Moon Knight vs. Count Nefaria round 2!  Spoiler alert: this time it doesn't end well for our favourite moon themed superhero...

In case you're still not in the know, Moon Knight recently packed his bags and set up shop in Los Angeles California. Such a drastic move can take a lot out of any superhero; luckily, Moon Knight's good buddies Spider-Man, Wolverine and Captain America are there to help him out!

Um... aren't they?Issue #1
At the premiere of his new television show "Legends of the Khonshu" producer and former mercenary Marc Spector receives a mysterious phone call telling him to come to the roof. When Spector gets there he is confronted by Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine. They tell Spector that there has been a substantial migration of criminal activity from the East to the West Coast and that they need Moon Knight out there protecting L.A. Spector accepts his new task.

Later that night Moon Knight happens upon some criminal activity going on at the docks. Two small time criminals (working for an unnamed super criminal) are confronted by Mr. Hyde, who demands money in exchange for the mysterious cargo he has inside his boast. Unfortunately for the two criminals, they don't have the money Hyde wants. As Hyde proceeds to kill them Moon Knight jumps into the fray, but it quickly becomes clear that he is no match for Hyde, who throws him in the river. As Hyde gets on his boat and departs he is attacked by Moon Knight again. While on Hyde's boat Moon Knight discovers that Hyde's cargo was a dead Ultron. Moon Knight is able to escape the boat with the Ultron's head before it is lifted into the air by a powerful force and destroyed.


Back at his lair Moon Knight examines the Ultron head along with Spidey, Cap and Wolverine. Moon Knight declares that whatever is going on in L.A. is too big for just him to handle, and that it's going take the combined efforts of all four heroes to take down L.A.'s new crime boss. Unfortunately, it becomes clear that Spider-Man, Captain America and Wolverine are just figments of his imagination.


Issue #2

After getting some intel, Moon Knight and his three other personalities stake out a place where a woman known as "Snapdragon" is recruiting women to work for her to gather information as strippers. Snapdragon allegedly works for whoever wanted the Ultron. Moon Knight debates with his other personalities about who should go in first before finally settling on Spider-Man. Dressing up in a Spider-Man costume and using some fake webshooters (they shoot billy clubs with fake webs attached) Moon Knight enters Snapdragon's meeting place and fights her and her body guards. After a long fight Moon Knight gets shot in the arm and passes out. Before Snapdragon can take him to her boss she and her body guards are knocked out by Echo, who was undercover as one of Snapdragon's recruits.

Moon Knight wakes up in Echo's hotel room, where she begins to question him on why he was wearing a Spider-Man costume.

Meanwhile, Snapdragon explains what happened to her boss. She volunteers to put a team together to take down Moon Knight, an idea approved by her boss who needs a head to complete his Ultron.

Thoughts

Moon Knight has always been a character that has intrigued me. The bad ass costume combined with the idea of a superhero with multiple personality disorder always appealed to me, but his last two titles left me cold. Needless to say I was excited when I heard Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev would be taking a crack at the character, and with these first two issues they have exceeded my expectations.

Bendis has managed to take everything I originally found intriguing about the character and place it in these two issues. Moon Knight and his three other personalities (taking the form of Spidey, Cap and Wolverine) debating each other is a great way to take us through his thought process, and a refreshing change from thought balloons and captions which traditionally take us through the minds of our characters. It's an approach that could only work with Moon Knight, and it's a lot of fun to read, though not as fun watching Moon Knight pretending to be Spider-Man. Batman ripoff he is not.

Maleev's artwork takes a little getting used to, as his style has changed somewhat since his Daredevil run, but by the second issue I was able to appreciate his great visuals. Moon Knight is a great book that only promises
to get better as the title moves forward.

Ever since Volume 2 of The New Avengers launched this past summer it has quietly surpassed Ultimate Spider-Man as the best Bendis book. The book has all you want from an Avengers title, the big action, entire sections of New York being destroyed in seconds and the cost of failure being extremely high. But what separates it from it's sister title, The Avengers, is the relationship between Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, it is this relationship that takes up the majority of this issue.

The Story
Jessica Jones was a superhero, in her mind she was not very good at the job. In the lasts few months her feet have been getting itchier by the second but her role as a new mother has been stopping her from donning the spandex again. Luke decides that it's time for them to have a real talk about it and takes her out to dinner, their first date despite being married.
Marvel Comics and their heroes have always been based in the real world, while they have extraordinary abilities their reaction to those abilities have always been ordinary; Peter Parker tries to make money of his, Johnny Storm uses his to get girls, Ben Grimm is always, at least in part, tormented by his appearance and the dangers they face and the ramifications of those dangers have always been portrayed as a very real thing. Luke Cage has unbreakable skin, she does not, the potential for her to die and her baby to grow up without her mother is treated with the respect that the idea deserves. But it is also her baby that makes her want to be a hero again, how can one teach their children to always do what's right when you stand on the sidelines and watch people suffer who you could help?
Their conversation is interrupted by an egg like ship crashing down on the streets of Manhattan, carrying Ms Marvel with it. Out of the egg comes Dr. Doom or, as revealed later, a Doombot. After a brief fight the bot is defeated, revealing information that Doom's position as Monarch in his country may be under threat, a plot that will feature heavily in a future arc no doubt.

Thoughts
A special mention must be given to Daniel Acuña's art. There are many artists who can draw a fantastic battle scene like the one between Luke, Jessica, Ms Marvel and the Doombot, not many can take two people sitting at a table talking look interesting. Bendis dialogue is, as ever, great, but that only gets you so far in a visual medium, the artist has to do the rest.

Spider-Man will be teaming up with the brutal and short tempered Wolverine in a short miniseries called 'The Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine."

I must say that I find this title rather cheesy. It also does not fit Spider-Man at all. Anyhow, this a teaser image below.

Quick Summary on what has been taking place in the Incredible Hercules comics, and how does it relate to Spider-man.



Of late, it was discovered that Hera, wife of Zeus and mother of many has been stirring up an evil plan to destroy the world. Amadeus has convinced Hercules to gather up an army to take her down before she can strike.



Peter Parker was introduced to Hebe ( wife of Hercules ), who has been having marital problems for a thousand years. (You just hit the JackPot- Peter Parker). This is entry follows up on what happened immediately with Spider-man after his encounter with Hebe. This is not exactly a review of the whole comic. Only the parts that involve Spider-man.





Partial review
Peter was introduced to her by Aunt May, as Hebe was helping out there as a volunteer in the homeless shelter. He is next seen flirting, in some way, with Hebe, who for your information is the goddess of youth.



At one point, Hebe mentions how Aunt May wants to see Peter married. Apparently Aunt May does not want Peter marrying any Red-Heads. The conversation goes on as Hebe explains how she is actually Hercules wife. She feels rejected by him as he seemed to grow more distant from her and eventually disappeared in person ( left Olympus).


As she pours out her feelings to Peter, he pretty much comforts her, and very quickly develops feelings for her. Hebe blames herself for not making the marriage work and struggles to figure out what she did wrong. Peter Parker, with his new BND character moves in to kiss her. As their lips lock, his Spider-sense start going haywire.



Peter opens an eye to see whats going on, only to be greeted by a furious Hercules. The entire fight scene between the two is rather comical. One of the more entertaining fight scenes. Regardless, the fight ends with Hebe coming to the rescue, and Herc explaining to her why he acted the way he did towards her before.

It all has a happy ending between the two. Thankfully, Peter does not end up with Hebe. Despite her attractive character, Peter does not belong with the goddess of youth.



The comic ends with Spider-man, Spider-woman, and wolverine ( and most probably some others ), joining forces to help take down Hera.




Also read:

• Incredible Hercules 138
• What has Mary Jane been up to?
• You just hit the Jackpot- Peter Parker

So, I was just browsing through a comic thread over at the CBR forum. I came across a topic regarding the JMS run prior to OMD. In the thread,there were some scans that brought back to mind why I liked Pre -BND so much.

Of course, there was a more responsible Peter Parker ( I suppose it comes with being married as well), who's situation in life was much different to the current one. I am not here to criticize the current BND run. The new story is completely different from the old one, and does have its own interesting stories.

Nevertheless, I have to admit that there is much to miss from the old, married Spider-man character. Here I will be highlighting his relationship with Mary Jane - one of the many reasons Anti BND fans are Anti BND. Check out this panel below.