Moon Knight Vol. 1: The Midnight Mission

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Moon Knight has opened a mission in his neighborhood and using it as a place for people to come ask for his help.

unbeknownst to him, he has two adversaries lurking in the periphery, one that wants to 'fix him' and one that wants to 'destroy him'! Daredevil has Hell's Kitchen, Luke Cage has Harlem, but Moon Knight doesn't define his community by traditional neighborhood lines. Though he embraces his "sacred" duty/mission of protecting his community by night, he does not feel the same about Khonshu.After deciding to reject the influence of Khonshu, the Ancient Egyptian God of Vengeance and source of his powers, Moon Knight decided to help travelers of the night in his own way. In this first volume of this well-hyped series Moon Knight's therapy sessions are interspersed with the work of his Midnight Mission protecting his night-time neighbourhood from the likes of vampires and supervillains. It’s not established though and I get the feeling that MacKay doesn’t have a particularly firm grip on the character which is why his writing of Moon Knight is very superficial. Quite a few new and interesting characters are introduced in this first volume, including his vampire assistant and another Fist of Khonshu.

And just in time too as a number of done-in-one-issue-sized threats for him to deal with have conveniently started to pop up! Accompanied by Tigra and the undead Fists of Khonshu, Moon Knight was victorious with the Midnight Mission and neighborhood safe.Interrogating the latter, Moon Knight left with Winner and Tigra to save Andrea from Jigsaw while leaving Soldier and Reese behind thinking them safe. Mostly though I was barely engaged with this bland, forgettable comic - if you’re after some decent Moon Knight comics, check out the ones by Warren Ellis and Brian Wood instead. Not to expose myself but I rewatch the Moon Knight show almost every week (not kidding at all, I'm really down bad for him) and this is so different from that and yet they are both so good. Marc has a good grasp on his mind and his illness this time so obviously Steven and Jake don't even get to say hello, rip. It's a busier version of the Declan Shalvey designed costume, but I think simpler is always better and they should have just used it.

On an administrative level, a recently turned vampire named Reese—one of the first people Moon Knight saved through the Midnight Mission—became Mister Knight's assistant and right-hand woman. Knight has opened his Midnight Mission, his people petitioning for protection from the weird and horrible. Though not explicitly part of the mission, Moon Knight's psychiatrist Andrea Sterman has also been linked to its activities. He fights a group of vampires, as well as Some Guy who’s trying to control him by hacking his bank account. But while Khonshu languishes in prison, Moon Knight’s duty still must be observed: the protection of those who travel at night.I wasn’t blown away by it like I was by Lemire’s or Ellis’ runs, but it does a great job at nailing Moon Knight’s characterization. There's a part where he licks one of his crescent darts and overpowers some dude's brain with his own fucked up one and I'm still screaming at the power in that. The only annoying thing is that I can’t just binge through it like I was able to do, since it’s a new series. Additionally, Hunter's Moon—Khonshu's other avatar—became a convert of the Midnight Mission following a confrontation with Moon Knight.