Avengers #36 Review: This Book is Baffling

The escalation of Moon Knight into some kind of world-ending power continues in its baffling inexorability, despite any logic or sanity that might hope to stop it. Most of this issue, Marc Spector (Moon Knight's legal name, for anyone who missed it) trades punches with T'Challa, which on its surface sounds insane (T'Challa the Black Panther is a Captain America level power capable of bench pressing 800 pounds) until you remember that the ancient Egyptian moon god Khonshu has empowered someone from a different tradition to be more impressive. There are some side steps with the new watchful presence on the moon, a weird interlude with Iron Man and Captain Marvel (do they hate each other? Like each other? Their whole vibe together is off-putting).

Look … it's hard coming up with actual villains for heroes to fight, actual real threats big enough to warrant the entire Avengers roster, which is now a murderer's row of powers and talents. That's fine. Korvac, the Skrulls, the Kree, the Celestials … it's all been done. Sure. You turn to heroes, but shoot, even the ones with the groovy visual design are jobbers, so you level them up with implausible means. Whatever. That's what they pay you to do, that's what you do. It's part of why there are so many evil Batmen and not, you know, actual new villains.

The last page twist, however … it just doesn't add up. Beyond the wholly implausible way things haven't added up before. This dips into a whole new level of shenanigans, like Megan Thee Stallion suddenly breaking out and performing the entirety of Phantom of the Opera, all the parts. It's getting into somebody else's lane in a way that doesn't fit. If everybody who had this power before shared a common thread, and you're in polyester, chances are this ain't for you to go colonize, baby.

Nonetheless, here we are. The art team does their best to wrangle this messy narrative, creating visceral fight scenes (the panel with somebody punching themself was actually really good) but it's just too much. Let's just get done with this and pretend it never happened. RATING: NO. JUST … NO.

Avengers #36