Moon Knight 3, Magneto 3

Moon Knight 3
Ellis (w) and Shalvey (a) and Bellaire (c) and Eliopoulos (l)

Moon Knight finds himself up against a gang of punk rock ghosts who he quickly learns he cannot touch though they can touch him. His first encounter with them goes badly and he returns to his mansion to consult with Khonshu, who advises him to use some of the various tricks and tools he's picked up from Egypt in his travels. The next night, wearing all new armor that looks more Egyptian (including a Khonshu-like mask) and is capable of touching ghosts, Moon Knight sets out again and absolutely destroys the punks, eventually tracking down the source, a music box left behind bye a deceased member of the gang underground where they all once died.

Story
The story of this one takes a back seat to introducing more of what we can expect from this series as a whole. The story, of course, is apparent through the issue as Moon Knight sets out to defeat ghosts but the key in this one is seeing how he interacts with Khonshu and how he's set himself up in this new world. We've seen his wealth in action in all sorts of ways already, from his car to his tools to his flying glider (which gets a little more screen time in this one), and now we're seeing the fruits of his travels, a plethora of ancient Egyptian artifacts that, in some cases, he admits he doesn't remember buying. There's a lot happening here but Ellis is keeping it pretty firmly below the surface for now. 4/5

Character
Moon Knight keeps doing what he's been doing to kick this series off. He's assisting the police, he's keeping his dialogue to a minimum, only interjecting a few words here and there, and he seems to be mostly enjoying himself. Ellis' vision for this book was putting Moon Knight in a situation where his craziness helped him, made him stand out. He travels around at night wearing all white. His glider swoops in and out of the city with ease. He finds criminals. He's not trying to be stealthy, he's not Batmanning it out there, he's attacking criminals head on and it's working. With that attitude and with the new Khonshu information, it feels rather like we're learning quite a lot about Moon Knight without the need for a lot of dialogue or any narration. 5/5

Writing
Ellis has kept the writing pretty limited, as I said above. The quick bits of dialogue and the times when it's used most (Khonshu has the largest chunk of dialogue when he's telling Spector that he needs to be prepared for any adversary he may come across but it's used in the quiet moments, with Spector sitting at home with his various identities) give the book the exact sort of pacing it needs. It's fast, it's action-packed, and it's creating our character and his world well. 5/5

Art
Declan Shalvey continues to absolutely kill it with his designs, including the new fight-the-dead suit, and his action sequences. Jordie Bellaire is on fire with her amazing colors (it's always going to stand out, this white on night, which is very much what this book is counting on and what it will rely on and Bellaire is proving that it will sustain). It's all extremely cool while sticking to the somewhat creepy that this book needs. More outstanding work. 5/5

Miscellaneous
The book reads about as fast as any book out there right now, given the limited dialogue and the great action. You want to just keep reading it but you also want to stay on each page and examine each panel.

Total score: 5/5


Magneto 3
Bunn (w) and Walta (a) and Bellaire (c) and Petit (l)

Magneto finds the lab responsible for creating the new breed of Omega Sentinels and begins to make his way through the ducts, eventually finding project leader Dr. Elizabeth Alain. He deactivates a few incomplete Sentinels and sends a paper clip into Alain's arm to make her talk about what's happening in the lab. She tells him he has it all wrong, that they don't want to hurt mutants, they simply want to create a refuge for people who don't want to be subject to the whims of mutants. She believes that the place they're creating will be a sanctuary for people afraid that mutants will destroy the world and it calls back memories of Genosha for Magneto. Sentinels destroyed his mutant utopia and killed millions so he's not particularly sympathetic to an idea for human sanctuary patrolled by Sentinels. He finally kills Alain and sets the area to self-destruct, taking the giant Sentinel within with it.

Story
Though he's wiped his first real objective off the map (though it took more time than it once would have, as he points out), there's still plenty to come for Magneto as he realizes too late he should have pressed Alain for more information about who guided her to the Master Mold to create her Sentinels. Still, all in all it's a pretty successful first outing for Magneto as he manages to bring down an Omega Sentinel factory, regardless of its true purpose, and has also managed to stay a step ahead of SHIELD and whoever else may be chasing him, though a destroyed lab with a giant Sentinel sticking out may paint a picture of where he's been. 5/5

Character
There's been a lot to get into with Magneto so far as we've now covered his tragic Holocaust past and the horrors of Genosha, two of the biggest influences in his life. There's a lot of regret in his Genosha attempts and Bunn makes sure it comes to the forefront here, creating a parallel in the story to Genosha, but for humans, and showing us effectively why Magneto has such a specific bone to pick with Sentinels and Sentinel creation. Magneto's doing some horrible things but Bunn is making sure to cast it in such a light that we understand his motives for doing them, even if we're Professor X sympathizers. 5/5

Writing
The tone of this book continues to be incredibly dark, shifting back and forth from tragedy to impending tragedy. The strongest thing that Bunn has done has been to infuse this book with an overall sadness. There are plenty of dark and gritty books out there, probably plenty that are better than this one, but making sure that the tone is always tinged with sadness and regret gives it a much more palpable feeling. It humanizes Magneto in a way that just showing him as angry can never do. I think it's Bunn's strongest Marvel work since VENOM and it may prove to be stronger than that. 5/5

Art
Walta's art shines and really focuses on the humanity of these characters (I hate writing about "humanity" for mutant-based books but it seems a particular affront to Magneto), giving some real emotion to everyone involved. Bellaire again comes through with some great color work, giving everything exactly the right tone and fluctuating between past and present with lots of red in the past and a mix of blues, blacks, and grays for the present. Real tone building work with this art and these colors. 5/5

Miscellaneous
This book continues to be really impressive, going above and beyond what I expected of it. It's not hitting on the same sorts of awe-inspiring notes (for me) as something like BLACK WIDOW or X-MEN LEGACY or HAWKEYE, to name a few, but it's really very technically good.

Total score: 5/5