Moon Knight Vol 2. Dead Will Rise (Review)

We’re back with another Moon Knight post! It’s been seemingly forever since I did one of these (I’ve been pretty much knee deep in the A Dead Djinn Universe the last couple weeks), and considering the Moon Knight show on Disney+ has uh . . . (ahem) wrapped up, I wasn’t sure when it would make sense to do another one.

But all who are mighty shall bow down before the divine authority that is a library due date lest they face the WRATH OF THE $5 FINE!

Or in other words, I quick read this one during a lunch break so it wouldn’t be overdue. I think my last foray into these comics was with the proceeding volume of this run, Warren Ellis‘ debut with the character in Moon Knight Vol 1: From the Dead. I’m not entirely sure how crediting works in comics go, but Brian Wood seems to be the main name associated with this volume (#2): Dead Will Rise.

Overall Reaction:

Overall, I thought this was a pretty straightforward Moon Knight experience. The character is still a bit of a loaner with side kicks Frenchie, Marlene and Crawley noticeably absent. Marc’s other personalities reprise their roles though and the Moon Knight we see appears to have gained some new gadgets (scarab drones lol) and a burgeoning moral compass. The Moon Knight seems to have any physical conflict well in hand, taking down single foes with ease, however his inner conflicts are not so easily pushed aside.

This would seem a bit of a course correction from the Ellis edition which relied heavily on a more surreal art style, and an extreme amount of violence, to present a pretty amoral hero who only barely cared about things like justice or protecting the innocent.

Or, it might be that — just like the duality noted in epithets of the real Ancient Egyptian god Khonsu — Moon Knight is both protector/healer, and bloodthirsty demon (who lives on hearts yummm), and now that we have seen the darkness in the Ellis books, it’s time to see some heroism.

Other Connections

Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton here. We only get one brief visit back to Egypt at the Pyramid of Giza, in which we see Khonshu’s statue (in a similar inaccuracy to those made in Moon Knight Episode 3 – The Friendly Type), but ultimately the story does not linger there long, and there were no other references to Ancient Egyptians that we hadn’t already seen (that I noted anyway).

Another possible thing of note, was the use of Marc’s alternates in this volume. I mentioned that much of the violence was turned down in this arc, but there was still one instance of needlessly excessive force which happens during a hostage situation early on. Each of the alters are working to resolve the situation in a kind of revolving door of expertise, and when the enemy is finally confronted, he is “disarmed” (literally both his arms are broken) by Lockely. It’s assumed that while this foe is rendered — quite brutally — incapacitated, that he will live to stand trial. But the final panel shows Moon Knight covered in more blood implying that Lockley went further, even though the job was seemingly finished.

For me this was interesting because one of the main changes the show made, was to make Lockley’s character a kind of brutal assassin. It seemed to come as a surprise to everyone (check out reactions in my posts on Episode 4 – The Tomb, and the finale Episode 6 – Gods and Monsters) since in the early days of Moon Knight, the Lockely persona was just a cabbie, used almost exclusively for finding information and talking with informants. Perhaps we are seeing the origin of the show’s version of Lockely in these few panes.

Finally, I did think that Marc and Khonshu’s relationship in this volume took on some more interesting complexity which leads the way for the dynamic we’ll see later in the Jeff Lemire run.

So . . . Read?

I’d say yes. I’ve fallen pretty deep into the Moon Knight hole by this point so I like to look for all the little nuances etc, but even if it’s your first take on the character, I think it’s a pretty straightforward and enjoyable story with some moral questions and lots of tension.

What did y’all think? Leave your comments in the . . . well the comments section!

See you next time!

A Review of “The Haunting of Tram Car 015” By P. Djeli Clark

Still making my way through P. Djeli Clark’s A Dead Djinn Universe stories in anticipation of A Master of Djinn.

The first story in the series — from which the “universe” gets its name — A Dead Djinn in Cairo, left me wondering how I’d missed it back in 2016. A thoroughly steampunk Cairo, reimagined as a city of equal or greater prominence than western cities like New York or London. Egypt is at the heart of the mechanical and magical advancements of the early 1900s and as we investigate a mystical Djinn’s murder, we dive deeper into a city which contends with cults to ancient Egyptian Gods, more Djinn, mysterious Marid and Angels.

The Angel of Khan el-Khalili was a much shorter stay in this unique setting. Clarke uses the (I guess) controversial 2nd person point of view to put us in the mind of a young girl on very a personal mission. The magic and wonder of the world show through brightly, and we’re able to learn just a bit more about the mysterious Angels presented in the first story. There’s a bit of a twist which I enjoyed (but won’t spoil) and I was generally really impressed with this little bite sized glimpse into the setting.

But what about the tram car?

Yes! This review is of The Haunting of Tram Car 015. This trip into steampunk Cairo was a little less enchanting for me than my first outing in A Dead Djinn in Cairo. We are introduced to a new main character (well really two new MC’s although we only get POV of one), this time a man, who also works for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities. Hamed Nasr lacks the style and pizazz of A Dead Djinn‘s main character, Fatma el-Sha’arawi, but does his best working lower profile cases. He’s experienced, diligent, and thorough, which means he’s a reliable man for the job, if not necessarily an exciting one.

This perhaps brings me to my first negative critique of the piece. Hamed is meant to be showing the other MC (Onsi Youssef) the ropes and instructing him in the ways of detection etc. However, it felt like Onsi’s ingenuity and wit progressed the case more than anything Hamed did, and Onsi’s schemes — however seemingly naïve — also provided significantly more humor as well. I know many detective stories will pair a ‘straight man’ with a funnier character for laughs, but the more sensible character still needs to pull us in if they’re in fact the hero. I never felt I was reading to see Hamed succeed so much as to see what new hijinks Onsi would come up with.

Next we consider the main thrust of the plot, the haunted tram car, 015. I enjoyed this plot for several reasons, the first being its uniqueness in terms of place. We are all very familiar with houses being haunted, or asylums, or maybe an old ship out at sea, but I think this is my first reading of a haunted tram car (unless we count One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston which isn’t really framed as a haunting in the traditional sense). It seems as good a place as any for a spirit to reside and seemed to fit the rest of the setting very well.

The type of spirit (which I won’t spoil) also serves to make the world of this universe that much larger which for me was good and bad. I always appreciate learning about a new mythology which I haven’t been exposed to before, but in this case I kind of wish we had continued to explore the mythology founded in A Dead Djinn before importing something new.

Finally, we get to the pivotal scene, which I also will try not to spoil (too much), but will say that I thought the imagery quite funny to imagine while still being rife with tension. The progress of women’s rights in this reimagined Cairo, given just a passing nod in the beginning of the story, and mentioned here and there throughout the rest of the story, ended up being the platform on which the whole finale takes place. I hope to someday be able to employ a similar trick in my own writing. It felt that good.

Recommend?

In general, yes I’d recommend this story, but with the caveat that if you’re looking for another Dead Djinn in Cairo, you may be a little disappointed. The Haunting of Tram Car 015 is very much its own story even though it is set in the same universe. Though there is some crossover (we do actually share a dessert with Fatama in one scene), Onsi Hamed is the star of his own adventure.

It will be interesting to see what if any connections will be drawn from Tram Car 015 once I finally get to A Master of Djinn.

In the meantime, what did y’all think of this story? Were you able to guess who what kind of spirit was haunting the tram? Who was your favorite character? What made you laugh? Leave me some comments so we can chat. Looking forward to discussion on this one!

Review: The Angel of Khan el-Khalili by P. Djeli Clark

Oof. WordPress is telling me that my last post was my July (2022) newsletter preview a full 17 days ago!! Yikes.

In my defense, I was on vacation from like the 1st through the 10th with family, and then I was going to write Tuesday night and post on Wednesday but fate had other plans.

A huge storm rolled through and knocked out the power at 6pm Tuesday night and it was not restored until after 6pm Wednesday night (a full 24 hr blackout). I had no wifi, very little running water, and I did not dare even open my refrigerator for fear that everything would spoil immediately.

It’s amazing how little you feel like do anything productive when even taking a shower becomes a whole project.

Anyway, everything is turned back on now (although I still had no cold water this morning, only scorching hot water), and I don’t really have many more excuses to put off writing so . . . Here we go!

The Paragraph I originally Wrote Pre-Power Outage:

While it seems like TV/movie viewers might be souring on interconnected universes, there seems to be plenty of energy left for them in books and literature, especially in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres. Authors like Brandon Sanderson have used interconnected series, novels, novellas, and short stories, to weave a vast universe of fiction for which the term (Cosmere) “conquest” is an appropriate moniker for any readers attempting to remain “caught up”.

The Dead Djinn universe, written by P. Djeli Clark, does not have anywhere near the amount of entries, but is already making good use of a mixture of styles and story lengths to keep things fresh.

A Dead Djinn in Cairo introduced us to Special Investigator (for the  Egyptian Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments, and Supernatural Entities) Fatma el-Sha’arawi, and showed us the magic and wonder of a Steampunk Cairo. This second story, leaves behind much of what we learned about in the first story and gives us a laser focus on one of the more mysterious elements of this universe, Angels.

The Next Part I Added After the Power Outage:

We experience the tale through our own eyes with a 2nd person narration. Typically I do not really enjoy this style as I usually can’t help but feel like I’m being manipulated (or as it’s used in Harrow the Ninth, straight up gaslit) by the author, but I felt its use in this story actually felt quite natural.

My writer brain also shies away from 2nd person because simple things like describing what the main character (you) looks like, becomes a complicated and clunky task. Hiding the necessary backstory for a surprising plot twist? Impossible (for me) as the character (again you) has to just willfully ignore their own history (first person can have this problem also). This has never seemed all that plausible to me.

However, it’s clear from the outset that with this story, it is more about experiencing the world than anything else. You (how does it feel lol) end up being so wrapped up in the unknown, that there isn’t much chance to ponder everything that a character would know about themselves but you don’t cause you’re new to the story.

I mentioned a plot twist earlier, and while I won’t give it away, I will say that the deft handling of this element of the story was one of its more enjoyable aspects.

Finally, considering these stories are related, and don’t exist in a vacuum, I’m left wondering how the characters we meet in this tale will (or maybe won’t) reappear later on in the Dead Djinn universe.

Recommendation?

Yep! We’ll see how these interconnected stories progress, but right now, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili seems a pretty low stakes but enjoyable glimpse into the Dead Djinn universe. It does an excellent job introducing us to the world, intrigues us with its mystery and magic, and then gives us a nice twist which leaves us thinking afterward.

Plus, at 32 pages, it’s a pretty short read, so no time lost if it’s not your cup of tea. I definitely give this one my whole hearted recommendation.

I’m looking forward to seeing how things progress in the next installment, The Haunting of Tram Car 015.

Well that’s all I have for now. Have any of you read this? What were your thoughts? What are you most looking forward to seeing in the next installment? Let me know in the comments.

Update 8/8/2022 – Apparently Khan El-Kahlili is a real place. An actual market in Cairo that was built as part of a tomb reconstruction in the 13th century. It’s famous for its architecture (arches particularly) and the sheer amount of stuff available to purchase. Today. I. Learned.