Fist of Khonshu

Moon Knight is back in the Avengers! Well, the Secret Avengers – which trumps his West Coast Avengers past any day.

Secret Avengers is written by Ed Brubaker with art by Mike Deodato – two of my favorite writers and artists in comics today. Overall, the first issue is a success – Brubaker wastes no time in setting up this team’s status quo in the Marvel Universe and in Avengers canon. The way he positions the characters reminds me of a damn good spy flick with each team member being given a specialist role.

So where does Moon Knight fit in? That, largely, remains to be seen. You do get to see him in action with Ant Man in a great infiltration scene. However, if the norm down the road becomes Moon Knight and Ant Man as a buddy cop duo, it may get old fast. I’m pretty confident Brubaker will pair up different team members as time goes on, but just pointing it out.

There’s also a nice albeit brief set up scene with Moon Knight where Steve Rogers asks him to join the team – and Moon Knight responds with a greatly ironic “Teams and me, we don’t work. Too many voices…”. It’s a cool scene and I hope we see more of Rogers and Moon Knight interacting directly.

In fact, on that note, I would really like to see (either in Secret Avengers or Moon Knight’s solo arc) someone address what transpired the last time Moon Knight and Steve Rogers had words in Charlie Huston’s solo Moon Knight arc during Civil War. For a recap, Rogers came to Moon Knight’s home to tell him that he didn’t like his style and to stay out of the Civil War – to which Moon Knight replied that he didn’t want to get involved with their egocentric battle of who had the biggest super power. While they didn’t see eye to eye there, Moon Knight definitely showed respect for Steve Rogers when he later ran into Tony Stark, telling Iron Man that Captain America looked like a hero and Stark just looked like a pussy. Well played Huston!

Revisiting that tension would be a nice touch to bring it all back full circle.

Also, I have to mention that Mike Deodato’s art has never looked better. I’ve always liked his attention to detail and the way he draws Moon Knight in this issue is excellent. The newer tricked out suit he wears doesn’t look as armor-clad as it has in his solo arc and strikes a nice balance between his older and newer look.

So… I dug it. And I’m looking forward to more! Moon Knight fans, go pick this up and relish in the fact that we’re now getting Moon Knight more than once a month.

In a recent post on his site, Pulp Noir, author Charlie Huston mentioned his lack of involvement with the Moon Knight comic series going forward. Here’s the excerpt (full post here):

I’m also signed up to do a year on a Marvel monthly. First, get it out of the way, I will not be returning to Moon Knight. Second, I cannot say what title I will be working on. Marvel super secret go hush hush, sweet Charlie or we break your little toes for starters. BUt I will risk going so far as to say it’s a major Marvel monthly. Thus properly hyping, and using the requisite alliteration. Can I say more? No, I’ve said too much as it is. Don’t ask me again, I might weaken. No, no, I mustn’t. You will have to be strong for both of us.

Charlie Huston at NYCC

File this under rumors I had no clue existed. But I guess the hordes at events like Comic Con probably harass him about this, hence the clearing of the air. I loved Huston’s resuscitation of Moon Knight, but Mike Benson has been doing some fantastic work on the series. Given the sheer awesomeness of Huston’s latest novel The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death I am definitely looking forward to his future comic book projects. Hell, given the vastly incestuous and interconnected world at Marvel I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Moon Knight cameo in any future projects.

Crescent Dart:
The new Down South arc brings Moon Knight full circle and superbly kicks off the beginning of what looks to be a fantastic journey for fans of Moon Knight. [singlepic id=17 w=250 h=375 float=right]

Waxing:

• Fantastic dialogue merges with perfectly tailored art
• Kicks off a new beginning for Moon Knight in a masterful way
• The Punisher factors into the story intriguingly

Waning:

• You’ll see Moon Knight’s costume, but not in the way you might want to

Full:

After staging his own death while battling Bullseye, at the end of issue 25, Moon Knight did away with his only publicly known persona, Marc Spector, and steered Jake Lockley out of his fractured sense of self and back into the fold. While the death of Marc Spector helps take him off the grid in a world that is trying to contain him, the resurgence of Lockley is more than just a thematic turning point for the series. (more…)

Crescent Dart:

Overall, this a good, if unsurprising, ending to The Death of Marc Spector. The Bullseye/Moon Knight confrontation works not only as a great popcorn fight scene, but as solid character development on both counts. Nothing is really tied up here but the path is clear for Moon Knight to grow as a series and in the Marvel Universe.

Waxing:

Art is the strongest it’s been in this arc

Great action scenes

Frenchie is awesome

Waning:

No build up to the Moon Knight/Bullseye confrontation.

The end of the arc isn’t that surprising

Kind of pointless scene with The Profile

Full:

We’ve reached the end of The Death of Marc Spector arc-  an end that writer Mike Benson has been alluding to potentially being quite literal. In a way, it is literal, and in every way you would expect, it’s not at all.

The end is a little bittersweet. Bitter in the way that it’s basically typical of any standard story in which the protagonist is due to die -  without giving it all way just think that if The Death of Marc Spector were a movie, this is the ending the studio would have demanded. Guaranteed sequel.

Yet it’s totally sweet in the way that all the predictability is carried out with a style that only Moon Knight possesses. Moon Knight and Bullseye go head to head most of the issue and it’s no holds barred. Benson does a great job in capturing how ruthless both these killers are, and yet the differences in their styles.

Moon Knight says about three words in combat while Bullseye chats through most of the fight. It’s in Moon Knight’s silence that you get to see his strength in combat and how he flexes his strategic side. Essentially, at the end of the issue you get to see how in control Moon Knight really was during the whole confrontation. Contrary to that is Bullseye’s non-stop chatter, and the difference as he sees it between his de rigeur fights with Daredevil and Spiderman compared to fighting Moon Knight. The former two want to bring him in to justice, while Moon Knight is a known killer. In fact Bullseye seems confused with Moon Knight’s behavior during the fight as he was probably briefed on how much of a lunatic Marc Spector is, while Moon Knight here is calling most of the shots with a certain stratagem to them. It’s a great to see the parallels and differences between two of Marvel’s most psychotic characters. And I say psychotic with love behind that term .

What’s a little lacking here, is that there’s no build up to the confrontation in the issue itself. Seeing some behind the scenes from Norman Osborn and the Thunderbolts prepping would have added more impact to the battle and the subsequent scenes with Osborn, the Thunderbolts and Tony Stark. They felt a little disjointed from the rest of the happenings.

What isn’t lacking at all is Frenchie. Charlie Huston and Benson have developed Frenchie into perhaps the deepest character in the Moon Knight world, and that’s shown in full force here. He understands Moon Knight in a way that even Marlene doesn’t and watching his development over these last few arcs has been really rewarding. On the other hand, a brief scene with the Profile is kind of pointless and doesn’t really do anything for the story. Which sucks because he’s been a great character in previous arcs.

The art is at it’s most consistent in this issue than the rest of the arc. While he’s generally a fine artist, Mark Texeira’s work on this arc has seem noticeably rushed and incomplete. It’s like his heart hasn’t been in it. But he captures some great moments in this action-packed issue so he ends on a high note.

Overall, this a good, if unsurprising, ending to The Death of Marc Spector. The Bullseye/Moon Knight confrontation works not only as a great popcorn fight scene, but as solid character development on both counts. Nothing is really tied up here (with the exception of the Profile -  you’ll see) but the path is clear for Moon Knight to grow as a series and in the Marvel Universe.