Vengeance of the Moon Knight #8-9: ‘The Moon Will Sing A Song For Me / Bore The Shadows That You Made’

Sticking a landing for any story is difficult, often referred to by many creatives as the hardest part of weaving a narrative. Much of that comes down to the expectations associated with the ending, whether it be the notions of a happy, Hollywood conclusion or the darker fall that marks a tragedy. Even harder is the periodical ending, as it must mark the end of a run, a moment, or a storyline with the understanding it is impermanent, waiting for the next group to come and tell a story. To stick the landing for an ending while also springboarding into the next story is a momentous task that Vengeance of the Moon Knight accomplishes. 

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #8-9 – written by Jed MacKay with art from Devmalya Pramanik, colors by Rachelle Rosenberg, and lettering from VC’s Cory Petit – offers the two-part fallout of Blood Hunt for the Midnight Mission. Marc Spector returned to life thanks to Khonshu’s blessing, the Egyptian god having been freed by Tigra, Hunter’s Moon, and the Wrecker. In Blood Hunt, Spector led an army of former Fists of Khonshu into battle with the vampiric horse, turning the tides in the fight. Meanwhile, Reese, Soldier, and 8-Ball were left to defend the neighborhoods and people around the Midnight Mission.

At the end of issue #8, Khonshu informed Marc of the cost of resurrection, the vengeful god wanting the life of The Shroud (aka the false Moon Knight that kicked off this limited series). After Marc makes peace with the Mission and Reese in #8, the next issue is dedicated to Marc reintegrating into the community built around the mission as he weighs the Khonshu’s demand. After a conversation with Hunter’s Moon, Marc prepares and strikes at the Shroud, forcing the imposter to suit up in the false garbs and fight to the death. A brutal, knockdown dragout fight leads to Marc making a creative offering to Khonshu, paving the way for the next era of Moon Knight.  

MacKay’s scripting for these two issues moves at a speedy pace, wrapping up a series of plot threads with pinpoint precision. That comes as a direct result of the long-running time spent on the book along with the interwoven elements from Blood Hunt. Balancing unexpected twists and turns along with the hearty, foundational storytelling beats offers a satisfying conclusion and new status quo that feels like a perfect synthesis of the serialized and episodic structures in conversation throughout this run. MacKay’s blending of the two is an enthralling framework that makes this run feel modern while standing out from many of the current Marvel titles. 

Bringing in Pramanik for these two issues is an excellent choice for maintaining that balance of structure. Not only does the artwork slot in well to the visual stylings of the title but helps to provide a sense of cohesion to these two concluding issues. The moody atmosphere and hyper-stylized approach from Alessandro Cappuccio are carried forward in these two issues as heavy shadows, concise violence, and a twinge of the supernatural bleed into the linework. Pramanik leverages that established style and uses it to feed the brutal fights in both issues while still delivering the awe and terror of Khonshu’s vicious judgment in the story. 

Where the two artists differ is in the characters’ anatomy and the compositions of the page. Cappuccio’s artwork offers a more abstract, slender approach to figures, pushing them closer to shadows than people. On the other hand, Pramanik gives a bigger and stockier heft to the bodies, grounding them into the real world. Moon Knight, Hunter’s Moon, and the Shroud all carry themselves with a specific weight that gets thrown around in brutal action sequences and moments that require a sense of being larger than life. When Moon Knight is out of his vigilante costume and switches into the Mr. Knight outfit, his frame things and places him firmly back and within the average people, like Reese. 

Placing those two approaches to bodies is a fascinating case of representing the ways heroes, villains, and vigilantes shift in their identities. The sequence that makes this most evident in the two issues is the extended fight between Spector and Shroud. Tearing into each other across New York back alleys, there is a phenomenal sense of paneling and blocking that conveys just how brutal the street-level characters can be. Pramanik frames the build-up and explosive action in a series of small to medium-sized panels made up of a variety of shapes. 

Many of these include sharp angles and a distinct lack of right corners that infuse jittering kinetic energy into Marc’s savage attacks. Even as panels are chopped up and strung together like a handheld action movie, the focus on clarity never leaves the pages. Pramanik’s attention to detail and composing the action beats around the two fights ensures ease of reading that guides the eye through the inventive layouts and striking visuals. One stunning page at the climax of the fight offers 16 small panels arranged into a cascading chain of cause and effect, set against the backdrop of a stunning visual metaphor. 

What holds the two issues together and places them into a direct conversation/canon with the rest of the run is Rosenberg’s consistently excellent coloring. There is a brighter approach to these two issues that feels like both a narrative and stylistic choice. Since Marc is back and vampires are able to survive in the sun, it makes sense to expand the palette to include warm golden hues from the celestial body. 

Meanwhile, the tight paneling from Pramanik lends itself to the deep oranges of the night that Rosenberg deploys as Marc battles the Shroud throughout the city. The brutality of the coloring infects the pages, signaling this is a Moon Knight wanting to hurt in deference to his god versus the crusade of protection seen in previous issues. Rosenberg brings all of these tones together in a vibrant way that cannot be overstated.