Moon Knight [2021] #10 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 10, June 2022

Essentially starting as a simple therapy sitting between the titular character and strait-laced Doctor Andrea Sterman, Jed MacKay’s marvellous manuscript for Issue Ten of “Moon Knight” probably caught quite a few readers by surprise with its mid-point shift to a narrative considerably darker than any the Canadian composer has previously penned before for this ongoing series. Sure, the lengthy fight scene set at the now haunted Midnight Mission against Ravencroft Institute escapee Rutherford Winner is extremely enjoyable and packed full of absorbing action.

But once Marc Spector’s psychiatrist is surprisingly revealed as being an imposter, “Session” genuinely seems to delve ever deeper into the costumed crime-fighter’s deadlier side as he unapologetically buries the mass-murdering Waxman alive inside an airtight steel sphere housed within “the foundation of this overpriced condo building.” Indeed, the Fist of Khonshu is so determined to hurt Sterman’s odious replacement “beyond all comprehension”, that he even ensures the vampire Reese isn’t present during his prisoner’s interrogation, because he realises his blood-drinking receptionist would doubtless be appalled at the anti-hero’s inhumane treatment of Waxman, even after the serial killer has desperately told Moon Knight the location of Zodiac.

Of course, this comic’s opening bout of pulse-pounding fisticuffs is equally as enthralling, due to it providing any perusing bibliophile with an incredible demonstration as to just how savage close combat can be in the Marvel Universe when two street-level antagonists go toe-to-toe against one another. Initially, a man armed with a knife might not seem the strongest of adversaries for Spector’s alter-ego to encounter. However, this quickly changes once the audience are informed about Winner’s abduction by Hydra, and his brain’s rewiring into a veritable killing machine as part of the terrorist organisation’s horrendous-sounding Pygmalion Project.

Helping to sell all these sense-shattering shenanigans is Alessandro Cappuccio, whose illustrations quite beautifully transform from sweeping splash pages of brutal slugfests into tightly focused panels of Waxman’s increasingly petrified face. In fact, one of the most convincing elements of this publication’s storytelling is the astonished horror upon the faces of Soldier and Tigra as Marc cold-heartedly ensures his utterly helpless captive suffers “execution by gentrification.”

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