Moon Knight #195 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 195, July 2018

It’s probably safe to surmise that many regular readers of this title probably didn’t know what had hit them when they first opened Issue One Hundred And Ninety Five of “Moon Knight” and came face-to-face with Paul Davidson’s quirky artwork and Max Bemis’ utterly bizarre collection of social misfits, Maurice, Julie, Ty, Samantha and the “nothing particularly weird” Peter. Indeed, as first appearances go the subsequent double-splash of these five supporting cast members enjoying some sort of naked “extreme mind-body meld” in a bedroom may well have reminded the title’s British fan-base of Brendan McCarthy’s surreal sci-fi story “Sooner or Later” which featured in the comic anthology “2000 A.D.” way back in 1986..?

Fortunately however, once this ‘unhealthy’ band have been introduced to an A.I.M. machine which creates psychic bonds between people’s very souls, some semblance of normalcy is partially restored to the publication, with the “multi-limbed amalgamation of bodies known as the Collective” appearing to be just the sort of super-villain the schizophrenic Fist of Khonshu should be fighting. Certainly, the flesh-melting “unusual” foe provides this twenty-page periodical with precisely the sort of action its somewhat sedentary start sadly suggested the primary composer’s tale was going to be lacking, and that’s before the “unholy” creature has withstood an airborne assault from a multi-machine gunned helicopter by hurling the gigantic skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex at the flying vehicle.

In fact, the sheer pace of the “pop punk” writer’s plot once Al the A.I.M. janitor’s “monstrous science” has done its work is sense-shattering, and leads to all sorts of pulse-pounding predicaments for the titular character as he glides into Queens aboard his Angel Wing and faces the advances of a multi-limbed criminal currently “composed of… at least 32 New Yorkers.” Immune to the cloaked crime-fighter’s arsenal of weapons, as depicted in an especially grisly scene when Marc Spector’s alter-ego slices numerous fingers, hands, ears and noses off of the grotesque gestalt, this book is arguably not for the faint-hearted, yet proves inescapably enthralling as Doug Moench’s co-creation nimbly averts attack after attack until his cowl is partially torn asunder and his liquefying facial features become one with the fluid flesh of Maurice’s creation; “Shhhh. No need to be scared… Welcome to the hive mind of the collective, where all our innermost thoughts and feelings are shared! This is where the magic happens!”

Writer: Max Bemis, Artist: Paul Davidson, and Colorist: Mat Lopes