Continuing its “Black, White, and Blood” tradition with characters like Wolverine, Elektra, Deadpool, and Carnage, Marvel Comics now brings us Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood. With Moon Knight’s time in the Disney+ sun recently at an end, it only seems fair that he gets the noir vignette treatment.
The first story, “Anubis Rex,” takes us to a distant future where Ra has scattered his dead self through several red scarabs across the galaxy. A young priestess of Khonshu employs her Moon Knight to track and destroy the scarabs. This, of course, is harder than it sounds. But at least Moon Knight is not alone. No, I’m not talking about the priestess. I’m talking about the dog. This take on Moon Knight from Jonathan Hickman is fresh and enjoyable, especially with the futuristic True Grit angle. However, Chris Bachalo’s art is, for lack of a better word, atrocious. It was nearly impossible to decipher the action going on in the messy, mangled-perspective panels. This story would be so much stronger if I knew what was going on.
The middle story gives us a much more classic Moon Knight story in “So White. Yet, So Dark.” Moon Knight has to take care of some Egypt stuff, much to Spider-Man’s chagrin. But, being the altruistic friendly neighborhood Spider-Man that he is, he tags along with Moon Knight before crazed cultists unleash mummified hell in New York City. Did I say Spider-Man was doing this purely out of the goodness of his heart? Maybe not so much. This tale from writer Murewa Ayodele and artist Dotun Akande wasn’t nearly as risky as the one before it, but it’s always a pleasure to see Moon Knight and Spider-Man share the scene, and the gag that ties it all together is hilarious.
Finally, at the end, we get “The End.” In this, Mr. Knight is contracted to take a crime boss’s former accountant to testify in court against her old boss. Of course, this means many obstacles in our hero’s way. And did I mention this story happens Memento-style? I think the title of this story should have been “Moonmento.” Missed opportunity! The end-to-beginning storytelling from writer Marc Guggenheim and artist Jorge Fornés is discombobulating in an interesting way, and it’s mostly executed well (finding out what “the deer thing” is was particularly rewarding), and I appreciate that they justified telling it backwards with a Søren Kierkegaard quote, because he’s the man. Of course, when you read the story “backwards”–because of course you have to–it’s just kinda standard fare. Which is fine.
Overall, Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood is an entertaining, sometimes frustrating, definitely maddening experience. I’m not sure how much appeal there is for anyone who’s not particularly a fan of the character, but I wonder if that number has shrunk just a tad after the TV show. Regardless, you’re not missing much if you pass on this book, but you’ll find some rewards if you pick it up. Especially if you get a dope variant cover.
Moon Knight: Black, White, and Blood #1
Credits
- Writers: Jonathan Hickman, Murewa Ayodele, Marc Guggenheim
- Artists: Chris Bachalo, Dotun Akande, Jorge Fornés
- Letterer: Cory Petit
- Cover Artist: Bill Sienkiewicz
- Variant Cover Artists: Chris Bachalo; Jeff Dekal; Stan Sakai, Emi Fujii
Credits (cont)
- Publisher: Marvel Comics
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