Marc Spector: Moon Knight #4
"Break and Enter" Part One
Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Devmalya Pramanik
Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg
Cover Artist: Paulo Siqueira and Rachelle Rosenberg
Marc Spector is in a dark place.
Free of his captors for the first time in seventeen days, he returns to the Midnight Mission eager to see his friends. But they're gone.
What has happened in his absence?
Previously in Marc Spector: Moon Knight:
Thanks to his fanboy-slash-enemy Zodiac, Marc Spector is free of the prison Agence Byzantine was keeping him in. Facing his fear and besting his old enemy Bushman, Moon Knight can breathe in the fresh air again. He's ready to return to the Midnight Mission and see his friends again… but first, why are those buildings across the bay covered in some sort of living darkness?
Unhappy Homecoming
Seventeen days ago, Moon Knight disappeared, with a knockout dart being the only clue left behind. His friends and disciples - Soldier, 8-Ball, Reese, Hunter's Moon, and Tigra - tore the streets apart trying to find him. They even tried less… conventional methods, to no avail.
At the same time, a group of buildings within their territory began being covered in some form of living darkness that only those touched by the Midnight Mission can see.
Now Moon Knight is back, only to learn that his friends entered the haunted house and never returned. He'll have to do something about that, as only the Fist of Khonshu can…
Whatever Walks Through the Door, Doesn't Walk Out
Marc Spector can't catch a break.
No longer kidnapped and drugged by the organization Agence Byzantine, he just wants to get home to his friends. But when he gets there, they are nowhere to be found. In a situation like this, a normal person would contact the authorities. A less-than-stable hero like Moon Knight? He goes to see his therapist. Yeah, that tracks.
Having just been reminded just how stubborn and willful Marc can be, this issue shows us that his disciples—his friends—were all drawn to him for a reason. They're all just as driven as he is.
The group may sound like the setup of a joke, "two vampires, a were-tiger, a former supervillain who looks like a giant billiard ball, and a guy who's like Moon Knight, but less crazy," but they make up a formidable team in their own right.
Throughout the course of Jed MacKay's lengthy run with the character, we've seen many times just how feared Moon Knight is in the underworld. Even Taskmaster refuses to take a job that will put them up against each other, and that guy used to hang out with Deadpool. His "boogeyman" status among the criminal underground also comes into play when Tigra and the others are talking through who might have kidnapped him. Since he kills so many of his enemies, the list of suspects is rather short, which they concede is a strong reason for why he does it.
Another decision Marc made that has paid off is his choice to live in a haunted house. Because he allowed the House of Shadows to move into the Mission, he and his friends appear to have all been changed in a way that allows them to see and interact with such places unhindered.
A decision that is not going to go well for him is his choice to immediately leap back into action to find his friends. He hasn't stopped to rest since the showdown with Bushman. His cowl is still torn, and he's still covered in blood—some of it his, and some of it not—and he's leaving a trail wherever he goes. He should be in a hospital, not entering a haunted house that only he can see. But if he did that, then he wouldn't be Moon Knight, would he?
Don't Like Being Left Alone
Thanks to his Dissociative Identity Disorder, Marc Spector is never truly alone, and has learned to work with his alters as a cohesive unit. Just like members of this book's creative team.
Jed MacKay could write this book in his sleep by now, but thankfully he doesn't. After five years and over sixty issues, he doesn't seem to be in danger of running out of ideas any time soon. Month after month, he finds new ways to put our hero through the wringer.
Moon Knight might be the only Marvel hero even more self-destructive than Daredevil, but it's in a completely different way. Matt Murdock is so sure in his senses and his abilities that he's overconfident and bull-headed. Marc Spector, on the other hand, is so headstrong and self-destructive that he doesn't care what happens to him, as long as he accomplishes his goal. The scripting has shown that time and time again through both words and actions, such as the way that he doesn't even stop to fix his cowl or bandage his wounds before diving headlong into the haunted house that ate his friends.
The physical effects of Marc's stubbornness are on full display in Devmalya Pramanik's artwork. At no point during his conversation with Dr. Sterman is he seen standing fully upright; instead, he's using a floor lamp to hold himself up or collapsing into a chair. When he leaves her office, he is hunched over and leaning on the wall, leaving a bloody trail as he passes. This contrasts with the scenes of his friends tearing up the streets looking for clues to where he went, showing how he's effectively switching places with them in his current state.
There's a familiar "face" who shows up late in the issue that you can tell Pramanik has a blast drawing. I don't want to give it away, but it's almost like something out of a manga or anime dropped into the middle of a more horror-tinged Moon Knight story.
The horror tone comes across very strongly thanks to Rochelle Rosenberg's color work. The whole issue has a darker tint to it than normal, even before the blacked-out haunted house enters the scene. The moonlit white glow of Khonshu's vestments stand out all the more in these darker scenes, making Moon Knight and his disciples all appear as larger-than-life figures.
If you want a perfect example of how well this trio works together, look no further than the final image of this issue. A striking image, color work mixing the darkness of the scenario with the brightness of Moon Knight himself, and two lines of dialogue that perfectly sum up everything you'd need to know about the character. You can show this page to anyone and get the same response: "that looks so cool, I want to know more."
Haunted Houses Who Eat People
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #4 is another stellar issue from this creative team, who at this point almost seem to delight in putting the Fist of Khonshu through the ringer on a regular basis. This time, he doesn't even get a moment to breathe from the events of the last three issues before he has to enter a haunted house to save his friends. Is this house connected to the House of Shadows? If so, how? And can Moon Knight even make it through when he's already bleeding out and running on fumes?
Thankfully, the creators doesn't appear to be running out of steam anytime soon, so we'll get answers to these and the other lingering questions from the prior arc in due time. Just like Solider, Reese, and the rest, we're in this for the long haul.