Nerds That Geek Comic Book Review: ‘Moon Knight’ (2017) #200

Written by Joel T. Lewis

If you’ve read my rather heated review of Moon Knight #199 it will come as no surprise to you that I opened Max Bemis’ final chapter with understandable apprehension. The previous issue did not ‘ruin my childhood,’ fly in the face of the ‘spirit of the character,’ or anything so dramatic as those clichéd fanboy hardlines, it was simply a poorly written issue. So as I read the landmark 200th issue of Moon Knight I was admittedly guarded, but also hopeful. Was Bemis able to cap off his 13-issue run on Moon Knight with a winner? The answer is Yes and No.

​The most consistent problem with this final stretch has been with pacing and despite having 7 extra pages to play with in this issue, the book still manages to feel rushed. With more than a few microwaved subplots hurried along and sidelined in favor of the team-up between Moon Knight and Sun King (SK) which dominates much of the issue, #200 is oddly structured with much of the necessary stakes-making exposition taking place just moments before the final clash. Still, the issue is a fun ride if a convoluted and rushed one.

After being defeated by Marc on Isla Ra, Sun King and the Truth are checked into a mental health facility and on their way to rehabilitation when Ernst arrives and breaks them out in order to enlist them in the Society des Sadique. Ernst is unsuccessful in converting SK who arrives after the society’s leader is killed by Moon Knight. In classic Marvel team-up fashion the two punch for a bit and then decide to become allies to combat the rising tide of society sadists left after the demise of Uncle Ernst. As Moon Knight, the Sun King, and the newly recruited Lunar Legion (from the end of issue #193) dispatch the remains of the Society of Sadists, Sun King eventually explains that Ernst’s master plan was to manipulate the Truth as a one-man weaponized propaganda machine to subjugate the masses under the society’s heal. The newly christened False Truth turns Ernst’s version of history on Marc’s mind and is rather anticlimactically defeated by Moon Knight’s vaguely defined, ‘Power of Crazy’ which Bemis has leaned on before. The society is defeated, the Truth is released, the Sun King returns to his mental health facility, and Marc walks shirtless through the rain to join his family for a long awaited rest.

It’s a wordy comic with much of the expositional weight being carried by the returning SK, whose effusive philosophizing is just a little too close to the previous issue’s frustrating narration for comfort. The narrative framework is pretty sound: Moon Knight’s first and formative enemy recruits his latest and greatest in order to defeat him, but he miscalculates as the former foes work together to dismantle the larger scheme. But because Ernst died in the previous issue the threat which unites Moon Knight and his former enemy in this issue, the rest of the Society of Sadists, is an ill-defined, faceless, and utterly toothless foe. Also, with Ernst gone the super villain monologuing duties fall to Sun King who is an odd combination of moral center, narrator, and scheme summarizer in this issue. For a character we’ve only known as a villain to be absent from the comics for 6 issues and then return as a functionally redeemed antihero carrying all of the issue’s exposition is a lot of mental footwork for the audience to process and it ultimately unbalances the issue. 

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I did quite enjoy the Sun King/Moonie team-up quite a bit, despite how rushed their reconciliation felt, and the image of Marc on the back of SK’s motorcycle is about the most shippable image in Moon Knight comics to-date (and I most definitely ship Moon King).
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Though issue #198 was a much better showing for artist Jacen Burrows than the bizarre misfire of #197, Burrows’ mere 3-page flashback section at the beginning of this issue seems to make him a tourist in the book he defined the visual style for. This is truly a shame because Burrows was a big part of why I loved that first arc so much. That being said, I can’t really lament the return of Paul Davidson in this issue, especially when his 2 dual page spreads in this issue are so dynamic and chaotic, and his renditions of SK and Truth are so stunning. In this issue we also have writer and artist extraordinaire Jeff Lemire treating us to a page of Diatrice’s comic book depicting Old Man Spector, Marlene, and herself as a future space-suited Lunar Legionnaire which was outstanding. And closing out the artist section of this issue we must praise the return of Moon Knight hall of fame artist Bill Sienkiewicz whose final page illustration of a triumphant Marc Spector in the rain with Khonshu in the sky was utterly gorgeous.

With the departure of Max Bemis as writer and no announcement of a new creative team or a renewal of the series in sight, this is perhaps the last we will see of Moon Knight for a while, and that’s perhaps what is most disappointing about this lackluster finale. I will be awaiting the return of the jet and silver avenger with baited breath, and I can assure you dear readers that when he returns, I will be hard at work reviewing his exploits for you once again! Until Next Time, Geek On!

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