Jason Aaron and Javier Garron had me on the edge of my seat with issue #33, which made this one a blind buy as we go deeper into part two of “The Age of Khonshu.” This second part delves into how Moon Knight gained so much power that allowed him to best the greatest heroes in the universe. Question is, is Moon Knight right to chain them and take their powers?
This issue, unfortunately, suffers from flashback syndrome. So much time is spent jumping between the past, present, and near future that the urgency in the story is sucked out. Instead of being on the edge of my seat, I found myself tired of the explanations and wanted to know what comes next. Yeah, it’s a neat premise to show how the time Khonshu took over Earth, thwarted the heroes, and saved it all, it would play out better if we saw him take power in real time.
That’s…a lot of talking.
Credit: Marvel Comics
There are two key scenes in this issue, one involving Mephisto and the other Black Panther. In both instances, it’s hard to care what is going on because it’s difficult to know how powerful Moon Knight is and what his intentions are. I understand he wants to save the world, but to so blindly follow Khonshu seems unrealistic and will likely be explained via a twist.
The one saving grace is the cliffhanger, which promises a fun team-up of characters to thwart Knonshu. The sad thing is we’re dropped into this reveal in a way that makes it unearned much like most of the narrative. Where we witnessed Moon Knight take power last issue, instead we’re led to believe the takeover is done and an entire issue explaining it is in order.
I’m game to keep reading this story, but a lot of the wind was knocked out of it with this issue. Garron and color artist Jason Keith continue to do solid work, though it’s filled with dialogue explaining how we got here throughout. This is a story I want to like, but am shocked at how little it all matters due to the mechanic of showing us past and present.
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