Shadowland: Moon Knight #2

Previously on Shadowland: Moon Knight: Marc Spector has gone insane and was replaced by the personality known as Jake Lockley, a cigar-smokin' Avenger taxi driver. Jake is now Moon Knight and things are on the up and up, especially now that he's marrying his longtime fiance, who is pregnant. Daredevil is now super evil and is slowly taking over New York, too, and hired Moon Knight villain The Profile to bring in Moon Knight. Alec Spector almost killed himself before he became the Shadow Knight and there are a lot of things going on for just a crossover tie-in. Will it get anymore complicated, and how much "Shadowland" will there be in this "Moon Knight" book? 

I'd like to take a moment to take about the strange relationship this book has compared to both its crossover tie-in as well as the mythos of Moon Knight as a whole. Regarding Shadowland, this crossover stays pretty true to the original series, with most of the events of this book possibly leading to conclusive moments in the main book. We also get glimpses of what's happened in the main book in this issue in the first half, but we'll get to that.

For this reason, it's tough for me to speak on certain events that take place because, as we know, this is a tie-in and should relate back to the story it's spun out of. Otherwise this would just be another Moon Knight miniseries, a three-issue one at that. There needs to be something that connects Moon Knight to Shadowland and the idea of Captain America planting Jake inside the Hand is a smart one, and makes sense. He had it pretty easy in New York up until that point and we saw that Frenchie could probably handle things on his own. He was confident, though probably overconfident. 

However, the problem stems from the fact that with the involvement of his brother and events that took place with him there was a lot of emphasis on how this event will effect Moon Knight. Marlene and Jake/ Marc getting married is, in Moon Knight's mythos, a pretty big deal. They've been together, on-and-off mind you, since the beginning and this is a pretty major advancement in their relationship. Not to mention that Alec Spector hasn't been seen in any Moon Knight capacity for years prior to his return here, and you've got the makings of an original story. And yet it's a tie-in? 

It almost feels as if they needed more time and space to dedicate to this series than just the three issues they were given. Too many things are happening both in story and out of story for everything to feel important. As a fan and longtime reader I'm going to care more about the events surrounding Jake and his friends, but as a story there should be great emotional weight on the Shadowland events. What's good is that I'm not lost as to what is going on, but what's not good is that I don't really care and there feels to be too much time devoted to this rather than the emotional story being built upon in the last issue. 

But enough about technicalities, let's just examine and see if this book can keep up what the last one had! 

The cover is alright. It has the main colors this book seems to like (silver, black, blue, white) all brightly shining down from the moon. Shadow Knight stands large with red eyes though I will tilt my head at that as we know that he has blue eyes, since he can shoot those concussive blasts out of his eyes somehow. Blue eyes would also match the color scheme of the cover, so, I really don't know why they chose red over blue. Also Khonshu is in the background but just a nitpick I think they could have foreshadowed the events of the book by having the Khonshu statue holding a staff with the crescent moon attached. Still, nice artwork on Khonshu to blend him in with the moon. 

Our comic begins with a representation of what most Thanksgiving dinners are like with the in-laws. 

And only two of the guys in this image have made deals with Satan! 

And, yeah, this is pretty freaking rad. It's a great way to open up the comic and get the readers right into the action. The narration captions from Jake Lockley also seem to hint that was the intention. It's a bit jarring seeing as how last issue he was just heading into the Hand headquarters alone and beaten up and now he has the likes of Iron Fist, Spider-Man, and freaking Ghost Rider helping him.

Though regarding the caption (a bit blurry, apologies for the poor quality) "I guess this was the point..to be in the thick of it" in regards to what's happening...no. That wasn't the point. The point was for Steve Rogers to have a man on the inside to keep tabs on Daredevil so that the Secret Avengers could move in when necessary. I don't think the point was to go into an all-out brawl. But given who is in this scene, I can't really find fault in a fight from breaking out. 

Jake manages to find his cloak and tries to get out there and fight and is comically stopped at every turn as all the super-powered beings get their shots in first. Also there is one strange panel where it looks as if Jake is the one summoning the fires of Hell instead of Ghost Rider. 

"Now will you do a crossover with me?!"

Not gonna lie, though, if Moon Knight were able to shoot fire that would be pretty rad. 

Jake finally gets a few licks in before someone comes knocking to remind them whose miniseries they're busting in on! 

"Whoa! When did I grow a left hand?"

In a confusing bit of dialogue Daredevil says that Jake has to pay for entering his house...and yet it was Daredevil who was calling for the Profile to bring Moon Knight to him? Did he just forget? Like was he dealing with all the other tie-in characters that Daredevil just forgot that he randomly wanted to see Moon Knight? 

Speaking of which, why did Daredevil want Moon Knight? We can assume it was to eliminate most of New York's street based heroes. All of the others in the room fighting are of that same level, so that would make sense. But then why the whole "you must pay for entering" thing? What's also strange is that apparently Jake got super strength between issues because he punches Daredevil through a freaking wall, despite his relationship with Khonshu waning. It should be the other way around. Moon Knight gets his powers from Khonshu (and based on the lunar cycle). Without Khonshu he's just an above-average martial artist. Daredevil, on the other hand, does have increased powers from the Beast. 

Whatever. It's confusing but sees fast resolution as Daredevil attempts to infuse "the Beast" within Jake but we see that Khonshu still watches over Jake and keeps the Beast out of him for now. Khonshu and the Beast are apparently old pals, as we'll see, which makes some sense. Khonshu is an Egyptian God with untold powers and manipulative abilities. The Beast is a spiritual demon capable of consuming the soul of Matt Murdock and infusing him with super abilities. It makes sense that the two would at least be aware of each other. 

Jake breaks down from the Beast trying to invade where Khoshu once occupied and we get this goofy little moment where Khonshu tries to reconcile with Jake. 

"Hey champ. Feelin' down in the dumps? How 'bout some ice-cream?!"

Jake, sensing the power within Daredevil, orders the others to retreat for some reason. Look, maybe he's just not in the right frame of mind, but Iron Fist and Ghost Rider alone would be enough to handle Daredevil infused with the Beast. Heck, if Jake weren't cowering in the face of the monstrosity he and Khonshu would also be a major help. I get it if he wants to pull back and gather his thoughts, but let the others keep fighting. It's not like he has a plan of defeating Daredevil yet anyway. Khonshu does, though.

Khonshu explains, after mocking Jake for needing him once again, that there is a weapon known as the Sapphire Crescent which will be powerful enough to repel the beast from Daredevil's spirit. It was formed in Egypt (of course) and was later cursed with great power, only for the craftsman to be murdered by a group of thieves. It went around for a while before it was relocated onto Khonshu's staff until time itself lost the crescent. 

In a huge coincidence, though, it turns out that Shadow Knight is also looking for the crescent...for some reason...and so now Marc must race against the villain to get the crescent and safe Daredevil. 

There are a few strange things about this. One: the fact that Shadow Knight just happens to be looking for the crescent. He has no reason to. All Khonshu wants is an avatar that will kill in the name of vengeance, but the problem Khoshu has with Shadow Knight is that he kills for attention. Is that why he wants the crescent, so that he can impress Khonshu? 

Second, the crescent comes right out of nowhere. The Beast thing I get. This is a tie-in, after all, so I imagine that they'd already established that the Beast was inhabiting Daredevil. But if this weapon is that important that it can kill Daredevil why wasn't it brought up before? It's backstory is also incredibly rushed, forcing itself into the plot just to further the connection this story had to Shadowland. This would have been a perfectly fine tie-in with the fight sequence and Jake noticing the Beast, but adding in the crescent just feels like extra stuff. 

Jake somehow just manages to leave--I guess they did decide to retreat?--and returns home to find Marlene beaten within an inch of her life. Oh, great, I almost forgot about that horrific thing. Jeez, man. 

We then see something that has me completely baffled: 

Great and now the mirror's broken. Truly we live in a cruel world. 

Now, I understand that she lost the baby due to the severe amount of damage she sustained. This is horrifying and outright disgusting that a woman would be treated like this. The act alone is putrid and doesn't have any place in a comic book. A woman was caught unsuspecting and beaten because a man felt like it, and it resulted in the loss of her unborn child. Marlene had no business involved in this. None of the people do. If Alec knows who Marc is then he should've had no problem going straight to the source instead of waiting his brother out. 

That isn't what baffles me, although it does infuriate me. What baffles me is the top left panel. I don't know, something about him saying, "She was pregnant" and then screaming is odd. Is he saying she "was" to add emphasis, or is Gregg Hurwitz just adding that in for the reader? I think there's a bit of a more subtle way they could have gone about this. 

Another thing that has me scratching my head is the bottom panel. Why the shattered glass of personalities? Marc Spector is dead, Khonshu isn't a personality, and Steve Grant has only been mentioned in this miniseries as a throwaway line. If it's implying that he's now become all of these or that his personalities were shattered, I don't get it and it isn't explored until the very, very end of this miniseries. He's still Jake Lockley until the last few pages, it seems. 

After a flashback involving his father getting a heartattack--kind of random but whatever--we cut back to the hospital where Marlene orders Jake to go home. He does so, but to his real home. 

"Puttin' off Khonshu like I'm puttin' off my taxes!"

Most of the best scenes in "Moon Knight" comics involve Marc/ Jake/ whoever standing before the idol of Khonshu and speaking with it. This scene isn't very different from those. Jake is fuming and is ready to do whatever it takes to get vengeance. Ignoring the bottom panel, this scene very much feels like Moon Knight is preparing to slip back into what he was before "The Death of Marc Spector" arc that took place years ago. 

What doesn't make much sense is why Marc would just flat out leave and saying that he doesn't have to make a deal with the devil yet. It's like he has a change of mind in less than a second. One panel he's ready to go all in and kill Shadow Knight and in the next he's like, "Phew, dodged a bullet there, better hop on my glider and do epic posing!" Perhaps the implication here is that the man that Khonshu sees is the first reflection of Marc Spector coming back and then Samuels snaps him out and Jake Lockley returns, but that seems like a bit of a stretch for me. 

We finally see Shadow Knight, eighteen pages into this comic, as he is looking to harass and possibly kill another prostitute. Moon Knight sweeps in and launches his glider at him and--

Aaaaaaand she's toast. Death toll: 1

Booooooooooooooo! 

No way! Shadow Knight absorbs the hit and it's just an explosion? Not a chance. At the speed Moon Knight was flying in at, on a crescent-shaped glider, Shadow Knight should've been cleaved in half faster than a knife cuts through butter. But nope, he just takes it like a wave hitting him at the beach and hardly even falters because of it. What is he, Superman? Even Ghost Rider or Spider-Man would be seriously injured by this! He didn't steal that much of Khonshu's powers, and Moon Knight is able to still toss him around fairly easily. 

Hell, Shadow Knight even starts running away from Moon Knight out of fear, or just trying to lead him away. Um, dude, you just took a hit from a glider like a pro, you could probably break Moon Knight's face with a flick of the wrist! 

But no, and thus we reach the end of our happy little comic as Shadow Knight reveals to Moon Knight that he is indeed Marc Spector's little brother. 

"Now can you help me outta this costume? I'm really regretting the whole rag look. I think Khonshu tricked me..."

This comic feels very rushed, from the backstory of the Sapphire Crescent to the one scene we get with Marlene and Jake. Elements that are heavily emphasized in the last issue feel tossed to the side as we have to have some quick explanation for a weapon randomly thrown at us for the sake of tying back into Shadowland. This comic either needed to be over-sized, like the first issue was, or just not involve the Sapphire Crescent and instead leave it to the main Shadowland miniseries to figure out how to stop the Beast. There is little emotion between the characters, though there is still the ongoing dynamic between Marc and Khonshu, which never fails to be interesting. 

The artwork is good as well, with Bong Dazo returning to do some pretty good action sequences. The opening two-page spread is tremendous and feels huge, and nobody's faces or body language feels strange. It's a step up from the previous issue, I feel. 

This issue as a whole, though, I can't say the same for. Still, there's one more issue left of this miniseries, but we'll let this one simmer some more. 

Next time we return for the final installment of my "DC: Rebirth" reviews as Brian Hitch takes over for now-retired Geoff Johns on arguably one of the best books of the New 52 in Justice League #1. 

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