Moon Knight, Volume 3: God & Country

Moon Knight (2006) (Collected Editions)

by Charlie Huston, Mike Benson, Mark Texeira (Illustrator)

Award-winning TV writer Mike Benson (Entourage) takes over the reins, with co-plotter Charlie Huston Moon Knight is back in the game - leaving a trail of broken bodies in his wake - and everyone wants to know the same thing: Who the hell gave this psycho a Registration Card? But no one wants to know more than the architect of the Initiative, Tony Stark. As the body count grows, the pressure to bring in the poster child for super-powered irresponsibility might grow too much for Stark to ignore. And when that happens?

Collecting: Moon Knight 14-20

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book

144 pages, Hardcover

First published November 19, 2008

About the author

Charlie Huston is an American novelist, screenwriter, and comic book writer known for his genre-blending storytelling and character-driven narratives. His twelve novels span crime, horror, and science fiction, and have been published by Ballantine, Del Rey, Mulholland, and Orion, with translations in nine languages. He is the creator of the Henry Thompson trilogy, beginning with Caught Stealing, which was announced in 2024 as a forthcoming film adaptation directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler. Huston’s stand-alone novels include The Shotgun Rule, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Sleepless, and Skinner. He also authored the vampire noir series Joe Pitt Casebooks while living in Manhattan and later California. Huston has written pilots for FX, FOX, Sony, and Tomorrow Studios, served as a writer and producer on FOX’s Gotham, and developed original projects such as Arcadia. In comics, he rebooted Moon Knight for Marvel, contributed to Ultimates Annual, and penned the Wolverine: The Best There Is series.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

2022



Black Specter vs. Moon Knight vs. Konshu = lots of blood and guts.
My favorite thing (besides the blood and guts) about this run is how beat-up Marc is throughout this whole thing. The guy's a fucking mess!

2017

In God and Country Spector's tenuous hold on reality starts to really slip, and his vigilante persona of Moon Knight begins to veer into seriously bad places again - threatening the already strained relationships that he'd just begun to build with old friends. To say nothing about how the general public is feeling about his...work.



On one hand, he has the media and community leaders calling for Tony Stark to rescind his SRA card, and on the other, his violent outbursts and odd/scary as hell behavior has (almost) everyone who cares about him running for the hills.



Which leaves him alone with Konshu...the antidote to all things calm and reasonable.
Add in a villain from his past who's looking to settle an old score by setting Marc up as a patsy, and you've got the recipe for a pretty bloody showdown.



This one was written by Mike Benson, so it doesn't quite read like the previous two volumes. BUT. Since Huston was still helping with the plot, I think it retained a mostly cohesive feel. Plus, I think Benson did a really good job in general with the story. It was full of the violent, insane moments that make me love this character, and I can't really ask for much more than that.



I'm pretty excited to see where all of Marc's big pile of crazy leads us to in the next volume!

[Christy Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moon Knight has a license to protect and serve so to speak. He really seeks retribution in the most violent ways. Until someone starts signing their work just like him. Now everyone is up and arms - including Tony Stark, who can’t figure out how Moon Knight got a license in the first place - about Moon Knight’s most violent kills.

Moon Knight is very much like a crazy version of the Punisher. Marc is definitely trying his best to be good and fight the uglier desires of Khonshu. I feel for Marc, who truly wants to be a hero and has quite a fight ahead of him. No one believes he can be a hero. The artistry is intense and horrifically beautiful. I have enjoyed this series so far. I’ve read the free ones on Kindle Unlimited so far. There are two more that I would need to purchase in this series of five. It very well may be worth it.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Benson couldn't really decide what he wanted this story to be. Is it about Moon Knight being frames? Is it about being too violent to be sanctioned as a superhero? Is it about Spector's descent into madness, talking to Khonshu all the time? It tries to be all these things and only partially succeeds. I did like the art quite a bit. Mark Texiera and Javier Saltares from the 90's Ghost Rider comic handle the art and it looks great.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was pretty good. The new totally psychotic Moon Knight takes some getting used to, however. I always liked the character, who is basically Marvel's Batman. So in a way, you get to read what would happen if Batman finally went over the edge.

In this particular volume Moon Knight is being framed by an adversary, but really he's nutty enough framing wouldn't have been necessary. He would have eventually done something crazy enough on his own. I've been a fan of Mark Texeira every since Ghost Rider, and if anything I think he's gotten better. He can paint some sexy women as well as great action scenes.

Overall if you like Moon Knight you'll like this volume. Some parts are a bit confusing, as has been the case with me ever since Moon Knight was relaunched post 2000, but overall a good read.

[Frédéric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know who the antagonist of this arc is, but it doesn't really matter. It's an explosion of violence on a tense and nervous plot with a logical ending that's almost funny in its matter-of-fact resolution. The dialogue/monologues are as gritty as the atmosphere, a delight!

Mark Texeira takes over the layouts from Javier Saltares. Honestly, it's not Texeira's best work, but for one thing, it's better than a lot of dabblers, and for another, it's made up for very well by Dan Brown's excellent colours.

There's a concluding episode with Werewolf by night, superbly illustrated by Mike Deodato, who is the perfect artist for this kind of story.

[Little Timmy · Rating 2 out of 5]

yep this series is destroying one of my favorite comic characters. Apparently the thing to do is turn them into violent psychopaths. I will finish the final volume just to see how they end this series but not one of my favorites. not recommended

[Anthony · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a little surprised Marvel published this for 6 issues. The writing seems amateurish. It's written by someone who has worked in TV, but I think that works to its disadvantage. He often uses sentences that don't have a beginning, like we're coming in at the middle of something, but it doesn't work. It just makes it harder to read. There's also the overall arc. Moon Knight was being set up for murders, therefore making the public question his liability as a registered super hero. Was the whole point of the arc to show that Moon Knight isn't afraid to cross the line of killing? Thus forever placing him in the role of the vigilante, instead of the hero? Because if it's not, then I have no idea. And if it was, it's something that wasn't addressed very well. And then the art. I'm not a fan of it. It's seems like it's a pastel style, like in between Finch and Maleev, but it doesn't look nice. It also didn't improve and already mediocre story.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was much better than volume 2 I don't know what was going through the writers head when they wrote the previous volume. This was much more solid and cohesive and I enjoyed it much more.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing & art combine to make... A mess I can't follow. I don't know who is who, what the overall "conflict" is, why there's so much whining and arguing going on, or who is getting hurt or killed. I have a suspicion that I should recognise some of these faces or names, and that this stuff should *mean* something more to me than it does.

All the first six issues in this book meant to me is slogging through more half-assed maudlin agony and self-flagellation, and no better idea why we're still reading the same storyline (man is crazy, agonised and unwilling to be good *or* bad) in the third book (after two just like this).

At least Deodato's art on the last issue makes it easier to follow the storyline. In fact, the Benson-only writing in the last issue almost redeems the rest of the book. Could be that Deodato's art makes the writing clearer and more compelling - or that Benson's writing just gets UN-muddled once free of all of Huston's pretensions and legacy. If not for this last issue, I'd have stopped reading - but now I have reason to check on Vol 4. The last issue pulls this book from a 1.5 star rating up to a 3.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Moon Knight Vol. 3 God & Country collects issues 14-20 of the Marvel Comics series written by Mike Benson and art by Mark Texeira and Javier Saltares.

Mark Spector aka Moon Knight has been approved by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Registration Act to be a masked hero. But someone is framing Moon Knights as a violent and dangerous hero and the public, and Iron Man, are demanding answers.

Maybe it's just me but I find this book to be incredibly boring. It will pick up for a couple pages and then boom. Right back to boring. I don't know if I just don't find the character interesting or if it has been the creative teams.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I want to say I have no words to express how much I hated this but I actually have a lot of words to express how much I hated this.

Moon Knight, Volume 1: The Bottom was the first volume of Moon Knight I read and honestly hated it. Thankfully there are other Moon Knight runs that are actually great (and then more that suck lol). But as I've read all of them now, I figured might as well go back to this run. Not really a good idea rip.

The legacy of this run is just awful. This shit is where "Moon Knight is a violent psychopath" came from that people still hold up even though most of the other runs were just him being bonkers but not a completely violent psychopath. This was so gross for no reason lol like dude is carving crescents into people's foreheads and just randomly killing? None of it was even explained WHY he was doing the things he does in here.

I don't know maybe I'm just not into the super violent stuff but it was just boring and stupid. The best part of Moon Knight is his alters and dealing with his mental illness but also being a vigilante. Not whatever this was.

This character is really at his worst here and I guess that is what it's going for but it doesn't make for fun reading. He's a complete asshole who yells at and treats everyone like shit, not including the random torture which is gross.

The art in this volume was better to look at than the last volumes but also it was fucking trash. I don't think this man has ever seen a woman before because in one panel a woman had a crazy long back and looked like a snake?? And then in the next panel her waist was insanely tiny but no worries, she had big tits. All of the women in here had large ones actually and lots of cleavage which... okay but at least make them actually proportionate instead of looking like caricatures.

I don't know why I'm saying all the women in here like there was really any other besides Marlene who existed just to get yelled at by Marc and then sleep with him lmao. A character even made a comment about her shirt having too much cleavage but the creators being self aware doesn't make it any less trash. Draw women as actual people not sex objects thanks.

Absolutely hated Khonshu in this. His attitude and the fact he was a controlling raging dick was actually fine, 10/10 but the fact his appearance was Bushman with his face peeled off was just gross. I would like to see the bird man smh.

One thing in the art (and the only thing) I will give praise to is that in some reflections of Marc in normal clothes, the reflection would be Moon Knight and that's the good stuff.

All of the male characters looked the same. I seriously had no idea who the fuck was who or what was even happening most of the time. Maybe I'm just a dumbass but it wasn't clear at all and then it wasn't even interesting. Bad guy using Marc's violent calling card to frame him for murders? Iron Man wants to take back Marc's illegally gotten registration card? Okay. Plot bad, dialogue terrible too.

There wasn't even any resolution in here?? What was even the point? The issue with the werewolf by night was cool though but the rest of this can choke.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid follow-up to the last volume by new writer, but it still lacks in final story beats.

Moon Knight is going around beating the living shit out of criminals. That's kind of his thing. But he goes pretty brutal, leaving marks on them as well. However, Stark isn't a fan of that. Especially after Moon Knight passed the registration act test. At same time a old baddie is back from Moon Knight's past, and he wants some revenge.

Overall, the first half is actually great. All the interactions, call backs, and set up work really well. Even with Moon Knights villain. It's the final two issues or so it feels like a lackluster way to end it all, and curious if too many plotlines was too much for this writer. Art stays solid enough.

A 3 out of 5.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where do I begin? God & Country really felt like a middle of the road book for me. I tend to enjoy Moon Knight books a lot. I wasn't super impressed with this one though. It does a nice job following up on the previous volume, in which Marc Spector is issued a superhuman registration card following the events of Civil War. There is some backlash for his actions given his status. Throw in the fact that someone is committing murders and framing Moon Knight and the tension gets raised.

In the end, this book felt disjointed though. Once it pushes past the registration thing, it loses steam. Marc isn't handling his situation very well and all the people he has relied on to keep him sane start shutting him out. His situation sort of mirrors this volumes place in the series. They are both sort of drifting. I liked the art though. It carries over the tone of this run from the first two volumes very well. Even if I didn't like this character so much, I would still give the next volume of the series a chance.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great volume. Gritty, dirty, violent craziness in she shadow of Civil War. The whole story worked very well. Fantastic art is the cherry on top! Moon Knight has always been one of my favorites and this volume is one of the reasons why.

[Mitch Kukulka · Rating 2 out of 5]

The love I feel for Moon Knight is matched only by the disappointment I feel after read what seems like the majority of the work done on the character in recent years.

[Katherine (Kat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 Stars
Individual issue ratings below -

Moon Knight #14: 3.5/5
Moon Knight #15: 2.5/5
Moon Knight #16: 3.5/5
Moon Knight #17: 2.5/5
Moon Knight #18: 5/5
Moon Knight #19: 4/5
Moon Knight #20: 4/5

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite it's low rating, I first want to say that I am still proud of the fact that I bought this graphic novel at $3 when the regular retail price is $20.

Anyway, I think part of the problem I had with this volume is that I am unfamiliar with Moon Knight. I'd never read any of his comics before, and that probably contributed to the fact that for most of the time I was completely lost. Far too many characters seemed to pop out of nowhere with no explanation of who they are or why they are even vaguely important. Also, ironically for a character that seems to revolve around introspection and inner-conflict, I felt like I didn't know enough about the character's thoughts.
The story did pick up near the end, when Moon Knight comes into direct conflict with Black Spectre. Furthermore, the final comic in this novel, #20 "In the Company of Wolves", did not fit with the rest plotwise, but I felt it was the strongest of the volume. The action was crisp and tense.
This Moon Knight collection ended on a good note, but overall fell short.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Focusing on Moon Knight's interaction with the Superhero Registration Program is a great basis for this comic, which also continues Huston's dark, gritty storytelling. Unfortunately, the artwork also continues to be very muddy and the storyline continues to be mired in Moon Knight's continuity without any explanation. The overall result is that I can barely tell what's going on. So, I sort of like this volume, but it's confusing enough that I can't really like it.

[Bobby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just all kinds of a sloppy mess. Moon Knight deserves better.

[Andrei · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A man's life. Such a fragile thing. He spends it trying to find a way to leave something behind. To build some glory that will give it meaning and value. Spending his time, trying to make it shine like a knight's armor. Striving, you know? To be special. Stand forth from the masses. A man doing his best. Trying to make some kind of impression. It's almost touching."

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

The moon is definitely waning here. The weakest volume by far, a series of unfortunate events and people shouting at one a other. If you thought Daredevil was bad about alienating and pushing away his allies, MK does it in record time. The only main antagonist of this vol seems undercooked, as it's about revenge once again, in a comic campy way. The art reminds me of a discount and lesser Mike Grell, and it wasn't up to the bar set by Finch. There's maybe two scenes out of the whole arc I really felt something for, and they are both tied to willpower and sacrifice. I'm tempted to stop here and move onto better MK material

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

See my review for volume 2 for a more info on my analysis of this series. Benson does all right picking up after Huston, but the writing isn't as sharp. On a side note, I appreciate how each writer in MK's history has, more and more, focused on the mental illness and how it affects Spector in all aspects of his life. MK is really unique in all of superhero comics because of that defining characteristic.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had given up on this series back in the day after I hated the second story arc, and while a lot of what I didn't like then is still here, there's a sharp improvement. The art is strong, the action and mood is dark and violent, feeling incredibly grounded. I mean, grounded for a Moon Knight. The characterizations are unlikable, though, and I could see myself getting tired of everyone being a jerk to everyone after awhile.

[Dylan DeVita · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like this arc was a return to form for the book. It was far more engaging to me for a few reasons. It is interesting seeing Moon Knights public perception and how he interacts with the larger Marvel universe specifically in the Civil War era. But what makes it even more engaging is that this is also a personal story for Marc. If he wants to continue being Moon Knight he HAS to register. This should make him a hero then right? Something Marc has desperately wanted since the beginning of this run? Well not exactly. Khonshu uses this as an opportunity to still push Marc towards his darker nature. Marc refuses to give in. But it doesn’t even matter because he’s being framed for gruesome attacks and murders by Black Spectre. The public fears him and thinks him a monster. I thought Black Spectre was a great way to juxtapose Marc’s arc in this story. They both have opportunities to be different men and both certainly fail. But Marc still won’t cross the line that he crossed with Bushman. Spectre does and you see what it does to his psyche. This story is really suspenseful I was dying ti read each issue to see what happens next. I think the ending was pretty cool too. Yes Marc does end up seemingly taking another life but he doesn’t give in to his viciousness and brutality. He just pushes Spectre off the roof to save the citizens attending the parade. So you could see it as heroic in sense. He sacrifices his own moral his shot at being perceived as a hero to save innocent lives.
Now this is just a personal preference but the art really threw me off in this volume. Some of it I liked and some of it I really did not. But regardless I personally am just not the biggest fan of when a title changes artists and colorist so frequently. I felt like every issue or 2 the art was changing and for me it’s really disorienting. It makes it so hard to maintain continuity in my head so that’s probably the biggest criticism I have but again that’s more of a personal thing.

[Iain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Neither good nor bad really... indifferent. This one feels like the creative team already did what they wanted to, and now they're just kind of wandering the landscape that was set up by the civil war event.

Some good art here, and some less good.

Kind of seems like so little of significance really happens here that even giving a basic gist of it is a spoiler, so be warned I guess.

Marc conned his way into a registration card, then immediately went right back to behavior that would clearly disqualify him for a card, so what was the point. The public is horrified, Stark is outraged, so it's obvious Moon Knight is going to get... a stern talking to.

Almost the entire volume is Marc going back and forth between talking about wanting to be a hero and acting like a villain, and he's more or less an insufferable jerk to everyone he meets: the longtime servants who watched a news report he didn't like, the waitress at a diner, all will feel his wrath. I suppose the whole point here is that we're not even supposed to root for the protagonist here; instead we're exploring what happens when a previously established hero finds himself unable to act like a hero even though he still wants to be one. I guess that's not a bad idea for a story, but turns out what happens is that he pisses everyone off, abuses his friends, and generally acts unhinged. Not that interesting.

The final issue is a complete change of direction and feels like it could be a story from the 80s run. The alternate identities are back, working as a team with Marlene is back, non-psycho Marc is back, and even Frenchie's back piloting the mooncopter instead of Ray, all without explanation. A hallucinatory tale of the life Marc wants to return to? I guess.

I didn't hate it, but it just feels like things ran out of steam.

[Natalie (Rosie) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume is just Marc fighting to be his own person but having to deal with the increasing pressure from Khonsu to be violent. Marc is in a terrible physical and mental condition this entire volume. He is fighting his past, and worst, tendencies and is losing. The entire volume everything about Marc screams desperation. Jean-Paul becomes distant with Marc because he believes people that stay around Marc get hurt. Marc is trying to cling on to everyone but he is also unstable and he knows it.

It’s interesting to see Black Spectre VS Moon Knight because they are so incredibly similar to each other. The have different goals and intentions, but their methods are so similar in ways they didn’t used to be. Marc is looking at a darker reflection of himself.



Art style so much better than the previous volume - in my opinion.
I wish Marlene had more of a role. In previous Moon Knight runs Marlene was part of the fight and showed her intelligence and skill so much more. She was still a side character, but she was more than a love interest. In this run Marlene is used more as a tool to show the progress and character arc of Marc rather than getting her own character arc. I find that a little disappointing. I hope in the next volumes that changes.

[Jimbo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moon Knight has been a favorite of mine for a since he first appeared by in Werewolf by Night #32. Somehow through all of his iterations, his character got lost and mixed up and he went insane and the stories don't flow like other Marvel characters.

Marvel hasn't been consistent since the 80s but I do like that writers and artists are given the opportunity to rethink the world of Marvel. Somethings I like, others are not so great.

Moon Knight has been put through a blender and although many think that he is just another Batman wannabe, or Darsotredevil with an ancient god pulling his strings--he had a unique way of handling the bad guys.

This collection was more adult in terms of the violence within, and he was crazy talking to his god who spend the entire time telling him he had to sacrifice and kill for him. It kind of left me a little unhappy about the old Marc Spector, but I have to say, up till the final story in the book--it was compelling and well done. Not my old Moon Knight (really they should have created a new anti-hero rather than stick this with Moon Knight--but Benson and Huston, Saltares and Texeira did a great job of dark storytelling.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has been a pretty grim book and this was sort of a climax of this particular arc. Moon Knight has been haunted by a very macabre version of Konshu and as he tries to work through his own stuff, it also appears he's being maneuvered by someone else - including being framed for assaults he hasn't done. And in a post-Civil War era, everyone's particularly sensitive to heroes crossing the lines.

Things came to a head but it wasn't particularly impactful for some reason? Maybe it was just me, but it didn't quite land given all the build-up across these volumes. And the big SHIELD-related ending is a nice enough setup for the next phase in this story, but I'm still not 100% sure where it's going to go since Marc is in a bad place on so many levels.

[¥uri ݁˖☘︎✟⚚☕︎݁˖ · Rating 3 out of 5]

People always complain about villains never dying or always getting reused in comic books, but I would argue that's a great thing. Here we have a good example of why the contrary doesn't work. Every second spent on the villain of this book felt like a waste of time. It wasn't even badly written. I thought that the conclusion was actually pretty heartbreaking. But I know, and you know, that that guy isn't ever coming back. So all the work put into building him up is going to get wasted for all the many and many decades to come, while Moon Knight keeps kicking around. And that's honestly frustrating. Killing isn't even Moon Knight's main MO. He just does it here and there. But somehow his main villains are always the first ones to go. It's pretty annoying.

[Darkcharade · Rating 4 out of 5]

First it should be noted that if you're following the tpb an issue is skipped. Unfortunately that issue sets up the entire basis for all of these. It was likely because of the artist change. On that note as well there's been another change leading into these which makes a confusing story harder to follow. Ignoring those issues however this was a great story Arc that takes place during the marvel civil war era and really showcases this characters depth. With more action than the last installment and a spectacular ending if it wasn't for the aforementioned issues I would've given it a 5.