Marc Spector Was Host to Venom?

Comics have a complex history with some storylines going back decades. Even the relatively new superheroes can have intricate lore. Moon Knight has had plenty of time to muddy the waters with almost 50 years of stories to look back on, but it is not the depth of the stories that make Moon Knight so compelling, but the depths of the man, or men, or beings, that inhabit him. Mike Chen has the daunting task of writing a prose novel about Moon Knight but has also been asked to throw in Venom and The Multiverse. What if.... Marc Spector Was Host to Venom?  

Marc is having a typical day which consists of being locked up and tortured for information. The villains have captured his friends, but they did not think about Khonsu the Egyptian God that lives in Marc’s head and gives him the power to escape. On escaping with his pals, the day only gets odder as Marc meets Spector, a man who looks just like him, but has a black suit, rather than a white one. The next few days may just be the most perplexing of Marc’s life and that is saying something. 

Comics and the Marvel Universe can be complex and layered. Disney has spent the last decade or so simplifying things to engage the wider audience, but with the introduction of the Multiverses, the TV and films are starting to become mind-bending. These are nothing compared to what you find in Host to Venom, a book that delves into so many layers it feels like an infinite lasagne of a story. 

Moon Knight is already tricky in that Marc plays host to other personalities. Add on a chippy Egyptian God and you have enough internal conversations for any prose book. However, now we have an alternative reality Marc who has their own voices and rather than a God, they have Venom. Early in the book, the various Gods/voices/symbiotes swap around. Enough yet? No? How about a further shadowy creation that is influencing Venom? 

I am all for depth, but this borders on the unreal. Chen should be congratulated on making the book make as much sense as it does, but it is not something that a casual reader is going to be able to pick up. The What If.... books are already fan services, and they splice fan favourite characters together in unusual ways. You need a base knowledge of the Marvelverse to get the most out of them, but this book needs knowledge and a brain that can deal with puzzles. Arguably, it is the most fan service book yet as it is so abstruse.  

There are flickers of fun in the book. The action set pieces are entertaining and some of the interactions between the characters, real or internal, have a dark sense of humour. If you have deep passion for the character of Moon Knight, this is the most Moon Knight of tales. It may contain Venom, but this is Marc’s story. It is his particular way of living that informs this story, both in Universe Prime and in other Universes. 

I would not recommend this book to a casual reader, or even someone who has a passing knowledge of Marvel. I think this book was created for a small audience of Moon Knight fans who wish to bathe in a deep bubble bath of the lore. The issue is that these people may number only in the hundreds or thousands, and not the millions and millions of Marvel fans who read the comics, watch the films or TV shows.