Comic Book Review: Moon Knight #13

Moon Knight #13 is Huston’s final issue on Moon Knight. That is incredibly depressing. Huston did a phenomenal job reviving Moon Knight’s character. I can’t imagine any other writer taking over for Huston and being able to capture the same amount of success. Mike Benson has already been tapped as the next writer. I’ll touch more on that topic in a later post. Oh well, I’m sure that Huston will go out with a bang and that Moon Knight #13 will be a quality read. Let’s go ahead and hit this review.

Creative Team
Writer: Charlie Huston
Pencils: Tom Coker
3-D Models: Don Cameron

Art Rating: 6 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 10 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Moon Knight begrudgingly agreeing with Khonshu to join the Initiative. Khonshu says that Moon Knight is of no use to him if he gets arrested and put in jail for violating the Act.

We cut to the police station where Detective Flint is informed that as long as Moon Knight is on the unregistered list then Flint has to deal with all the scumbags who report getting beaten up and disfigured by Moon Knight. Flint is dealing with a guy who was beating his son when Moon Knight burst into his house and punched a bloody crescent shaped scar onto the guy’s forehead. Flint has no choice but to let the child beater go since the police weren’t on the scene to see him beating the child and the child didn’t file a complaint.

The child beater gloats that he gets to go. Flint then shows the child beater pictures of other scumbags Moon Knight has marked. That Moon Knight continually checks in on these people he has marked. And if they are still doing bad things, Moon Knight gives them another crescent shaped scar on their forehead. He keeps doing this until the scumbags behave. The child beater is terrified and gets the point.

We shift to Frenchie and Rob in bed. Rob tells Frenchie that he is constantly talking in his sleep about Marc Spector. Frenchie gets angry with Rob for saying that Frenchie still loves Marc. Frenchie says that if Rob thinks this is about love then Rob understands nothing at all. Frenchie gets dressed and storms out of the apartment.

We slide over to Marlene totally bored on her date with her boyfriend Taylor. Taylor knows that he isn’t’ t as exciting as Marc. Marlene claims that she is over that type of relationship and wants a person she can hang onto. Suddenly, a couple of thugs attack Taylor and Marlene.

We cut to the Profiler on stake out watching someone. The Profiler stares at someone and begins to tick off all the dirty secrets locked deeply inside that person’s soul.

We shift back to Marlene suddenly busting out the whooping stick and brutally kicking ass on the two muggers. Taylor is terrified.

We see Frenchie arriving at the Moon Cave where Ray is busy packing up the equipment and weapons. We then cut to Mark Spector arriving at a SHIELD Registration Center. Marc meets with the doctor who is going to perform a psych evaluation of Marc before he is allowed to join SHIELD as part of the Initiative.

Marc tries to act normal. The doctor tells Marc to drop the act. That Marc isn’t here for the doctor to determine if he is crazy or not. The doctor already knows that Marc is crazy. That they can get on with processing and rejecting Marc’s application and Marc can stop wasting other people’s valuable time.

Marc realizes the doctor is trying to goad him into attacking him. Marc plays off the doctor’s attempts. We see a SHILED agent with a shotgun appear behind Marc just in case he had tried to attack the doctor.

The doctor proceeds to review Marc’s file. The doctor asks why Marc didn’t register his powers. Marc responds that he no longer has powers. Marc says that powers are overrated. That they make you cocky and sloppy and people get hurt.

The doctor tells Marc that he will still register his old powers just in case. The doctor says that this evaluation is to assess Marc’s sanity and character in order to determine what level of cautionary alert should be placed on Marc’s file. The doctor then says that he would like to interview some of Marc’s associates over the coming weeks and would like to start tonight with talking to Jake Lockely and Steven Grant. Marc admits that those are his aliases.

The doctor proceeds to hypnotize Marc to bring out his other two personalities. First up is Jake Lockely. Jake is pissed that Marc has locked him away for so long along with that fancy pants Steven Grant.

Next up is Steven Grant who is much more polite and dashing. Steven tells some funny stories about his adventures as a millionaire playboy.

The doctor then puts Marc back into a hypnotic trance. The doctor dictates his notes of the evaluation that Marc is clearly unfit for duty. That his unstable mind combined with combat training makes him a serious danger. That all of Marc’s armaments and resources should be confiscated at once. Also that legal action be brought against Moon Knight for his actions. That the population would be much safer if Marc was incarcerated and getting the treatment he requires.

Suddenly, the voice of Khonshu comes from Marc’s sleeping body. Khonshu is angry that the doctor is trying to impede his work. Khonshu proceeds to do what the Profiler does and sees into the doctor’s soul and lists all the horrible and embarrassing aspects of his childhood and personal life. Khonshu says that the only grace the doctor will ever know is to serve Khonshu. Khonshu tells the doctor to be his slave and to kneel and serve his lord.

The doctor kneels before Khonshu. The doctor then passes Marc and fills out all his paperwork. The doctor hands Marc his license to be a super hero. Marc wakes up out of his trance and takes the license. The doctor tells Marc that he is registered as an independent. No SHIELD or government affiliation. There is less oversight this way.

Marc leaves the building. The doctor rips up his notes and deletes his dictation. We see Marc getting into a car with the Profiler in the passenger seat. Marc deletes the recorder that had the Profiler’s Khonshu speech on it. The Profiler asks how it worked. Marc said it worked perfectly. Marc asks if the doctor will hurt anyone. The Profiler responds that the doctor will be impotent for life, but he won’t hurt anyone. Marc says the doctor is evil. The Profiler responds “Sadly, no, he’s not. He’s just human.”

We cut back to the present with Moon Knight viciously beating the hell out of war criminal hiding in New York. We hear a news report how licenses for super heroes will only be issues using the greatest of discretion. That only people who display a similar level of discretion and know the proper uses of restraint will qualify. We see Moon Knight finish brutally beating the war criminals and leaving his SHIELD registration papers in the mouth of one of the war criminals.

We shift to Marc helping Marlene back to her apartment and washing all the blood off of her hands. We see the two of them holding each other. Then we see the two of them having some good old fashioned sex.

We see Frenchie and Ray packing up the last bit of the Moon Cave. Most everything has been moved to Marc’s townhouse or his new warehouse. We see Frenchie and Ray leave as the Mansion blows up in a massive explosion behind them. Frenchie talks about how it is hard for old soldiers to say goodbye to their past and all the trappings of the past and to leave gracefully the field of battle.

We cut to Marlene holding her head in a dark bedroom. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Moon Knight #13 was a powerful and emotional read. Huston has done an incredible job on his run on Moon Knight of crawling into the psyche of Marc Spector. The reader has gotten a raw insight into Marc’s mind, how he thinks and why he does what he does. Huston smartly focused on the man Marc Spector rather than the costumed crime fighter Moon Knight.

Huston has stripped back the multiple layers of Marc’s fractured mind, completely deconstructed Marc and them pieced him back together in order to give us the rebirth of Marvel’s most unbalanced and twisted hero. By allowing the reader to bathe in Marc’s insanity, we can see the world as Marc envisions it. It is definitely not a pretty place, but it is certainly intriguing and captivating.

Moon Knight #13 was another well plotted and paced issue. This issue moves at a measured pace, but it burns with a hot intensity. Huston does an excellent job using Moon Knight #13 to put a proper bow on this run on this title. This issue neatly wraps up all the various plotlines that Huston created. Huston has done his job of putting Marc back together and re-inventing Moon Knight and his new position within the context of the present 616 Universe. Huston has done a solid job laying the foundation for the next writer on this title.

As always, Huston cranks out some fantastic dialogue. Each character has such a well defined external voice. The dialogue has a grim, gritty and realistic feel to it. There is such a natural flow to the banter between the various characters. I dig that Huston gives Marc a blunt and direct voice that uses only an economy of words to get across his point.

Huston has impressed me with his commitment to focusing on the man Marc Spector and not the super hero Moon Knight. In this issue, Huston continues his intense look into the mind of Marc Spector. Huston simply gets and understands the essence of Marc’s character like no other writer. Huston’s run on Moon Knight has treated the reader to the best rendition of Marc Spector that I have ever read.

I enjoyed the scene with the SHIELD doctor as Huston strips back all the layers of Marc’s mind and shows the reader his split personalities. This scene was an effective way to show the reader truly how splintered Marc’s mind is as well as how Marc is still crafty and sane enough to concoct a plan to bluff his way into getting a license to operate as a super hero.

Marc’s comments about super powers being overrated were perfect. That super powers make a person sloppy and careless and how people then get hurt. Huston impresses upon the reader that Moon Knight is a character built all around sheer force of will. All Moon Knight needs is his unbending will power, anger, flesh and bone in order to mete out justice. That is what fuels Moon Knight and makes him such a feared combatant.

The scene at the police station with Detective Flint was great. This was a pretty cool way to show the vicious fashion in which Moon Knight polices scumbags that he comes across. The concept of Moon Knight checking up on the various scumbags and giving them another crescent shape brand on the forehead if they have been bad is just sick. And perfect for a twisted freak like Moon Knight.

The plan that Marc concocted by using the Profiler to get a read of the doctor prior to the evaluation and then making the tape of Khonshu’s speech was pure genius. What a fantastic plot twist. For a minute there, the reader actually falls for it and thinks that Khonshu is real and that Marc isn’t insane and hallucinating all of his conversations with the Moon God.

Once we find out it was a tape and the Profilers doing and not the actual spirit of Khonshu, the reader immediately goes back to wondering if the conversations Marc has with Khonshu aren’t just hallucinations of a madman.

The scene with Marlene savagely beating the muggers was certainly jarring and unexpected. Obviously, Marlene is in complete denial about her past and who she is deep inside. The fact is that as much as Marlene wants to think otherwise, she is not completely stable. She has some serious emotional issues and can’t view herself as having moved on unlike Marc. Marlene is probably is better off with Marc than without him. As much as Marlene doesn’t want to admit it, she simply can’t leave her old way of life behind.

Huston delivers a fitting ending to this issue with the cutting back and forth from the sick action scene with Moon Knight kicking ass on the war criminals and Ray and Frenchie shutting down the Moon Cave for once and for all. Frenchie’s poignant narration was an excellent way to end Huston’s run.

Huston shows us Moon Knight’s future as a reckless psychotic super hero who isn’t going to be loyal to SHIELD or the government. Moon Knight is his own one man army and follows his own crusade and no one else’s.

Huston quite literally ends Moon Knight #13 by blowing up Moon Knight’s past as Frenchie and Ray leave the Moon Cave. The past is over and now we can concentrate on the future for this newly re-born Moon Knight. Huston properly concludes his role of resurrecting Moon Knight’s character and placing him on his new course within the 616 universe.

Coker’s style of art really doesn’t suite my tastes. Having said that, Coker’s art definitely worked well on this issue and matched the general mood of Huston’s story.

The Bad: I have no complaints with this issue.

Overall: Moon Knight #13 was a fitting and completely satisfying end to Huston’s run on this title. I have been so impressed with Huston’s resurrection of Moon Knight’s character. Huston has absolutely nailed the core essence of what makes Moon Knight so amazing. Huston managed to evoke a mood reminiscent of the seminal Moon Knight team of Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz while still putting his own unique stamp on the Moon Knight mythos. If you missed Huston’s run on Moon Knight, then definitely get his thirteen issue run whenever it is released as a trade paperback. It will be well worth your money.