Moon Knight Annual #1 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT ANNUAL No. 1, November 2019

“Continuing the Acts of Evil summer annual event”, where “new rivalries are formed between heroes and villains” in novel match-ups, Cullen Bunn’s narrative for this thirty-page periodical probably disconcerted many long-term Moon Knight fans by transporting the street-level vigilante far from his usual stomping ground of New York City’s dirty night-time alleyways, and somewhat surprisingly re-casting the ex-mercenary in the role of Khonshu’s champion of time. True, Marc Spector’s subsequent battle against Kang the Conqueror so as to prevent the Thirty-First century scholar’s reality-changing plan to rule a world that was “not what is meant to be” undeniably provides the titular character with plenty of pulse-pounding opportunities with which to demonstrate his proficiency in armed combat. But some within this annual’s audience may still have found the West Coast Avenger’s numerous trips through time and space a step too far for a super-hero ordinarily grounded by his very personal struggle with multiple personality disorder; “And I can’t help but wonder if this is just another surreal dream.”

For those bibliophiles un-phased by Moon Knight’s time travelling excursions however, this publication contains several sense-shattering sequences which debatably demonstrate just how much of an influence Don Perlin’s co-creation has had upon crime-fighting throughout the ages. Whether it be Silver Gulch, Utah in 1874, London 1896, Boston 1776, or Ancient Rome in 300 BC, the Cape Fear-born author’s storyline parades such a perplexing plethora of alternative Fists of Khonshu throughout this comic, that in some ways it is disappointing that so many of these incarnations are only seen for the briefest of sketches as opposed to featuring in a mini-series based upon the ex-United States Marine’s persistent bouts of pugilist with Nathaniel Richards’ technologically advanced alter-ego. Indeed, the intriguing background behind just why the Egyptian God has a gun-toting champion leading Silver Company in a fight “to steal the Fuhrer’s prize” in Germany 1945, or a swashbuckling agent sea-faring their way across the high seas of the North Atlantic in 1710, are surely worth exploring across an issue or two in their own right..?

Perhaps therefore this comic’s only true weakness, apart from the odd disappointingly pencilled panel by artists Ibrahim Moustafa and Matt Horak, is Bunn’s bemusing conclusion which somehow sees Moon Knight both summon an army of his predecessors to his side, as well as sacrifice his Mesopotamian self, simply to thwart Pharaoh Rama-Tut’s future personification from connecting with the scarab, the ankh and “this sceptre which focuses time.” Just how the super villain becomes “entombed in time forever” is never explained, nor how Khonshu “ensured that Kang and the first of my knights will never exist at the same instance again.”

The regular cover art of "MOON KNIGHT" Annual No. 1 by Philip Tan & Rain Beredo