“Vengeance Never Dies”
Creative Staff:
Story: David Pepose
Art: Marcel Ferreira, Jay Leisten
Colors: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
What They Say:
Having fulfilled his sinister ritual, the JACKAL KNIGHT’s ultimate ascendance is at hand – by conquering the land of the living with the endless hordes of the City of the Dead! Outnumbered and overwhelmed, can Moon Knight dig deep within himself to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat? With all the blood on his hands, can a man like Marc Spector find redemption even at the end of the world? And what might the future hold for the Scarlet Scarab? Don’t miss the thrilling conclusion of Moon Knight’s most death-defying adventure yet!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Moon Knight has been a favorite of mine for far too many decades, though I’m a lapsed reader to be sure and the continuity is as fun as it is when it comes to Marvel. The draw of this series that brought me back was to see what David Pepose would do as I’ve enjoyed some of his work at other publishers the last couple of years and he doesn’t disappoint here. It also doesn’t hurt that the incredibly talented Marcel Ferreira is working with Jay Leisten and Rachelle Rosenberg to bring it to life. The art team does a fantastic job throughout in showing the power and action when it comes to Moon Knight but Rosenberg elevates the whole thing once they pass through to the other side as the color design enhances everything in a distinct and perfect way that has me wanting to spend a lot of time outdoors in this place.
As you’d expect from a finale, it’s a lot of action. And mostly just action. Which is certainly fine because the setup is strong here with the City of the Dead being raised into the real world. We get some nods to that at first, which is about all that you’d expect, and that lets the shift to the rest of it being inside the Duat. It works well here as we get it brought down to its core with Marc against Randall in the fight that has governed their lives in comics for decades. It takes an interesting turn with this series as we have Randall utilizing a lot of power and trying to utilize the power of Osiris to accomplish his goal but we also get Marc having a couple of key moments. There’s a lot of back and forth with a few other fight sequences but the moment that delivers well early on is when Marc gets to use his disorder in the fight by, in this moment of magic, giving his personalities form. That brings in a few versions of him from the years to fight in their own way, and with their own humor and it works better than you’d expect.
When it all comes down to Marc and Randall proper, the best moments come from Marc’s honesty. Randall’s accusations show he still misunderstands why Marc does what he does and when Marc basically gives him a version of his heart, Randall finally understands the weight of the guilt that Marc carries and that his wanting to help Khalil comes back to his trying to make up for what happened to Randall. It’s not anything new to be sure in this relationship dynamic, but it’s executed so well with the visual and the setting, especially as Osiris enters the picture again after living as a moral, and you feel like Randall finally gets it. The downside is that Osiris says that he’ll help him remove the blight of Anubis that has infected Randall but it could take millennia. We’ll likely see Randal far sooner than that when the character should be well and truly retired after all of this because it’s the definitive moment for Randall.
In Summary:
With the ongoing series playing out at the same time that I’m not reading, I have no idea if this will have any impact beyond these pages itself. What’s here should be defining for the character for years to come and push some changes in direction and options. I enjoyed this run for the version of Marc we got, seeing things play out in the city itself, and the kind of plan that Osiris does to keep some connection to humanity. And finding a way to incorporate Layla into things again, though being disconnected from the ongoing works I have no idea how that’ll be dealt with. Within this setting, it’s solid and largely self-contained but you hope it has some real ramifications.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: November 22nd, 2023
MSRP: $3.99
