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Moon Knight #21
Posted 08 Oct 2008
Writer: Mike Benson
Artist: Mark Texeira
Artist: Arthur Suydam (cover)
Letters: VC's Joe Caramagna
Publisher: Marvel
3.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Matthew Wead Jones
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Comic readers (and anyone who really thought about it for any
length of time) would probably tell you that a comic book is not
simply an illustrated story with a few word balloons and the
occasional onomatopoeia. Indeed, a comic is much more. When a friend
asks what happened this month in Daredevil, you tell him a
story. But when he goes out to the comic shop and purchases the comic,
he has committed to an amalgamation of artists, each specialized in
their field, bringing to life a series of events that some men are
lucky enough to get paid for.
That being said, “The Death of Marc Spector” did not by
any means fail as a story, nor by any means did it fail to feed
someone’s family. Where this book failed is in the amalgamation.
“The narration slows your reading
with Hemingway brevity.”
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Moon Knight #21 “The Death of Marc Spector”
picks up anew for the interested reader and sets an easily understood
starting point on such an uneasily understood character.
After having registered with the SRA (Superhuman Registration Act),
and then committing murder to long time arch enemy Black Spectre
before a crowd of Registration Supporters, Marc Spector is on the run
from Tony Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. His current whereabouts are unknown,
but intelligence reports are getting closer and closer to the subject
of Iron Man’s personal project.
Frenchie, Marlene and Samuel, Marc’s crime fighting partner,
girlfriend, and butler are under questioning. Stark is under pressure
from the CSA who is taking control of the investigation from
S.H.I.E.L.D. Spector is fighting crime and opening several cans of
whoopass under the guise of a black-suited vigilante. A man with red
glasses appeals to a certain Michael O’Brien through prison
glass. And Norman Osborne receives orders to destroy the silver and
white clad savior of Spanish Harlem.
This was an intriguing issue. Like I said it did not fail as a
story. It was cool and well thought out. It just failed as a comic
book.
This book almost, to me, seemed a clever exposition of oxymoron:
conversational yelling, calm explosions, and nonchalant dynamics. The
communication between writer and illustrator seemed nonexistent. Art,
for the most part, carries the comic along. Since we read English,
this means that art should move left to right, moving the story
towards the end of the book. Perhaps Mark Texeira is Arabic?
Writing, in compliment, should be fluid and consistent with the
artistic expression of emotion. The dialogue held true to this
fluidity, but met its shortcomings in emoting the proper intensity.
The narration on the other hand had neither, as it achieved nothing
but to slow your reading with Hemingway brevity and choppy
separations.
The book is good, it just needs some help. If you like Moon Knight,
I would pick it up. But know that things have changed a lot since the
Moench days of yore.
My only advice: don’t fall victim to the cover art. Against
what it may have you believe, Venom plays no part in this story.
Disappointing really. That would have been a good fight.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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