With a new lease on life, you’d think Marc Spector would have it somewhat easy, right? Wrong! This is a Moon Knight comic, after all. Under Jed Mackay’s pen, Marc/Jake/Steven continue to be put through the meat grinder. After being outmaneuvered by the newly minted drug kingpin Achilles Fairchild, Marc and the gang are on the run, being framed for Fairchild’s drug trade. Notice how I didn’t call Marc’s group the Midnight Mission? Well, that’s because Fairchild had his bodyguard Carver murder Moon Knight’s living headquarters, known as The Midnight Mission. I’m still grieving, okay? I loved that haunted house.
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #4 opens with Detective Frazier, noted Glitter addict and crony of Fairchild, squaring off against Marc’s therapist, Dr. Andrea Sterman. Unluckily for her, Sterman isn’t so easily shaken. We then cut to Marc as he’s deep within his own doubts in their temporary underground base (an amazing callback to the first issue of Moon Knight’s 2014 series). As Marc spirals, Jake and Steven show up to talk to Marc (in his head). As he convinces himself that he should push the others away, the clone group of Vermin shows up to attack.
The last time Marc dealt with them was in the first issue of ‘Moon Knight’ by Mackay back in 2019. This hyper-violent fracas ends up with Marc confronting Detective Frazier and even challenging Fairchild to a fight. How will that turn out? We’ll have to wait and see the next issue (I hope).
A lot of these guys aren’t making it out of here. Credit: Marvel
Although this issue felt like an interstitial chapter in this arc, the meat of it could be found in all of Marc’s inner world, yes, Moon Knight feels down and out. Yes, he fights Vermin. But how he gets there is what I’m personally here for. Marc chooses to ignore Jake and Steven’s advice to run – probably because this is the one thing Marc feels he’s in control of right now. But that stubbornness bears some rotten fruit as Marc becomes drunk on bloodlust and is squarely back in his “wild dog” mode. As far as I can tell, this version of Marc was last mentioned/seen in Devil’s Reign: Moon Knight #1, also written by Mackay – who is clearly very rewarding to those who’ve kept up with Marc’s exploits.
One nugget I loved about this issue was a revelation about a character lurking around the background of issue one – I checked, and he’s there dropping some eaves on Frazier in the diner scene.
Credit: Marvel
Art on this issue is handled by Devmalya Pramanik. Although I’m sad about Cappuccio leaving the book for ‘Ultimate Wolverine,’ this issue will dash any and all doubts about Pramanik picking up where he left off (as if previous issues handled by Pramanik didn’t already do that). Although Pramanik has the edgy, dark style of this book down, it’s his exaggerated style that really caught my eye. There’s some really interesting foreshortening happening in one pose that reminded me of anime/manga.
There’s also a gorgeous page where the panels make up the side profile of Vermin’s face. I’m all in on Pramanik pushing things even further in the future. I also can’t not mention Rachelle Rosenberg’s continually captivating color work. Her hues expertly reflect what Marc is going through, and I loved how they differentiated Marc, Jake, and Steven. I also love how Rosenberg makes Moon Knight and Co’s white clothing glow – I’ll never get over that.
Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #4 continues Mackay’s masterful run on the character while Pramanik flexes with some inspired art choices. Since 2019, Mackay and his crew have left me chuckling out loud while muttering “oh sh*t” to myself, and that doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.
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