Moon Knight [2021] #8 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 8, April 2022

Fully focused upon the exploits of Doctor Badr’s alter-ego as opposed to those of this comic’s titular character, Jed MacKay’s plot for Issue Eight of “Moon Knight” arguably harks back almost ten years to the time when writer Warren Ellis would semi-regularly pen Detective Flint requesting that the Fist of Khonshu investigate some deadly crime wave. But whilst the former NYPD lieutenant’s “mystery of Stained-Glass Scarlet” certainly sounds like another classic case for the Midnight Mission’s current incumbent to explore, the narrative’s actual execution probably left many a reader scratching their heads as to what was going on, and how (or even if) the serial killer was eventually thwarted.

For starters, Scarlet Fasinera’s journey from being a dead vigilante to an ‘unkillable young god’ isn’t perhaps the easiest of origin stories to navigate, due to it simply being hinted at during a lengthy fight-sequence between the supernatural deity and an understandably bewildered Doctor Moon. Admittedly, it eventually becomes clear that “the crazy woman with a crossbow” has somehow been resurrected due to her martyrdom “by police gunshots” being spread through word of mouth. However, just how or why this would resurrect such a deadly spectre of revenge is never delved into, nor just what the faceless spirit’s motivation is..?

In addition, Doctor Badr’s ability to suddenly summon Khonshu from his ‘unjust prison’ deep within the dungeons of Asgard to temporarily banish Stained-Glass Scarlet comes out of no-where, and sadly smacks of being an all-too convenient device to resolve an otherwise one-sided confrontation within the space of a single twenty-page periodical. This miraculous appearance certainly creates a moment of high drama, yet MacKay unconvincingly attempts to rationalise it by stating that “the defender of those who travel at night” is still able to enter a “between-space” when bade “by my faithful son.”

Happily, what this “Devil’s Reign” tie-in lacks in its logic it more than makes up for with Alessandro Cappuccio’s prodigiously pencilled artwork. The Italian illustrator does an extraordinary job of bringing “the old church in the South Bronx” to life during Fasinera’s prolonged attack upon Badr by turning its shattered stained-glass windows and checker-board tiled floor into some sort of horrific reimaging from “Alice In Wonderland”.

Writer: Jed MacKay, Artist: Alessandro Cappuccio, and Color Artist: Rachelle Rosenberg