Moon Knight #5: "Horoscope"

[alliterator]

"It's also particularly difficult to figure out who you want to be moving forward when you're a walking mess of contradictions. Marc's a priest of a god he betrayed and imprisoned. He's a Jew who wears the vestments of a god who oppressed his people. He's a superhero (with a cape, even) none of the other superheroes like or trust. He's Mr. Knight, the altruistic proprietor of the Midnight Mission, and Moon Knight, the bringer of violence by night.

He's got a lot to work through."

-- Jed MacKay

Comments

[cricharddavies]

This is a really well-done series.

[kd_the_movie]

the perspective in that last panel is awful i cant tell whats happening

[alliterator]

He's climbing down a sewer entrance that's behind his Khonshu statue. The entire page is him looking through various sewers.

[panthyr]

I think the last panel is him climbing up out of the sewer he went down into and traveled through, with his cape dragging in sewer runoff all the way.
Yet another strike against capes. Unless his outfit is made from the fabric in "The Man in the White Suit".

[beyondthefringe]

I like this take on Moon Knight. Weird and broken but not completely hopeless, and it reconciles the previous takes on him as well.

[onsokumaru]

"the man who threw away his religion and heritage"
That's the kind of sentence that is used to guilt people into keeping a religion. I don't like very much how apostasy is portrayed as a bad thing.

[velacron]

YMMV, but I read it less as saying that one should never switch religions generally and more that in the context of the story, Marc specifically regrets what the traded his former life for, i.e. servitude of the god Khonshu

A neo-pagan worshipping the Egyptian gods might still take offense at that, but I reckon those aren't too happy with Marvel Comics anyway...

[lordy_co]

Yeah, that's it. While he was unhappy with the Jewish G-d for his apparent absence, in the end Marc became an instrument of violence for a more violent god, and that's what he regrets.

[blues32]

In a world where gods are very real, such things shouldn't be taken lightly. Ghost Rider's history (the real Ghost Rider, the one who is actually riding something instead of driving it) suggests that at least one version of the Abrahamic God is real.

That said, this God seems to be the least apparent. You'd think the Norse religion would have overtaken Christianity by storm once Thor started his super hero gig. I mean, yeah, he was around prior to that, but he was a pompous ass back then.

[velacron]

I've heard this sentiment before, yet I never understood it?
After all, capital-G God offers his followers purpose, ethical guidelines and a shot at eternal bliss, while Marvel Thor ... is very strong and might punch an ice giant, whether or not you believe in him. What would be the point of praying to him?
In a DnD-style fantasy world, where gods are proven to be real and providing their followers with cleric spells, their "religion" is basically a craft you practice to benefit from it, whereas in real life, drenched in existential uncertainness, religion deals with the Ultimate Why or what Kant called the eternal questions (why and how is the world, how should I live, what can I hope for).
But Marvel Thor fits NEITHER of those. Instead, he's basically another super strong guy with some magic powers who punches bad guys as part of the Avengers, regardless of what you believe or what acts of worship you perform - nor do the Asgardians hold ultimate answers about or even ultimate power inside their own universe's cosmology.

If anything, I could see the Marvel Asgardians affecting religious faith in a "wait, was Jesus just another mutant?" kind of way, but not the other way around - IMO, just speculating here of course, the reveal that the Norse Gods of old are basically just modern-day superheroes with a little magic and power cosmic on top (on roughly the same level as Thanos and Galactus) and are neither symbolic nor care for how you pray or live your life would be THE most disastrous blow against neo-paganism imaginable

[blues32]

Welll...not entirely. In the olde days, Thor could be asked for, say, rain, in return for sacrificed animals or whatever. He just doesn't do that anymore.

[nyadnar17]

It depends doesn't it? Did you leave because it was the right thing to do or because it was easy?

Its one thing for me to go "I don't like black culture so I am going to reject it" its very much another to go "Its hard being black, so I am going to do everything I can to distance myself from that part of my identity".

Same deal with religion. If you decide your religion is wrong good for you. You wrestled with the truth and moved forward as best you could. If you decide that life would just be a lot easier if you weren't Muslim? Even as a protestant I don't think that's anything to celebrate.

[blues32]

Oof. That's some heavy stuff.

[deh_tommy]

I’m familiar with Moon Knight as a character, but I’m not too knowledgable on his stories. Was Khonsu always evil prior to Jason Aaron’s Avengers? Does Moon Knight still have multiple personalities or was that retconned out again? When does he dress as Moon Knight and when does he dress as Mister Knight? Is there any supporting cast from previous runs I should know about? Is this respectful to Moon Knight’s history, or is that more like Si Spurrier’s Black Knight stuff where he has to basically rewrite everything?

[blues32]

I don't think Khonshu was even considered real until he faced the Avengers directly. People just thought Moon Knight was delusional. And he is, which makes it harder to tell.

If he's still doing Moon Knight and Mister Knight, then I think he's still got D.I.D. Question is, how many personalities does he currently have? I mean, for a time he had ones for Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America.

[tinygaylaura]

This is probably the single best writing I've ever seen Moon Knight get.

Jed MacKay is a marvel, no pun intended. He not only gave us one of Marvel's most fun and enjoyable books of all time with the Black Cat ongoing he's also taken a character whose previous writing could be summed up as "Third rate Batman knock off" or "Unfunny and ableist "joke" about "Crazy people" and actually made me give a shit about him

[remial]

Marc has a kid? who is the mom?