It isn’t often that one finds a monthly superhero book more centered on grieving than heroics, but that’s exactly what Vengeance of the Moon Knight Vol. 1: New Moon delivers.
With the recent death of Marc Spector (and ignoring the recent return of Marc Spector), New Moon sees the remaining Moon Pals reeling with loss and struggling with a newfound sense of conviction in the Moon Mission (not to be confused with the Midnight Mission, the Moon Base).
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Each of the four issues collected in New Moon focuses on one of Marc’s supporting characters – Reese, Soldier, Tigra, and Yehya, the Hunter Moon – as they undergo grief counseling with Marc’s therapist, Andrea Sterman. With this framing, writer Jed MacKay slowly reveals the story beneath the grief: a Moon Knight imposter has made moves to replace the irreplaceable.
It’s a remarkable narrative trick, lending emotionally earnest tension to a somewhat unremarkable conflict. Our Moon Knight imposter barely registers as a credible threat to the crew of the Midnight Mission, which makes our protagonist’s grief the most genuine concern of the book.
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Given the events of this summer’s Blood Hunt, the reveal of the false Moon Knight’s identity feels less dramatically poignant than it appears to be narrative positioning for MacKay’s larger effort: it placed a darkforce user in one of MacKay’s ongoings just in time for the darkforce users to go ballistic. As a result, Vengeance of the Moon Knight gives the sense of being a franchise placeholder – a sort of ‘Be Back Soon’ sign hung on what has been MacKay’s longest going Marvel concern.
Thankfully, Alessandro Cappuccio and Rachelle Rosenberg continue Moon Knight’s trend of being one of Marvel’s most visually distinct properties. Drenched in shadow and highlighted by Rosenberg’s etherial bursts of otherworldly color, the world of Moon Knight stands somehow separate from the bright, bombastic world of Spider-Man and the X-Men. The book looks fantastic.
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With the dynamic visuals and the emotionally committed characters, New Moon provides just enough to sustain a franchise, but it never quite promises anything for the future.
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