This is Vengeance of the Moon Knight: New Moon. It is the first volume of Jed MacKay’s series, named Vengeance of the Moon Knight. It is Illustrated by Alessandro Cappuccio, Colored by Rachelle Rosenberg, and Lettered by Cory Petit. The cover used above is Illustrated by David Finch. Trigger Warning: This volume contains elements that one may find disturbing such as blood, the death of a loved one, references to the occult, the consumption of alcohol, and terroristic attacks. Reader discretion is advised. This series is the second chapter of Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight saga. It follows the Midnight Mission, as they are in a constant state of mourning. Marc Spector is dead, and his friends are left to pick up the pieces. Members of the Midnight Mission have vowed to keep this quest going, but they have run into a problem. A new Moon Knight, one who is not Marc Spector, has entered the scene, and has quickly started causing havoc. It’s gotten so bad that citizens have started to falsely claim that the Midnight Mission is to blame. So, with everything they worked for on the line, the Midnight Mission vow to take this fake Moon Knight down. Can the Midnight Mission do it and who even is this fake Moon Knight anyway?
This volume was decent but not better than the original series. I see this volume as the beginning of this new chapter for Jed MacKay’s saga for Moon Knight. It starts almost immediately after the events of the previous series, with the characters mourning Marc’s death (yes, I know it is a spoiler, but I literally cannot talk about anything in this volume if I don’t mention it). And every member of the Midnight Mission is going through the mourning process in their own way. Reese is trying to make Marc a martyr by keeping the Midnight Mission going (with mixed success). Tigra is in a vengeance-filled rage trying to find Black Spectre (the one responsible for Marc’s death). Although, this rage is only hiding an immense sense of sadness. Solider believes that he should have died, due to how many times he escaped death. And Hunter’s Moon is trying to keep Marc’s honor, by making it his mission to take down this other Moon Knight. And each one of these characters and emotional elements get their own issue to be explored. What makes this idea work so well is it truly shows how much of an impact Marc had on the people around him. One of the biggest problems that Marc had to go through in the first series is his self-depreciation. He was at one of the lowest places in his life by the beginning of Jed MacKay’s run, and the entire thing is really him building up connections again. The beginning of this volume really shows how much he succeeded in this quest. It was so successful that even Avengers, such as Captain America, Doctor Strange, and Hawkeye, went to his Shiva (which is a mourning period in the Jewish tradition). This volume did an excellent job honoring Moon Knight, even though he wasn’t even there. Well, he kind of was.
Spoiler Alert: Now, let us talk about this new Moon Knight, who is a thorn in the Midnight Mission’s side. The odd thing is, there isn’t that much to talk about with this character. He has an utterly badass introduction, with him beating the ever-loving crud out of 8-Ball, and leaving him on the Midnight Mission’s doorstep. After this, we get to see this Moon Knight in action, when he clashes with the entire Midnight Mission. He puts up a good fight, with some clever tactics to mask his identity, but overall is forced to flee. The next issue is mostly about the effect that he has had on the rest of New York City. Dude just goes around beating criminals half to death (even if they were reformed) and brand them. Not only is this immensely immoral, but it also proves a problem for the Midnight Mission’s credibility. Because now the general public believes that the Midnight Mission is responsible. So, they make it their mission to take this new Moon Knight down before he does any more damage to the community and their reputation. This final issue goes into something that was done disappointingly for me, the new Moon Knight’s secret identity. In this final issue, Tigra and Hunter’s Moon break into the Moon Knight’s hideout, and brutally beats the shit out of him. But, throughout that encounter, we get to see introspections, from both Hunter’s Moon and Tigra, of the Moon Knight’s characteristics, and how they found it rather suspicious. Well, in the final panel, we see who he is. And that person would be Maximillian Quincy Coleridge, AKA The Shroud. I don’t really know who this character is. That isn’t a problem, but it doesn’t give this reveal the punch it needed. And I don’t think many regular readers would know who this guy is either. This volume also needed more time to really set this up effectively. This volume only has four issues to its name, and the first one only introduced the Moon Knight during the last page. So, it really needed more time to properly make this Moon Knight seem threatening. This was disappointing, but it could have been worse.
The art for this volume was rather good. One of the primary artists with the previous run, Alessandro Cappuccio, illustrates this entire volume, which is amazing. I did find that this volume had some of his weakest work for the series so far. It was not bad, but I wanted to see more of one specific element. Cappuccio is absolutely immaculate at showing supernatural concepts and sequences. And, thankfully, we get a lot in this volume. But we also get a lot more fight scenes with nothing supernatural at all. And some of them were a little boring. I think that also comes down to the colorist, Rachelle Rosenberg, who has very similar strengths and weaknesses. I must clarify again that the art is still good. But there could have been more supernatural elements. Hopefully we get to see more in the future of this series. But, overall, this volume was great but could have spotlighted more of Cappuccio’s strengths.
Overall, this volume was a good reintroduction of the characters of Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight run. The characters are great to see again and the homage to Marc Spector was wonderfully done. But I felt that this volume doesn’t spotlight the strengths of the previous run, while focusing on elements that don’t work as well. This critique is perfectly exemplified with the new Moon Knight, and the reveal of his identity. The art also had this problem, but it was still well done. But, overall, this volume is still great and gives us more Moon Knight.