Saturday, April 30, 2022

Avengers (2018) #33-#38 (TPB): Age of Khonshu

I read this TPB because the "Age of Khonshu" is frequently discussed in "Moon Knight."  But, all reading this story did was make me feel pretty good about my decision to drop this title.  Jesus, these issues are awful.  I don't know how someone as good as Jason Aaron is could tell a story as boring and incoherent as this one.  If he was trying to replicate Kurt Busiek's amazing "Kang Dynasty," he missed the mark by a lot.

The only moment where I thought that this story made sense was when Black Panther battled Moon Knight in issue #36.  T'Challa realizes that Khonshu has made Marc believe that he (T'Challa) is Mephisto, and I thought Aaron was going to reveal that Khonshu was deluding Marc into amassing power so that he could take over Earth (and not protect it from Mephisto, as claimed).  But, no, it turns out Khonshu really was protecting Earth from Mephisto, as Tony acknowledges in issue #38 after examining the corpses of the various alternate Mephistos who came to assassinate Khonshu.  (Given they're corpses, it's clear that Khonshu didn't fall so easily.)

As such, the ending of this story makes no sense.  Why did a Phoenix-imbued Moon Knight stop Khonshu?  (I don't think that we're ever shown how Marc acquires the Phoenix powers, but I'm not going to re-read this terrible story just to get the answer.)  Why did the Avengers have the Asgardians imprison him if he was right?  I get that they might have initially thought that he was crazy before Tony examined the bodies, but Tony pretty clearly acknowledges that Khonshu was right about Mephisto.  Why not fee him?

Anyway, it's a fucking mess.  I don't even remotely understand why Marc is exiled from the Avengers in "Moon Knight," when he should be their fucking hero for bringing the pan-dimensional Mephisto threat to their attention.  After all, T'Challa offers him membership, which he declines.  I could say more, but I'm going to try to forget this story ever happened.

Also Read:  Avengers #31-#32

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