Moon Knight [2021] #14 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 14, October 2022

Featuring an intriguing meeting of Moon Knight's fractured, multiple minds, as well as an exhilarating battle against “the assassins Nemean and Grand Mal”, Jed MacKay’s storyline for “Soldier, Richman, Scoundrel” must have looked on paper as being a clear winner with the ongoing series’ fans. In fact, one of this twenty-page periodical’s hooks was the sense of anticipation generated by Marc Spector’s alter-ego potentially facing off against the Tutor’s two top vampire agents in a struggle to the death; “You can fight. You always could. But without us, you’re trying to punch out shadows… And that’s why they’re kicking the hell out of you.”

Frustratingly however, despite Issue Fourteen of “Moon Knight” definitely delivering when it comes to a high-octane, night-time beat ‘em up between the “Cowled Avenger” and his super-powered, blood-drinking foes, the Canadian author’s insistence in narrating this book through the dialogue-driven perspective of its titular character’s splintered personalities arguably makes these fisticuffs lose some significant impact. Admittedly, this approach will most likely catch many a reader off-guard when it becomes clear at the end of the comic that Steven Grant and Jake Lockley are actually arguing with their physical host’s dominant persona throughout the combat. But the writing technique also means they need to circumnavigate a lot of word-heavy text boxes in order to reach this conclusion.

Furthermore, the actual heated discussion taking place within the cowled crime-fighter’s psyche doesn’t debatably provide anything particularly new as far as Spector’s dissociative identity disorder goes. Once again the masked vigilante’s other personalities are shown just wanting to work together with one another as opposed to taking a back seat in Marc’s life. This mental (im)balance is clearly a defining quality of the “Crescent Crusader”, yet in these circumstances such a familiar regurgitation of his psychiatric illness's issues via copious word balloons significantly slows down the publication’s pace.

Sadly, even the pencils of regular artist Alessandro Cappuccio seem to suffer as a result of this book’s penmanship, with Nemean’s look and costume design essentially making the Greek villain appear almost identical to that of Sabretooth. Indeed, many a perusing bibliophile casually picking this comic up off the spinner rack could easily be forgiven for believing that that is precisely who first assaults Moon Knight whilst the hero is holding vigil over the Midnight Mission’s neighbourhood.

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