The Marvel Rundown: MYSTIQUE and MOON KNIGHT: FIST OF KHONSHU roundtable!

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Welcome Marvel Zombies to this week’s edition of the Marvel Rundown, The Beat’s weekly look at Marvel’s releases. This week is our roundtable and we’re pulling an M&M. We’re covering the first issues of Mystique and Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu! Read on to see what our elite Beat team of contributors, Beau Q., D. Morris, George Carmona, and Tim Rooney, thought of the these two debuts.

WARNING: This discussion contains HEAVY SPOILERS so skip to the verdicts if you don’t want this week’s comics spoiled for you.

The Beat wants to hear from you, True Believers! Tell us what you think of this week’s Marvel Comics! Shout us out in the comment section below or over on social media @comicsbeat, and let us know what’s good and what’s not so good!

The Beat: Let’s start with Mystique, what did we think of this debut?

Beau Q.: Ok, so Mystique is just Old Dog, right?

D. Morris: I am glad I wasn’t the only one who thought that but I’m okay with that? Admittedly, Declan Shalvey on any book is an instant sell for me. Shalvey is a reliably great storyteller so getting him on a Marvel book again. His work on Moon Knight is some of the best on a Marvel book from the last decade which is saying a lot. When it was announced he was doing a Mystique book, that was an instant buy for me. And he really didn’t disappoint me here. This is one of the best “From the Ashes” books for me, even with that ending which I think we’ll have something to say about later. As someone who grew up with all of the mysteries and characters surrounding the Weapon X program in the early 90s, having a book just deep dive into that mythology appealed to me.

G.Carmona: I’m not the biggest fan of Mystique, but I recognize her place in Mutantdom, went in as open-minded as possible, and was okay with it. I was more interested in the Fury family’s role in the book.

Tim Rooney: I love Mystique. She’s one of my favorite Mutants. I think Shalvey is hugely talented. So I was hoping for more. This was not a bad book by any means but I just didn’t know what it was trying to say or what it wanted to do and why SHIELD was there at all. Shalvey’s art is solid and I enjoyed that as a reader I was never sure who I was looking at. The panel layouts are intentionally confusing and the staging of characters defies basic rules of composition like the 180-degree rule.

BQ: For a character with little mystique, suddenly there’s a lot we’re being told we don’t know about Mystique, but it’s mostly theatrics and that brand of familiarly weird spy-fi Shalvey has grown accustomed to with Old Dog. Shalvey’s voice is welcome for sure with very conscious panel by panel storytelling that always closes a page out with a logistical twist or an information reveal that forces us to ask more as a reader than subdued into passively receiving information. Really goes to show how a writer/artist may approach a comic different than a writer, y’know?

DM: I agree with all of you that this issue is mostly set up and tone, with the tone being intentionally disorienting. I think this is a pretty challenging book both in its storytelling and in its connection to the wider Marvel universe. Especially in a line wide reboot that so far has been more about enticing new readers into the X-Books. I will say I think the SHIELD stuff was underserved here because I haven’t been following that side of Marvel and I barely had any understanding of what was happening there. Also people who have no idea that there is a whole Fury family will probably be bewildered here.

TR: Yeah this was not reboot-friendly. You have to know a whole lot about the current Marvel status quo and Mystique’s longer history to get the most from this story. That’s not always a bad thing but here it felt like a hindrance in getting invested in what the mystery is. Fury is obsessed with this Mystique case and hamstrung by SHIELD’s budget cuts—but what is he following her for? This feels more like a Nick Fury book than Mystique which is great— if it was called Fury! But there also wasn’t enough to fully invest in or understand where he or the agency are coming from like you said.

GC: The most interesting aspect of this issue for me was the dialogue, it was punchy and reminded me of Brian Micahel Bendis or Kevin Smith in capturing humor at the most inappropriate moment.

BQ: I loved Shalvey’s somewhat haphazardly oscillation between wide gutters dividing panels and panels laid behind/atop other moments in sequence; would love to know more about that decision! Also, honestly more painting from Matt Hollingsworth than I’ve experienced in a long time of flats, but the mechanics are all there– moody blue hued palettes on the saturated end and more brush work in wider spaces to make thoughtful use of Shalvey’s negative space. Most of the color work takes place in minute 5% opacity gradients that add form, but are mostly noticeable as radial highlights on shoulders and foreheads– looks great but also woefully intense work by Hollingsworth for such a subdued approach. The ending, SPOILERS, is a real sonuvabitch given the vibes going into the solo series, and I hope it’s a misdirect for the rug-pull rather than a clearing house to solo Raven for the solo-series.

The Beat: Let’s talk about that ending. What do we think about that ending?

DM: Given that they just did several specials as part of the fall of Krakoa, I really hope that we’re not seeing the death of Destiny (again). I really hope that this is not another instance of burying your queers and that it’s just a misdirect. This was a whole issue of nothing but misdirection.

GC: By the end of the book I wasn’t that vested in what was an obvious setup, more look over here while she picks Fury’s pocket. We don’t need to be precogs like Destiny to have seen all that coming.

TR: My initial reaction was to roll my eyes at either the obvious misdirect or shocking for the sake of shocking moment. But after sitting with it I actually really like it and it is the moment that worked best for me and sold me on what Shalvey wants to do. The book is full of misdirects and the art is constantly making it difficult to know who’s who—even the way he draws the transformations are subtle. I like that last image because he knows we won’t trust it but also that we can’t trust them not to backtrack on Krakoa era developments. There’s some metatextual playing with expectations there.

BQ: Yeah, given the Shalvey essay in the backmatter, I’m going misdirect. But it feels like we’re gonna live without Destiny for at least another month or two. Btw, LOVE those backmatter essays laying bare the framework for the series going forward.

GC: Yeah, Shalvey’s essay at the end made me reread the book.

DM: Gonna third the enjoyment of the back matter essays. It’s obvious the enthusiasm that these creative teams have for the books. That line about “why do people hate and fear mutants? Because of people like Mystique” really gives you an idea what approach he’s going for here. I’m really excited to see where he takes this character in the book. Also I hope that he’s setting up Maverick as her nemesis in this issue.

The Beat: What’s our final verdict on this issue?

BQ: STRONG BROWSE. Shalvey spy-fi ain’t for everyone! And that’s poifectly fine!

DM: I think I’m going to be in the minority here because this book, with its Matt Wagner-esque visuals and disorienting storytelling that very much appeals to me, is a BUY. That said, my recommendation comes with the caveat that this book is probably not for everyone. It is an intentionally challenging read but a rewarding one I think. I’m excited for future issues to put the puzzle pieces together.

GC: I’d get it for the Fury of it all but I’d just BROWSE.

TR: It is a BROWSE for me.

The Beat: With that final word on Mystique #1, let’s move on to our other book this week. What did we think of Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #1?

GC: Admittedly, my last reading/interaction with Moon Knight was with the Avengers, so I didn’t know where he was in the Marvel Universe and wasn’t expecting a lot, but surprisingly enjoyed this issue with its moody and crisp art. This was a high-octane noir book that danced between the shadows.

DM: As someone who has read Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio’s run since the beginning, Fist of Khonshu wasn’t much of an issue one. It was just the next issue in their story for me. Moon Knight has been one the more consistently enjoyable books with MacKay getting to introduce a lot of the weirdness of the Marvel universe in interesting ways that keeps it weird. This is a writer who turned a loser character like Eightball into a three dimensional supporting character. And like George said, Cappuccio and colorist Rachelle Rosenberg always deliver these great moody visuals.

BQ: We talked about reader unfriendly number 1s earlier, and uh, Fist of Khonshu is not a great jumping-on point with all these editor notes in the first 4 pages lmao! But it does an effective job at selling the beginning of an arc vs a drug lord. Packaged by MacKay and Cappuccio as: exposition > exposition over action > exposition/standoff > issue-ending plot twist– it’s familiar, easy to consume, but feels like a retread asking me to take it more seriously.

DM: I was curious for anyone who hadn’t been reading this book what it was like as a jumping on point because again, it’s a new number one but definitely not the start of a new run.

BQ: Yeah, I had to read Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9 AND some Marvel wiki entries to make heads/tails of this opener.

DM: Yeah because for folks who haven’t read the last two MacKay/Cappuccio series the TL;DR is that Moon Knight started the Midnight Mission, died, had The Shroud impersonate, and then he came back. I won’t get into all of the stuff having to do with Khonshu and Blood Hunt that played a role in all of this.

GC: I was definitely one of those folks going in blind but I think MacKay did a great job of setting up the new status quo without bogging readers down with 40 years of Moon Knight History. All we needed to know was he died and now he’s back. I will admit that his motivation is a bit off if he’s a super-hero but it wasn’t so egregious that I was put off.

TR: Moon Knight is a huge blind spot for me but I actually quite liked this issue. The first half of the issue, which focuses on the two cops at a diner talking about Moon Knight’s reputation and catching readers up on a ton of exposition was a bit clunky but effective. At first, I did not think that intercutting it with Moon Knight action worked at all and I didn’t understand why MacKay went that way. But then I realized the script was juxtaposing these stories of Moon Knight as this religious zealot or creep with Alessandro Cappuccio and Rachelle Rosenberg’s art making him look like the coolest guy alive. Cappuccio’s layouts are incredibly dynamic and full of motion while Rosenberg’s colors have this eerie pulsing neon purple, greens, and pink that makes the Moon Knight’s stark white look totally out of place.

BQ: DM brought up Shalvey’s Moon Knight run, and this first issue in MacKay’s Midnight Mission world treads more on that era than any other. Stripped bare of Khonshu, Midnight Mission, and focused on Spector’s idk war on drugs– it feels like stolen valor, but also angling Moon Knight out to be some local John Wick lmao? I’m not buying into it, sadly.

DM: Something MacKay has done really well during this run is tie it into wider Marvel continuity in a way that if you know, you know. Older Moon Knight villains like Commodore Danny Planet and Waxman showed up in the first run. I appreciated the nods to War of the Realms with the character of Carver and a possible nod to the humans versus magical creatures conflict of MacKay’s Clea Strange based series Strange with the introduction of actual pixie dust as a street drug. Again, I love that MacKay as a writer really just loves the weirder sides of Marvel continuity.

GC: I always love seeing Tigra.

DM: George, if you like Tigra, I recommend reading Moon Knight and Vengeance of Moon Knight because she plays a major role in both books.

BQ: Cappuccio and Rosenberg are the real sell for me tbh. Alive in an alcohol cabinet colored city more mature than any other NYC street hero, Rosenberg’s entire Moon Knight oeuvre is on display; none more so than this spectral glow that radiates as a compositional focus in every panel. Cappuccio back is welcome with a style I’ll refer to as: hard faces, soft hands, and hard lighting– which, I think, works to cast Moon Knight in a different style than, at least, Daredevil.

DM: I can’t agree with you more Beau. Cappuccio and Rosenberg really just have this visual language down for how their seedy, midnight world of Marvel looks at this point. This run of Moon Knight is really just a treat to look at every issue. It’s weird, neon noir, and horror adjacent. These two really just hit it out of the park every issue.

TR: I love how minimal the inks and rendering is on that white suit. This is a guy who wants to be seen by everyone. He just cuts right through the heavy black inks on the page. You can’t help but get a sense that this is a man who is a little sick in the head and begging for a fight.

GC: Agree on the styling, the subtle moon glow he has is a great storytelling device to cement him in the dark lair of the bad guys. I will start a new drinking game, every time he fixes his tie, you have to drink.

BQ: The action feels more like a montage than moments clearly one after another as the fight unfolds, which can make it difficult to sell engaging action when it’s a one-sided conflict the entire time. Like, we all love a superhero working through an entire wave of goons, but at least we know why/what for. Here, Moon Knight wants to go deeper into the club and these goons are in his way; not very compelling in today’s action stories imho. I’m also completely flabbergasted by Cappuccio’s decision to put their Spector in fingerless gloves now?? It’s the only skin showing, so it could be a subtle hint toward Spector’s character arc, or I could be giving it far too much credit! Would love to know more behind that single design decision lol!

DM: I would need to go back to the earlier issues but I will say that this run has emphasized how much Marc Spector likes to play mess around and find out with people. It does not end well for people.

GC: Again I wasn’t the biggest Moon Knight fan in any of his incarnations, especially the very early Batman ripoff, but I know the general gist of the character so I’m okay with what’s going on here.

DM: I think between this run and the Jeff Lemire/Greg Smallwood run, which I just read and I think is really excellent, the last decade has done a really good job of moving the character away from being Batman BUT crazier. One of the earlier issues even had the character lose his fortune and he had no issue with that. So now he’s just a dude with a haunted house for a base.

TR: I’ve been hesitant to get into Moon Knight because I know so little about him and the continuity is intimidating. But this is a solid issue that looks great, tells a little story, and sets up what comes next. It’s solid stuff.

The Beat: What’s our final opinion on this issue?

GC: A solid read with some funky art, BUY.

DM: I’ve been on board with this run for awhile so yeah, this is absolutely a BUY. MacKay, Cappuccio, and Rosenberg have put out one of the low key best Marvel books with their Moon Knight run. That said it wouldn’t hurt to read the previous issues of this run before reading this.

TR: I can see why this MacKay era has become such a cult hit. This is a STRONG BROWSE—you need to be willing to roll with the continuity but if you can, it’s worth your time for sure.

BQ: BORROW. Then leave it on your coffee table. Then pile papers and mail on top of it. And never give it back like that ProZD sketch lmao. I’m sure this run is fun for MK-heads, but I got other books to spend my $5 USD on.

Thank you readers for joining us for our latest Marvel Rundown roundtable! Join us next week for reviews of the latest Marvel books including Iron Man #1 and Spider-Boy #12.

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