Moon Knight [2021] #13 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 13, September 2022

Considering the sheer amount of conversational pieces covered within this twenty-page periodical as Jed MacKay’s script sedentarily saunters from one darkly-lit discussion to another, it may well have been difficult for its audience to initially imagine just how Marc Spector’s “war with the vampires of the Structure” was ever going to lure any new bibliophiles into perusing the ongoing series. But whilst Issue Thirteen of “Moon Knight” is undeniably assailed with word-heavy dialogue balloons from almost every angle, their contents and the comic’s incredibly creepy atmosphere makes the entire publication an impressively riveting read; “He’ll come at you faster than the speed of sound, go right through you and won’t care what it’ll do to him.”

For starters the book’s central plot concerning Tutor unsuccessfully trying to recruit the Taskmaster to kill the “Cowled Avenger” is mesmerizingly well-penned, courtesy of Anthony Masters talking about his potential target with both an incredible amount of respect and surprising trepidation. Such evident apprehension in a stone-cold killer who’d happily attempt to murder the likes of Spider-Man, Daredevil and Captain America, speaks absolute volumes for the reputation of the Fist of Khonshu. But also suggests the potential deadliness of the Structure’s own professional assassins, Nemean and Grand Mal, when they’re later assigned the mission.

Just as well delivered is the enthralling earnestness of Moon Knight to wipe his streets clean of criminally-inclined blood-drinkers. This silver-edged slaughter starts out simply enough with the “Crescent Crusader” staking out some prisoners just before sunrise so as to see whether one of them will tell him where their secret lair is. Somewhat shockingly, all of the fanged captives would apparently rather be fried alive than treacherously betray the Tutor. However, their sacrifice still sets a formidably-tense tone for the steel-like determination of Spector’s adversaries – something which is violently depicted later on when Marc skirmishes with some of the vampire leader’s more elite soldiers.

Working incredibly well alongside MacKay’s writing are Federico Sabbatini and colour artist Rachelle Rosenberg. Together, the creative duo provide some truly stellar-looking panels, most notably those showing the sun’s rays lancing across Moon Knight’s somewhat dishevelled costume, and then much later when the “Lunar Legionnaire” is mercilessly beheading a squad of supposedly immortal, automatic rifle-carrying hit-men.

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