Moon Knight, Volume 5: Down South

Moon Knight (2006) (Collected Editions)

by Mike Benson, Jefte Palo (Artist)

Out of the frying pan... into the inferno. Marc Spector may be dead, but Moon Knight is very much alive. Hiding out in the dark underbelly of Mexico City, trouble quickly finds the fugitive vigilante when a mysterious millionaire begs him to ensure the safe return of his kidnapped daughter. Problem is, the girl is in the clutches of corrupt cops that are currently in the crosshairs of a vigilante whose methods make even Khonshu blink. The Punisher has come down to Mexico, and God help anyone who gets between him and his prey.

Collecting: Moon Knight 26-30

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

120 pages, Hardcover

First published July 22, 2009

About the author

Mike Benson is an American television writer and show runner, who has also been writing comics for Marvel Comics.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

2022



This is still my favorite version of Moon Knight.
Huston set the bar high with that first volume and it had to be hard for another writer to come in and finish it out. So even if I wish this entire run could have been written by him, I really feel like Benson did a good job with the finale.


2017
Marc Spector is dead, but Jake Lockley is alive and well in Mexico.
Oh, and some other guy is there, too...



Spector/Lockley is still fighting Konshu when he gets an invitation to save the leader of a Mexican cartel's daughter from some corrupt shadowy people.
Enter Punisher, the Zapata Bros, and some crazy dude with a big ass machete (Toltec?). Stir it all around and you've got a pretty good mob/crime/revenge story. Ish.


I know Punisher is the big name guest star, but the Zapata brothers were hilariously AWESOME. I mean, even though they were bad guys they stole the show. Loved them! Just wanted to stick 'em in my purse and take both home with me.



For a wrap-up volume, this wasn't bad at all. And while I still want more Moon Knight, Benson manages a satisfying conclusion to what Huston started with The Bottom. <--good stuff!
Still not sure who the dude with the big machete was or what he was doing, but it was a very cool finale for this particular run.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

"And now as I wander - my thoughts ever stray,
South of the border - down Mexico way."
-- lyrics by Michael Carr & Jimmy Kennedy

A bait-and-switch warning -- although the cover art suggests all kinds of kick-assery featuring an action-packed team-up of the Punisher and Moon Knight, the Punisher's only real involvement is a staid conversation scene (?!) taking up only two pages in the final chapter. In fact, even Moon Knight himself is largely absent from the storyline. Most of the heavy lifting here is performed by grizzled alter ego Jake Lockley in a crime story - with Lockley breaking a drug baron's appealing daughter out of a Mexican prison, and then going on the run with her while they avoid incompetent hit men and the usual double-crosses around every corner - that will seem maybe too familiar to anyone who has watched movies by directors like Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, etc. in the last thirty years.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marc Spector has faked his death and is hiding out in Mexico as Jake Lockley. Craziness abounds after he is hired to rescue a rich man's daughter from a prison. The Punisher lurks around each issue without ever teaming up with Moon Knight. The Zapato bros are the star of the show. They are two brother luchadores who also hire themselves out as muscle. They are hilarious and awesome. Jefte Palo's art is different. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I don't.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often found V3 of Moon Knight muddy, and it was overall uneven, but this final book seems to get the comic's groove back. Moon Knight in a dark and gritty Mexico is a great, as he finds that things aren't always as simple as they seem. Meanwhile, the bro-bro brothers are great comic relief, great foes, and great multidimensional characters. Overall, this is a pretty solid Moon-Knight-at-his-lowest ebb, because it's a thoughtful darkness, not just angst.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the final volume of this particular Moon Knight series, and while it wasn't great, it was good. Moon Knight has abandoned his Marc Spektor identity and is going by a different persona. He's still crazy, just not quite as much as before. He's hiding out in Mexico and ends up in a prison break fiasco along with The Punisher. I've always liked the Punisher/Moon Knight team-ups because the characters work so well together.

A few things brought this volume down, however. Mark Texeira didn't do the art. The art was decent but not Texeira. There was a confusing storyline with this satanic vigilante. And also, there were two Luchadore (Mexican Wrestler) mercenaries who were just a little too campy.

Still, if you like Moon Knight and/or Punisher, this volume is work checking out.

[Katherine (Kat) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5 Stars
Hated the art in this Volume. Only good part were the Zapata Brothers.
Bro?!

Individual issues rated below -

Moon Knight #26: 2/5
Moon Knight #27: 2.5/5
Moon Knight #28: 2.5/5
Moon Knight #29: 2/5
Moon Knight #30: 3/5

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bro? Did you see that?

Seriously, this was the most fun this series had in awhile. Moon Knight takes a mission to save a girl. Punisher is after big time drug dealers. We have a native in Mexico just murdering villains. And we have two brothers, wrestlers, who get assigned to take out Moon Knight and get the girl. All of this comes to head in a hilarious fashion with fun fights, and a good ending.

Give me more of this wacky adventure type please.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moon Knight Vol. 5 Down South collects issues 26-30 of the Marvel Comics series written by Mike Benson with art by Jefte Palo.

Moon Knight realized that the only way he was going to escape being hunted down by Norman Osbourne, the Thunderbolts, and everyone else tied to the Superhuman Registration Act would be to kill off Marc Spector. Now he hiding in Mexico under the personality of Jake Lockley doing underground odd jobs and competing in fighting tournaments. He is approached by a wealth business owner to rescue his daughter from the clutches of Meixo's criminal underworld.

Wow. This was such a welcome departure to the rest of the series. It feel like it's a fresh new start so it's a shame it's the last entry in this volume. I lived the gritty feel to this book and it was much more of a coherent story. I lived the Luchadore Bros throughout the book as well. This was a very entertaining entry.

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read with our sad, flawed hero Moon Knight. The best thing about this book is it was extremely unpredictable. Many elements were set up that built-up tension nicely, and the resolution was almost anti-climatic, but I liked it because it was so strange and unexpected.

Seems like the on-going theme is that MK is a loser with serious mental problems.
His mental problems are one of the things that make him one of my favorite "Batman" reiterations, and the loser-dom gets a little old
though it does at least separate him from the gamut of other heros.

The art in this book was just passable in my opinion, but the humorous dialogue helped earn this 4 stars.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is actually funny how bad it was. My favorite has to be the bait & switch with the cover of this volume, and the covers of half the issues in here. A badass team up with the Punisher?? Uhh no. The Punisher shows up, lurks around, and really does fuck all the entire time. He never even interacts with Moon Knight besides a couple sentence conversation that serves no purpose in the last issue. Like seriously what was the point??? He doesn't do a damn thing???

Moon Knight has fled to Mexico and now goes by Jake Lockley (autocorrect changed his last name to pickles and you just had to know this). He gets hired by a rich man to break his daughter out of prison but then he gets betrayed and has to go on the run with her. Honestly this cartel crime story was fine? Maybe because I watched so many seasons of Narcos but it was quite different than the last volume (but also still pretty generic like why this).

It wasn't really done well though. For one Moon Knight isn't really in this. It's mostly just Jake until he puts his suit on in the last issue. That also led to nothing??? There was some random serial killer or something, ripping people apart on the street but it's literally Jake just walks away and doesn't do anything when they meet. I get it wasn't his problem and they were killing baddies but would have loved to know wtf the deal with that person was. Like there really felt like no conclusion. He put his suit on and then did nothing.

These two random brothers that get hired really steal the show and it was such a joke. The art was just so bad too oh my god. They literally could not remember what Carmen was wearing even a page later??? First she had jeans then she had jean shorts which turned into purple shorts (and an even shorter crop top for some reason hmm). The next volume she was wearing the jean shorts again and then it turned into jeans. Please note all of this is happening right on top of each other while on the run and her pants literally change mid scene it was so ridiculous.

Then there is news of Norman Osborn and his lame ass Thunderbolts getting promoted or something and why am I supposed to care? I love that the end of this run was as unsatisfying as the rest of it was.

I am so very glad I am done with this run. It has not been fun.

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

The laziness of the script is dizzying. The Punisher resolutly nothing and only serves to help sell the title. As for the Toltec guy he gives deus-ex-machina a bad name

Aside from that, there are the 2 hilarious luchadores who you end up adoring and a good dose of not unpleasant brutal action. Then there's Jefte Palo's drawing, an artist I don't think I've seen before but whose graphic style I really like, a bit in the style of Giuseppe Camuncoli. Hence this rounded up 2,5* guilty pleasure.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice solid revenge and twists story. Benson is really solid in the story of a guy with nothing to lose and lots of bad memories/spirits to haunt him. Reminds me of Ennis' work quite a bit.

The real treat tho is the funny pair of characters introduced into the Moon Knight pantheon. This kicked the book up into Matt Fraction territory for me.

The art is actually pretty damned good too. Very strong sense of kinetic style, and appealing to my artsy side. Couple of times I couldn't figure out if I was seeing Castle or Lockley, but it was overall well done. And the covers are amazing.

[Dean liapis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Love Punisher and love Moon Knight, two of my favorites, period. This book just... kind of sucks. Everything is in Mexico, out of costume, and Punisher is barely even a character here, he just runs around in the background. The "villains" are an old man, two brothers who say "bro" constantly (it's not really funny) and some crazy Aztec looking dude with no backstory and no dialogue. They rescue a girl, there's a twist you've seen in 1000 movies, and the whole thing is pretty unsatisfying on the whole.

Even my fanboyism couldnt save me on this one. Skip it.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much more sane Jake Locksley takes over here. A lot less violent as well. Still a good story.

[Clint · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a bummer this is the last volume. I wish there were more.

[Nirvana · Rating 4 out of 5]

this one was so cool man need to get a physical copy

[Cassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Getting a whole volume dedicated to Jake wound up being nice.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 3 out of 5]

The wrap-up for this run of the Moon Knight comic was...odd. Then again, where can you go after the last arc was tagged The Death of Marc Spector, right? So instead we have him south of the border in a story that doesn't connect the main arc because he has literally become another man.

This book has an unusual guest star in the form of The Punisher, but his role in things is ridiculously limited despite multiple appearances across the collected issues. It's just a lot of things thrown together and in the end, Moon Knight commits to going back "home".

Not the strongest ending to things, but I respect the effort to do something different.

[Darkcharade · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's no other way to put this. This installment was just bad. The art style completely changed, the tone changed, and the character changed. To top it all off this story was basically irrelevant. While there were small humorous (why is there humor now?) moments that bring some life to it plain and simple the story of the drug Lords daughter being rescued would've played out almost exactly the same without our main characters involvement. At least it looks like it'll lead into quite an interesting storyline next.

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Was wondering when you'd show up." — Punisher.

That's how this volume goes: when are we going to see some Moon Knight? Beyond a tease of his costume in a bag that he then appears to abandon? The answer is you have to wait a long time, and even then you don't really get anything you came for. Which is a problem, since this whole series has been about how unlikable Marc is, but the MK character design is so interesting that we keep trying to care about him. But now in this volume, Moon Knight is almost absent, Marc is "dead," and we're left with the more likable but still not that interesting Jake persona, brawling through a rough and tumble part of Mexico amongst supporting characters who are all more interesting than he is.

And yet, it's kind of entertaining, and I want to give it four stars? At least relative to the others. I'm coming away feeling positively about this one to a degree I didn't about the others. What's funny is that this is the best and the worst volume in this series:
• It's the worst Moon Knight comic, because MK is nearly absent.
• But it's the best as far as delivering some fun and humor, which was conspicuously absent in the four preceding volumes of gritty angst and whining. It's nice to meet someone you don't dislike after four volumes of everyone being somewhere between vacuous and rotten.
• But also it's the worst as far as how crafted it feels, because a lot of it does feel slapped together.

In the second volume of the series that started with the Ellis run, I started my review by pointing out the typos riddled throughout it, making it feel rushed out and unedited. This isn't nearly that bad, but in this final volume of the series I did spot a glaring typo toward the beginning, and it definitely gave the impression that the creative team was just bringing this plane in for a landing as quickly as possible before moving on to other things. That impression proved more or less true I think.

There's also just a lot of disinterest in how anything works, in what makes sense, and in continuity. The story introduces a pair of lucha libre mercenary bros who are surprisingly endearing and entertaining. But as we're first getting to know who they are and how they differ from each other, one of their masks is inconsistently colored, making their conversation and characterization difficult to follow.

While on the topic of the art, most here could be categorized as... stylized? But much of it lazily so, so that everything is left kind of looking like a rough draft and you're not always sure who you're looking at. Stark contrast from how things started out in volume 1. Some of it works and fits the mood though.

(I don't think anything in this paragraph is a spoiler unless you don't want to know any details about a brief car chase, but I'm going to mark it as a spoiler in part to keep it out of the way since it's just picky details.)
Later, their monster truck (because of course) is being pursued by a smaller pickup, so the monster truck... runs over it. It didn't stop and reverse over it, it didn't change directions significantly. Just... the small truck was behind it, firing a machine gun at its tail... and then in the next panel it's in front and being knocked over. Because whatever. Immediately after, an attack helicopter launches a rocket at its rear end... resulting in the monster truck being... tipped over on its side, with a broken windshield and no other damage. The occupants are fine. Afterwards, the two brothers, who are certainly heavily muscled but not presented as superhuman, push the monster truck back up onto its wheels. A quick search says the average pickup weighs about 5500lbs, and a full on monster truck is 10000lbs+, so assuming their daily driver monster truck is somewhere in between, we're still looking at about a 7000lb, 9 foot tall truck they manhandled. No explanation how, just who cares. In a way that's part of the fun here, that this is almost cartoonish, but it's taken too far.

And at one point Marc/Jake has to abandon his hotel room in a hurry, and it doesn't seem like there's any reason why he can't grab his bag on the way out, but he runs off empty-handed, leaving all of his Moon Knight gear behind. You'd think that was done for a purpose, to serve the story, but... later he has his bag and gear somehow, no explanation.

It's hard to get past a story feeling this phoned in. And yet if you can look past that, and past the lack of Moon Knight, and Jake really not being the source of the entertainment in this story, and Punisher being more of a cameo than the cover suggests, then you might find this is the most enjoyable volume of this series. Or you might not. Either way, this has little to do with anything that came before, none of it really matters outside of this story, some of it I'm not sure matters within the story. It's just Jake on a crazy adventure in Mexico.

For those wondering what the deal with the Toltec was, I personally think Khonshu answered that with one of his casual remarks toward the end: The Toltec is the avatar of a Toltec god, and Khonshu is jealous. I think that's about all we'll ever know about him and his role in this, and I guess it's all we need to know. Part of the charm of this confusing, unresolved-feeling story is that Jake probably doesn't know any more about what just happened than we do.

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some things I really liked in this book, namely the Zapatas brothers. Toltec had a cool design and it was great to see Moon Knight and the Punisher together again. The story about Latino gangsters didn't do much for me though. It felt disconnected from the rest of the series, but served as a decent capstone.

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Faking his death, retreating into another of his identities in Mexico, the concept is pretty good but it all gets too silly and clichéd. Obviously Mexico = drug lords and wacky luchador hitmen. It has its moments. Just not enough of them as this Moon Knight run limps along to an unsatisfying ending.

[Gabriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vast improvement over Vol 4 with the lo-fi art really servicing the story instead of detracting from it. The Luchadore Bro’s felt very Carl Hiassen-esque and would’ve loved more from the Toltec ,alas, this is all we got.

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yeesh, and I thought the last volumes art was bad....this was rough. It barely felt like a MK book, more of a generic gang warfare indie that somehow guest starred Marc Spector and Punisher. I was skimming a lot of this. What a weak ending to a run

[Jason Tanner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edit: I have written this whole thing and barely talked about the book in question, favoring a general opinion on this Moon Knight series as a whole. I'm not going back to fix it. These issues were fine, I guess. Some good ideas, some half-baked ones, middling-to-bad execution of most of them, and what was the point of Frank Castle being there again? The art was a little better than the last couple of volumes, but still not wonderful, and I don't really care for the monochromatic coloring style the book went with after issue 12 or so. (End of edit.)

So, having finally finished the Huston/Benson Moon Knight series, I think it's safe to say that the series probably should have ended after the conclusion to "The Bottom." The quality of the series dropped precipitously after that. As far as I can tell, Huston only had one thing to say, and Benson was just rehashing that same thing, only worse.

I may have had kinder things to say about Benson's work if the art wasn't dog-ugly for his entire run. Comics are a visual medium, and something is lost in the storytelling when the visual component is completely inadequate. And, to clarify, I am not opposed to stylized art, but I do have issues with not being able to tell who is who or what the f*** is going on.

Art aside, the whole thing went in circles when it came to the cast. Marc acts like a jerk to all of his supporting cast who he went through the first arc trying to win back. And then it was all just so pat when they apparently buried the hatchet. The relationship between Marc and Khonshu is inexplicable. Khonshu is needlessly antagonistic to the point where it's just annoying. He should have figured out at some point that just trolling Marc was not going to get him to fall in line. I mean, that was the goal right? Khonshu wanted Marc to actually do something, yes? Maybe apply some psychological strategy other than browbeating and annoying him?

The run wasn't wholly without highlights, though. The first 6 issues were gold. The issue where Mark got his Registration card was pretty good. The Thunderbolts conflict was fun. Marc putting on Bushman's face was...an interesting touch. (Too bad it didn't go anywhere.) And those high-fiving luchador bros were fantastic.

Too bad the whole thing was just half-baked.

That being said, this paved the way for Ellis and others to more effectively revitalize the character.

[¥uri ݁˖☘︎✟⚚☕︎݁˖ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moon Knight in Mexico is definitely unusual, lmao .

It did feel disconnected from the rest of the run, but even so, it was an enjoyable story. So, I cannot knock it too much, especially since I am also Latino, so I always enjoy getting a break from the same old New York while reading comic books.

Also, seeing how many covers the Punisher showed up in and how he was being teased right from the first issue of the book. You'd think that he and Mark would interact more. But nope! They barely see each other. If I'm being honest, the conversation they had earlier during this run was a thousand times cooler and more fascinating than anything they did together during this volume. But honestly, I won't complain. The covers with him and Mark together did look pretty cool. And false advertising in comics through covers is a long-running tradition that I hope won't die anytime soon. Keep clickbaiting us, Marvel. I'm not complaining

[Dylan DeVita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man this run really kind of went out with a whimper. Faking Marc’s death and moving him to Mexico to end it with this random cartel story with characters we’ve JUST met is certainly a choice. We don’t get much resolution for the side characters at least nothing too satisfying because they don’t even get to face Marc. This run had a lot of promise in the beginning but constant shift in focus and the interference from the larger Marvel universe really just made it feel like a mess. And if you’re just looking for some Moon Knight stories that you don’t need to think too much about or don’t mind not having a strong overarching narrative then you’d like this. The character is cool as always, a lot of the art is awesome, and the action is pretty brutal. But this just isn’t for me. Pretty disappointed.

[Kris Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was another solid read. I really enjoy this title, but fail to see why Marvel axed it just to get the spike in sales for another Issue 1. Marvel seems to be moving in the right direction, restoring the original numbering to their flagship titles, and this seems like a huge step backwards. On top of that, Issue 30 obviously points to the next arc, so why not just keep the series going? I love the Zapata Brothers, both as villains and allies in this arc. Their Facebook jokes were hilarious as well, and it would be nice to see them as a semi-regular feature in the title.

[Evalyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had so much potential - but honestly, the story line had so many plot holes in it and just didn't come together at all. I really liked the Toltec character design but he and Punisher could have been completely omitted from the story and it wouldn't have made much of a difference. It's just a really weak story with lots of ideals that don't actually pan out. The artwork was meh though the colorwork was really good.

[Nathan Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good. It had more of a Punisher feel to the story, although the Punisher himself was barely in it. Good end to this series, as it broke away from all the Civil War nonsense that dragged down the middle of the run for me. Just a solid crime story set in Mexico without a lot of complication, and some humorous touches amidst the darker subject matter. Jefte Palo has a nice touch, gritty and stonelike figures and faces with a lot of beautifully abstracted line work.