Published in 1911 with attractive illustrated boards by the Religious Tract Society (RTS).

 

Ladybower Dam, Plug Hole, Derbyshire, UK

 

The Ladybower Dam was built between 1935 and 1943, and took a further two years to fill (1945). The building of the dam wall was undertaken by the Scottish company of Richard Baillie and Sons. The two viaducts, Ashopton and Ladybower, needed to carry the trunk roads over the reservoir, were built by the London firm of Holloways, using a steel frame clad in concrete. Both firms encountered mounting problems when World War Two broke out in 1939 making labour and raw materials scarce. The opening ceremony for the reservoir was carried out on Tuesday September 25th 1945 by King George VI accompanied by Queen Elizabeth, later to become the Queen Mother.

 

During the 1990s the wall was raised and strengthened to reduce the risk of 'over-topping' in a major flood.

 

The dam's design is peculiar in having two totally enclosed bellmouth overflows (locally named the 'plugholes') at the side of the wall. The easterly overflow originally had a walkway around it but this was dismantled many years ago.

 

(Thanks to Kraigsta for the description).

 

Being used for a book cover in Oct 2009.

 

I am thrilled to be featured in the Spring 2013 edition of Art Journaling! I blogged about it here.

Character Creation

 

Moon Knight is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975).

 

The son of a rabbi, Marc Spector served as a Force Recon Marine and briefly as a CIA operative before becoming a mercenary alongside his friend Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp.

 

During a job in Sudan, Spector is appalled when ruthless fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman attacks and kills archeologist Dr. Alraune in front of the man's daughter and colleague, Marlene Alraune.

 

After fighting Bushman and being left for dead, a mortally wounded Spector reaches Alraune's recently unearthed tomb and is placed before a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Spector apparently dies, then suddenly revives, fully healed.

 

He claims Khonshu wants him to be the "moon's knight", the left "Fist of Khonshu", redeeming his life of violence by now protecting and avenging the innocent.

 

While early stories imply Spector is merely insane, it is later revealed Khonshu is real, one of several entities from the Othervoid (a dimension outside normal time and space) once worshipped by ancient Earth people.

 

On his return to the United States, Spector invests his mercenary profits into becoming the crimefighter "Moon Knight", aided by Frenchie and Marlene Alraune, who becomes his lover and eventually the mother of his daughter.

 

Along with his costumed alter ego, he primarily uses three other identities to gain information from different social circles: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, and suited detective and police consultant Mr. Knight.

 

It is later revealed Moon Knight has dissociative identity disorder (DID) (incorrectly referred to as schizophrenia in some stories), and that the alter egos known as Grant and Lockley originally manifested during his childhood.

 

Other subsequent alter egos who do not assume the Moon Knight identity have emerged at other points during his adulthood, including a werewolf-fighting astronaut; impersonators of Khonshu, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, and Echo; and a red-haired little girl known as the Inner Child, introduced in the Ultimate Marvel continuity.

 

It is debated in different stories whether Spector has genuine DID due to childhood trauma or if his similar symptoms are the result of "brain damage" caused by his psychic connection to Khonshu, a connection compelling his personality to shift between the god's four major aspects.

 

Khonshu claims he created a psychic connection with Spector, Grant, and Lockley when the latter were young, decades before they became Moon Knight.

 

In most of his stories, Moon Knight has no supernatural abilities beyond occasional visions of mystic insight.

 

He relies on athletic ability, advanced technology, expert combat and detective skills, and a high tolerance for pain based on willpower, training, and experience. Since becoming Moon Knight, there have been multiple occasions when the character has died only to then be resurrected by Khonshu, implying he may now be effectively immortal until the moon god's protection is revoked (whether Khonshu has limitations on how often he can resurrect Spector is unknown).

 

For a time, Moon Knight's strength and resistance to injury could reach superhuman levels depending on the phases of the moon, but this ability later vanished, while the Moon Knight identity is occasionally depicted as an independent alter ego of the others.

 

The character has made appearances in various media outside of comics, including animated series and video games. Oscar Isaac portrays Marc Spector / Moon Knight, Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, and Jake Lockley in the Marvel Cinematic Universe live-action television series Moon Knight (2022).

 

Development

 

In an interview, Doug Moench recalled the character's genesis: "Somebody mentioned in the office and suggested using The Committee, and that I should bring The Committee back, and then I found out who The Committee were and thought, well they're really boring, I don't wanna use them. And then I thought, well wait a minute, how about if The Committee hires a mercenary to kill the Werewolf. And I thought, yeah that's a good idea, then I create this new character and it won't be these boring guys in business suits, it would be a flashy character. So, I said who is best to kill the Werewolf? Well, someone who uses silver weapons because silver hurts the Werewolf. And tied to the night, because the Werewolf only comes out at night, and I'll base this character on the Moon, because the Moon makes the Werewolf change, and this is going to be the opposite of the Werewolf, and as soon as I said the Moon I said, ooh I'll have a costume that's just like the Moon, just black and white, jet and silver, no color on the costume."

 

Don Perlin also commented on the creation of the character, "We were told we needed a costumed character in the book. So Doug and I created Moon Knight. I wanted the costume to be just black and white. Since he'd be on a color page, that would make him a little bit different. He had a silver baton he could use when he battled werewolves. See, he was hired to track down to kill the Werewolf."

 

Publication history

 

The character debuted in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975), written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin and Al Milgrom, as a mercenary hired by the Committee to capture the title character. The creative team gave Moon Knight moon-related symbols and silver weapons (a metal poisonous to a werewolf) to mark him as a suitable antagonist for the werewolf hero.

 

The two-part story continues into #33, when Moon Knight realizes Russell is a victim rather than a monster and decides to help him. A demonic vision of Moon Knight then appeared in Werewolf by Night #37 (March 1976).

 

Editors Marv Wolfman and Len Wein liked the character and decided to give him a solo story in Marvel Spotlight #28–29 (June/August 1976), again written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin. The story, along with Spectacular Spider-Man #22–23 (September/October 1978) written by Bill Mantlo, recast Moon Knight as a more heroic character.

 

His association with the evil Committee during his first appearance was retconned to be an undercover mission he undertook to learn more about the villains.

 

Moon Knight acted as a hero again in Marvel Two-in-One #52, written by Steven Grant with art by Jim Craig. In The Defenders #47–51, Moon Knight briefly joined the Defenders during their war against the Zodiac Cartel.

 

Moon Knight appeared in recurring backup stories in Hulk! Magazine #11–15, #17–18, and #20, as well as a black and white story in the magazine publication Marvel Preview #21, all written by Doug Moench. Artist Bill Sienkiewicz drew Moon Knight in Hulk! Magazine issues #13–15, 17–18, and #20, creating a new look for the character heavily influenced by the art of Neal Adams, who at that time was most popular for his work on Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow for DC Comics.

 

This, along with Moon Knight's methods and the atmosphere of his stories, cemented a perception among some readers that he was Marvel's version of Batman. The Hulk backups and Marvel Preview issue provided Moon Knight with a partial origin story and introduced his brother, recurring villain Randall Spector (who would later become Shadow Knight).

 

Origin

 

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Marc Spector was the rebellious son of an academic Jewish rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to escape the Holocaust.

 

Marc could not understand why his father refused to fight against his people's persecution and grew disgusted with his pacifistic ways, viewing him as a coward.

 

Rejecting his father's faith, Marc started out as a heavyweight boxer before eventually joining the U.S. Marines, where he was trained as a commando. Shortly afterward, his skills led to his recruitment into the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

He worked with William Cross (who later became the villainous Crossfire) and his own brother, Randall Spector. However, Randall betrayed the CIA and was secretly smuggling and selling weapons. When Marc's lover discovered this and tried to turn him in, Randall brutally murdered her with a meat cleaver. In retaliation, Marc hunted Randall down, but during the fight, Randall was seemingly killed by an exploding grenade.

 

Fed up with the CIA, Marc went independent and became a fierce soldier of fortune, renowned for his willingness to do anything providing the job paid well enough. In Africa, he met a French mercenary, Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, who would become one of Marc's closest friends and Marc's pilot.

 

While working for the terrorist Raoul Bushman, Marc became increasingly disturbed by Bushman's savagery and ruthlessness. For the first time in his life, his conscience had awakened, and it troubled him deeply. In Selima, Sudan, they stumbled across archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune's excavation of an Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb. Believing there were gold and riches within, Bushman murdered Alraune to plunder the tomb.

 

Sickened by Bushman, Marc tried to do the decent thing and helped Alraune's daughter, Marlene, escape from Raoul's notice. Annoyed with Marc's betrayal, Bushman brutally beat Spector and abandoned him in the desert so he would suffer before he died.

 

Barely conscious, Spector staggered to the ancient tomb for shelter. Marlene was there with her father's men and brought Marc to rest near a statue of the moon god, Khonshu.

 

Weakened from his fight with Bushman and the elements of the desert, Marc Spector died. As Marlene cried over his cooling body, Spector suddenly returned to life, claiming that he had a vision that Khonshu had brought him back from the dead to be the Moon's Knight of Vengeance.

 

Spector removed the burial shroud from the statue of Khonshu and wrapped it around himself as a makeshift cloak, before confronting Bushman once again, and this time, he was victorious. Thus, Moon Knight was born.

 

Major Story Arcs

 

The Hero of the Night Rises

 

After defeating Bushman, Marc returned to the United States with Marlene and Frenchie along with the statue of Khonshu. He decided to continue his work to fight a war against evil and used his savings that he had collected during his mercenary days and invested it, turning it into a small fortune which he proceeded to finance and support his private war and set up shop in New York City.

 

In an effort to distance himself from his mercenary days, Marc created the persona of Steven Grant, a millionaire entrepreneur and high-roller whose jet setting personality enabled him to walk among the high rollers and elite of New York City. Realizing the value of these contacts as criminal activities are often plotted and planned at cocktail parties and boardrooms, Marc also decided to create a persona for lower level contacts and invented the identity of Jake Lockley, a New York cab driver. Through Lockley, he was able to make several contacts "on the streets" such as Bertrand Crawley and Gena Landers plus her sons Ricky and Ray.

 

Shortly after developing his costume and weapons along with a customized helicopter known the "Mooncopter", Frenchie posing as a French businessman made contact with a group of aristocrats known as "The Committee" who had plans to capture and retrieve Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night whom they intended to use as a weapon to fulfill their desire to rule the city. Frenchie acting as the go-between, presented the Committee members with Marc Spector as a mercenary and ostentatiously revealed the Moon Knight costume and weapons which Frenchie claimed that he had created to battle Russell.

 

Although Marc was successful in defeating Russell, his suspicions were realized when he discovered the Committee's goals and proceeded to release Jack and defeat "The Committee" which earned him their undying enmity and established Moon Knight as a vigilante to be respected.

 

After thwarting a man calling himself Conquer-Lord, Moon Knight briefly joined the superhero team, The Defenders, to fight the Life Model Decoys of a villain group called Zodiac. He then went on to battle Cyclone alongside Spider-Man, and Crossfire with The Thing, as well as some solo missions against a terrorist group lead by a man named Lupinar, and even his own brother, Randall who had survived their previous encounter and had become a psychotic ax killer targeting women.

 

Afterwards, Moon Knight encountered villains that would become part of his own rogues gallery--such as the Midnight Man, Morpheus, Stained Glass Scarlet, and Black Spectre, just to name a few--and teamed-up with Spider-Man a few more times, as well as other heroes such as Daredevil, Iron Man, Power Man and Iron Fist.

 

Then, Marc received word that his father was dying and decided to try and patch things up with him. Unfortunately, his father passed away before he was able to return to Chicago and instead discovered that his father's body had been stolen by his father's former student, Zohar who used the deceased rabbi's body to focus for his mystical spells to punish Marc for his perceived sins against his dead mentor.

 

Although Moon Knight was able to overcome Zohar; the mental trauma combined with the act of juggling his different personas put a serious strain on Spector's mental health and he suffered a nervous breakdown and was deemed to be suffering from Multiple Personality Disoder (MPD) or as it later became renamed; Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

 

The Fist of Khonshu

 

After several months of recuperation for his mental health, Spector decided to retire as Moon Knight and with pressure from Marlene who greatly preferred his debonair and sophisticated Steven Grant persona, decided to give up both his Jake Lockley and Marc Spector identities. Marc became convinced that he only had a near-death experience and merely hallucinated the episode with Khonshu and even sold the idol of the Egyptian deity.

 

Marc however was plagued by strange dreams which convinced him that he had to return to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

 

Marlene however adamantly refused to follow him again in his downward spiral of violence and insanity and demanded that he not go, sure that he would once more take up the mantle of Moon Knight. When he did so anyways, she left their home and broke up with him.

 

On his pilgrimage in Egypt, Marc met three priests who proclaimed that the idol of Khonshu had fallen into hands of the avatar of Anubis, Ahmad Azis who intends to perform a ritual that would destroy the idol to strike back at Khonshu whom he believes is the sole thing stopping him from world domination.

 

Proclaiming Marc as the Fist of Khonshu, they gifted him with an assortment of mystical weaponry and supernatural strength and powers that waxed and waned with the light of the moon.

 

His strength renewed and his faith restored, Marc would once again take up the mantle of the Moon Knight and even more powerful than before would defeat Anubis' plot and rescue the idol of Khonshu.

 

Strangely enough, seconds after saving the idol from being destroyed; a sudden desert sandstorm comes and blinds Azis and causes the temple to collapse on him, killing him.

 

The Silver Avenger

 

When the the West Coast Avengers were trapped in ancient Egypt, Hawkeye made a pact with Khonshu and created an assortment of weapons that Khonshu would mystically enhance and would subsequently be gifted to Marc Spector in the 20th Century.

 

In exchange, Khonshu informed his avatar, Marc Spector of their situation; allowing Moon Knight to help rescue them and return the Avengers to the present. Moon Knight then joined the team as the 24th Avenger.

 

He possessed a rather tumultuous stint of membership even though he proved to play a critical role in defeating Dominus and later, the Examiner of the Silg race; he often had a habit of playing fast and loose with the rules such as his pursuit of Cornelius Van Lunt which may have driven the man to his death and possessed less-than-stellar teamwork due to his longtime career as a loner. Further, his tenure was complicated with a romantic relationship with fellow Avenger Tigra.

 

When it was discovered that Mockingbird had allowed the Phantom Rider to be killed after he had drugged and raped her, her husband Hawkeye denounced her which caused Mockingbird to resign. In response, Tigra and Moon Knight both chose to accompany her and form their own splinter group of Avengers. The trio would fight the High Evolutionary in the Evolutionary War alongside Bill Foster, as well as battle the Night Shift.

 

When the team sought help from Hellstorm for the Phantom Rider's haunting of Mockingbird, it was discovered that Khonshu was possessing Moon Knight and was the true source behind his supernatural lunar-based powers.

 

Hellstorm was able to convince the Egyptian God of the Moon to leave Spector's body and it was revealed that it was Khonshu, not Marc who wanted to join the Avengers West Coast. Unsure of how much of Khonshu's influence had on himself for the past few months led Marc to breaking off his relationship with Tigra and also abandoning his mystical weapons.

 

Marc Spector: Moon Knight

 

After the fallout of Khonshu's possession, Marc returned to New York and sought out Marlene and reforge his ties with Frenchie even though he was no longer certain he wishes to continue as Moon Knight anymore. However, the return of his old enemy Bushman who kidnaps Marlene prompts him to return as the Crescent Crusader.

 

However without Khonshu's supernatural influence, Spector was much more psychologically stable and did not resume his previous identities of Jake Lockley or Steven Grant. Instead, he refocused his financial empire and created his own company SpectorCorp while he dedicated himself towards more urban street crimefighting over the more cosmic, supernatural evil that he previously battled under Khonshu's influence.

 

Afterwards, Marc discovers that an old enemy, Midnight Man may still be alive only to discover that foe is deceased but his grown son now seeks to redeem his father's criminal lifestyle as a hero and has sought out his father's greatest enemy; Moon Knight to train him up to become a crimefighter.

 

Feeling a sense of obligation, Marc reluctantly agrees. Desperate to prove himself worthy, Midnight infiltrates the Secret Empire and is ultimately captured and is presumed deceased while dressed up as Moon Knight.

 

Midnight however survived his horrific wounds and is converted into a cyborg soldier for the Secret Empire. Believing that the Silver Avenger had abandoned him, Midnight came to believe that his condition was all Moon Knight's fault.

 

With Midnight acting as their field agent, he broke Thunderball out of jail which earned him the attention of Spider-Man and Darkhawk. He was able to escape but Spider-Man recognized Midnight from his previous encounter with Moon Knight and called in the Lunar Legionnaire.

 

Midnight was then sent to capture the New Warrior Nova and discovered that he was soon to be rendered obsolete as merely one of cyborg grunts while the Empire would rebuild superhumans to enhance their formidable attributes.

 

With the clandestine assistance of a sympathetic nurse, Lynn Church who disabled the Empire's control devices, Midnight turned on the Empire and sought to establish himself as their new leader. Alongside Spider-Man, Darkhawk, the Punisher, Night Thrasher, the freed Nova; Moon Knight aided in bringing down the Secret Empire as well as Midnight and Lynn Church who was actually a cyborg herself who had been using Midnight as the testbed of the most successful cybernetic implants for her own upgrades.

 

In another encounter with his brother who had taken up the costume of Shadowknight as a sort of twisted version of his Moon Knight identity, there was an explosion at Spector Mansion which crippled Frenchie, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and forcing him to abandon his role as a Moon Knight's pilot.

 

As a consequence, Marc was forced to create the "Angelwing", a remote controlled aircraft for his activities. An increasingly formidable array of opponents also prompted him to upgrade his crimefighting equipment and accoutrements.

 

Marc also began actively recruiting specialized agents to assist him on his missions from psychological profiles, to expert thieves, and intelligence operatives in a think tank organization he dubbed "The Shadow Cabinet" that he kept in contact via holo-communicator rings.

 

Moon Knight would later become infected by the then-demonically possessed Hobgoblin with a demonic virus which prompted Marc to create a suit of armor which helped contain the virus while he sought a cure to his deteriorating physical condition and was only cured thanks to the mystical aid of Dr. Strange.

 

Infinity War and Crusade

 

When the Magus, the evil incarnation of Adam Warlock plan to gain absolute power, he created evil doppelgangers of both heroes and villains on earth. Moon Knight had to face his own evil self, manifested as Moonshade which he defeated.

 

After the War, the Goddess, the good incarnation of Adam Warlock recruited many heroes who are very spiritual, religious have had near-death experiences.

 

Because of Moon Knight's close affiliation with the moon god and his first resurrection to serve as the avatar of vengeance; the Goddess recruited Moon Knight to defend her as she purges the evil in the universe. Moon Knight was returned to normal when the Goddess was defeated by the combined efforts of Adam Warlock, Thanos and Professor X.

 

Soon afterwards in a battle against Seth the Immortal, Moon Knight sacrificed his life to save Marlene and Frenchie.

 

Resurrection War

 

Khonshu seemingly willed Moon Knight back to life in order to thwart the plans of his three greatest villains: Black Spectre, Raoul Bushman and Morpheus, who were all under the worship of Set, God of Darkness and Chaos.

 

Marc, questioning if his death was real or not, started experiencing dreams of the future in which Marc concludes that it is either Morpheus or Khonshu speaking to him once again. With the knowledge that he is the "white-light" of Khonshu, he sets out to thwart their plans, receiving help from Stained Glass Scarlet as well.

 

The two are able to defeat the trio and stop their plans of attacking a U.N. building that was holding a meeting at the time. Afterwords, Moon Knight went back to his crime-fighting once again.

 

He helped save the Black Panther from the Kingdom of the Dead and subsequently joined the Marvel Knights, a group of street level superheroes and vigilantes. However the team broke apart and went their separate ways including the Crescent Crusader.

 

Moon Fall

 

In an attempt to bring down the Moon Knight, the New Committee hired the The Profile to fully utilize his unusual talents to not simply defeat Moon Knight, but to break him.

 

As per his suggestion, they embarked on a long term strategy. First, they hired Bushman to attack the Lunar Legionnaire again. As part of their campaign, they wanted Bushman to physically cripple him and both of Marc's legs were severely fractured.

 

However, Bushman grew overconfident and was unprepared for Marc's brutal counterattack and then, in a fit of indescribable rage, Marc used one of his crescent darts to carve off Bushman's face, giving him a true death's head.

 

Unable to continue his career as Moon Knight, Marc began taking more and more painkillers and anti-psychotics, burning through his fortune and was no longer able to maintain his crumbling financial empire.

 

His manner had gotten to the point that he completely and irrevocably alienated those around him, especially Frenchie, who came to the conclusion that there was simply no course of action that he could take that could attempt to assist Marc in even the slightest way. After a heated argument with Marlene, Marc struck her and Marlene left.

 

His sanity apparently deteriorating as he is constantly "seeing" and "hearing" Khonshu talk to him and give him foul suggestions while Khonshu decided to use the guise of the deceased Bushman (without his face) to torment Moon Knight.

 

Knowing that he was both physically and psychologically weakened, the Committee overstepped themselves by hiring a thug to physically assault Frenchie and left him hospitalized.

 

Instead of breaking Marc, it reinvigorated him as he tracked down and savagely injured Frechie's assailant. Panicking, the Committee hired the Taskmaster to take out Moon Knight.

 

Taskmaster tortured Marc but he was aided by Marlene and defended by his butler, Samuels. This gave Marc the strength to defeat Taskmaster and destroy the Committee once more.

 

Soon afterwards, Marc learns that one of the struggling companies that he still retains ownership of has just made a significant technological breakthrough and he will once again be wealthy and begins to rebuild himself and life; finally getting himself out of his wheelchair and began physical therapy.

 

It is only afterwards that Marc makes an appalling discovery that Khonshu was responsible behind the entire affair. After Marc's latest resurrection, his reputation had taken a nose dive and so Khonshu decided to ensure that his Knight of Vengeance was firmly back in the saddle; nudging the Committee, bringing back Marlene at a critical moment, even arranging for Marc's wealth to be restored while reminding him who and what he is; Khonshu's Knight of Vengeance and bades him to go forth and do his work in Khonshu's name once more.

 

Although the Committee has gone underground, Marc locates the Profile who discovers that he was no match for Moon Knight, and ironically, became an informant for him instead.

 

Moon Knight takes back to the streets and attempts to be make up for lost time and would discover a string of murders were perpetrated by his former sidekick turned cyborg, Midnight who had survived their last encounter and had gone insane. Realizing that he had no choice, he was forced to kill his former sidekick Midnight.

 

The Waning Moon: Civil War and the Initiative

 

During the Civil War, Moon Knight chose to ally with neither side because, as he had said to Captain America, "The war is just like a game of capture the flag". Captain America retorted that he didn't want Moon Knight to join the fight because of his "methods" of bringing justice and Iron Man, seeing his history of psychotic tendencies and feeling some sense of obligation due to their past history as Avengers, decided that arresting him will just make his condition even worse.

 

When the Super-Human Registration Act became a law, Moon Knight felt that he didn't want the law to disrupt his work, so legally registered. Tony Stark assigned Marc to undergo a psychiatric examination, sure that he would fail. But when the psychiatrist placed Marc under deep hypnosis to talk to Marc's other personalities, Khonshu emerged and possesses Marc who then demoralized the psychiatrist and rebukes him.

 

After this the intimidated psychiatrist approved Marc's registration, but also did something quite peculiar--he bowed down before him and started worshiping him.

 

Afterwards, Marc claimed to the Profile that he had faked the whole possession and had employed the information given to him by the Profile to frighten the psychiatrist as a ruse to get his registration approved and proceeded to stalk the nights, bringing brutal justice to the thugs and gangs running around the city.

 

Unknown to Marc, the Black Spectre was recently released from jail and sought revenge against Moon Knight. The Black Spectre decided to turn to his life of crime again and frame Moon Knight for murder by killing his victims and carving a crescent moon on the victims head, which was Moon Knight's previous calling card. Due to public pressure, Iron Man immediately revoked Moon Knight's ID and told him he is no longer apart of the Initiative.

 

Looking to still bring justice on Black Specter, Marc finds out that he is going to release a stream of nanobots into a big parade in a plan to control the city. Moon Knight thwarts his plan and ends up throwing him off the roof of a building to his death. Outed by the government and with SHIELD searching for him, Spector moves underground.

 

With a warrant out for his arrest the, C.S.A. call in for the Thunderbolts to come and hunt down Moon Knight as a fugitive of the law. Iron Man strongly opposes the idea but is overruled on the matter. Moon Knight continues to lay low only to resurface in a black uniform and a with a few new bones to pick. SHIELD interrogates several of Marc's friends and contacts, although nothing comes out of them. Now is the time for the Thunderbolts to strike.

 

Several weeks later after having a run-in with the Thunderbolts, Moon Knight pleads with Khonshu for forgiveness for losing his faith at him, but the Lunar god will not have it and says that he has worshipers that actually follow him. Marc returned into his costume to help Frenchie, who was attacked by a gang. But little did he knew that the attack was used to set-up Moon Knight to be captured by the Thunderbolts. Moon Knight was then ambushed by Venom.

 

He was captured by the reformed villain team, but he got away when SHIELD came. Frenchie agreed to help Moon Knight while the Thunderbolts release Bullseye to kill him.

 

Moon Knight and Bullseye fight all throughout New York and the battle leads them to a warehouse, which was secretly planted with many explosives. Moon Knight sets it off and the warehouse explodes.

 

Later in a press conference Norman Osborn tells reporters about the Thunderbolts' success in eliminating Moon Knight while Iron Man condemns his team on the death of the vigilante.

 

However, it all was a ruse for Moon Knight to fake his death via a prepared escape tunnel. However, the events effectively killed the "Marc Spector" persona with the Jake Lockley persona now in control.

 

Lockley fled to Mexico to recuperate and is hired by a millionaire to search for his daughter who has been kidnapped by corrupt cops.

 

Little does Moon Knight know that the Punisher is also in the trail of the corrupt cops and is now out to bring them justice through a method he knows best, punishment.

 

Moon Knight then goes to fight off the Zapata Brothers (who were brought in by Alcantara after Jake killed his henchmen and took his condemned daughter) only to make a deal with them to take down Alcantara. Moon Knight then proceeds to launch a full-scale assault on Alcantara when he finds everyone is murdered except Alcantara himself until Toltec finds them and Moon Knight walks away as Toltec kills Alcantara. Moon Knight (having taken Alcantara's money and bought himself a condo) has seen on TV what Norman Osborn has become and vows to go back to the U.S. and bring him down.

 

Return with a Vengeance

 

Moon Knight has returned to New York to exact his revenge on Norman Osborn and did so by stopping a bank heist in progress without killing a single bank robber, much to the surprise of the police.

 

Khonshu is still convincing him to become the ruthless vigilante he was before, but Moon Knight continues to ignore the temptations of the deity and plans to redeem himself as well as reform into a new hero. News of Moon Knight's return circulated throughout the bustling city, with Norman Osborn denouncing him as a renegade and a menace while promising the public that Moon Knight will be dealt with for his acts of vigilance accordingly.

 

The Sentry appeared before Moon Knight and reminded him that he can never run from his past and that he will be tested for to prove himself as a hero, to which he replied that he will also be tested as well.

 

Moon Knight paid a visit to his criminal contact, the Profile and told him about the Slug and some stolen diamonds that he has. Moon Knight confronted the Slug and his henchmen for the diamonds, while Khonshu urges him to kill the villain but he was squashed in the floor.

 

Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has delegated the Hood on stopping Moon Knight. The Hood then had the Profile to track down and profile Moon Knight. The Profile thought of a plan to take down Moon Knight and it involves the grave of his late nemesis, Raoul Bushman.

 

Jake goes home and sees the news coverage about the jailbreak in Ravencroft. Jake suits up as Moon Knight and tells his butler to call his pilot for the Mooncopter, but he cannot reach him and Moon Knight decides to use his other vehicle, Angelwing.

 

When the hanger doors were opening, Moon Knight was surprised to see his old partner, Frenchie, dressed in a aviator suit and walking on a cane. Reunited with his friend, Frenchie flies the Mooncopter and drops Moon Knight inside the melee of the escaped convicts. In the middle of the chaos, Khonshu is still persuading Moon Knight to kill for him, but to no avail.

 

When Moon Knight called Frenchie to come back, he told him he can't because of an enormous flock of birds blanketing the sky, which was summoned by the Scarecrow. Frenchie then shoots a large net from the Mooncopter to catch the flock, neutralizing it.

 

Moon Knight then catches Scarecrow, but he then argues to him that Moon Knight should confront his old nemesis, Bushman. Moon Knight goes to his contact, Crawley for any word from the street,but they were suddenly attacked by Bushman.

 

After taunting him, Bushman fires a RPG to Moon Knight but it hits a corner of building, threatening it to collapse. Moon Knight rushed in to hold the building and Bushman left him to be beaten by his army of convicts from Ravencroft.

 

After beating the convicts with only his underwear and mask on, Moon Knight carves his symbol on all that he defeated on their strait jacket.

 

Spider-Man then swings by and he tried to convince Moon Knight to stop his heroics before he return back to his murderous ways, to which Moon Knight argued that his heroism doesn't fare better because Norman Osborn is still in power.

 

Moon Knight got a tip from Crawley goes in search for Bushman in one of OsCorp's warehouses. Moon Knight then infiltrates the warehouse and begins searching for Bushman to no avail, until he surprises Marc. After a much drawn out, grueling fight between Marc has Raoul pinned down and mounts him with his crescent dart in his hand as if to cut off Bushman's face again.

 

Though Bushman begs Marc not to take his face again, causing much hesitation for the hero before stopping his act. Marc left and let the authorities take care of him. Meanwhile, now that Marc has prevailed, The Profile left to the cavern of Khonshu, for reasons unknown.

 

Moon Knight finds that someone has forcibly enter a hospital. When he got there, he saw Deadpool about to kill a bed-ridden patient. Moon Knight stops him and they go into a brief scuffle until Deadpool gets thrown through a window and escapes. Moon Knight then finds out that the person he just rescued was a Ukrainian crime boss dying from cancer, that made him question himself about being a hero.

 

Deadpool then met up with his employer, a mother whose son was kidnapped by the crime boss' henchmen. Moon Knight goes to see Deadpool and after they talked, Moon Knight goes to a warehouse to rescue the employer's son. Moon Knight saves the boy and left the henchmen for the police, but soon Deadpool picked up where they left off in their previous encounter.

 

They fought in a carnival's hall of mirrors where the duel turned into a sword fight, which left Moon Knight left as the winner. When Jake was having nightmares in his sleep, he suddenly woke up rushed to get into the hospital but he was too late to save the crime boss from Deadpool's employer who killed him with an injection of potassium chloride, stopping the patient's heart.

 

Heroic Age

 

After the events of Dark Reign and Siege, Norman Osborn was deposed as America's "top cop" and his organization H.A.M.M.E.R. was disbanded. Captain Steve Rogers then forms the Secret Avengers as a group of superheroes to operate under a veil of secrecy, in addition to the main Avengers team.Moon Knight was approached by Steve Rogers and he asked him to join the Secret Avengers to find his redemption.

 

Moon Knight agrees to this and his first mission was to go after Captain Barracuda who was capturing Oil Tankers. Moon Knight proved himself to the team by saving them and the Tanker crew when Captain Barracuda used the Horn of Proteus to summon sea monsters and destroying the Oil Tanker.

 

Next, Moon Knight infiltrated Roxxon headquarters with fellow Avenger, Ant-Man. They then had to travel to Mars to rescue another teammate, Nova who was looking for the Serpent Crown. The team split up and Moon Knight was accompanied by Black Widow and Valkyrie to look for Nova.

 

When they found him he is wearing the Serpent Crown and he also detected their presence. He and Black Widow were knocked unconscious when they confronted Nova. After the threat on Mars, the team went back to Earth and continues their objective of finding out who is trying to steal the Serpent Crown and why they want it.

 

Shadowland

 

Moon Knight goes to his mansion and sleeps with Marlene, he wakes up and is taunted by Khonshu on going back to his murderous ways and to kill in his name. The other night, Marlene asks Jake out and reveals that she is pregnant, which he is happy about.

 

After days of being taunted by someone calling himself Shadow Knight, Jake gets a mission from Steve Rogers to infiltrate Shadowland as a prisoner. As the heroes and the Hand ninjas fight each other, Jake takes a white cowl and joins to the brawl.

 

Daredevil then attacks Marc from behind, but when Moon Knight begins to fight him, his mind is subsequently infiltrated by an unknown entity that has been inside Daredevil. Khonshu then appears and tells Moon Knight that in order to kill the creature, he will need the Sapphire Crescent, an artifact that was a part of the original sculpture of Khonshu.

 

Moon Knight asks for it, but Khonshu demands him to kill in his name, which Moon Knight declines to do. When he returns home to his mansion, he finds Marlene in a bloody pulp and is informed that Shadow Knight did this and that the baby she was carrying is now dead. Moon Knight then agrees to kill for Khonshu and he will start with Shadow Knight.

 

When he begins to fight him by crashing his glider, the crazed man reveals himself to be Randall Spector. The brothers fight it out but Randall escapes. Driven by revenge over what Randall had done to Marlene, Jake agrees to kill Randall in Khonshu's name. The deity then tells him the Sapphire Crescent's history and that is found in New Orleans.

 

Jake finds it in the possession of a fortune teller which he buys for a large sum. As Jake walks through a carnival, Randall steals it and the brothers again begin a scuffle in the middle of a Mardi Gras festival.

 

Shadow Knight begins to tell Moon Knight that he is doing this because he was sent by the acolyte of Khonshu, the Profile. Jake persuades him that he is being played for a fool by the Profile (working for Daredevil) but he will not have it all. When collateral damage begins to mount, Moon Knight takes control of the fight and corners Shadow Knight on a dock, but he is prepared to commit suicide and kill them all with dynamite.

 

Moon Knight then throws the Sapphire Crescent into Shadow Knight, slicing his throat and causing him to fall in the water below. Moon Knight then flies off back to Shadowland to face Daredevil and the Hand. Afterwards, the Lunar Legionnaire declares that Jake Lockley is dead and that he is now Marc Spector once again.

 

Move to the West Coast

 

Leaving New York and memories of Marlene behind him, Marc moved to West Coast where he is developing a Moon Knight television series, "The Legend of Khonshu".

 

Unable to cope with his past identities, Marc has instead developed a new batch of personalities in the form of other heroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine. Marc honestly believes that he has been asked specifically by these three heroes to once again take up the mantle of Moon Knight and frequently consults with them, unaware that he is hallucinating.

 

He later recruits an assistant Buck Lime, an ex-SHIELD agent who provides technological support for his activities.

 

Investigates an illegal deal going down in the docks, Moon Knight stumbles into a major case involving high-end technology being run by Mr. Hyde. Moon Knight engages Hyde in hand-to-hand combat but Hyde escapes, leaving behind a shipment of Ultron technology.

 

Marc later continues on to uncover more details about this new gang by subconsciously dressing as Spider-Man while attacking the new gang lead by Snapdragon. Overwhelmed by the Snapdragon's henchmen, Marc was rescued by Echo, who was undercover at the time and had to blow her cover in order to save Moon Knight.

 

Teaming up with Echo to continue their investigation together, Marc begins falling in love with her and tries to pursue a romantic relationship only for it to fail badly. After fighting the Night Shift, Marc and Echo discover that the leader of this gang is none other than Count Nefaria.

 

When Moon Knight and Echo target his bases of operations, Nefaria retaliates and kills Echo before demanding that Marc serve him. Apparently surrendering, Marc instead lures Nefaria into a trap and is later congratulated by Iron Man for a job well done.

 

Age of Ultron

 

Marc was involved with the 'Age of Ultron' crossover series, and is shown to be one of the few heroes left in the city of New York, after the Avengers' villain Ultron took power. He is working with Black Widow from an old hidden base left by Nick Fury, and their plans focus on destroying Ultron, before they are destroyed.

 

Return to New York

 

Using laundered old money, Marc returned to New York with a host of new equipment including an upgraded baton and an automated limousine. He also discovered with the help of a psychologist, Elisa Warsame, that he has never had DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) but instead when Khonshu's consciousness colonized his own, it forced Marc's mind to adapt to it's four aspects which has resulted in brain damage.

 

Calling himself "Mr Knight" and wearing a white suit and mask, Marc now works with Detective Flint's Freak Beat to investigate weird crimes. When a more direct approach is needed Marc discards the Mr. Knight persona and instead will use the Moon Knight one with a new updated light armor.

 

Some of the investigations were into trained killers going after Gen. Lor of Akima, an East African micronation that was recently being recognized by the UN. Elisa had been using therapy sessions to recruit these killers having seen Gen. Lor's violence up close. Spector confronts her and believes she is trying to recruit him, only she was actually recruiting Khonshu. who abandons Spector.

 

Spector would be arrested and sent to an off-the-books special prison. Khonshu continued to visit Spector hoping to convince him to join Elisa's quest, however, Spector was able to convince Khonshu instead that he was being used and get his help escaping.

 

They discovered Gen. Lor actually led revolutionaries against Warsame's father, the former governor of Akima, who was in fact guilty of the crimes Elisa described. Elisa has been trying to restart the unrest in her home country so that she could take her father's seized fortune quietly.

 

Spector was able to save the general before Elisa could execute him.

 

Freak Beat

 

As part of Flint's task force, Moon Knight would go on many weird investigations. For one, he would try to fight off a gang of punk ghosts; but was unable to harm them. Khonshu reminded him of his various acquisitions of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including enchanted weapons and armor. Facing of against the ghosts again in a ornate armor with a bird skull mask he was able to fight and defeat them

 

Other investigations included a pack of dogs trained to attack the city's wealthy elite, a hotel full of benevolent ghosts and violent gang members, and a demon posing as the monster under the bed. Spector believes he is representing Khonshu by protecting those who travel at night, but Khonshu disapproves of Moon Knight's current fight for justice.

 

It appeared as if Khonshu was looking for new guardians to replace Spector and collect sacrifices for him. Spector took the fight to them only to discover a cult leader acting in Khonshu's name but without Khonshu's support.

 

Versus The Moon

 

Marc Spector and his allies (Frenchie, Crawley, Marlene, and Gena) mysteriously find themselves in a mental institution with no memory of how they got there. Their past lives come back to them slowly and in fragments, with Marc the most confused due to his multiple identities.

 

The doctor in charge, Dr. Emmett, was trying to convince Marc that he imagined his adventures as Moon Knight. However, Khonshu informs him that Dr. Emmet is in fact Ammut, the Egyptian god of judgement, and that the Egyptian pantheon is trying to take over New York. This convinces Marc and his allies to stage a successful breakout, at the cost of one of their souls. Crawley volunteers.

 

Unfortunately, Khonshu was lying. It was Khonshu who was setting up a New Egypt, and he has been breaking away at Marc's psyche so Khonshu could take Marc's body for himself. Marc refused and leapt from Khonshu's pyramid. When he awoke, New York was fine and he was his billionaire identity, Steven Grant.

 

As Steven, he is producing a movie about the Moon Knight. Marc Spector is cast as the leading man. Jake Lockley is a local cab driver, who is actually Moon Knight. They all seem like they are separate people now, but they are sharing memories.

 

Just as Steven started questioning it all, he is hit with a new identity. This one shared a name with Marc Spector, but he was a fighter pilot for a futuristic space force that protected the humans of a moon colony against werewolves that had taken over Earth.

 

These disparate identities are joined together by the primary Marc Specter to hash things out with fists and words until the real Marc was finally back in control and ready to face Khonshu. Marc first revisits Anubis, who aided in Marc's escape.

 

Marc made a new deal to save Anubis' wife Anput from the Overvoid in exchange for the return of Crawley's soul and passage back to Khonshu.

 

Khonshu throws everything he can at Marc, but Marc is able to fight through it. to Marc, that means he has proven he can be Moon Knight without Khonshu, but in his final confrontation, Marc doesn't throw a single punch. He acknowledges Khonshu (or at least this version of Khonshu in his mind) as "that thing in [his] mind that is wrong" and not the Egyptian god. By doing so, Marc expels this Khonshu from his mind and receives clarity. He is suspicious of the clarity, but it feels real enough for now.

 

Versus the Sun

 

With his identities at ease and working together, Moon Knight is slowly rebuilding his street cred. In his first big fight, he comes across a tall muscular tattooed man calling himself The Truth.

 

He is able to infect people with hard truths, but when Moon Knight lets Jake take over, The Truth can’t take his dark side. Jake ends up blinding him with two shurikens to the eyes.

 

Afterward, he gets a call from his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Marlene. She invites him over after they had some time apart, but it was a ruse by the Sun King, an avatar of Ra, looking to get back at Khonshu.

 

The Sun King’s plan was to use Marlene as bait but ended up introducing Moon Knight to his daughter. Unbeknownst to Marc, Jake had been meeting with Marlene in secret, fathering the child and helping to raise it. Moon Knight fought his way out with his daughter, Diatrice, but Sun King took Marlene.

 

The Sun King also recruited Bushman, his new gang, and The Truth to aid him in taking out Moon Knight. They collected Moon Knight from his apartment and sailed to Isla Ra, Sun King’s new city for the disenfranchised.

 

Here, Sun King is determined to fight Moon Knight to the death and prove his dominance. However, Moon Knight “out-crazies” Sun King, and Sun King’s insecurity disables his abilities.

 

So, Sun King submits, Bushman and the Truth abandon his quest, and Moon Knight becomes guardian to the disenfranchised Sun King had already given shelter too.

 

Age of Khonshu and The Phoenix Force

 

With the Phoenix Force oncoming due to the machinations of Mephisto, Khonshu instructed Moon Knight to steal the abilities of the present day mantle holders of a stone age team resembling the Avengers.

 

While briefly connected to the Phoenix, Marc was so shocked by his consideration of genocide to stop Mephisto that he returned the Avengers' abilities and allowed them to best him. Black Panther tried to convince him to team up with them, but he declined, thinking the Avengers were severely outmatched.

 

Unfortunately, trying to take over the world for Khonshu had lasting effects on Marc's personal life. Marlene and Diatrice cut him out of their lives, forcing Marc to come to a reluctant agreement with his Steve and Jake personalities.

 

He forced his other two personas into his subconscious and would not allow them to take hold of their body. This way, Marc believe he could have a new beginning.

 

Midnight Mission

 

With Khonshu locked up in Aesir by the Asgardians and his personalities presently pacified, Marc continued to keep up with his duty as the guardian of those who travel at night. He opened the Midnight Mission, an office where locals can come officially request his help, and started seeing a therapist (Andrea Sterman) by special request of the Avengers. He also got himself a new office assistant, Reese, who was also a vampire, and a new friendly rival, Hunter's Moon, who was loyal to Khonshu and chastised Marc's lack of faith.

 

Marc made a name for himself busting heads in his new neighborhood. This got the attention of a helpful Tigra, who was secretly working with Black Panther. It also got the attention of the mysterious and ambitious Zodiac, who saw a number of attempts on Marc's life as a game.

 

Zodiac cut Marc off from his riches and destroyed his office building, forcing Marc to enter a partnership with the sentient residence, The House of Shadows.

 

His feud with Zodiac would reach its peak when he attacked the Midnight Mission. It required all of Moon Knight's allies including Hunter's Moon, Rutherford Winner, and former Hydra agent, Soldier, who had swiped a spare Moon Knight costume for himself.

 

When Soldier died, Reese lashed out and almost killed Zodiac. Steven took control of Marc's body and stopped her from crossing the line.

 

Blood of the Fist

 

Jack Russell knew of a prophecy within the pages of the Darkhold that referred to a weapon that could be used to kill Khonshu, who he considered his oppressor and oppressor to all werewolves. "The Blood of the Fist, anointed by the Blood of the Fist" referring to the child of a Fist of Khonshu that would "forged by the King of All Wolves." The child would be Diatrice, the daughter of Marc Spector, but in order to turn her, he needed to become The King of All Wolves.

 

He challenged the leadership of every werewolf tribe in North America and won. He then defeated Wendigos in Canada to prove himself, but when he kidnapped Diatrice, Marlene went to the Midnight Mission to send Moon Knight after Jack.

 

With Hunter's Moon's help, the two of them tracked Jack and his followers, however, Diatrice's innocent naivety disarmed Jack. He still intended to go through with it, but the window of planetary alignment required was closing.

 

Once Moon Knight was able to interfere, he was capable of distracting him long enough for him to miss his opportunity. With no reason to continue, Jack relented and left with a dire warning from Marc to stay away from his family.

 

The Structure

 

When Zodiac shot through Reese and killed Soldier, enough DNA survived on the bullet to infect Soldier with Reese's vampiric curse.

 

This got the attention of Tutor, the vampire who had sired Reese and was running the vampire cult, The Structure. He believed that Soldier was the first of many, so he treated the Midnight Mission as a rival organization. After Moon Knight had a run-in with two assassins (Nemean and Grand Mal) hired by The Structure to take them out, Moon Knight started looking into vampire activity in the city.

 

With the help from a rival vampire leader, Lady Yulan, Moon Knight got the location of a vampire conclave being held by Tutor, bringing in vampires from all over the globe. Unfortunately, Hunter's Moon was attacked by the assassins, forcing Marc to take care of them first.

 

He had them pulled into the House of Shadows to be tortured. He would then drop them through the skylight of the conclave meeting place, while he and Tigra make a fancy entrance.

 

Soldier put his Hydra terrorist training to good use by rigging the fire suppression system to go off. Marc than proved himself to be a true priest of Khonshu by consecrating the water, transforming it into holy water and taking out nearly all of Tutor's followers.

 

They left one witness, a human familiar, to send a warning back to Dracula what happens when vampires mess with New York

 

City of the Dead

 

After Moon Knight failed to save a young boy named Khalil from the Egyptian-American street gang, Sons of the Jackal, Marc went to Hunter's Moon for help entering The Duat, the City of the Dead.

 

He pledged to find the soul of the boy and bring it back to his comatose body. He tracks members of the Jackals who came to Duat after their death and had the boys heart. They also increased their strength by summoning the power of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.

 

Overpowered, he was eventually joined by the Scarlet Scarab, a fallen mercenary friend made the guardian of Duat. They soon learned that the Sons of the Jackal were stealing the innocent hearts of children to weigh on the scales of justice, thus avoiding punishment for themselves.

 

Their leader, Jackal Knight, reveals himself to be Moon Knight's dead brother, Randall, the new host of Anubis. He has summoned a Legion of the Unliving made up of Moon Knight's dead enemies.

 

They had captured Khalil because he is the host of Osiris, and Randall wanted his power for his own. Once he had it, he was too strong for Marc to take on, even with Layla's help.

 

Thankfully, because the realm is psychoactive and can be shaped by the contents of a person's heart, Moon Knight was able to create four bodies: one for each of his three personalities and Khonshu.

 

This still wasn't enough to overpower Randall and his Legion. So, when Khalil awoke during the fight, he committed suicide, freeing Osiris' physical form to take the power back from Randall. In exchange, Osiris sent both Marc and Khalil back to the land of the living to live out the rest of their days.

 

The Ghost in the Telephone

 

The Midnight Mission was targeted by Sidney Sarnak, employed by a mysterious new player. Whoever they were, they were using Sarnak's ability of brainwashing people with sound.

 

First, they manipulated The Harlequin Hitman couple to go after Moon Knight's old Shadow Cabinet, to throw Moon Knight off his game. They also tested riot-inducing music at a club that Reese and Soldier just happened to be attending.

 

Spector finally got a lead when Dylan Brock needed his protection and mentioned the Venom symbiote had been off due to the sound manipulation around town. Using the symbiote to track Sarnak, Sarnak turned himself into the police rather than be interrogated by the Moon Knight.

 

Sick of playing games with Moon Knight, this new player revealed themself as a new Black Spectre. Using 8-Ball to lure Moon Knight to Hart Island, Black Spectre revealed his use of Cobra Project mind control, which Marc had dealing with during his mercenary days.

 

He also employed every thug and superhuman The Midnight Mission has defeated as a gauntlet for Marc to run, hoping to end Moon Knight once and for all. Fortunately, a guilty 8-Ball decided to betray Black Spectre and save Moon Knight.

 

Back at the mission, Hunter's Moon had caught another of Black Spectre's employees, Vibro. Marc was forced to interrogate him psychically because Badr had beat him into a coma. Inside his mind, the two Fists of Khonshu learned that Vibro had been drilling around Manhattan turning it into a giant tuning fork to use Sarnak's sound hypnosis on. Black Spectre's plan was to force Manhattan to tear itself apart

 

The Last Days of Moon Knight

 

With the knowledge from Vibro's mind, Moon Knight hatches a plan to take out the new Black Spectre once and for all. He tracks the Black Spectre to The Mount, a skyscraper in New York. 8-Ball, now Moon Knight's resident pilot, would fly Marc, Badr, and Tigra to The Mount in his Hover-Rack.

 

Soldier would already be on site doing recon, while Reese watches over the Mission. Unfortunately, Black Spectre was ready for them. The Hover-Rack would be shot out of the sky and crash into the building, and the heroes would be quickly separated by Black Spectre's goons.

 

8-Ball would be injured and stay with his airship. Tigra would be stuck when she steps on a land mine but be saved by Soldier, who had training in ordinance disarming. Badr would track down Sarnak and try to intimidate him into turning off the sound device, and Marc would take on Black Spectre, who eventually revealed himself to be Sigmund, a member of the Shadow Cabinet Marc thought had been killed.

 

Marc was shot many times and close to death, left to watch Sigmund's work. He was visited by Khonshu, who said he didn't have enough power while imprisoned to revive him.

 

Knowing this is the end (and with approval of his identities, Jake and Steve), Moon Knight rigged Sigmund's weapon to explode before it could have any effect on Manhattan, killing him in the process.

 

In his absence, his friends carry on the good work of the Midnight Mission.

 

Revived

 

When Blade was possessed by Varnae, the first vampire, he took over The Structure and filled the sky with darkforce. Under this permanent night, the vampires of Earth would attempt world domination.

 

With help from the Avengers, Hunter's Moon, Tigra, and Wrecker would be teleported to Asgard so they may free Khonshu. Once the god was freed, he raised his past priests from the dead, including Marc, to fight back against the vampire horde.

 

As the sky cleared, the vampires had changed. They no longer were weak against the sun, meaning Moon Knight and the Midnight Mission's job was just getting started. Once they had driven the vampires back into hiding, Marc needed his first break since being revived.

 

Khonshu would not have it. He demanded Marc kill the pretender: the Shroud. Marc decided to fool Khonshu. He fought Shroud, stopping his heart, fulfilling his debt to Khonshu, but he had Hunter's Moon prepared to revive Shroud, giving him the second chance Shroud was looking for.

 

Glitter

 

In Marc's absence, a new drug kingpin, Achilles Fairchild, had moved in on the Midnight Mission territory thanks to his magic drug, Glitter.

 

Powers and Abilities

 

Due to his multiple personalities, Moon Knight possesses formidable psychic resistance and most telepathic or mental attacks are less effective on him. It has also been noted by several people that Moon Knight possesses an extraordinary degree of pain tolerance and has casually ignored debilitating wounds and major injuries to keep fighting.

 

Throughout his varied careers as a boxer, marine, commando, and CIA agent, Moon Knight possesses a wide range of skills and abilities including military strategy and tactics, infiltration and stealth techniques, military interrogation and torture techniques, driver evasion techniques, and is a competent pilot who can fly most types of aircrafts.

 

He is an expert in a wide variety of military firearms including pistols, sniper rifles, and machine guns with a marksman rating. His military training and background makes him not only an unconventional hero, he can and will use drastic means and extreme violence to stop criminals.

 

Moon Knight is a highly skilled combatant who is equally adept in both unarmed and armed fighting techniques; he is a former heavyweight boxing champion who has comprehensive knowledge of the weak points of the human body.

 

Moon Knight's fighting style is brutal and straight to the point and combines techniques from Krav Maga, Dambe, Savate, Silat and FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) to put down his opponents as quickly and as painfully as possible. He also has advanced skills in Judo, Kung Fu and is an Olympic-class athlete, acrobat and gymnast.

 

Taskmaster claims that there is no one's fighting style that he hates copying more than Moon Knight's. This is because unlike most other fighters, Moon Knight prefers not to block or evade an attack or injury if it allows him the opportunity to counterattack his opponent; much like how some boxers will actually court their opponent to attack and trusting in their stamina and ability to take punishment.

 

He is also highly adept in various conventional and unconventional weaponry as well including shurikens and thrown projectiles, combat knives and swords, batons, truncheons, bo staffs, nunchucks, three-sectional staffs, longbows, chains, and bolos.

 

Thanks to his extensive experience in criminal investigations, Moon Knight has also picked up a surprising degree of skill as a detective including how to profile psychopathic behavior and a broad base knowledge of the criminal underworld.

 

When he became the Fist of Khonshu and was possessed by Khonshu, Moon Knight gained superhuman powers derived from the moon itself.

 

During this period, Moon Knight had enhanced strength, stamina, and reflexes based on the lunar phase of the moon. He was at his strongest during a full moon, as he could lift the weight of 2 tons and at normal strength when there is a no moon, where he could lift around 700 lbs.

 

He could also see magical beings that normal humans cannot see and possessed night vision as well. Moon Knight could also become invisible in a shadowed area and had a "healing factor" that allowed his wounds to quickly heal when shined in moonlight.

 

After the exorcism of Khonshu from his body, Moon Knight appears to have lost most of his powers but there is speculation that he may or may not retain some aspect of them. He still appears to receive prophetic visions and a connection to Khonshu but it is unknown just how much is actually Khonshu's influence or Marc Spector's own mental hallucinations.

 

Moon Knight has also shown that he can be revived by Khonshu. This may prove that Moon Knight is near immortal.

 

Weapons and Equipment

 

Thanks to his immense wealth, Marc Spector has financed the development of numerous weapons, armored costumes, devices, specialized vehicles, and equipment as Moon Knight.

 

Crescent Darts

 

Even though Moon Knight has utilized a wide variety of weapons throughout his career, his most widely utilized and best known are his crescent darts.

 

The crescent darts are sharpened metal throwing weapons similar in size to Japanese shurikens and visually appear to be based on the Gibbous moon. Moon Knight has often concealed a crescent dart in his hand and in the past has used them for close quarters combat; as his calling card; and during certain parts of his career--even using them as makeshift gruesome carving tools into his victims.

 

Moon Knight can hurl several of these darts simultaneously with impressive force and accuracy as well as performing deflection shots. In addition, he has utilized crescent dart throwers; mechanical devices mounted on his wrists that enable him to discharge a barrage of crescent darts at high velocities for better penetration and offensive spread patterns.

 

Over the years, he has employed crescent darts forged out of silver for anti-werewolf use; specially modified explosive crescent darts that detonated on impact; as well as ones forged out of unbreakable adamantium alloy that can cut through virtually anything.

 

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Marc Spector

 

Publisher: Marvel

 

First Appearance: Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975)

 

Created by: Doug Moench (Writer)

Don Perlin (Artist)

... with JPG Magazine.

Many thanks, Derek & Heather & Paul!

 

- original image on Flickr here

- facing image, Kids, by the young & talented Camillo Longo, on jpgmag here

Found "in the wild" in the www ...

 

The original photo.

TV Station WBIR in Knoxville used my photo of the Jefferson County Courthouse in their segment on the East Tennessee Endangered 8. My photo appears at the 0:45 mark

 

www.wbir.com/web/wbir/news/local/list-of-east-tenn-endang...

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that was printed and published by J. Salmon Ltd. of Sevenoaks. The card, which has a divided back, was printed in England.

 

Note the sign for J. Lyons on the left of the photograph.

 

Selfridges, Oxford Street

 

The building with the flags is Selfridges.

 

Selfridges is a Grade II* listed retail premises on Oxford Street in London. It was designed by Daniel Burnham for Harry Gordon Selfridge, and opened in 1909.

 

Still the headquarters of Selfridge & Co. department stores, with 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) of selling space, the store is the second largest retail premises in the UK, half as big as the biggest department store in Europe, Harrods.

 

Selfridges was named the world's best department store in 2010, and again in 2012.

 

Background to The Store

 

In 1906, Harry Gordon Selfridge travelled to England on holiday with his wife, Rose. Unimpressed with the quality of existing British retailers, he noticed that the large stores in London had not adopted the latest selling ideas that were being used in the United States.

 

Selfridge decided to invest £400,000 in building his own department store in what was then the unfashionable western end of Oxford Street, by slowly buying up a series of Georgian buildings which were on the desired block defined by the surrounding four streets: Somerset, Wigmore, Orchard and Duke.

 

Design and Construction of Selfridges

 

The building was designed by American architect Daniel Burnham, who was respected for his department store designs. He created Marshall Field's, Chicago, Filene's in Boston, Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, and Gimbels and Wanamaker's in New York City.

 

The building was an early example in the UK of the use of a steel frame, five stories high with three basement levels and a roof terrace, originally laid out to accommodate 100 departments.

 

American-trained Swedish structural engineer Sven Bylander was engaged to design the steel frame structure. As the building was one of the early examples of steel frame in the UK, Bylander had to first agree appropriate building regulations with the London County Council, requiring amendments to the London Building Act 1844.

 

Using as a basis the regulations which covered the similarly-designed London docklands warehouses, Bylander then agreed changes which enabled greater spans within lesser beam dimensions due to the use of steel over stone.

 

Bylander designed the entire supporting structure which was approved by the LCC in 1907, with a steel frame based on blue brick pile foundations, supporting a steel frame which holds all of the internal walls and the concrete floors.

 

Bylander had to include additional supported internal walls, as the LCC would not approve store areas above 450,000 cubic feet (13,000 m3) due to the then-approved fire safety regulations, many of which were removed 20 years later in light of new legislation.

 

Bylander submitted a 13-page fully illustrated account of the design of the building to Concrete and Constructional Engineering, which was published in 1909. The work of Burnham and Bylander with the LCC led to the passing of the LCC (General Powers) Act 1909, also called the Steel Frame Act, which gave the council the power to regulate the construction of reinforced concrete structures.

 

American architect Francis Swales, who trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was briefed to design the frontispiece. Aided by British architects R. Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait, the final design was highly influenced by John Burnet's 1904 extension to the British Museum.

 

The steel supporting columns are hidden behind Ionic columns, to create a façade which presents a visually uniform, classical, Beaux-Arts appearance.

 

The distinctive polychrome sculpture above the Oxford Street entrance is the work of British sculptor Gilbert Bayes.

 

The final frontage, through the use of cast iron window frames to a maximum size of 19 feet 4 inches (5.89 m) by 12 feet 0 inches (3.66 m), means that both the Oxford Street and Duke Street frontages are made up of more glass than stone or iron.

 

Construction of Selfridges

 

Opening on the 15th. March 1909, the store was built in phases. The first phase consisted of the nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner, a site of 250 feet (76 m) wide on Oxford Street by 175 feet (53 m) along Duke Street. The floor heights averaged 15 feet (4.6 m), and the initial structure contained nine passenger lifts, two service lifts and six staircases.

 

The main entrance and all of the bays to its left were added some 18 years after the store first opened, using a modified construction system. The complete building opened fully in 1928, and through the use of supporting spandrel steel panels, the scale of the glass panes within the main entrance could be greatly enlarged.

 

A scheme to erect a massive tower above the store post-World War I was never carried out. Harry Selfridge also proposed a subway link to Bond Street station, and renaming it "Selfridges"; however, contemporary opposition quashed the idea.

 

The final design of the building was completed in 1928, and although classical in visible style and frontage, it is modern in its steel frame construction.

 

In part due to new schools of architectural thought emerging apart from the classical schools, and in part due to the close proximity of World War I, the building is seen as the last of the great classical buildings undertaken within the UK.

 

Although the UK was late in adopting modern architecture only from the 1930's onwards, by the mid-20th. century many architects looked at Selfridges as if it were pre-historic in design, accepted just because Harry Gordon Selfridge wanted to advertise his business with a confident display of classicism in stone.

 

Selfridges in Operation

 

When it opened the new store employed 1,400 staff, thereby setting new standards for the retailing business.

 

At that time, women were beginning to enjoy the fruits of emancipation by wandering unescorted around London. A canny marketer, Selfridge promoted the radical notion of shopping for pleasure rather than necessity.

 

The store was extensively promoted through paid advertising. The shop floors were structured so that goods could be made more accessible to customers. There were elegant restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception rooms for French, German, American and "Colonial" customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible.

 

Staff members were taught to be on hand to assist customers, but not too aggressively, and to sell the merchandise. Oliver Lyttleton observed that, when one called on Selfridge, he would have nothing on his desk except one's letter, smoothed and ironed.

 

Selfridge also managed to obtain from the GPO the privilege of having the number "1" as its own phone number, so anybody had to just dial 1 to be connected to Selfridge's operators.

 

The roof terrace hosted terraced gardens, cafes, a mini golf course and an all-girl gun club. The roof, with its views across London, was a common place for strolling after a shopping trip and was often used for fashion shows.

 

The Basements at Selfridges

 

There are two levels of basement beneath the lower-ground shop floor: the ‘sub’ and the ‘sub-sub’. Combined, these descend 60 metres (200 ft) below street level. These two areas are then split into two more areas: the dry sub and sub-sub, and their "wet" equivalents. The wet area is beneath the original nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner of the 1909 building. The "dry" is under the rear of the building, known as the SWOD after the surrounding four streets – Somerset, Wigmore, Orchard and Duke – that once enclosed it.

 

Selfridges in WWII

 

During World War II after the entry of the United States into the conflict, from 1942 the dry sub-sub SWOD was used by the United States Army. The building had one of the only secure telex lines, was safe from bombing, and was close to the US Embassy on Grosvenor Square.

 

Initially used by U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of SHAEF, it later housed 50 soldiers from the 805th. Signal Service Company of the US Army Signal Corps, who installed a SIGSALY code-scrambling device connected to a similar terminal in the Pentagon building.

 

The first conference took place on the 15th. July 1943. Initial visitors included Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to enable secure communications with the President of the United States, although later extensions were installed to both 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet War Rooms.

 

Rumours persist of a tunnel built from Selfridges to the embassy so that personnel could move between the two in safety, with interrogation cells for prisoners hewn from the resultant uneven space available.

 

As with much of central London during World War II, Selfridges suffered serious damage on a number of occasions during the 57 nights of the London Blitz from the 7th. September 1940, and in 1941 and 1944. After the heavy bombing of the west end on the 17th./18th. September 1940 by a combined force of 268 Heinkel 111 and Dornier Do 17 bombers – after which the store's Art Deco lifts were out of service until post-WW2, and the signature window was shattered – Harry had the ground floor windows bricked-up.

 

The bomb on 17 April 1941 destroyed only the Palm Court Restaurant, venue for the rich and famous. However, at 11 pm on 6 December 1944, a V-2 rocket hit the Red Lion pub on the corner of Duke Street and Barrett Street. A canteen in the SWOD basement area (see above) was massively damaged, with eight American servicemen killed and 32 injured, as well as ten civilian deaths and seven injuries. In the main building, ruptured water mains threatened SIGSALY, and while the Food Hall was the only department that did not need cleaning, Selfridges’ shop-front Christmas tree displays were blown into Oxford Street.

 

By 2010, only three of the four major pre–World War II Oxford Street retailers—Selfridges, House of Fraser and John Lewis—survive in retail, while Bourne & Hollingsworth and Peter Robinson (acquired in 1946 by Burton's), are no longer trading. Selfridges is the only retailer still trading in the same building, which still bears the scars of war damage, while John Lewis has moved. Bourne & Hollingsworth was located in the now closed Plaza Shopping Centre at No 120, while Peter Robinson is now Niketown at No 200-236.

 

A Milne-Shaw seismograph was set up on the third floor in 1932, attached to one of the building's main stanchions, unaffected by traffic or shoppers. It recorded the Belgian earthquake of 11 June 1938 which was also felt in London. At the outbreak of war, the seismograph was moved from its original site near the Post Office to another part of the store. In 1947, the seismograph was given to the British Museum.

 

Bombing by the IRA

 

Parts of Selfridges were damaged in the Oxford Street bombing in 1974 committed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The IRA planted other bombs too - on 21 February 1976 inside the store, injuring five people; just outside the store on Oxford Street on 28 August 1975, injuring seven; and inside the store on 29 January 1977, setting the building ablaze and causing an injury.

 

The 2002 Restoration of Selfridges

 

While restoration work was carried out in 2002, the scaffold surround was used to carry the largest photographic artwork ever produced, 60 feet (18 m) tall by 900 feet (270 m) long and weighing two tons. Created by Sam Taylor-Wood, it showed a gathering of well-known pop and cultural figures of the time, including Sir Elton John.

 

In 2002, Selfridges was awarded the London Tourism Award for visitors' favourite London store. Selfridges was named world's best department store in 2010, and again in 2012. It claims to contain the UK's largest beauty department, and Europe's busiest doorway which siphons 250,000 people a week past the Louis Vuitton concession on to Oxford Street.

 

The Roof Terrace

 

The roof terrace reopened in July 2011, for a promotional event staged by Truvia as part of their UK launch.

 

In Summer 2012, Bompas & Parr designed an art installation themed as "The Big British Tea Party", which included a cake-themed 9-hole crazy golf course, accompanied by a Daylesford Organic sponsored tea house.

 

Selfridges' Windows

 

Selfridges' 27 Oxford Street windows have become synonymous with the brand, and to a certain degree have become as famous as the store and the Oxford Street location itself. The windows consistently attract tourists, designers and fashionistas alike to marvel at the current designs and styling and fashion trends.

 

Selfridges has a history of bold art initiatives when it comes to the window designs. When the building opened, Harry Selfridge initiated a "signature" window which was signed by all of the stars and famous people who came to shop at the store. This was cracked in the first bombing during the blitz, and was never restored.

 

Today, the visual merchandising team calculate that 20% of business-winning trade is from the windows. When Alannah Weston became Creative Director after the purchase by her family in 2003, she approached artist Alison Jackson to put her trademark Tony Blair and David Beckham lookalikes in the windows.

 

The resultant display brought traffic to a standstill, with the Metropolitan Police finally insisting they stop the project because it was clogging up Oxford Street.

 

Since 2002, the windows have been photographed by London photographer Andrew Meredith and published in magazines such as Vogue, Dwell, Icon, Frame Magazine, Creative Review, Hungarian Stylus Magazine, Design Week, Harper's Bazaar, New York Times, WGSN and much more including worldwide press, journals, blogs and published books all over the world.

 

Ownership of Selfridges

 

In 1951 the store was acquired by the Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores, which was in turn taken over in 1965 by the Sears Group owned by Charles Clore. Expanded under the Sears group to include branches in Oxford, Manchester and Birmingham, in 2003 the chain was acquired by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million.

 

Expansion of Selfridges

 

In 2011, the Weston family bought 388–396 Oxford Street, which is located immediately to the east of the Selfridges building across Duke Street, on which fashion chain French Connection has a lease until 2025.

 

In early 2012, Selfridges commissioned Italian architect Renzo Piano (responsible for London's The Shard skyscraper), to work on an extension to the 1909 department store. The project could feature a hotel as well as office space, or additional retail space.

 

In December 2012, Selfridges acquired the 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) Nations House office building from Hermes, which is located immediately behind its Oxford Street store in Wigmore Street, for around £130m.

 

J. Salmon Ltd.

 

Alas, J. Salmon no longer produce postcards. Having churned out small coloured rectangles of card from its factory in Kent for more than 100 years, the company stopped publishing postcards in 2017.

 

The fifth-generation brothers who still ran the company sent a letter to their clients in the autumn of 2017, advising them that the presses would cease printing at the end of 2017, with their remaining stock being sold off throughout the following year.

 

The firm’s story began in 1880, when the original J. Salmon acquired a printing business on Sevenoaks high street, and produced a collection of twelve black and white scenes of the town.

 

In 1912, the business broke through into the big time by commissioning the artist Alfred Robert Quinton (1853 - 1934), who produced 2,300 scenes of British life for them up until his death.

 

From Redruth to King’s Lynn, his softly coloured, highly detailed watercolours of rosy milkmaids, bucolic pumphouses and picturesque harbour towns earned him a place in the hearts of the public, despite references to Alfred's 'chocolate-box art' by some art critics.

 

J. Salmon also produced photographs and cheery oils of seaside imagery captioned with a garrulous enthusiasm: “Eat More Chips!”, “Sun, Sand & Sea”, “We’re Going Camping!”

 

It commissioned the comic artist Reg Maurice (who often worked under the pseudonym Vera Paterson), to produce pictures of comically bulbous children with cutesy captions, alongside the usual stock images of British towns.

 

It was this century’s changing habits – and technology – that did for Salmon. Co-managing director Charles Salmon noted:

 

“People are going for shorter breaks,

not for a fortnight, so you’re back home

before your postcards have arrived."

 

He barely needed to say that Instagram and Facebook had made their product all but redundant, almost wiping out the entire industry in a decade.

 

Michelle Abadie, co-director of the John Hinde Collection, said:

 

“When I heard the news, I was

actually surprised they still existed."

 

John Hinde was once J Salmon’s biggest rival; it sold 50-60 million postcards a year at its peak in the 1960's, but it, too, shuttered four years previously. The licensing for its rich archive of images was sold off, and repurposed in art books.

 

However, in one sense, the death of the postcard is overstated. Like vinyl records, our fetish for the physical objects we left behind is already making its presence felt.

Michelle Abadie points out:

 

“If you go into Waterstones now, they

sell lots of postcards of book covers.

The idea itself isn’t dead – as a

decorative object, people still want

them.”

Published

 

www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/aug/17/last-nights-t...

Using Hero Arts sentiment and May Arts ribbon.

 

Blogged: sarahjmoerman.blogspot.ca/2012/12/paper-crafts-die-cuttin...

Alhamdulillah !!!

My last 2 year hard work "A panoramic glance of Al-Madinah " photo book isin

market last day !

31x26 cm page size(panorama 62x26 size photo) , more than 150 panoramic photos all around Madinah,

Very hi-quality paper and printing ..

Masha Allah !! Thabarak Allah !!!

(in Arabic,English,Urdu,Fransi, Indoneshian,Turkiesh and Farsy languages)

 

70 001 'Powerhaul' tests the new traverser.

 

Published in 'Loco Review 2014'

Published by Great Consortium National Supplements, Brazil 1940

My first published shots. The Formula Una babes are a little incentive by Red Bull Racing (the F1 team), to get more women to the different Grand Prix. These are "our" (Belgian) Formula Una's. Note: In the middle is the lovely "Zorha" (a 'famious' Belgium beaty). I could link to the article, if I could just find out how that works in Flickr. Without a doubt my favorite personal shot with my Canon 400D. I wanted it to be overexposed and it worked out. It's hardly edited actually.

natasa and olga, clowning around.

  

website | blog | facebook | google+ | twitter

 

©2006 Phillip Nesmith

 

A Border Patrol agent (member of BORSTAR) watches as Omaha 18 finds a place to land in the borderlands of Arizona.

 

**This image was published as part of a Yahoo! News interactive feature on immigration**

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

As Omaha 18 danced in the hot sky around me my mind and eyes were occupied to full capacity. My eyes darted from the ground and the tracks that we were following to the surrounding terrain looking for people in the scrub, over to Agent S.K., up to the helicopter, then back to the ground. The harsh high desert sun beat down on the back of my neck like a hot steaming towel after a barber shave. We had been walking North for a couple of miles and we had lost and found the trail left by the small group of border crossers about six times. I was beginning to think that the tracks, although fresh were older than we all thought. With the helicopter so far ahead I thought that the crew would see something…or the crossers would be running, and their tracks showed no sign of hast.

 

Up ahead I saw a large billowing cloud of fine tan/orange dust rise into the air. Omaha 18 had landed ahead of us just short of clump of vegetation. In this area of the country a clump of dense vegetation means the presents of water sometime during the year. Omaha 18 was dropping off the second member of the two-person crew to search the area prior to our arrival. Not having access to the radio I thought that we were getting close. As I walked along I looked at the four to five sets of dusty athletic shoe and boot tracks leading us across the land. My mind wondered about the people that left the tracks and about that face that I might soon be able to put a face to the footprints.

 

Reaching the vegetation I caught movement out of the corner of my eye to the right. It was the agent that Omaha 18 had dropped off. He waved in our direction and said he had found the tracks over there. We caught up with this agent and we exchanged greetings and we talked about this situation. He said his name was Dave and that he had doubts about how fresh the tracks were. As we walked along I discovered that Dave was with BORSTAR (Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue: www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/border_patrol/bor... ). We walked and chatted, talking about the state of the tracks, the way in which the people seemed to be walking etc. It was decided that Dave would call the helicopter to land and Agent S.K. would be taken back to our truck so that he could move it to a road near by to pick me up.

 

After Omaha 18 landed, coming in low over the brush, blowing a thing fog of Arizona into the air all of which would seem to find its way into my ears, hair, cloths, camera, and eyes. The smell of the burning aviation fuel, the heat, and the gritty feeling of dirt on my face took me back to Iraq. Agent S.K. climbed into the small cockpit and with an increased whine of the engine and a furious whipping of the air by the rotors Omaha 18 broke free of the chains of gravity, banking to the south.

 

Dave and I stood talking as we looked at the tracks on the ground. We walked a bit more to the North, as there would be a good amount of time before the truck would be closer. The desert ghost laid their tracks in snaking lines across the Mars like dirt as if walking drunk. Through thick vegetation, then across open ground, up over rocky sections to end up disappearing into a patch of grass. We walked in circles until we found them again. This was the same pattern that we had been following for a few miles. Picking up the trail again as it led across a plane of flat dry dirt I looked to the direction they were going…toward more thick vegetation. My mind had been thinking about how these people had been trying to keep anyone from following them long by trying to leave (or not leave) tracks across all types of terrain. Then suddenly as the tracks went into a tangle of dead and downed mesquite trees, which looked like some military obstacle, it hit me. These people had walked through in the dark! This would put us about 4 hours behind them.

 

Someone had posted a comment to one of my other border images and asked if the Border Patrol “always gets their man”. I am here to tell you that many get past the efforts of the Border Patrol, which is a testament to the skill of the coyotes and drug runners and the vastness of the Arizona desert.

 

*** Names and callsigns changed ***

 

*** See the beginning of the story here: www.flickr.com/photos/visualadventure/241138484/ ***

 

Self-published hand-made book Did we ever meet? Winner of Rock your dummy Award 2013. Full info, edition, price - www.offonroad.com/books/did-we-ever-meet/

I created a series of flower characters for a book titled Blossom Buddies, published by teNeues in 2009. The book includes 100 blossom buddies.

Published by Vecchi, Brazil April 1979

In the latest edition(#43) of frankie magazine (Fashion, Art, Design, Photography, Music). An article on musician Fred Smith written by Jenna Hand with my picture accompanying. The magazine has a circulation of 210,000. I know it's not a big thing for some of you but it brings a smile to my dial and I felt I had to share. Image is a scanned copy of the article. Apologies to my G+ circles who'll have seen this already.

 

Lushpup Images

Canon EOS 5D and Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AI

  

I was really thrilled to have one of my photos published in the 2008 Time Magazine "Person of the Year" issue. It's kind of random, but exciting anyway.

 

Thanks everyone for your support through this year. It has been a lot of fun posting my photos here and enjoying photography with people all over the world.!

My 1st picture to be published.

  

Rose Marie Kemp Simon is the author of Broken Pieces. Broken pieces is a diary of poems about her trials and personal life experiences from a very long and difficult period of isolation, confusion and depression. It also contains a testimony of spiritual revelation of hope and peace.

 

You can get the book at flipkart

Published by Gazeta, Brazil 1948-1949

Two-Face (Harvey Dent) is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. The character was created by Bob Kane and first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942). As one of Batman's most enduring enemies, Two-Face belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery.

 

Once a bright and upstanding district attorney of Gotham City dedicated to ridding its streets of crime and corruption, Harvey Dent is hideously scarred on the left side of his face after mob boss Sal Maroni throws acidic chemicals at him during a court trial. He subsequently goes insane and adopts the "Two-Face" persona, becoming a criminal obsessed with the number two, the concept of duality, and the conflict between good and evil. Two-Face obsessively makes all important decisions by flipping a two-headed coin. The character was reinvented for the Modern Age of Comic Books as having dissociative identity disorder, with Two-Face being an alter, which stemmed from the abuse Harvey received from his father during his childhood. The modern version is established as having once been a personal friend and ally of James "Jim" Gordon and Batman, as well as a friend of Batman's secret identity, Bruce Wayne.

 

Two-Face has no superpowers, instead relying on his proficiency in marksmanship and martial arts, which was further improved after being trained by Deathstroke and Batman. As a former lawyer, the character uses his expertise in criminal law, criminology, and police procedures to devise his crimes

 

Creation and Golden Age history

 

Two-Face was created by Batman co-creator Bob Kane, and debuted in Detective Comics #66 ("The Crimes of Two-Face"), written by Batman's other co-creator Bill Finger, in August 1942 as a new Batman villain originally named Harvey "Apollo" Kent, a former handsome, law-abiding Gotham City district attorney close to the Batman whose face was disfigured in half after a mob boss he was prosecuting, Sal Maroni, splashed Kent with acid, resulting in his loss of sanity and turn to crime, with his crimes centered around the number 2. In creating Two-Face, Kane was inspired by the 1931 adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which Kane described as a "classic story of the good and evil sides of human nature", and was also influenced by the 1925 silent film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera. Kane and Finger conceived the idea of Two-Face flipping a coin scarred on one side to determine which side of his personality emerges: evil if the coin flip results in the scarred side, which causes him to "go on a rampage of looting and destruction," or good if it results in the unscarred side, causing him to give his loot to charity or refrain from committing a crime. In Kane's autobiography Batman and Me, Kane suggests that Finger was inspired by the pulp magazine hero Black Bat, with their similarities as both district attorneys disfigured with acid. Two-Face's last name Kent was later changed to Dent, which Kane infers was done because of Superman's alter ego Clark Kent having the same surname.

 

"The Crimes of Two-Face" also introduced Two-Face's devoted wife, Gilda Dent, a long-standing character in Two-Face stories. Later appearances continued featuring the character's criminal life until he was cured through plastic surgery in his third appearance and shown reformed in 1952's "The Double Crimes of Two-Face!" (Detective Comics #187), with impostors taking Two-Face's place in later stories. Two-Face made his last appearance in the Golden Age of Comic Books in 1954's "Two-Face Strikes Again" (Batman #81), in which Two-Face returns to crime; however, this story is non-canon to the Golden Age version of the character, because only the Two-Face stories from 1942 to 1952 were assigned to DC's setting for their Golden Age characters, Earth-Two.

 

Dormancy and revitalization

 

The character was unused throughout the Silver Age of Comic Books, only appearing in the 173rd issue of World's Finest Comics in 1968 which featured Batman transforming into Two-Face. In July 1971, during the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Two-Face was brought back by writer Dennis O'Neil and former DC editor Julius Schwartz in the story "Half an Evil" (Batman #234). Written by O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams, "Half an Evil" is a mystery story which features Two-Face stealing doubloons from a pirate ship; the issue also retold his origin with a recap of previous stories. After his reintroduction, Two-Face was featured in several DC comics, such as The Brave and The Bold, Justice League of America, and Teen Titans, and became one of Batman's most popular enemies.

 

Modern Age

 

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic event which rebooted the DC Universe, Two-Face was reintroduced in Frank Miller's 1986 revision of Batman's origin, Batman: Year One, as Gotham City's former crusader against crime and former ally of the Batman. Later in 1990, Two-Face was given a revised origin by Andrew Helfer in 1990's "The Eye of the Beholder" (Batman Annual #14) which established Harvey Dent as having dissociative identity disorder effected by the psychological trauma from his past of childhood abuse dealt by his father, with Two-Face being a second personality state, and cemented Dent as being formerly part of an alliance with Batman and Commissioner James Gordon against crime in Gotham City. 1995's Batman/Two-Face: Crime and Punishment by writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Scott McDaniel built on "Eye of the Beholder" and explored Dent's psyche and his childhood with his abusive father. Two-Face's origin was later expanded in writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale's 1996 Batman limited series The Long Halloween, which incorporated aspects of "Eye of the Beholder" and explored Batman, Gordon and Dent's struggle to end Gotham's Mob during the rise of costumed supervillains.

 

A reformed Dent rid of Two-Face was featured in Loeb and artist Jim Lee's 2002 Batman arc Hush, continuing on to 2006 in the 52 limited series and in writer James Robinson's Batman arc "Face the Face", which explored Dent having trained under Batman and taking Batman's place as Gotham's protector during Batman's one-year absence, as well as Two-Face's return. In the 2006 limited series Two-Face: Year One written by Mark Sable, Two-Face was given a revamped origin, focusing on Dent's transformation into Two-Face during Dent's election campaign for district attorney, as well as establishing the relationship between a young Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne, Batman's secret identity.

 

Description

 

Two-Face is a duality-obsessed criminal. Introduced in 1942 as a criminal mastermind obsessed with the number 2, Two-Face's crimes as well as his hideouts and henchmen surround the number; since the 1980s, Two-Face's duality obsession evolved into an obsession with the duality of man, with the character committing crimes based on his "misguided sense of right and wrong".

 

Two-Face views himself as both good and evil, and relies on flipping his double-headed coin, scarred on one side, in making important decisions and deciding whether his good or evil side will prevail.

 

Widely considered Batman's most tragic villain, Two-Face was established as a tragic figure in his debut: a former law-abiding district attorney turned criminal whose disfigurement resulted in him being shunned by society, which led to his turn to crime. In his early stories, Two-Face yearns to fix his face and bring back the love of his wife who he mistakenly thinks does not love him because of his disfigurement. 1990's "The Eye of the Beholder" (Batman Annual #14) reimagined Two-Face for the Modern Age as having psychological trauma from the childhood abuse he received from his father, and depicted him as being on the verge of a mental breakdown as a result of his repressed trauma and the pressure of fighting crime in Gotham, and driven to a point of desperation by Gotham's corruption. "Eye of the Beholder" also established Two-Face as a second personality state of Harvey Dent's dissociative identity disorder which resulted from his trauma; a psychiatrist in the story describes his condition as having "two personalities", with Dent having managed to "sublimate the second, anti-social one since he was a teenager".

 

Skills and abilities

 

Before his transformation into Two-Face, Harvey Dent had a successful career as Gotham's district attorney, driven to bring an end to the city's epidemic of organized crime. Following his disfigurement, he becomes obsessed with the number two and the concept of duality, and thus stages crimes centered around the number two—such as robbing buildings with 2 in the address or staging events that will take place at 10:22 p.m. (2222 in military time). He was an accomplished lawyer highly skilled in almost all matters relating to criminal law and an extensive knowledge of the criminal world. He is also a charismatic leader and speaker. Two-Face is a genius in criminal planning and has an exceptional character, which allows him, among other things, to stoically endure pain and recover from smudging injuries in a short time. Two-Face is a skilled marksman, and regularly uses a variety of firearms such as pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers, Tommy guns, knives and rocket launchers during his battles with Batman. He primarily wields dual pistols, and has become dangerously skilled with them.

 

Harvey Dent has kept himself in peak physical conditions, even before his transformation into Two-Face and had exercise equipment in his office when he was an assistant district attorney. He later received combat training from Batman and Deathstroke. The Batman: Face the Face story arc reveals that Batman, shortly before leaving Gotham for a year, trains Dent extensively in detective work and martial arts. To further improve his proficiency in the use of firearms, Dent hires the sharpshooting assassin Deathstroke to train him.

 

Relationships

 

This section details the character's most notable relationships across various interpretations of the Batman mythos:

 

Gilda

 

Gilda Dent in some iterations, is Harvey Dent's wife. Her character debuted in Detective Comics #66, alongside Harvey, and became a recurring character in Batman stories involving Two-Face.

 

Bruce Wayne

 

Batman's alter-ego Bruce Wayne is the best friend of Harvey Dent, while before becoming Two-Face, Harvey was also one of Batman's earliest allies, predating Batman's partnership with James Gordon. Their friendship goes back to Harvey's first appearance in Detective Comics, in which Batman refers to him as his friend and emotionally asks him to give up his life of crime. Because of this relationship, Two-Face is one of Batman's most personal enemies. In the comics, it is shown that Bruce considers Harvey's downfall a personal failure, and has never given up in rehabilitating him.

 

It is established canonically that Harvey knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. The character's knowledge of Batman's secret identity was introduced in the story The Big Burn from Peter Tomasi's 2011 Batman and Robin ongoing series, and is shown in subsequent comics such as Scott Snyder's All-Star Batman, in which they were established as childhood best friends. In Detective Comics #1021, Harvey admits to Batman that he has been keeping his identity secret from his Two-Face personality in order to protect him.

 

Renee Montoya

 

Renee Montoya and Harvey Dent have a complicated relationship, introduced by writer Greg Rucka in the sixteenth issue of 1999's Batman Chronicles, in which Renee reaches out to Two-Face's Dent persona and is kind to him. Their relationship continues with the "No Man's Land" crossover storyline; in one issue, Harvey sends Renee flowers for her birthday and Renee visits him in Arkham Asylum. Harvey eventually develops romantic feelings towards Renee, which Renee doesn't return. This one-sided love would turn into an unhealthy obsession with her, which would lead to her professional and personal ruin; in the five-part Gotham Central story arc Half a Life, Two-Face attempts to destroy Renee's life by framing her for murder, outing her as a lesbian, and orchestrating a prison escape to make her a fugitive, so she would have nothing to keep her from returning his love.

 

Years after the release of Half a Life, Rucka would reunite the two in Convergence: The Question in 2015, following his return to DC Comics after his departure from the company in 2010. In the story, Renee saves a remorseful Harvey from killing himself, and convinces him to be a good man.

 

Rucka has talked about the characters' relationship in an interview with Comic Book:

 

Renee and Harvey have always had a very odd bond, as far as I've written them, going back to the very first Renee story I did for DC, "Two Down". It's never been just cop-and-criminal between them. There's a peculiar understanding between them; Renee, to me, has always been able to see the path of Harvey's madness in a way that even Batman has never negotiated. I'm not sure I'd ever call them friends, especially after what he's put her through, but Renee has always been sympathetic to him, at least, and that care, that guardianship, drives much of our story.

 

Christopher Dent

 

Christopher Dent is Harvey Dent's abusive and alcoholic father, first introduced in the definitive Two-Face origin story Eye of the Beholder (Batman Annual #14). Dent would beat his son based on the flip of a coin, heads he would beat Harvey, tails he wouldn't. Because the coin was double headed, Harvey would always be beaten. The trauma Harvey received from his father's constant abuse fueled the inner torment that eventually turns him into Two-Face.

 

Character biography

 

Golden Age

 

Acid is thrown onto Harvey Kent's face in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942). Art by Bob Kane.

Two-Face's debut and Golden Age origin story, 1942's "The Crimes of Two-Face" (Detective Comics #66), introduced him as Harvey "Apollo" Kent,[a] a handsome law-abiding Gotham City district attorney prosecuting mob boss Sal Maroni; the issue also introduced his wife, Gilda Kent,[b] who is a sculptress. During the trial, after Kent presents Maroni's lucky two-headed coin as evidence, an enraged Maroni throws acid at Kent's face and disfigures it in half. Kent, driven insane by society's repulsion and his wife's nonacceptance of his new appearance, destroys his wife's sculpture of him to resemble his disfigurement and scars one side of Maroni's two-headed coin to symbolize his appearance's duality of beauty and ugliness, then flips the coin to decide whether to become a criminal or wait for the only plastic surgeon able to fix Kent's face, who was caught in a concentration camp in Germany, to arrive. With the scarred side of the coin being the result of Kent's coin flip, Kent decides to become a criminal with the alias Two-Face who depends on flipping his coin to determine whether to be evil or good; afterwards, with the coin landing on the scarred side, Two-Face robs a bank, then, with the coin landing on the unscarred side, gives his loot to charity, causing confusion between the police and populace, whose opinions are divided about Two-Face's morality. The rest of the issue features Two-Face committing a series of crimes centered on the number 2, one of which is stopped by Batman, who pursues and corners Two-Face after he escapes. Batman makes Two-Face a proposition to give himself up and start over, by which Two-Face replies that the coin makes all his decisions for him, then flips the coin. The issue ends with the coin landing on its edge, making Two-Face leave his life to fate, with the story being resolved in "The Man Who Led a Double Life!" (Detective Comics #68). Harvey Kent is cured through plastic surgery in 1943's "The End of Two-Face" (Detective Comics #80), and is shown reformed in 1952's "The Double Crimes of Two-Face!" (Detective Comics #187).

 

Kent would later be framed for crimes done by imposters like his butler Wilkins, Paul Sloane, and George Blake.

 

Later, Kent attends the wedding of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle as a guest in 1981's "The Kill Kent Contract!" (Superman Family #211).

 

Bronze Age

 

The reintroduction of the villain Two-Face, in Batman #234 (August 1971). Art by Neal Adams.

In Two-Face's Bronze Age reintroduction, "Half a Life" (Batman #234), Two-Face concocts an elaborate scheme to steal doubloons from a historical schooner, which Batman realizes and attempts to stop. As Batman approaches the ship, Two-Face finds and incapacitates him, then ties him up, eventually leaving the ship after he lets it sink. Before Two-Face leaves, Batman tries to convince Two-Face to flip his coin to save an old man unwittingly caught in the trap by reminding him that he is both good and evil; Two-Face first disagrees until after his departure from the ship in which he is unable to resist flipping his coin. With the coin landing on the unscarred side, Two-Face returns to the ship to rescue the old man, then sees Batman had escaped his restraints. Batman offers Two-Face to surrender, to which Two-Face disagrees and attempts to attack Batman, with Two-Face being knocked out unconscious by Batman afterwards. "Half a Life" also includes a recap of his Golden Age stories as his origin: from his transformation to Two-Face and his subsequent reformation to his criminal relapse, as depicted in the 1954 story "Two-Face Strikes Again!" (Batman #81), in which Harvey Dent's plastic surgery is undone after he attempts to prevent a robbery, causing his return as Two-Face.

 

In "Threat of the Two-Headed Coin!" (Batman #258), Two-Face is broken out of Arkham Hospital[c] by a retired United States Army general who hires Two-Face to blackmail the United States government with an atomic bomb. After Two-Face betrays the general and takes over his plan, the general reveals the scheme to Batman, then dies by suicide out of remorse. Later, in the United States Capitol, Two-Face interrupts a Congress meeting to carry out the extortion scheme: in exchange for not exploding the Capitol with an atomic bomb, Two-Face demands the United States government to give him two billion dollars and gemstones, with Two-Face intending to use the money to bribe people to ignore his hideous appearance and end his misery; Batman eventually foils Two-Face's plan.

 

Two-Face then appears in a number of non-Batman comics, such as The Joker, Justice League of America, and Teen Titans. The Joker's first issue, "The Joker's Double Jeopardy", features Two-Face and fellow Batman adversary Joker battling each other to prove who is the superior criminal, while Justice League of America's 125-26th issues, "The Men Who Sold Destruction!" and "The Evil Connection", shows Two-Face assisting the superhero team Justice League. In Teen Titans, Two-Face meets Teen Titans member Duela Dent who claims to be his daughter.

 

In the 313-314th issues of Batman, Two-Face steals a top secret missile activation binary code owned by the United States government and goes to New Orleans, with Batman and a United States federal agent reluctantly working together to trail him and obtain the code. On a float in New Orleans' Mardi Gras parade, Two-Face deceives an American and a Russian representative who each negotiated for the code for $22,000,000 and steals $44,000,000 from them; Two-Face then escapes from the float to a blimp, with Batman and the agent in pursuit. Afterwards, while Batman hangs from the blimp's hatch, Two-Face flips the coin to decide whether to kill him, with the agent eventually shooting the coin outwards the hatch. Two-Face, declaring that his life is meaningless without the coin, leaps for it and falls out of the blimp.

 

Two-Face changes his face through plastic surgery as well as his identity to Carl Ternion in Batman's 328-329th issues, and reunites with Gilda Dent to make her happy after her former husband, Dave Stevens, died. Two-Face then avenges Stevens' death by killing Sal Maroni, who had also changed his face and his identity to Anton Karoselle and had killed Gilda Dent's former husband. Karoselle's death and Two-Face and Maroni's changed identities are significant aspects of the mystery Batman solves in the story: how Ternion murdered Karoselle twice and had been acquitted for it, as Ternion admits in a video tape sent to Batman by Two-Face. Later, Two-Face runs away from Gilda Dent after his plastic surgery becomes undone, and afterwards, Batman tells Gilda Dent the truth about Ternion's actual identity and convinces her of a plan to lure and take down Two-Face: Batman disguises himself as Maroni attacking Gilda Dent as bait, and, with Two-Face chasing him, leads Two-Face to the Gotham City courthouse, where Batman and Gilda Dent eventually convince Two-Face to rehabilitate himself in Arkham.

 

In the two-issue arc "Half a Hero... Is Better Than None!" from Batman #346 and Detective Comics #513, Two-Face escapes Arkham Asylum and puts Batman in an elaborate deathtrap set in a converted halfway house, eventually capturing Batman and imprisoning him for a week, after which Two-Face attempts to rob a record company named Duo Records, and is stopped by Batman's sidekick, Robin. Two-Face, having escaped the encounter, returns to the halfway house. Afterwards, Batman escapes by creating and putting on a Two-Face mask, causing Two-Face to release him.

 

Two-Face's good and evil sides are in conflict in a four-issue storyline in Batman and Detective Comics, with his evil side being predominant. Two-Face allies with Batman villain Black Mask's former lover Circe who convinces him to steal a pharaoh's death mask concealed within a sarcophagus which she states to be imbued with magic that could restore his good side; this plan is revealed to be conceived by Batman, who is working with Circe to trick Two-Face into having his good side restored and have him rehabilitated. The plan doesn't work with Two-Face's evil side taking over.

 

Modern Age

 

The retelling of Two-Face's origin in Showcase '93 #7 (June 1993). Art by Klaus Janson.

The Post-Crisis and followed up in The Long Halloween established this version of Two-Face is depicted as having had an unhappy childhood; his father was a mentally ill alcoholic who beat him regularly, often deciding whether or not to brutalize his son based on a flip of his lucky coin. The abuse instilled in Dent his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual inability to make choices on his own, relying on the coin to make all of his decisions. Dent is diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder at a young age, but manages to hide his illnesses and, thanks to an unyielding work ethic, rises up through the ranks of Gotham City's district attorney's office until, at age 26, he becomes the youngest DA in the city's history. Gordon even suspected that Dent could be Batman, but discarded this suspicion when he realized that Dent lacked the vigilante's financial resources. Dent forges an alliance with Gordon and Batman to rid Gotham of organized crime. Mob boss Carmine Falcone bribes corrupt Assistant District Attorney Vernon Fields to provide his lieutenant Sal Maroni, whom Dent is trying for murder, with sulfuric acid; Maroni throws the acid in Dent's face during a cross-examination, horribly scarring the left side of Dent's face. Dent escapes from the hospital and reinvents himself as the gangster Two-Face. He scars one side of his father's coin and uses it to decide whether to commit a crime. Eventually, Two-Face takes his revenge on Falcone, Fields and Maroni, but is captured by Batman, leading to his incarceration in Arkham Asylum.

 

During the Batman: Dark Victory story arc, the serial killer Hangman targets various cops who assisted in Dent's rise to the D.A.'s office. Two-Face gathers Gotham's criminals to assist in the destruction of the city's crime lords. After a climactic struggle in the Batcave, Two-Face is betrayed by the Joker, who shoots at Dent, causing him to fall into a chasm, presumably to his death. Batman admits in the aftermath that, even if Two-Face has survived, Harvey Dent is gone forever. During a much later period, Two-Face is revealed to have murdered the father of Jason Todd, the second Robin. When attempting to apprehend Two-Face, Jason briefly has the criminal at his mercy, but lets Two-Face's punishment be decided by the law. Two-Face similarly serves as a 'baptism by fire' for Tim Drake, the third Robin. Two-Face has Batman at his mercy, but Tim dons the Robin suit to save Batman.

 

In Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Arkham's doctors replace Dent's coin with a die and eventually a tarot deck, but rather than becoming self-reliant, Dent is now unable to make even the smallest of decisions—such as going to the bathroom. Batman returns the coin, telling Two-Face to use it to decide whether to kill him. Batman leaves safely, but it is implied that Two-Face made his own decision to let Batman live.

 

In the No Man's Land storyline, in which Gotham is devastated by an earthquake, Two-Face claims a portion of the ruined city, takes up residence in Gotham City Hall, and forms a temporary alliance with Gordon to share certain territory. His empire is brought down by Bane (employed by Lex Luthor), who destroys Two-Face's gang during his destruction of the city's Hall of Records. Two-Face kidnaps Gordon and puts him on trial for his activities after Gotham City is declared a "No Man's Land", with Two-Face as both judge and prosecutor for Gordon's illegal alliance with him; Gordon later plays upon Two-Face's split psyche to demand Harvey Dent as his defense attorney. Dent cross-examines Two-Face and wins an acquittal for Gordon, determining that Two-Face has effectively blackmailed Gordon by implying that he had committed murders to aid the Commissioner. During this time, Two-Face also meets detective Renee Montoya. Montoya reaches the Dent persona in Two-Face and is kind to him. He falls in love with her, though the romance is one-sided.

 

Eventually in the Gotham Central series, he outs her as a lesbian and frames her for murder, hoping that if he takes everything from her, she will be left with no choice but to be with him. She is furious, and the two fight for control of his gun until Batman intervenes, putting Two-Face back in Arkham.

 

In the Batman: Two-Face - Crime and Punishment one-shot comic book, Two-Face captures his own father, planning to humiliate and kill him on live television for the years of abuse that he suffered. This story reveals that, despite his apparent hatred for his father, Dent still supports him, paying for an expensive home rather than allowing him to live in a slum. At the end of the book, the Dent and Two-Face personalities argue in thought, Two-Face calling Dent "spineless". Dent proves Two-Face wrong, choosing to jump off a building and commit suicide just to put a stop to his alter ego's crime spree. Two-Face is surprised when the coin flip comes up scarred but abides by the decision and jumps. Batman catches him, but the shock of the fall seems to (at least temporarily) destroy the Two-Face personality. In Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice!, Two-Face is at odds with his ex-wife Gilda Grace Dent, as he believes their marriage failed because he was unable to give her children. She later marries Paul Janus (a reference to the Roman god of doors, who had two faces). Two-Face attempts to frame Janus as a criminal by kidnapping him and replacing him with a stand-in, whom Two-Face "disfigures" with makeup. Batman eventually catches Two-Face, and Gilda and Janus reunite. Years later, Gilda gives birth to twins, prompting Two-Face to escape once more and take the twins hostage, as he erroneously believes them to be conceived by Janus using an experimental fertility drug. The end of the book reveals that Two-Face is the twins' natural father.

 

Batman: Hush

 

In the Batman: Hush storyline, Dent's face is repaired by plastic surgery, seemingly eradicating the Two-Face personality. Dent takes the law into his own hands twice: once by using his ability to manipulate the legal system to free the Joker, and then again by shooting the serial killer Hush. He manipulates the courts into setting him free, as Gotham's prosecutors would not attempt to charge him without a body.

 

Return to villainy

 

In the Batman story arc Batman: Face the Face, that started in Detective Comics #817, and was part of DC's One Year Later storyline, it is revealed that, at Batman's request and with his training, Harvey Dent becomes a vigilante protector of Gotham City in most of Batman's absence of nearly a year. He is reluctant to take the job, but Batman assures him that it will serve as atonement for his past crimes. After a month of training, they fight the Firebug and Mr. Freeze, before Batman leaves for a year. Dent enjoys his new role, but his methods are more extreme and less refined than Batman's. Upon Batman's return, Dent begins to feel unnecessary and unappreciated, which prompts the return of the "Two-Face" persona (seen and heard by Dent through hallucinations). In Face the Face, his frustration is compounded by a series of mysterious murders that seem to have been committed by Two-Face; the villains KGBeast, Magpie, Ventriloquist and Scarface, and Orca are all shot twice in the head with a double-barreled pistol. When Batman confronts Dent about these deaths, asking him to confirm that he was not responsible, Dent refuses to give a definite answer. He then detonates a bomb in his apartment and leaves Batman dazed as he flees. Despite escaping the explosion physically unscathed, Dent suffers a crisis of conscience and a mental battle with his "Two-Face" personality. Although Batman later uncovers evidence that exonerates Dent for the murders, establishing that he was framed as revenge for his efforts against new crime boss Warren White, a.k.a. the Great White Shark, it is too late to save him. Prompted by resentment and a paranoid reaction to Batman's questioning, Dent scars half his face with nitric acid and a scalpel, becoming Two-Face once again. Blaming Batman for his return, Two-Face immediately goes on a rampage, threatening to destroy the Gotham Zoo (having retained two of every animal—including two humans) before escaping to fight Batman another day. Batman subsequently confronts White, while acknowledging that he cannot attack White, as there is no explicit evidence supporting Batman's deductions, vowing to inform Two-Face of White's actions when they next face each other.

 

On the cover of Justice League of America (vol. 2) #23, Two-Face is shown as a member of the new Injustice League. He can be seen in Salvation Run. He appears in Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, which shows the effects of Batman's death on his enemies. In Judd Winick's Long Shadow arc, Two-Face realizes that someone else has taken over as Batman. He hires a teleporter and manages to infiltrate the Batcave. When the new Batman investigates the cave, Two-Face ambushes him with tranquilizer darts, and in a hallucination he sees Dent in a red and black Two-Face themed Batman costume. Alfred Pennyworth saves the hero from Two-Face's torture after subduing his accomplice, and with his help Batman convinces Two-Face that he is the real, original Dark Knight, informing Dent that his problem is that he cannot imagine Batman changing because he himself is incapable of seeing the world in anything other than black and white. In Streets of Gotham, Two-Face has been at odds with Gotham's latest district attorney, Kate Spencer, also known as the vigilante Manhunter. Two-Face has recently been driven out of Gotham City by Jeremiah Arkham.

  

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Harvey Dent

 

Publisher: DC

 

First appearance: Detective Comics #66 (August 1942)

 

Created by: Bob Kane (writer)

Bill Finger (Artist)

 

Two-Face appeared previously in BP 2023 Day 289!

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/53264025605/

 

He was also seen conniving with the Riddler in Christmas 2017!

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/38394550835/

Besides here, I publish different stuff in Instagram so you may want to follow me there too (please do!):

 

Además de aquí, suelo subir fotos a Instagram, así que a lo mejor te apetece seguirme también por ahí, (¡hazlo por favor!):

 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/tefocoto/

 

PLEASE

• Do not post animated gifs or pictures in your comments. Especially the "awards". These will simply be deleted and the poster blocked. Unless it's an interesting other picture, for comparison or reference.

• No invitations to groups where one must comment and/or invite and/or give award and no group icon without any comment. These will simply be deleted and the poster blocked.

Nothing personal here, I simply don't see the usefulness of such actions. On the other hand I encourage you to critic my work as I believe that is the best way to improve my photography. Thank you!

POR FAVOR

-No pongas gifs animados, logos o premios (awards) en tu comentario. A no ser que la imagen que incluyas esté para compararla con la mía o para ilustrar un punto de vista borraré esos comentarios y bloquearé al que lo pone.

-No me envíes invitaciones a grupos donde exista la obligación de comentar o premiar fotos, ni a aquellos donde existe un comentario preformateado con el logo del grupo. Borraré esos comentarios y bloquearé al que lo pone.

No es nada personal, es solo que no le veo el sentido a ese tipo de comportamientos. A cambio te animo a que me critiques sin piedad, pero con respeto, mi trabajo, porque solo así puedo seguir avanzando como fotógrafo. Gracias!

 

Besides here, I publish different stuff in Instagram so you may want to follow me there too (please do!):

 

Además de aquí, suelo subir fotos a Instagram, así que a lo mejor te apetece seguirme también por ahí, (¡hazlo por favor!):

 

Instagram: www.instagram.com/tefocoto/

 

PLEASE

• Do not post animated gifs or pictures in your comments. Especially the "awards". These will simply be deleted and the poster blocked. Unless it's an interesting other picture, for comparison or reference.

• No invitations to groups where one must comment and/or invite and/or give award and no group icon without any comment. These will simply be deleted and the poster blocked.

Nothing personal here, I simply don't see the usefulness of such actions. On the other hand I encourage you to critic my work as I believe that is the best way to improve my photography. Thank you!

POR FAVOR

-No pongas gifs animados, logos o premios (awards) en tu comentario. A no ser que la imagen que incluyas esté para compararla con la mía o para ilustrar un punto de vista borraré esos comentarios y bloquearé al que lo pone.

-No me envíes invitaciones a grupos donde exista la obligación de comentar o premiar fotos, ni a aquellos donde existe un comentario preformateado con el logo del grupo. Borraré esos comentarios y bloquearé al que lo pone.

No es nada personal, es solo que no le veo el sentido a ese tipo de comportamientos. A cambio te animo a que me critiques sin piedad, pero con respeto, mi trabajo, porque solo así puedo seguir avanzando como fotógrafo. Gracias!

 

Publish Janu,15/01/ 2017 BD LIVE HITS is a YouTube Chanel that presents all Hit Model, , Videos, News, , Live Performance, Juicy jokes etc ! ** Lisa Hayden married 3 months pregnant!** Love was long. However, there is no rush to get married actress Lisa Hayden never showed. 016 before the end of gulluke boyfriend had secretly married Lisa. Gullura the jamkajamakahinabhabe married in October with 016-Sareen the heroine! Lisa's Instagram shared wedding photos. The rules were conceived after the share Instagram pictures. After bikini, by the sea's "baby bump" She showed. He wrote, start another period of happiness! . Subscribe our channel : goo.gl/FD2h1b Share the video : youtu.be/OB4ivbc0IGk Facebook fun page : ift.tt/2gF3THr Twitter : twitter.com/anis01713734673 *****KEYWORD****** ** Lisa Hayden married 3 months pregnant **

Published on DOVE, Italian travel magazine, November 2020.

Back column 63#

Gourd for scale. getting closer to COVER!

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Openig-Act di The 1975, il 12 aprile 2016 al Fabrique di Milano, The Japanese House.

 

Born and raised in Buckinghamshire, The Japanese House aka 20 year old Amber Bain now lives in Camden but isn't quite sure why as she spends most of her time hanging about East London. Giving up on childhood dreams of being a politician, at age 11 Amber discovered that music was cool and settled on being a rock star instead. Her father taught her all the classics (AC/DC and Stairway To Heaven) on the acoustic guitar and her musical fate was secured. Very much part of the Dirty Hit Records family, she counts members of The 1975 as co-producers and is a regular on label mate Marika Hackman's instagram. Despite having already released the brilliant EP, Pools To Bathe In, and preparing to drop the second, Clean, Amber has only recently begun to perform her material live following a series of reportedly very fun, very loud rehearsals. "I'm sorry if I'm shouting… my ears are constantly ringing!" she tells us over coffee. She decides that her music sounds like "a sad little puppy listening to Beyoncé to cheer itself up" and we decide that it's no wonder Ryan Hemsworth wants to work with her. Get to know the girl soundtracking our waking hours and putting us to sleep at night… welcome to The Japanese House.

 

An alert friend/contact V.I.D.S sent me this, this morning!

 

The total circulation of the magazine includes 7.4 million copies being shipped to members' homes and 600,000 available in Sam's Club locations nationwide.

Early evening shot of Charlotte Maersk superstructure towering over Harwich in the back ground, not quite as sharp as I wanted, a light breeze has made the crane move a fraction to slightly blur the shot.

 

Published in 'Freightmaster No82'

Published in 2013 by the late Graham de Chastelain

Not too sure about this 'New, new Flickr' thing... my brain hurts..!

I've been published

Published by O Globo, Brazil 1937-1952

Designer: Deepk Perwani

Published in Brides & You Volume 05, Issue 04

 

The Postcard

 

A postcard published by J. Beagles & Co. of London E.C. The firm of J. Beagles & Co. was started by John Beagles (1844-1909).

 

The company produced a variety of postcards including an extensive catalogue of celebrity (stage and screen) portrait postcards. After Beagle’s death, the business continued under its original name until it closed in 1939.

 

The image is a real photograph, and the card was printed in England. The photography was by W. & D. Downey.

 

The card was posted in Blackpool on Tuesday the 2nd. May 1905 to:

 

A.L. Owens,

Glyn Tivy,

Cardigan,

South Wales.

 

The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:

 

"Will you please send a

'real photo' actress in

exchange for this, to:

M. Stainsby,

14, Albert Terrace,

Blackpool,

Lancs."

 

Miss Maude Fealy

 

Maude Fealy was an American stage and silent film actress whose career survived into the sound era.

 

-- Maude Fealy - The Early Years

 

Maude Mary Hawk was born on the 4th. March 1883 in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of James Hawk and actress and acting coach, Margaret Fealy.

 

Her mother re-married to Rafaello Cavallo, conductor of the Pueblo, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and Fealy lived in Colorado off and on for most of her life.

 

At the age of three, Maude made her first stage appearance in her mother's 1884 production of 'Faust', and made her Broadway debut in the 1900 production of 'Quo Vadis', again with her mother.

 

-- Maude Fealy's Acting Career

 

Fealy toured England with William Gillette in 'Sherlock Holmes' from 1901 to 1902. Between 1902 and 1905, she frequently toured with Sir Henry Irving's company in the United Kingdom, and by 1907 was the star in productions touring the United States.

 

Fealy appeared in her first silent film in 1911 for Thanhouser Studios, making another 18 between then and 1917, after which she didn't perform in film for another 14 years.

 

During the summers of 1912 and 1913, she organised and starred with the Fealy-Durkin Company that put on performances at the Casino Theatre at the Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, and the following year began touring the western half of the U.S.

 

Fealy had some commercial success as a playwright-performer. She co-wrote 'The Red Cap' with Grant Stewart, a noted New York playwright and performer, which ran at the National Theatre in Chicago in August 1928.

 

Other plays written or co-written by Fealy include 'At Midnight'.

Maude also co-wrote 'The Promise' with the highly regarded Chicago playwright Alice Gerstenberg.

 

Throughout her career, Fealy taught acting in many cities where she lived, in the early years with her mother. Maude taught under names which included Maude Fealy Studio of Speech, Fealy School of Stage and Screen Acting, and Fealy School of Dramatic Expression. Maude taught in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Burbank, California; and Denver, Colorado.

 

By the 1930's, Maude was living in Los Angeles where at the age of 50 she returned to secondary roles in film, including a credited appearance in 'The Ten Commandments' (1956). Later in her career, she wrote and appeared in pageants, programs, and presented lectures for schools and community organisations.

 

-- The Personal Life of Maude Fealy

 

In Denver, Colorado, Maude met a drama critic from a local newspaper named Louis Hugo Sherwin (the son of opera singer Amy Sherwin). The two married in secret on the 15th. July 1907 because, as they expected, her domineering mother did not approve. The couple soon separated, and divorced in Denver in 1909.

 

Fealy then married an actor named James Peter Durkin. He was a silent film director with Adolph Zukor's Famous Players Film Company. This marriage ended in divorce for non-support in 1917.

 

Soon after this Fealy married John Edward Cort. This third marriage ended in a 1923 annulment, and was her last marriage. She bore no children in any of the marriages.

 

-- The Death of Maude Fealy

 

Maude was hospitalized with arteriosclerosis for the last two years of her life. Maude died in her sleep at the age of 88 on November 9, 1971, at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California.

 

Maude was laid to rest in the Abbey of the Psalms Mausoleum at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

 

-- A Final Thought From Maude Fealy

 

"I was born in Memphis, Tennessee, though since

my mother married a second time and went to live

in Denver, I've always claimed to be a Western girl.

You know the California girls are famed as the best

actresses. So it's too bad that mamma did not go to

San Francisco instead of Denver. Then I should have

been ever so much greater."

 

W. & D. Downey

 

W. & D. Downey were Victorian studio photographers operating in London from the 1860's to the 1910's.

 

William Downey (14th. July 1829 - 7th. July 1915 in Kensington), who came to be known as the Queen's Photographer, was born in King Street in South Shields, a decade before commercial photography had become a reality.

 

William was initially a carpenter and boatbuilder, but in 1855 he set up a studio in South Shields with his brother Daniel (1831 - 15th. July 1881), and later established branches in Blyth, Morpeth and Newcastle.

 

Their first Royal commission was to provide photographs for Queen Victoria of the Hartley Colliery Disaster in January 1862.

 

In 1863 they opened a studio at 9, Eldon Square in Newcastle, in a building that was demolished in 1973. The same year William set up a studio in the Houses of Parliament and produced portraits of every parliamentarian of the day. The whereabouts of these photographs is unknown to this day.

 

William opened another studio at 57 & 61 Ebury Street in London in 1872 with Daniel continuing to manage the Newcastle branch.

 

The London studio enjoyed the patronage of Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales, with William taking photos at Balmoral and Frogmore during the 1860's. The first Royal image was of the Princess of Wales at the York Agricultural Show in 1865. The studio also produced the iconic carte-de-visite portrait of the Princess of Wales piggybacking Princess Louise. The studio received a Royal Warrant in 1879.

 

The green half-penny stamp that was issued in 1911 and 1912 is known as the 'Downey Head'. It features an image of of King George V which was engraved from a photograph by W and D Downey.

 

Downey used Joseph Swan's carbon process for their best work. In the 1880's Mawson, Swan & Morgan of Newcastle were the world's largest manufacturers of photographic dry plates, the convenience of which made photography a commercial reality. George Eastman spent some time there during the eighties, and afterwards invented the Box Brownie and roll film, ending the monopoly of studios on permanent images.

 

William Downey's son, William Edward Downey (1855–1908), managed most of the royal sittings during the Edwardian era.

 

Gladys Cooper, a child photographic model of the time, reminisces about the Downeys in her autobiography:

 

"I can remember the Downeys quite well – they were father and son. "Old" Downey was a very tall old man with a long white beard, and very red-rimmed eyes. He always wore a long frock-coat with a red ribbon in his buttonhole, and looked a dignified old gentleman, who was quite capable of receiving and greeting Royals with just the right manner of respectful homage.

It was considered a great honour to be photographed by "Old" Downey himself. He never "took" anyone lower than one of the Princesses, or perhaps a duchess now and then, if he felt in the mood. His staff treated him rather like Royalty itself, and, when he rode abroad in his carriage, they would stand round with rugs, cushions, etc., until he waved them aside in lordly fashion.

"Young" Downey (he was always known as "Young" Downey to distinguish him from his father) was a big man – or so he seemed to me then – with a bald head. He was an artist in his work, and used to say that he always knew the best side of anybody's face after one good look at them. He certainly made some fine photographs of the famous beauties of his time, and possessed the art of retaining character in the face of his sitter. I used to enjoy my visits to the Downey père et fils. "Young" Downey was very fond of children, and my sisters Doris and Grace and I had plenty of fun playing about in the great studio, or dressing ourselves up in the wonderful assortment of garments that he kept there".

 

William Downey's Personal Life and Death

 

William senior was married to Lucy, who had been born in Speenhamland, Berkshire in 1843, and they had one son and one daughter. He joined the Photographic Society (later The Royal Photographic Society) in December 1870. The 1891 and 1901 census records show that he was living at 10 Nevern Square, Warwick Road, Earl's Court, Kensington.

 

Downey's prized silver collection was stolen from his Earl's Court home in November 1914 – the burglary is said to have brought on his death 7 days before his 86th. birthday.

 

Sidney Skolsky

 

So what else happened on the day that the card was posted?

 

Well, the 2nd. May 1905 marked the birth of Sidney Skolsky. He was an American writer, best known as a Hollywood gossip columnist.

 

He ranked with Hedda Hopper (with whom he shared a birthday) and Louella Parsons as the premier Hollywood gossip columnists of the first three decades of the sound picture era.

 

A radio personality in addition to having his own syndicated newspaper column, Skolsky was also a screenwriter and movie producer who occasionally acted on the radio and in the movies. Skolsky claimed to be the person who gave the nickname 'Oscar' to the Academy Award and was credited for the introduction of the use of the word 'beefcake'.

 

Biography of Sidney Skolsky

 

Skolsky was born in NYC to a Jewish family, the son of dry goods store proprietor Louis Skolsky and his wife Mildred. He studied journalism at New York University before becoming a Broadway press agent.

 

When he became the New York Daily News gossip columnist in 1928, the 23-year-old Skolsky was the youngest Broadway gossip columnist plying his trade on the Great White Way. He also had a Sunday column, 'Tintypes', profiles of actors, directors and other production personnel and Hollywood creative types, that continued in print for 52 years, until a couple years before his death.

 

Sidney moved to Hollywood in 1933, where he moonlighted as a story editor for Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures. He also had a regular column in Photoplay, the country's premiere movie magazine. His column was bylined 'From a Stool at Schwab’s', the Hollywood drugstore he made famous.

 

He helped promulgate the myth that Lana Turner had been discovered at Schwab's, when it actually had been another Sunset Boulevard establishment, The Top Hat Cafe, which was closer to Lana's alma mater, Hollywood High.

 

He helped champion, and was very close to Marilyn Monroe, supporting her during her divorce from Joe DiMaggio.

 

In 1946, Sidney became a movie producer with 'The Jolson Story' (1946), which was nominated for several Academy Awards. He followed it up with 1953 bio 'The Eddie Cantor Story'.

 

Starting in 1954, KABC-TV Los Angeles featured him in his own TV show, 'Sidney Skolsky’s Hollywood'. He wrote five books about Hollywood and the movies, including a 1975 autobiography, 'Don’t Get Me Wrong, I Love Hollywood'.

 

The Death and Legacy of Sidney Skolsky

 

Skolsky died on the 3rd. May 1983 from complications due to Parkinson's disease and atherosclerosis. He had been married for 54 years to Estelle Lorenz, with whom he had had two daughters.

 

Sidney's writings are part of the permanent collection at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Margaret Herrick Library.

MØ

Secret Solstice Festival

June, 2015

Reykjavik, Iceland

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One piece of a Jigsaw puzzle themed installation

  

Out and About at Vivid 2015

My Photo was used by Popular Photography" magazine in their Feb. 2007 issue in the article "The Right Lens for the Job". The article appears on page 72 and in the table of contents.

 

This is my first time really being published, so I'm kinda happy about it. Popular Photography is the biggest photography magazine in the world.

 

NOTE: From this photo it could appear that this photo was taken with a Tokina 12-24mm f/4 lens (which is a fine lens), but it in fact was taken with my Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 EF-S lens, which is noted next to the photo of the Tokina.