only supposed to be here temporarily, but both he and Moench will leave after issue #28.

The marriage of their work here is...less than impressive:



I've always known Robbins as a writer and had no idea he did art. I can see here why his penciling work isn't better known. Moench's drawn-out, brooding narration utterly clashes with the absurdity of Robbins' cartoonish figures and inexplicable poses.

of course, Robbins would have pencilled this before Moench was involved, so there is little opportunity for synergy between the two yet. Hopefully that will change as of next issue, as it's easy to see how Moench would have wanted an artist to lay out a sequence like this one:



LOTS more panels. LOTS more purposeful, cinematic pacing.


As of now, Robbins just seems to be trying to get the story done, with little consideration for arrangement and pace. Take, for example, this sequence that even Moench doesn't seem to know what to do with:



Why is a random fire hydrant the central focus of this entire page? No one seems to know.


It's always challenging to evaluate a story that Moench scripted but didn't plot, and perhaps even moreso because this was clearly a rush-job, as illustrated by this major blunder below that someone absolutely should have caught and corrected had their been enough time:




but Moench does manage to infuse a few panels with his particular breed of prosaic narration, and he even manages to lend a little ascerbic wit to Morbius' character that hadn't been there under Gerber:





But the real challenge comes next issue, where Moench is expected to write the culmination of a story arc Gerber had been developing over the previous four issues (which, even with two pages of flashbacks/explanation, still utterly confuses me). According to the letter column, Gerber had no plan for how the story would end when he left.



All in all, a forgettable story with a confusing backdrop and hideous artwork. Moench doesn't get much opportunity to shine here, but there's always next issue.