Moon Knight #14

by King on April 30, 2015

Moon Knight #14 Main Image
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Artist: Ron Ackins
Colorist: Dan Brown
Publisher: Marvel
 
Moon Knight’s foray into the “weird crime” of New York continues full steam ahead, as he’s literally thrown to the wolves this month in an attempt to protect the lifestyles of the rich and famous in the city that never sleeps. In fact, if you read closely, you’ll find a quick little tongue-in-cheek reference to Moon Knight’s origins; but enough dilly daddling, let’s tear into things.
 
Someone, or rather something has been attacking New York’s 1%, and Flint teams up with Moon Mr. Knight in order to crack the case. But what does this bestial attack, or rather attackers, want with New York’s wealthy? And more importantly, how does the head of the “Church of Khonshu” plan to deal with this dilemma in the wake of his higher calling? All this awaits, and more in the latest misadventure of Khonshu’s avatar!
 
I need to take a step back for a moment and be honest – yes, we’re only 2 issues in, but at the same time this issue is one that makes me a little uneasy. Yea, it’s great to see Bunn tackling Moon Knight from the more episodic approach that we saw with the Ellis arc, but aside from that I feel that he’s not nearly played up the supernatural elements as much as I was expecting. Issue #13 was a great demonstration of the avenues that this arc can venture down, but issue #14 somewhat derailed from that for a story that – while helping to reassert a pivotal relationship in Moon Knight’s “career” – seems a tad disjointed to me. Flint and Spectre’s relationship more directly mirrors the relationship between Commish Gordon and Batman in this issue, and while this isn’t particularly helpful for the whole “Moon Knight is NOT a Batman ripoff” argument, it’s nice to see Marc Spectre’s status quo be restored bit by bit with each passing issue of this arc. However messed up his status quo might be.
 
Ackins art also aids in telling the story, but I have to gripe that I miss the rather unconventional uses of negative space and paneling that we were seeing with Shalvey and Smallwood’s directions. Ackins definitely lends himself more to exploring facial features and the minutiae underlying the motions and environment of Moon Knight and his world/interactions, but part of my draw to this series was the minimalistic approach. Too much detail might detract from this and make things seem too “standard”.
 
Ultimately, this is all just personal bias and complaining, and this is another good issue in one of my favorite series in circulation. I still believe in Bunn and team to deliver another great arc, and with the nature of Moon Knight’s new role as ordained by the Moon deity himself, we could see very big changes coming about soon.

Our Score:

7/10

A Look Inside