The Cross-Time War For Khonshu’s Blessings: Moon Knight Annual #1 Reviewed
by Josh Davison
[*Mild Spoilers Ahead!]
In 2500 B.C. Egypt, the priests of Khonshu created three totems, an ankh, a scarab, and a scepter, to enable controlled time travel. Naturally, this captures the attention of Kang the Conqueror. He attacks the priests and steals away with the artifacts. Khonshu interferes and scatters the artifacts through time. Unfortunately, Kang still has the opportunity to create his world where he rules. In the new present, Moon Knight fights to save Khonshu priests from the soldiers of Kang, but he is soon dragged through a time travel odyssey to recover the three artifacts before Kang gains control of them. Thankfully, Marc will have the help of past Moon Knights.
Moon Knight Annual #1 finds Marc Spector squaring off against Kang the Conqueror in a battle across time. Kang and Khonshu are at war, and it’s up to all Moon Knight’s to make sure that the right side wins.
Much of the comic is from Marc Spector’s perspective, so of course the narration is a little unhinged. Despite being a time travel story, it’s surprisingly straightforward and easy to follow. That makes a strange amount of sense considering how insane Marc is, so a time traveling crisis would probably appear more coherent from his point of view.
There is a bit of fun to be had from a street brawler like Moon Knight going up against a demigod like Kang the Conqueror too.
The ending is surprisingly tragic, and it’s set up quite well.
Ibrahim Moustafa and Matt Horak tagteam for the art on this issue, and both artists put in phenomenal work. There styles blend together immensely well too; it’s hard to pick up when one ends and the other begins. The detailing is thorough, and the action scenes are kinetic and cathartic. Mike Spicer’s color art is dynamic, moody, and adds tons of personality to the book.
Moon Knight Annual #1 is another exciting, fun, and quirky one-off adventure for the Acts of Evil series of Annuals. I’m really beginning to think that there just isn’t a through-line for this event, but I’m having a ton of fun with it anyway. This comic gets a recommendation. Feel free to give it a read.
Moon Knight Annual #1 comes to us from writer Cullen Bunn, artists Ibrahim Moustafa and Matt Horak, color artist Mike Spicer, letterer VC’s Joe Sabino, cover artist Philip Tan with Rain Beredo, and variant cover artists Pasqual Ferry with Chris Sotomayor; and John Tyler Christopher.
Final Score: 8.5/10
