Writer: David Pepose / Pencillers: Marcelo Ferreira (#1-#2, #4-#5), Sean Damien Hill (#3) / Inker: Jay Leisten / Colour Artists: Rachelle Rosenberg, Fer Sifuentes-Sujo / Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit Cover: Rod Reis / Design: Sarah Spaddachini / Editors: Martin Biro, Annalise Bissa, Tom Brevort / Collects: Moon Knight – City of The Dead #1-#5 (2023) / TP / Marvel Comics
Review by: Paul Dunne
Date (Released: 28th February 2024)
The Pitch: Moon Knight's nemesis from the smash hit Disney+ series makes her comics debut! When a young runaway is attacked by a gang of death cultists, he is left barely alive outside Moon Knight's HQ, the Midnight Mission. But Marc Spector made a vow long ago to defend the travellers of the dark as Moon Knight...and as long as a spark of life remains, his mission isn't over yet. Follow Moon Knight on his most harrowing adventure yet, as he journeys far beyond the land of the living - and battles across the mind-bending underworld known as the City of the Dead! There, he must grapple with his past when he turns to an unlikely source for aid - Layla El-Fouly, A.K.A. the Scarlet Scarab! But when Marc is faced with a murderers' row of dead super-villains whom he helped put in the ground, can even the Fist of Khonshu defy the odds long enough to survive?
Moon Knight by its very nature is a spooky, mystical comic. It’s not like they try to hide it. The lead character is called Marc Specter, for cryin’ out loud. Some writers, like Doug Moench, played down these aspects, or at the very least found ways to qualify and quantify them. Others, like Jeff Lemire, ran headlong to them but added the psychological elements that in a sense, explained them away or made them more easily digestible. Of course, this all depends on how you like your comics. I personally think if you can’t accept weird stuff happening, especially in superhero comics, you may have picked the wrong medium. Hahaha! But back to the book. David Pepose decides to go full-on strange with this mini, set in Jed Mckay’s run of the main Moon Knight book. Mckay’s run has Specter assuming the mantle of a priest, in a sense, complete with a sanctuary for those in need, the Midnight Mission. Now he must become a kind exorcist as he ventures into the mythical City of The Dead for the soul of a young boy, whose physical life his counterpoint, Hunter’s Moon – the other Fist of Khonshu – has saved. But with his soul still trapped in the City of The Dead, the boy’s life won’t have been worth saving...
In the City, Marc encounters The Scarlet Scarab, aka Layla El-fouly. It's always fun seeing characters made great in other mediums find a foothold in the comics, and Layla is definitely a good one to have make the transition. On a personal note, I found her to be one of the best aspects of the Disney Plus show. As Layla and Marc team up, you feel Pepose and Ferriera move the story's milieu out of the metaphysical, and into the more relatable. Yes, we can grasp loftier concepts like death, the afterlife, the struggle of the soul... But they go over a lot easier when done as a 'Two Cops Search For A Missing Kid' thriller. Not to mention the doomed love Marc has for Layla, whose death already enshrouds him. The City of The Dead, which constantly remakes itself, is now a neon-soaked place of night, making Marc - and us - feel right at home. Marc is warned about the 'psychoactive' nature of the city, and his heart, always in turmoil and wracked with guilt causes things to happen, but also shapes the world to his mind. There are docks, warehouses... Recalling all the places bad things are prone to happen in real cities.
We're reminded that, despite the comparisons that people seem wont to make, The Moon Knight is not 'Marvel's Batman'. The 'no-kill' policy is not in effect. And this comes back to bite Marc. But he's not without teeth, as we see when we're thrown into a loving nod to the original Matrix movie, one of several ass-saving moments in the book's latter stages. There's a more flip tone to this than Mckay's run and, indeed, the other runs that proceed it. There are identities revealed a few issues (for once not Marc's) that add depth to the story, but it doesn't get weighed down by a gloomy tone. The midpoint of the book is pretty huge, so hats off to Pepose and Ferriera for mining more plot and action for the remaining two issues when the book seemed to have reached its big crescendo.
Pepose also mines Marc's guilt, which here is weaponised and, at least temporarily, healed. He follows some excellent markers for this kind of melodrama, in that he gives the characters a birth and a death, just not in that order. That this is one of Scott Snyder's maxims for new writers starting arcs on Batman is an irony not lost on me! The plotting and mise-en-scene of the book are really good and create an inventive spin on the purgatorial afterlife. Pepose goes big, (not home) for his ending and it's one that would be equally at home in a Marvel event. Ferreira creates dynamic panels, moving the story along clearly, and crafting big action scenes almost every couple of pages. Sean Damien Hill apes his style for the issue he guest pencils on and they both remain artists to watch, especially for the big-budget Marvel stuff. Leisten's inks accentuate the dynamism of their pencils and add atmosphere to the alleys of the City of The Dead. Rosenberg and Sifuentes-Sujo soak the panels in a pinkish, neon hue, adding to the seedy nature of the city. Cory Petit, often the secret weapon of Marvel's lettering, fires on all cylinders here. Moon Knight: City of the Dead is a nice, action-packed addition to the modern MK canon.
Moon Knight: City of The Dead is available at your local comic shop now!
