In recent years, Moon Knight has been a recurring character at Marvel Comics, with different iterations of the character being frequent but short-lived. The most recent run of the series, by Max Bemis and Jacen Burrows, ended last October and the title has yet to be relaunched. For the next 12 weeks, in this summer plagued by a Moon Knight drought, I’ll be bringing you my thoughts on Bendis and Maleev’s run as part of our Summer Comics Binge.
Cover by Alex Maleev“Moon Knight” #10
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Pencilled by Alex Maleev
Colored by Matt Hollingsworth
Lettered by VC’s Cory PetitMoon Knight succumbs to one of his new personalities to fight for the survival of Los Angeles! Once the Kingpin of LA pushes him over the edge, can Moon Knight ever come back?!
Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any worse for Moon Knight, they do.
After seeing the damage that Count Nefaria is capable of inflicting on Moon Knight, Bendis throws another villain into the mix: Nefaria’s daughter, Madame Masque. While she seems to be aiding Nefaria, they are described as having a “strained” relationship so I think there’s a big possibility that she is only helping to serve her own gain. Regardless of whether or not she is working with Nefaria entirely though, she poses a different threat to Moon Knight. She’s not afraid to use guns, for a start, and by the end of the issue, she’s gotten hold of the Ultron head, and put the Ultron unit together. With the close of the series only being two issues away, Bendis is wasting no time at all in raising the stakes and the series is thriving.
The downside to the frantically raised stakes is that it means more characters are under threat and the issue closes with the first strike from Ultron, aimed at Buck. He’s been one of the highlights for the series and a major asset to Marc and thankfully, he lives. The only reason I can assume that he did survive was because he was left alive to send a message to Marc that the Ultron unit is functional, and, as I’ve said in previous weeks (but perhaps never felt so strongly about): Marc needs all the help he can get.
With the stakes being raised, the issue hurtles through a number of scenes and characters but Bendis manages to let each scene breathe enough so that none of them feel too rushed. The opening of the issue, for example, is only a series of fragmented glimpses into the violent fight between Moon Knight and Count Nefaria. These fragments only last for a page but maintains the intensity that last week’s issue ended on, largely due to the choice of what the glimpses show.
Immediately after this, one of Moon Knight’s older identities, Steven Grant, appears. Plot twist? Not quite. It’s only one of Marc’s dreams. Despite the dream’s seemingly calm nature, it quickly takes a dark turn when Steven becomes aware of the fact that he is dreaming. Marlene confronts him, dismissing the various identities he uses and tells him that, regardless of the identity he is using, he ruins everything he touches. Maleev’s artwork excels here, with Marlene’s face and hair changing between panels, then changing entirely and becoming Captain America before ending on a grotesque melting face that will be haunting me for a while. I enjoyed the brief appearance of Steven Grant in this scene, but, in the larger scheme of things, particularly with the knowledge that there are only two issues left, I wonder if his appearance really served this issue any better than Marc himself and was only as meant more as a nod to the previous Moon Knight stories. Likewise, the presence of Marc’s TV show weakened this week and I don’t expect it to tie into any of the story before the close of the series.
Things aren’t much better for Marc when he wakes up. He’s handcuffed to a hospital bed, with police officers patrolling the hallways. Before long, Detective Hall turns up to discover that not only have the police not taken Marc’s fingerprints (incredibly convenient for a superhero trying to keep his identity secret) but that Marc has escaped with Buck’s help and its clear that it was only with Buck’s help. Marc is a broken man and who can hardly walk or speak. He only manages to admit the guilt he feels for Echo’s death. This admission, coupled with the dream sequence, does a perfect job of presenting Marc as truly beaten despite having (arguably) won the latest battle against Nefaria.
Continued belowAs I expected last week, Snapdragon returns in this week’s issue and she has made a deal with Detective Hall. In exchange for all the information that she can give on the Count, Snapdragon will get… well, I’m not sure and that’s one of the intriguing threads that Bendis weaves into this week’s issue. The only disappointing thing about that thread is that, even if it is something as simple as Snapdragon walks free of charge, given that there are only two issues left, I fear that we won’t get to see the full consequences of the deal.
Finally, I turn my attention to Count Nefaria who is just as broken as Marc. He’s covered in deep wounds that pulse with his magic energy and he’s struggling to heal, both physically and emotionally after being beaten by Moon Knight. Interestingly, it is his accomplice who arranges for Madame Masque to come to his aid, which shows the desperation within the Nefaria camp and opens the possibility for Nefaria being defeated by Moon Knight with the help of his own daughter.
Overall – Another strong issue with plenty of threads continuing to frantically develop in the wake of last week’s devastating clash.
