Moon Knight [2021] #19 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 19, March 2023

Potentially comprising of the quiet before the storm, Jed MacKay’s narrative for Issue Nineteen of “Moon Knight” certainly contains plenty of word-laden speech bubbles and conversation-heavy set-pieces. In fact, so much of this twenty-page periodical’s plot is dialogue-driven that some readers may well be caught off-guard when the titular character and Doctor Badr’s recently resurrected alter-ego suddenly go all gung-ho so as to surprise Commodore Donny Planet’s sailor-based shenanigans in Subterranea.

Happily however, that doesn’t mean for a minute that “Blood Moon Rising” isn't a beguiling yarn as the after-effects of Khonshu’s long-term incarceration are finally felt by his two modern-day priests, and their immortality whilst in the Egyptian deity’s service is unexpectedly questioned. To be fair, the suggestion that Marc Spector will be persistently brought back from the dead by his god “until we’re feral psychotics” is arguably an all-new concept only recently introduced by this ongoing series’ writer. But having resultantly added an arrogant edge to the West Coast Avenger’s attitude towards risking his life, it certainly comes as something of a shock to so quickly take it away; “Pff. What would he do? Kill me? Nothing new.”

Also adding an increasing element of disconcertion to this publication’s proceedings are the intermittent interviews of Zodiac by Doctor Robert Plesko. Well-mannered and polite in nature, even if the discussion surrounding Cletus Kasady’s sociopathic serial killings is uncomfortably blood-curdling, these consultations persistently promise that Moon Knight’s arch-nemesis is about to break free of his maximum-security prison and once again go on a homicidal, mass-murdering spree. Indeed, at one point the practicing psychotherapist even seemingly goads the mask-wearing prisoner into a fit of pique by assuring him that Moon Knight’s friend Soldier was actually alive and well, even though the cold-hearted criminal had shot him at point-blank range.

Similarly as suspenseful as this comic’s script are Federico Sabbatini’s layouts, which genuinely help add both a sense of restrained malice with Sigmund’s aforementioned exploration of Zodiac’s obsession with “super-villainy”, as well as physical violence once the two Fists of Khonshu have tracked down a band of enslaved Moloids and savagely set-upon the Commodore’s merciless minions. Furthermore, the Italian artist produces some excellent splash-pages, most notably this story’s central protagonists riding atop an underground train en route to the Mole Man’s home, and their subsequent no holds barred battle against Planet’s gang of pitiless slave-drivers.

Writer: Jed MacKay, Artist: Federico Sabbatini, and Color Artist: Rachelle Rosenberg