Review by Frank Plowright

The cover design indicates a continuation from Dead Will Rise, but Cullen Bunn isn’t greatly concerned with what’s come before, and uses Moon Knight as the vehicle for horror.

Bunn is economical with words, so these five standalone stories are quickly read. In rapid succession Moon Knight deals with a vengeful ghost, wild dogs, the boogeyman, flying kidnappers and someone with their own twisted interpretation of following the god Khonshu, from whom Moon Knight derives his abilities.

Despite the references to Moon Knight being a servant of Khonshu, protecting the travellers in the night, and questioning his faith, it’s a rare moment when the story actually has to be about Moon Knight. He’s largely a generic superhero there to deal with a specific problem, and there’s no reason it couldn’t have been Captain America, Daredevil or Spider-Man. It’s partly because all the action is around Moon Knight in costume, and the only supporting character with any weight is a police detective used in the first story, and even then his resonance is down to the design of artist Ron Ackins.

Both Ackins and German Peralta supply fully detailed panels, create a sense of place well and cope well with Moon Knight as a character. Ackins veers toward cartooning, while Peralta (sample art right) is slightly more imaginative with his page layouts, although there’s a great difference. Steven Sanders helps out for a few pages on the second Ackins story, but meshes very well.

Prioritising mood and atmosphere is no bad thing, but people wanting a Moon Knight collection are likely to have their mind set on greater depth. It’s combined with other Moon Knight stories from the same period in Moon Knight: From the Dead Omnibus.