Gift That Keeps On Punching — Reviewing ‘Moon Knight: Fist Of Khonshu’ #10
by Scott Redmond
Overview
A milestone issue brings some potential conclusions but also the next step in the dangerous path that Moon Knight chooses to travel. This issue perfectly captures everything that is good and wonderous with this amazing series and its talented creators.
Never put Moon Knight into a corner. Because he’s going to burst out of that corner with a unyielding vengeance. Ready to tear down everything that props up those who dared cross the Midnight Mission.
It’s an anniversary celebration as Moon Knight: Fist Of Khonshu #10 marks 250 moonlit issues for the street-level vigilante. This extra-sized issue comes from Jed MacKay, Devmalya Pramanik, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Cory Petit.
Clearing the board that Achilles Fairchild thought was stacked, Moon Knight and company are coming for the Asgardian gangster’s head. Clearly Fairchild got the memo about this celebration issue because he’s plumbed the depths of Moon Knight’s rogue’s gallery to bring out some blasts from the past.
It’s an action-packed dangerous party of an issue.
Every character gets their moment to shine as they blast through the defenses and go toe-to-toe with some lesser-known Marvel villains. Pramanik gets to cut completely loose here with pages upon pages of hardcore action, blood, and flying weapons.
Slight exaggeration continues to pay off in making these sequences bold, loud, and larger than life (full of dense rougher textures and plenty of really intricate details to boot). Matching the slight exaggeration is the firmer hefty textures that give things that more grounded “real” feeling such a story needs, keeping it natural and fantastic at the same time.
The spaces they occupy feel authentic in size and how characters inhabit them. This is also felt in the lighting color choices from Rosenberg. Overall, there is still a darker atmosphere for everything with the shadows and heavier tones, contrasting with the flashier lighter colors that really fill up the pages as the flashy, often shiny, characters blast through the pages. Each space we visit feels unique because the lighting is varied to match the atmosphere or characters involved.
At this point, it feels like MacKay is writing these characters and the sequence of events with pure ease.
Their voices are resoundingly familiar and powerful, with all their actions making perfect sense. Even seeing the (not that) surprising figure at the end works because this run (through all three series so far) has been built so authentically. Development of character and plot is acutely tangible.
Even the joke about how predictable Moon Knight is at this point hits harder for that reason. We know what to expect from him, as do his villains in most cases, but the force of Knight and his squad is just that great.
Helping craft and deliver the voices with precision is of course Petit. He’s a letterer that always makes things work and pop even more, shaping the best visual elements into the dialogue and more so that these voices echo as we read, giving it that extra little something.
Moon Knight: Fist Of Khonshu #10 is now available from Marvel Comics.