Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #2 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT: BLACK, WHITE & BLOOD No. 2, August 2022

Despite being proudly proclaimed by “Marvel Worldwide” as “another hard-hitting series of tales told in a limited palette of black, white and red, by today's top creators”, this comic’s somewhat inconsistent string of stories probably didn’t land quite as well with its audience as the New York City-based publisher had hoped. In fact, the varied quality of the penmanship and artwork on show within this thirty-page anthology may well have put some readers off the limited mini-series entirely, especially if they started the comic with its opening tale “The Empty Tomb”.

Written by Benjamin Percy, this rather depressing suggestion that Marc Spector wants to stop being the Fist of Khonshu due to “all the noise inside me” seems a little contrived considering the costumed vigilante is supposedly seeing famed super-hero psychiatrist Andrea Sterman during the period in which its set. However, it is not the unlikely notion that an emotionally traumatised “Crescent Crusader” would seek out Doctor Strange in his Sanctum Sanctorum for a potentially lethal solution to his dilemma which is this adventure’s most disagreeable feature, but rather Vanesa R. Del Rey’s pencils which just aren’t done justice without being in full colour.

Much more digestible is David Pepose, Leonardo Romero and Chris Sotomayor’s “A Hard Day’s Knight”, whose super-villain filled narrative could possibly have been expanded upon to fill an entire issue of “Moon Knight: Black, White And Blood” if editor Tom Brevoort had been so inclined. Indeed, this intriguing insight into the titular character’s numerous personalities arguing over their host body’s physical injuries is disappointingly only let down by the brevity in which the creative team cover his fist-fights against Vermin, Crossfire and the supposedly unstoppable Juggernaut; “Tell your master, Cyttorak, that if he truly wants this realm he’ll need to do a lot better than you.” 

Rounding off this second issue is the deadly serious “Blood Red Glider” by Patch Zircher, which depicts the murder of Spector’s mercenary friend and driver Bodi in Africa five years ago. Determined to avenge his comrade-in-arms in the present now Henrik Kless has decided to kill again, this tale shows the “Cowled Avenger” at his most savage, ruthlessly gutting his homicidal opponent with a sharpened semi-circular blade during an unrestrained duel on the banks of the Udambi River.

The regular cover art of "MOON KNIGHT: BLACK, WHITE & BLOOD" #2 by Ryan Stegman