Welcome to another comic book review by yours truly. (These are fun. We should do these more often.) Most of my reviews are about either Marvel's symbiotes or Moon Knight. You can probably already tell this one's about the latter. Last month I reviewed
the first issue of Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire's astonishing Moon Knight series, which won me over for its nostalgia and its new storytelling format. Today I'll be reviewing
Moon Knight #2, so let's get to it!
As Ellis had suggested, this issue is its own self-contained story, following a storytelling format akin to what you'd see in a serial crime drama (like any show in the
CSI franchise). Just as the previous issue's title, "Slasher," indicated what kind of criminal Moon Knight faced in that story, this issue's title, "Sniper," pretty much summed its story up.
The first eight pages are all similar in layout. Each has eight equally-sized panels arranged in two columns and four rows, with each panel depicting seemingly disconnected workers clocking out for the day. As the story progresses, the number of panels with any art content begins to dwindle as each target is expertly assassinated from a distance with a single sniper shot. Very little is revealed about the reason why these people are getting picked off, but the omniscient narration from the first issue returns to tell a tale featuring elements strikingly similar to Marc Spector's own origin story.
Through these eight pages, the color white becomes ever more dominant as the panels begin to disappear with their victims. The creative team's goal was to make the color white as striking against other colors as it is in Moon Knight's costume. It's also a clever tactic on their part because it also conveys the idea of the "light at the end of the tunnel" that people are said to experience when they die. See? I can be deep, too.
After the last victim falls, Shalvey and Bellaire treat the readers to a beautiful New York City nightscape before they and Ellis plunge us into the action. It's a fight between the mystery sniper—boasting a very high-tech, high-caliber rifle—and Moon Knight, who dives from a unique Moon Copter and glides in sporting his new superhero suit. From there it's a quick battle, and then the entire situation is explained to our hero in the end.
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| Another strong one liner, Ellis. |
The one thing this issue lacked is a continuation of Marc's story, which made the book feel shorter in comparison to issue #1. The buildup to the battle was slow and steady, and when the action did happen it was short lived. Now, that doesn't mean this was a bad issue in any sense. It's exactly what Ellis planned on delivering: a digestible episode of self-contained crime drama. It's a tasty grab bag of popcorn—light, entertaining, and sticks to your teeth for a short while. However, if this is the kind of format we're going to get for the rest of the series, I wish Marvel would make this a bimonthly publication as opposed to a monthly one, so we needn't wait as long for the overarching story to progress.
Luckily, the story in this issue didn't finish as cryptically as the last one. Instead, issue #2 ended with a classic moral you'd find in most crime dramas of this sort.
Shalvey and Bellaire continue to
kill it in the art department, making this issue as visually entertaining and meaningful as the last.
Moon Knight #2 gets 4.5 stars out of 5 for the narrative—half a star deducted for the absence of Marc's story—and 5 stars out of 5 for the perfect art.
Are you still enjoying this new take on the Lunar Legionnaire? What was your favorite moment from this issue? I want to know, so let me hear about it in the comments section below. Here's hoping you'll look forward to the next review!
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