Hello again everyone! It’s been quite some time! But my tiny cameo so to speak in MCU terms in Sgathiach’s Wonder Man review (which I highly recommend you read) gave me the spark that I needed to write SOMETHING again. And what better topic than Moon Knight! 

To put it mildly I’ve become obsessed with the character since the tail end of last year when I watched the MCU Moon Knight show (I’ve now read an unholy amount of Moon Knight comics) and if there’s anyone I can write about for WAY too long? It’s Marc Spector. Or should I say Steven Grant? Or Jake Lockley? But before I write about Mike Chen’s narrative, I should probably explain what I mean.

Moon Knight or his human alias Marc Spector is both a quite simple and complicated character. Simple because the easiest way to describe him is as Marvel’s answer to Batman or Spawn. The loner vigilante with a found family and all that. Complicated because…Moon Knight is not just one person. Moon Knight’s powers are sourced from his pact with the Egyptian god of the moon Khonshu as his fist of justice and vengeance over those who commit evil – who has power over travellers, particularly those who travel at night – and is in fact a real Egyptian god rather than something invented by the comics albeit traditionally spelled Khonsu. As part of the pact Khonshu is often inside of Marc’s head talking VERY LOUDLY. This combined with Marc’s traumatic history as a very skilled mercenary for hire and general assassin with a horrific childhood led to him developing Dissociative Identity Disorder or DID. His alters are Steven Grant – A rich millionaire Hollywood producer and general boardroom smooth talker who also has the alternative Knight form of Mr Knight (think good cop to Moon Knight’s bad cop. The negotiator over the finger breaker) – and Jake Lockley –  a very down to earth New York City cabbie who will do the dirty work the other two don’t want to touch. At any one time? At least two of these four entities will be active. If Mark is in control of the body? Steven and Jake (and potentially Khonshu as required) will be able to communicate with him and each other should they choose to. Now that I’ve given the Moon Knight primer? I think we should discuss Mike Chen and this particular what if story.

Mike Chen is an New York Times best selling author known for both licensed fiction for Star Wars, Star Trek, Critical Role and Marvel and original fiction such as Here And Now And Then and A Quantum Love Story (which on a personal level? I HIGHLY recommend) among others as well as a history as a sport columnist covering the National Hockey League. 

Once an alternate Marc appears – one controlled by the Venom symbiote – and Venom leaps into Moon Knight, pushing out Khonshu? Khonshu is forced into the body of the alternate Marc, forming an alliance with the alternative Steven and Jake. Become Khonshu’s avatar to figure out Venom’s plan, following his trail of destruction, save this universe from a mysterious entity and just maybe? Find them a way home.

This story is genuinely very interesting. Especially as someone who recently became a hardcore Moon Knight fanatic. Or should I say lunatic? …ok I admit I couldn’t resist that one. Marc, Steven and Jake as befits actual alters are established as having very distinct personalities in the comics as are the characters of Khonshu and Venom. So I was intrigued to see how Mike Chen was going to deal with the differences without becoming overwhelmed. 

The answer is surprisingly well. Almost immediately the alternative Marc is rendered unconscious, allowing that body’s versions of Steven and Jake to come to the fore for the first time in a while and make their deal with a hurt and somewhat exhausted Khonshu. At the same time? Our regular Marc has been mostly subsumed into the Venom symbiote’s hive mind, allowing the book to follow the attempts of Steven, Jake and Khonshu to save the day or to follow Venom’s exploits or his general views on Marc as a person or Moon Knight as a hero. Just why is Venom doing all this? Is he just here to cause chaos? Or is the symbiote genuinely trying to save the day in its own way?

This set up is honestly an ingenious way of allowing all the characters to interact and contribute to the plot without overwhelming the reader (mostly). This is one of those rare cases where my knowledge of the greater Moon Knight history and lore actually backfired. I kept overcomplicating things in my head, trying to figure out which Steven or Jake was talking, forgetting the Marc connected to Venom was cut off from them. About a quarter of the way through the book I finally self-corrected and really started enjoying this adventure.

Another thing I found very enjoyable was Venom’s use of tenses in his chapters. Despite his connection to Marc throughout the book and usage of We to refer to them as a unit? Venom also has a habit dating back to his original 90s comics of using the royal we to refer to the symbiote as a whole. WE ARE VENOM and all that. This leads to quite a few lines from Venom, Marc and other characters such as Moon Knight’s allies Gina and Frenchie with classic snark. In general, the writing in this book is very much in the same spirit of the Moon Knight comics – especially the modern Jed McKay era which I personally love – combined with Chen’s enjoyable and well paced prose. The book is very well written with an energy to it that makes every interaction spark with the charm people associate with these characters and Marvel at its best. 

Lastly for this section I will discuss the name of this particular book. Marvel’s What If… series is a prose iteration of a concept they’ve been doing on and off since the 70s. What if is quite simply a place where Marvel gets to do WEIRD S***. Sometimes it’s relatively straightforward like What If Gwen Stacy Lived? Or What If the Civil War comic event didn’t happen? Other times it’s more weird like What If Iron Man was trapped in the time period of King Arthur? Or What If Daredevil lived in feudal Japan? This current range is a set of connected stories which are connected by small chapters which act as act breaks starring the character of America Chavez (A character currently in the role of The Watcher, a greater cosmic entity in the Marvel multiverse) which also lead into the next book. So far we have What If…Loki Was Worthy?, What If…Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings?, this book under discussion and lastly What If Kitty Pryde Stole The Phoenix Force?, all of which seem quite interesting to say the least.

As a sidenote: Without going into too much detail about plot spoilers I will also say that both myself and a good friend of mine are very thankful that the villain of this story is NOT the character Knull. Knull is a remarkably interesting character and one that we both find…metal as hell honestly. He unfortunately however in the last year or so is becoming a bit overplayed recently. Marvel clearly realised they had produced a cool concept because they seem to have been putting him into as many alternate universe stories as possible as of late. He’s much more cool than DC Comics’s latest ‘put this guy everywhere’ character The Bat Who Laughs (who has never been cool in his entire existence. Fight me) but he still needs a bit of a rest. Bring him back in 4 to 5 years? I’ll be overjoyed to see him again.

Venom is obviously performed using a voice filter of some type but this makes sense as Venom is a character known for a VERY distinctive voice in games, cartoons and films across the decades. Both men perform their roles very well with clear dedication and enjoyment. The scenes later in the book where Marc and Venom bounce off each other in particular are some of my favourites as well as some of the scenes where the Moon Knight extended cast interact with Steven, Jake and Khonshu.

Szarabajka is an actor with an extensive history of credits from film, TV and video games as well as quite a few audiobooks. Just to name a few from his career he played recurring roles in Angel (Daniel Holtz) & Star Wars Rebels (Cikatro Vizago) and played the role of Ironhide in both the War of Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron Transformers games. In relation to audiobooks he has recorded several including being part of the cast of Aliens: Bug Hunt, one of several readers for an audio version of H.P. Lovecraft’s Necronomicon and Botticelli’s Secret by Joseph Luzzi among numerous others.

When it comes to Casals however, I was unable to find basically any information. He’s clearly a talented narrator much like Szarabajka but aside from his involvement in some full cast audiobooks known as the Les Normaux series – a graphic novel adaptation – and as sole narrator for a book called Pearce Oysters by Joselyn Takacs I was able to find basically no information on the man. However I’d be happy to hear both individuals in audiobooks I experience in the future. 

If you are a person reading this who has read Moon Knight comics in the past? I highly recommend this book. If you have read the other books in this series? Keep going on and find out how the story continues. If however? You have no experience with Moon Knight? My highest recommendation would be to read the (2022 to present) Jed McKay run or watch the MCU Disney+ show for preference to get a more in-depth primer on Marc and company and then come back to this book. Its genuinely worth your time and if you are anything like me? You’ll soon be calling yourself a Moon Knight fan as the character and all his intricacies worm their way into your list of favourite comic characters. I also heartily recommend Mike Chen’s other work. As a writer? He is clearly committed to the craft while also being the best kind of fan writer. I look forward to reading his future projects (licensed or original) and in all honesty? If he was given the chance to write an arc for Venom or Moon Knight? I’d happily read either. 

Thank you to everyone for reading this! It has been a blast to come back and I hope to return again soon. Until then? I will be occupying my time in the Midnight Mission. Sayonara!, Nephrite.