Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #3 Review

Written by: David Pepose
Art by: Sean Damien Hill, Jay Leisten
Colors by: Rachelle Rosenberg
Letters by: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover art by: Rod Reis (cover A)
Cover price: $3.99-
Release date: September 27, 2023

Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #3 jumps Marc and Layla out of the frying pan and into the fire when Randall prepares to exact his revenge.

Is Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #3 Good?

Whew! There’s a lot going on in Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #3. David Pepose takes readers through a roller coaster of plot development, from torture scenes to shootouts to magical fights to Kaiju fights. Depending on your point of view, Pepose either gives readers too much too fast, or he presents a cornucopia of Moon Knight delights. The choice is yours.

When last we left Marc and Layla, aka Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab, the superhero couple found out the Jackal Knight was really Marc’s deceased brother, Randall. After years of an unpleasant afterlife, Randall is ready for payback since Marc was the man who killed him.

Now, Marc endures torture, attacks, and possible death/un-death to save Khalil and stop Randall. During the fun and games, we also learn Khalil is special because he’s the next chosen host of Osiris, Lord of the Dead.

On the whole, yes, this issue feels very busy. The scenes are mostly well done, but there are one or two spots where the conflict of a scene is resolved off-panel as a way to speedily jump to the next scene. You get the distinct impression that Pepose had to get Marc and Layla from Point A to Point B quickly, shortchanging a few scenes in the process.

What’s great about Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #3? This issue is wall-to-wall action, so if you like to see Moon Knight fight his way through a cavalcade of former enemies (because they’re dead), this issue is just the ticket. As a plus, the plot twist about Khalil is intriguing.

What’s not so great about Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #3? Pepose is rushing the plot to get to whatever needs to happen next. Most of the scenes are solid, but some are distinctly cut short. That means either the next issue is going to be a banger, or Pepose’s promised number of issues got cut, and he’s trimming to fit it all in. Either way, this issue bodes poorly for what comes next.

How’s the art? For some unknown reason, a group of guest artists was brought on board for this issue, and the change in art quality compared to Ferreira’s work on the previous issues is noticeable. It’s not bad art, but Ferreira’s art is much better. In short, the art is fine, but the quality is less compared to issues #1 and #2.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Moon Knight: City Of The Dead #3 sprints from one scene to the next for Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab to escape capture, fight villains, save Khalil, get captured again, escape again, and fight a kaiju. Pepose rushes the heroes from point A to B, shortchanging a few scenes in the process, so you get where you need to go, even if the journey is too frantic to enjoy it.