Moon-Knight-12-featured Reviews 

“Moon Knight” #12

By | August 30th, 2019
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

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” #12
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Pencilled by Alex Maleev
Colored by Matt Hollingsworth
Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit

The conclusion of Marvel’s maddest mercenary Moon Knight is here! Will Moon Knight rise to the occasion as the heroes he’s trying to emulate?

This is it folks. The final issue of Bendis and Maleev’s time on “Moon Knight.” It’s been a wild ride up until now, so let’s see if the finale sends the series out with a bang or a whimper.

This issue starts immediately after the last ended, with the police arriving at Count Nefaria’s tower. They’ve come supported by a helicopter so they’re clearly anticipating Nefaria being a significant threat, but still an underestimation of his power; he simply rockets through the helicopter as he attempts to escape. This escape propels the comic forward, with the police being sent into meltdown, fearing for the safety of their informant, Snapdragon. What I really liked about this issue was that it brought several of the threads in the series, particularly those from the latter half, to converge together. It’s something you’d expect, but in this finale, Bendis manages to weave all of them into one scene with Nefaria’s arriving at the police precinct, which reconnects get Snapdragon and Detective Hall to the ongoing battle between Nefaria and Moon Knight.

Before Moon Knight’s arrival, Nefaria confirms what the police suspected about his devious influence, exposing Captain Quaid and the “deal” that they had. Nefaria, for all the cunning he seems to have had in operating as the Kingpin of L.A. from behind the scenes, has just blown his cover now and you can feel the world closing in on him. Quaid tries to deflect the failure onto Snapdragon, arguably correctly, but Nefaria is blinded by rage and instead disintegrates the Captain with his energy beams. Maleev’s portrayal of the Captain’s demise differs significantly from the previous use of Nefaria’s powers back in issue #6, which is suitable as this is a slightly different use of the energy beams, which helps to makes the Captain’s death stand out. The beam hits him and he glows red, exposing a silhouetted skeleton which falls to the ground. If hell hadn’t already broken loose in the comic, it does now. The police stop holding fire and bullets and energy beams fly around the precinct.

Then Moon Knight arrives, holographic Cap shield in hand. The pair start fighting, with Moon Knight lunging forward with his Wolverine claws on his other hand and Nefaria retaliating, furious that Moon Knight has once again intervened in his plans. Snapdragon then takes her chance to escape from the pair of them, opening fire on them both, hitting Nefaria and then disappearing. Now we’re left with Nefaria and Moon Knight for the final time of the series. I’m in undecided on this fight scene, even now trying to formulate my opinion for this review. On the one hand, having Moon Knight completely outclassed by Nefaria makes perfect sense. It’s been said all series that he’s a huge threat and required the Avengers to defeat him before, with Moon Knight only managing to deal him any damage after using the chemical agent in issue #7. That being said, it’s a shame that Moon Knight didn’t find a new method of beating him himself, instead having to call the Avengers. But, being an optimist, I can see that ultimately, Moon Knight did find a way to defeat him. He used his contacts. He knew that he couldn’t defeat Count Nefaria alone and so he didn’t try to. Instead, he had back-up and manipulated Nefaria into falling into the Avengers trap by tapping into his ego and his obsession with the Ultron head. (Even though, had Moon Knight decided to get his own version of Mjolnir, maybe he would have been alright on his own.)

Continued below

With Nefaria dealt with, and Snapdragon also captured by the Avengers, we’re almost at the end of the series, with only a couple of threads from the series still to be wrapped up. Namely the Ultron head and the intermittent Legend of the Khonshu series. First up is the Ultron head, which is collected up by Tony Stark. When Marc asks him what Nefaria wanted with the head, he has as little answer as anyone, simply theorising that Nefaria wanted to be ahead of Ultron’s next attack or wanting to be a part of it and use the Ultron head as a bargaining chip. Not discovering exactly what Nefaria’s greater plan was, considering the Ultron head was such a pivotal part of the series’ opening issue. Then, I started to wonder if this was a set-up for Marvel’s ‘Age of Ultron’ event and quickly found online that indeed, it was. In fact, I found that the final page of “Moon Knight” #12 originally stated that Moon Knight will return in the ‘Age of Ultron’ whereas the recent hardcover collected edition which I’ve been using for my reviews simply says “The End.” I’ve not read ‘Age of Ultron’ so I’m unaware on just how big a role Moon Knight plays in the event, but it was still disappointing for this series to not necessarily have a fully satisfying answer.

The Legend of the Khonshu thread is rounded off after this, with the penultimate scene set three months later, showing Marc arriving on the set with his series having been cancelled. In terms of reviewing this issue, this scene provides enough detail to have the thread closed, but I’ve always felt like the TV show was an underused part of the series. It always had the potential for more, but whether Bendis just simply didn’t get time to expand it as much as he’d like, perhaps we’ll never know and, of course, is not what I am left to review.

With that being said, what I have been left to review, is an action packed and exciting finale to a thoroughly enjoyable series. There’s been plenty of great work on all accounts: Bendis’ scripts, Maleev’s pencilling, Wilson and Hollingsworth’s coloring and Petit’s lettering and each have been highlighted at various points over the twelve issues. The only criticism is that it felt like it ended too soon and didn’t have time to fully expand on everything that it initially appeared to set out to do.

Overall – “Moon Knight” #12 is another action-packed issue that provides a satisfying conclusion to the ongoing rivalry between Count Nefaria and Moon Knight and does just-about-enough to tie up the other threads of the series.


//TAGS | 2019 Summer Comics Binge

Luke Cornelius

Luke is an English and American Literature and Creative Writing graduate. He likes spending his time reading comics (obviously), going out on long walks and watching films/TV series.

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • The Mighty Thor 351 featured Reviews
    “The Mighty Thor” #349-355

    By | Sep 26, 2019 | Reviews

    While Walter Simonson would continue to write “Thor” for another few years, this arc, this final arc, this arc that encompasses everything he had been building toward when he first took on the title, marks the end of his time as the primary writer and artist. Over half a year, he brought together all the […]

    MORE »
    Reviews
    “X-Men: Second Coming” and X-Force

    By | Sep 21, 2019 | Reviews

    “Second Coming” changed everything for the X-Men and that includes “X-Force” being brought into the light.Written by VariousIllustrated by VariousColored by VariousLettered by VariousThe 2010 story “Second Coming” was an all encompassing X-Men crossover, the culmination of threads that started back in 2007 with “Messiah Complex,” that hailed the rebirth of the X-Men and mutandum. […]

    MORE »

    -->