Moon Knight #4

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Moon Knight #4

Marvel Comics 2021

Written by Jed MacKay

Illustrated by Alessandro Cappuccio

Coloured by Rachelle Rosenberg

Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit

A NIGHT IN THE LIFE!

From waking till midnight, Moon Knight’s life is filled with peril. A mysterious foe attacks from a new and unexpected direction, an old friend comes to visit and Moon Knight finds himself answering the same question over and over again: “Why do you wear the mask?” Featuring a guest appearance from the striped sensation Tigra!

So far opening up the book with a trip to the shrink is among the best ways to set up an issue. I mean it used to be referred to as foreshadowing and I have to say it’s a great tool to have in your writing arsenal. Now I wonder what would happen if Marc were as honest with his shrink about everything, would they lock him and throw away the key? I mean sure he was Khonshu’s fist and took out Earth’s Mightiest Heroes and this is a part of his release deal for that but c’mon she knows he’s holding back and I’m dying to see what would happen if he just told her the truth. It could be a What If? Style of story where we see different outcomes but that’s the fanboy inside me so.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development that we see through the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter is completely and utterly phenomenal. How this manages to keep their personalities to constantly evolve and at the forefront of who they are is magnificently portrayed. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through pages revealing more of the story the more we want to stay here.

I am very much appreciative of the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I’m a huge fan of the way Jed is able to use the layers to open up new avenues to be explored and how this adds so much great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is immaculately rendered.

Either I am becoming more accustomed to Alessandro’s work or he’s improving with each issue that comes out, of course logical would say that it is a combination of the two. There are still moments that I don’t care for, Clark’s first appearance didn’t set him apart as he blended into the plethora of failed villains all over the world, it was too simple and not enough to stand out and make him memorable for him. I’d like to see more backgrounds being utilised but as it stands the composition within the panels brings out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story nicely to us. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a very talented eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is extraordinarily well done.

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This is chugging along nicely as we have seen some interesting new characters in development and we see Marc trying to become someone he can be proud of. Though working with that shrink really would go a long way in helping him instead of being so standoffish. Still I think the writing is amazing, the characterisation is sharp and biting while the interiors add so much atmosphere, mood, tone and feel to the book.