Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2: ‘When we’re hurting, love will keep us deceased

WARNING: SPOILERS FOR MOON KNIGHT #1-30 and VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #1

An interesting trend of recent years in comics is the death and resurrection of blank characters. Whether it be Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider, Wally West, and beyond, these deaths are attempts to create new ripples in the superhero landscape. The modern era of comics saw a violation of the firm comic resurrection rules by returning Bucky, Jason Todd, and various incarnations of Gwen Stacy to the respective playgrounds. 

After the revolving door nature of death in superhero comics, it finally felt like a fresh take was found when House of X and Powers of X launched a resurrection process for all mutants. The other interesting takes on the cycle of death and rebirth came from the works of Jed MacKay, specifically with Doctor Strange, and now Moon Knight. The author used the story to subvert expectations and tell a compelling story while elevating supporting characters to new levels in both series. 

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #2 – written by Jed MacKay with art by Alessandro Cappuccio, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg, and lettering by VC’s Cory Petit – functions as a direct follow-up to the opening issue of the title, putting the fight between the mysterious new Moon Knight and the Midnight Mission front and center. The issue weaves back and forth in time, jumping from the fight to Tigra’s continued session with Dr. Sterman. The lion woman reflects on the identity of this new vigilante and dispels any notion of this being Marc Spector back from the grave. The fight ends thanks to the Midnight Mission sentient building rejecting the new Moon Knight. 

MacKay’s script balances the rapid pace in the fight scenes with the slower, somber pace of Tigra’s therapy beats. That blending of speeds gives the issue an inherent rhythm that feels natural to the developing identity of the issue. The book manages to walk the tightrope of the two tones, intense action and reflective melancholy, to explore life post-Marc Spector. Now that the core cast had the chance to mourn according to Marc’s specific cultural rituals, the explosive action can take the lead. MacKay expertly knows when to make the shift throughout the issue, never losing sight of one tone for the other. 

The issue also manages to continue threading the mystery of who the new Moon Knight is, working to firmly refute the idea of Marc Spector returning from the grave. While MacKay may be trying to establish a red herring for Marc, that would be the easiest choice and come dangerously close to undercutting the emotional arc of the previous run. It would also feel very similar to the resurrection of Doctor Strange after the character died in The Death of Doctor Strange miniseries also from MacKay. Instead, the audience is given a few clues to the identity, including the confirmation of limited magic use and a surface-level working knowledge of the Midnight Mission. (If not for the press release for the upcoming Ghost Rider relaunch, The Hood would have been a suspect at the top of the list). 

MacKay’s dedication to building out the mystery makes for a compelling anchor that feels organic to the longer story of the title. It also doesn’t overshadow or undercut the intense emotional fallout of Marc’s death and the intercutting of the fight sequence with Tigra’s session is proof of that. She lies at the heart of the story, serving as the point of view for the issue, filtering the narrative through her pained expressions. Tigra lets slip her dark revelation about love, using her previous romances throughout her Marvel history to twist the proverbial knife to the heart. 

On paper, the story is an effective tale of woe and heartbreak but elevates once Cappuccio brings Tigra’s facial expressions to life. Behind every close-up and medium panel of her face is a rolling storm of grief and self-loathing. There’s a brutal honesty in the way that the illustrator constructs these beats, rarely obstructing Greer’s face while speaking with the doctor. Tigra is wearing her heart on her sleeve in the therapy session, and the art reflects that openness. That brutal self-reflection that Tigra lets out, and her tortured expressions, make for such a compelling series of images that put it on par with the gripping action. 

The action sequence of the issue is tit-for-tat with those emotional beats, as Cappuccio breaks out the hyper-stylized violence. The fight between Moon Knight and the team is quick and brutal, reading like a natural escalation of the raw emotions in the issue. For Rheese and Tigra specifically, seeing this imposter wearing the garb of Moon Knight is an insult to Marc and the paneling reflects this. There is an oppressive use of linework and cascading panels to convey the brutality of the fight. The new Moon Knight gets to unleash a different style of fighting, in which they use magic to unleash a surge of pure darkness. It’s an expansion of Cappuccio’s distinct style, playing up the elements of shadow to the absolute extreme while maximizing clarity. 

A perfect balance is struck in large part thanks to the two distinct palettes that Rosenberg employs throughout the issue. Contrary to typical expectations, the somber moments in therapy are the ones filled with the bright, golden hues of light. Meanwhile during the fight between the Midnight Mission crew and the new Moon Knight is bathed in moody reds and purples. That delineation subverts the emotional expectations of general color theory and speaks to the fluid nature of life after loss, in which the world still goes on. 

Tigra is alive and breathing, and infusing that sense of brightness at her lowest moment creates a striking contrast. Elsewhen, the dark hues add a supernatural dimension to the fight, selling that something is off with this new fist of Khonshu. Their magic takes on that deep purple as it moves into inky blacks, channeling the power of shadow that feels in lockstep with Cappuccio’s style of linework. It’s an interesting twist to the established way of coloring this series and proves that over 30 issues in, Rosenberg still has tricks to elevate the coloring of the title.