Avengers #33
Written by Jason Aaron
Art by Javier Garron and Jason Keith
Lettering by Cory Petit
Published by Marvel Comics
‘Rama Rating: 6 out of 10
Moon Knight aims to take the mantle of Earth’s Mightiest Hero by force in Avengers #33. Kicking off the “Age of Khonshu” with a stagey, fight-heavy opening issue, writer Jason Aaron starts to flex new muscles for Moon Knight throughout this issue.
Pitting Marc Spector against various Avengers in order to steal their powers one-by-one, Aaron delivers a dark, slightly dour opening that only really comes to life when it is being super-theatrical. Artists Javier Garron and Jason Keith however find power in the moonlight here, staging each of the fight scenes in broad, eye-grabbing details and rich colors that spark up the portentous scripting of Aaron. Though not the most auspicious of starts for the “Age of Khonshu,” Avengers #33 kicks off Moon Knight’s new status quo with a bang.
Opening in the mountains surrounding K’un-Lun, Moon Knight’s unsettling new mission kicks off as he goes hand-to-hand with Danny Rand, the Immortal Iron Fist. The slight amount of darkly funny tension Jason Aaron builds between the two here is a lot of fun and starts out this issue with a wry dynamism I wasn’t expecting for this return issue. Iron Fist, thinking Moon Knight wants a team-up, keeps trying to talk to him as a peer, while it becomes increasingly obvious that Marc Spector is not in nearly his right mind(s).
But this opening scene has far more teeth than the normal ‘Marvel Misunderstanding’ and Aaron does a great job selling those stakes here. He does it so well, in fact, that the rest of the encounters fail to live up to the pitched tone of the opening. After stealing the Iron Fist, Moon Knight starts to move down his list, attacking and stealing the various abilities of Dr. Strange, Robbie Reyes, Black Panther and Thor. Unfortunately, none of these encounters match the harrowing and showy opening battle, causing the latter half of the issue to sag in terms of energy.
That said, however, artists Javier Garron and Jason Keith take all sorts of measures to keep the pep of the issue up. Again, the opening is their best showing as the pair meld supernatural pulp with classic kung-fu visuals, highlighting the precise movements of Iron Fist (supported even further by letterer Cory Petit’s captions naming the moves being thrown echoing shades of the classic Ed Brubaker/Matt Fraction/David Aja Immortal Iron Fist run) and the power of Moon Knight. The clearest example of this fun specificity is a splash page, broken apart like a diagram as Danny tries move after move only to be haymakered over-and-over by the powerful Fist of Khonshu.
That sort of tone is further played up as Moon Knight trains his sights on Dr. Strange, overwhelming him with the support of moon necromancers and the living dead. Echoing the vibe of Geof Darrow, the pair pack the panel with shambling zombies, putting Strange on the defense until Moon Knight can make his move. But like the script, seeing Moon Knight handily best each hero in turn visually loses its luster after the first few times – especially when he beats up Thor with the power of “moon rocks” – and though Garron and Keith are talented, seeing the same scene just varied slightly is never fun for very long.
So while Avengers #33 takes an unexpected track for the opening of “Age of Khonshu” that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s the most fun to read. Operating with a diminishing burliness and drive, writer Jason Aaron well establishes Moon Knight as a formidable antagonist but then does little else with the rest of the issue. Artists Javier Garron and Jason Keith, ably aided by letterer Cory Petit, inject a little bit of spark into the issue overall, but seeing a good band play the same song over and over is enough to disappoint even the biggest of Moon Knight and Avengers fans. All told Avengers #33 opens big, but doesn’t do terribly much else with it.