Review by Ian Keogh
Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio’s sparkling interpretation of Moon Knight’s complexity continues with Road to Ruin as MacKay starts by bringing up whether immortality is actually the right of a Moon Knight or the whim of a capricious god, Khonshu, returning him to life. He has a clever explanation of the consequences. From the start of the series MacKay has contrasted how Moon Knight and Hunter’s Moon view Khonshu and their service, and there’s a smart difference of faith-based opinion here. It’s of relevance, because anyone who once worked with Moon Knight is now on a kill list.
There’s a pattern to these collections of Federico Sabbatini drawing the opening and closing chapters and Alessandro Cappuccio handling the remainder. As the series has progressed Sabbatini has modified his style to merge more closely with the fantastic pages Cappuccio produces, using greater shadow and closing in the viewpoint during action scenes. It’s a stylistic choice, and pages by either artist are welcome. Cappuccio’s sample page shows his method of presenting action as a blur of movement, the composition at first glance uncomfortable, but actually refined.
The primary threats of the previous two volumes have been the criminal Zodiac and vampires, both of whom seemed to have been dealt with. However, even behind bars, and strangely still wearing his hooded mask, Zodiac remains a threat, and vampires are still playing a part, but as supporting characters. That indicates the entirely offbeat nature of MacKay’s storytelling. The rule of thumb he applies seems to connect with whether or not he introduced a character. If he did, they stick around, no matter how unlikely that might seem, and if he didn’t there’s a fair chance they’re cannon fodder. Except, that is, when they’re a co-starring headliner like Venom.
While there are connections throughout the entire series, never mind just this collection, this is essentially six standalone stories, and the Venom who stops by is the Dylan Brock version, so perhaps not as terrifying as others, although nicely drawn by Cappuccio. Because his and MacKay’s version of Moon Knight is a constantly beguiling series these are good superhero action plots, but nothing more. They return some people from Moon Knight’s past, but lack the psychological to and fro that’s accompanied the best stories in this series. Very readable, but no Halfway to Sanity.
