2.142 (507) Moon Knight 2011 #1 ... Marvel ...

Well, well, well ... when Marvel relaunched Moon Knight with super hot artist Dave Finch, it was reminiscence of the previous Moon Knight series that was limbering towards its end and cancellation when new artist Stephen Platt brought it out of the doldrums. Unfortunately Platt moved on to other things and well, Finch being that good but albeit slow, has to move on too ...

And so Marvel must have thought to do it differently this time around by using uber hot writer Bendis (Avengers) and paired him off with critical darling artist Maleev (Daredevil) but honestly ... while interesting the series was middle-of-the-road at best ... and it lasted for all of 2 story arcs or 12 issues if you are counting ...

With that griping out of the way (sorry, readers) let's get on with this review. As the last series finished not that long ago, the first few pages ... I guess it is directed at new readers who are probably fans of Bendis or Maleev because we actually waste time retelling the origins of Moon Knight. If it is for a fan of the Knight, well, they know his origins so why bother eh?

The fun starts several pages into the comic as we see Marc enjoying the high life once more as a wealthy bloke only to disappear as he is summoned. SPOILER ALERT And to our utter surprise we see him popping up to the rooftop to confer with his Avenger buddies because for those not in the know, Moon Knight was actually an Avenger for a while

Naturally the problem is that with the past few years of nonsense going around with the heroes, new and old villains are popping up and staking their interests and here in the new city where Knight is operating, he is tasked to find who is the new Kingpin more or less

As he does his runaround bit, he encounters a strangely garbed ex villain who is in a costume but not the one that most fans of Marvel would know and recognize and hence ... feels so weird ... anyway to make a long story short, inspite of the fight and drama, this guy is still not the ultimate villain i.e. there is still someone at play and that someone was not revealed even at the end of this issue for you see, this villain? He has somehow come across an Ultron and is trying to sell it to the other guy

But what is surprising and you should put up with this book until literally the last page is the last page reveal because wow what a reveal it is. It is of such a monumental reveal that will make you wonder about the next issue. Wonder but not necessary put it on your pull list unless you have the extra bucks

For me, while I do like Maleev's work, I am not a fan and would not buy if his name is on the cover and in this case, thanks to Finch's previous series, this feels like a huge fall from standards. Sigh!

Ratings: 4/10