Avengers #35: The Moon Knight Begins to Shine

Avengers #35 proves that, even when working with a tried-and-true storytelling trope, if rendered properly, it can still be fun – and prove surprising. Sure, reality is changed. The bad guys are in charge. The heroes are on the run, and using guerrilla warfare to hit the enemy. Sound familiar? Of course it does. These are well-worn plot points, across all popular media. But Jason Aaron and Javier Garron have found ways to make what’s old feel new again, or at the very least, just plain fun.

Moon Knight’s being kind of a tool, though. I’ll get to him in a minute.

The trappings of this world-gone-mad are fun, a modern-day twist on ancient Egypt trappings with more than a little hint of Big Brother watching (the Orwell one, not the gross reality show one). Captain America and Blade fight their way through a horde of mummies. On a monorail. It’s big, goofy fun. And sometimes, that’s exactly what we need our comics to be.

There is some real meat, though, in Iron Man freaking out over his newfound quasi-parental responsibilities. Tony Stark has had a lot of different kinds of responsibilities over the course of his career, but fatherhood has never been one of them. It’s terrific seeing him suddenly in over his head, not knowing what to do as co-protector of the Starbrand baby (alongside Captain Marvel, palling around as though Civil War 2 never happened… editorial banking on fanboy goldfish brain is not a good look). Uncertainty is not a look we often see on our Mr. Stark, and it reveals a lot about the limitations of who he is as a guy who can build any machine he wants, is the ultimate futurist, but has little clue what to do with an infant left to his charge.

As for Marc Spector, he needs to get with the program. He’s currently buying into Khonshu’s lies lock, stock, and barrel – and while Moon Knight is a lot of things, a dupe isn’t one of them. In fact, he’s typically been the first one to call B.S. on Khonshu, so for him to not be this time, when the stakes are so high, feels more like a plot contrivance than actually in line with his history as a character. He’ll snap out of it just in the nick of time, of course, but his relationship will more than likely be damaged with the rest of Marvel’s heroes (for awhile – see, again, editorial reliance on reader goldfish brain). Bottom line, although Moon Knight is being a bit of a twit right now, we can expect him to be back to his old self again in no time flat.