Shadowland's Low Point
Since Shadowland began, I have been saying how its tie-ins far outshine the main story in their quality. There had to be an exception to that, and Moon Knight's tie-in is most definitely it. This is a terrible book that stacks cliche on top of cliche, failing to even do them well.
Moon Knight returned to the spotlight in the Marvel Universe as an intriguingly dysfunctional character. Here, he is a boringly generic character. He makes lame quips in battle and really does nothing that diverges from a stock street hero personality. His reaction to the extent of Marlene's injuries is such an overdramatic cliche that it is actually kind of hilarious.
Another staple of Moon Knight's new status quo has been to play Khonshu ambiguously. Is he the real deal or another symptom of Marc Spector's broken mind? This story chooses to throw any ambiguity out the window and play it straight with Khonshu providing plenty of exposition that Marc's subconscious would not know. Because. of course, Khonshu and the Beast within Daredevil are old buddies. That is the cliched thing to do, after all.
This issue also reveals the identity of the Shadow Knight, and it is amazing in its ridiculousness. There could be no greater or more out of nowhere cliche. It is truly like something out of a bad soap opera.
As bad as the writing is, the art fails to do the book any favors. It is not bad art, but it does get sloppy and certainly fails to capture the right atmosphere for the story it is supposed to be telling. There are panels where Iron Fist inexplicably has his popped collar back or where his head is green. Also, the concept of Shadow Knight's look is a great one with him basically appearing as a mummified version of Moon Knight. Unfortunately, the art fails to pull it off It is also hilarious that the art depicts him with glowing eyes and a monstrous mouth, until he is unmasked and looks like just a normal guy.
This book is only worth reading if you are the type who also enjoys laughing at bad movies. It verges on becoming a parody of itself at points. No creative muscles were strained in putting together this story.
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