Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #1 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT: BLACK, WHITE & BLOOD No. 1, July 2022

Pulling together a veritable “bevy of comicdom’s finest creators” in a series of stories all “depicted in stark black, white and blood-red”, this thirty-page anthology’s first issue must certainly have entertained any fans of the Fist of Khonshu when it was published in May 2022. Indeed, the book not only provides plenty of pulse-pounding action featuring Marc Spector’s alter-ego, but also contains some amusing, tongue-in-cheek quips involving the likes of Spider-Man and Deadpool; “What?! I can feel the smug look on your face through that mask.”

However, it is arguably this publication’s opening tale by Jonathan Hickman and Chris Bachalo which introduces “the all-different Moon Knight of the future” that will probably pique the most interest in any perusing bibliophiles, courtesy of “Anubis Rex” portraying a semi-lonely priestess searching a dispiritingly desolate universe for Ra’s sacred scarabs. Accompanied by a young girl who can literally smell the ancient trinkets which she so desperately seeks, this female incarnation of the Crescent Crusader is a depressingly dour heroine, who begrudgingly soldiers on through her never-ending mission, gorily punching her way out of the digestive tracts of some giant alien bugs when they’re foolish enough to swallow her whole.

Equally as enjoyably disconcerting is “The End” by Marc Guggenheim and Jorge Fornes, which surprisingly tells its narrative in complete reverse by having Moon Knight gallantly gunned down by an unseen sniper at the start, and then only agreeing to protect hapless Dayna Williams from Maggia chieftain Don Fortunato at its conclusion. This ‘abnormal’ storytelling technique by the American author works incredibly well for what ordinarily would have been a fairly run-of-the-mill witness protection assignment, and resultantly will doubtless cause many a reader to repeatedly revisit Spector’s savage spree to the safety of the local courthouse through the winter snow.

Perhaps therefore it is only Murewa Ayodele and Dotun Akande’s “So White. Yet, So Dark” which depicts a fairly typical night-time escapade for the Lunar Legionnaire. Penned very much in the manner of a classic early Seventies “Marvel Team-Up” featuring a wisecracking Spider-Man, this fast-paced adventure seemingly has it all, from giant transforming robots through to deadly spectral poltergeists, and even gives Spector the opportunity to once again don his fantastic, formidable-looking ghost-ripper armour so he can “dent some ugly mugs.”

Storytellers: Jonathan Hickman & Chris Bachalo, Murewa Ayodele & Dotun Akande, and Marc Guggenheim & Jorge Fornes