Moon Knight [2023] Annual #1 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT ANNUAL No. 1, August 2023

It's probably pretty easy to see just why Stephanie Phillips’ "Contest of Chaos" crossover storyline “received mixed to negative reviews from critics” if the plot to this particular “Moon Knight” annual is indicative of the overarching narrative’s questionable quality. For whilst Jed MacKay’s script undeniably contains a high-octane skirmish between the titular character and lesser-known South Korean super-hero Taegukgi, the context for the confrontation, along with some bizarre jumps through various multiple-universe hoops, arguably makes for an utterly exhausting experience; “What the hell is happening to me? Was I a Mummy?”

To begin with the entire “power-packed showdown” is created by both protagonists supposedly being drawn to the New Jersey Pine Barrens by a load of mysterious, mind-bending Etsium crystals. This contrivance in itself is pretty unconvincing – especially as it means Tae-Won must travel over six and a half thousand miles to reach his destination and apparently cross into American airspace without permission. But debatably becomes even more manufactured when “Tiger Division's fearless leader” tries to take some moral high ground as to the Fist of Khonshu being the one who is “a long way from home.”

Disappointingly, Agatha Harkness’ rejuvenated presence doesn’t seemingly work for this yarn either, with the “ancient and formidable sorceress” repeatedly breaking the ‘Fourth Wall’ in order to explain to the audience what is actually going on. This rather clunkily-delivered monologue quite quickly starts to grate upon the senses, as it repeatedly throws the reader out of any moment the quite lively, publication-long punch-up occasionally generates, and predominantly makes little sense anyway – unless any perusing bibliophile is particularly interested in the witch’s class on “pure, uncut chaos magic [being] accreted into physical form” or Marc Spector becoming “the patricidal God of the Moon” having taken his title from “the father he murdered.”

With all this in mind though, the layouts for this comic book event’s fourth instalment are prodigiously pencilled by Creees Lee and coloured by Arif Prianto. Between them the artists provide Don Perlin’s co-creation with an especially impressive-looking costume, and certainly give the twenty-two page periodical a genuinely surreal moment when a beheaded Immortal Moon Knight is beaten senseless with his own severed arm by an anthropomorphic Taegukgi.

Writer: Jed MacKay, Artist: Creees Lee, and Color Artist: Arif Prianto