Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #4 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT: CITY OF THE DEAD No. 4, December 2023

Disconcertingly depicting Marc Spector (once again) relieving his origin in becoming the Fist of Khonshu and battling the ghost of Raoul Bushman, many a bibliophile probably felt this fourth instalment to David Pepose’s “Moon Knight: City Of The Dead” mini-series was a bit of a filler issue. In fact, it’s hard to shake the impression that the American author couldn’t have simply reached this particular comic’s cataclysmic conclusion with just a mere handful of pages or less, rather than use the cowled crime-fighter’s mental doubts and emotional insecurities to pad out an entire twenty-page periodical; “You may think of yourself as a monster… But you should know… I forgave you a long time ago.”

To make matters even more bemusing though, this book’s secondary plot-thread features Layla El-Faouly rather unimaginatively just flying across the mythical Egyptian metropolis, determined to reach the Gates of Osiris before her poor young ward expires. Admittedly, this headlong dash through toppling tower blocks and the shifting sands makes for a pulse-pounding experience. But its pacing is so intrinsically linked to that of the titular character’s haunted recollections of murder, collateral damage and death that the chase sequence arguably feels like it's only been penned to help break up the monotony of Spector’s sedentary storyline.

Indeed, it will debatably have come as no surprise to any within this publication’s audience, that Moon Knight somehow manages to recover his wits and successfully slice his way out of the gigantic Ammut the Devourer’s bloated belly at precisely the same moment a badly battered Scarlet Scarab finally falls to the ground just a few feet away from her goal. This ending is sadly ‘telegraphed’ straight from the comic’s opening, and resultantly there’s rarely a moment where either super-hero genuinely feels as if they’re in peril – even when Marc imagines receiving a loaded hand-gun from his god and makes a suicidal move to end his own life.

Much more enthralling than this book’s narrative is probably therefore its artwork with returning illustrator Marcelo Ferreira doing a first-rate job in providing many of ghouls and demons the mentally-scarred vigilante encounters with plenty of gruesomeness. In addition, there’s a real sense of speed to El-Faouly racing across the sky, and hefty impact to all the tall buildings crashing into one another as she passes them by.

Writer: David Pepose, Penciler: Marcelo Ferreira, and Inker: Jay Leisten