Amazing Heroes Issue #6 Cover Page

Amazing Heroes Issue #6 Cover Page

Periodical

Comics Strips

Amazing Heroes Issue #6 was published in November of 1981. The cover illustration, done by Bill Sienkiewicz, is titled “Moon Knight and Marlene – a Family Portrait”. It features a deep red background, with a stark white crescent moon in front of it. In front of that, we see the blonde, wavy-haired Marlene, giving a deer-in-the-headlights look. She is in a low-cut, unbuttoned pink shirt, with an arm thrown behind her head, her other arm atop the Marvel character Moon Knight, whose red eyes are looking menacingly forward. Moon Knight is wearing a white hood, with no recognizable facial features, save for the crimson eyes. Across the very top of the cover, the header reads “Neal Adams to draw new comic series”. Below this, it says Amazing Heroes (on the left) and “November, No. 6, $1.50” on the right. Toward the middle-right of the cover, below Marlene’s raised arm, it reads: “A peek into the future of Moon Knight.” At the very bottom of the cover, the left-hand side reads “Star Wars! Star Hawks!”, while the right-hand side says “T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Doom Patrol, and more!” All of the text on the cover is in yellow, save for “A peek into the future of Moon Knight”, which is in a medium-colored blue.

Marlene is the well-known love interest of Moon Knight…and all three of his other personas, including his primary one, Marc Spector. The couple is very co-dependent, as demonstrated by her possessive hold on him in the image. Other than dating him and possessing better-than-average fighting skills, she is largely “normal”. By having a more ordinary character like Marlene be romantically coupled with an anti-hero like Moon Knight, both the writers of the comic and the editors of Amazing Heroes are positioning that anti-heroes like Moon Knight are not inherently bad – after all, he gets a beautiful, talented girlfriend, despite his so-called flaws. Generally, in fiction, “bad” characters end up dying alone or in less-than-happy marriages – as seen in Macbeth, The Great Gatsby, and Gone Girl, “bad” characters are often denied the luxury of love. In rare times when that is not the case, they often befall other tragedies; although Jane Eyre and Rochester ended up together, their ending was full of strife and punishment for his “bad” behavior. In the case of crimefighter Moon Knight, he was able to overcome his more negative traits and still be worthy of romantic love. The depiction of their relationship on the cover of Amazing Heroes is no mistake; instead of having a cover that featured Moon Knight alone, Sienkiewicz chose to humanize him by putting him next to his ordinary love interest. While some superhero purists may have looked down on characters like Moon Knight, his inclusion both in an issue full of anti-heroes and his place on the cover solidify the stance of Amazing Heroes that anti-heroes have a place in superhero culture. His star role in the issue is a statement that, yes, anti-heroes are heroes; despite their flaws and imperfections, they still have a solid footing in the sphere of heroes and popular culture.

Executive Editor: Michael Catron
Art Director: Peppy White
Contributing Writer: George Guay
Contributing Artists: Bill Anderson, Rudi Franke, Doug Hazelwood, Mark Heike, Gary Kwapisz, Mark Lamport, Kevin Nowlan, Mike O'Neal
Cover Art: Bill Sienkiewicz

MSU Special Collection Comic Art, PN6725.A47

Zam, Inc.

1981-11

Holly Simon

Rights Restriction Apply

Amazing Heroes Issue #6 Table of Contents
Amazing Heroes Issue #6 Page 29

10 1/4 x 6 1/8 in.

English

Periodical

OMIT

1981-1992