MARVEL KNIGHTS 20TH (Marvel Comics, May 2019) Written by Donny Cates with Matthew Rosenberg, Tini Howard, and Vita Ayala. Illustrated by Travel Foreman, Niko Henrichon, Damian Couceiro, Joshua Cassara, and Kim Jacinto. Paperback, 160 pages. ISBN # 1302916742 / 9781302916749. Reprints Marvel Knights #1 - 6.
Summary on the Goodreads website . . . . .
In celebration of the legendary imprint founded two decades ago by Marvel's CCO Joe Quesada, a new crop of talented creators stand poised to tell a groundbreaking story in the hard-hitting Marvel Knights style!
In the cemetery, the blind man does not know who he is, or why he has come to this particular grave. He doesn't know the burly policeman with the wild story who has approached him. Or the strangely intense man who sits in the rear seat of the patrol car, his eyes flashing green. But all that is about to change. Matt Murdock is beginning to remember.
In a colorless world without heroes, the spark of light must come from the dark. Together, these individuals face a mystery that can only be unraveled...a threat that can only be challenged...by Knights.
My three-star review on the Goodreads website . . . . .
I read this in the original issues.
While this mini-series was intended to pay tribute to the 20th anniversary of Marvel Knights, the imprint that helped bring Marvel out of financial difficulty, it doesn't have the same flavor of the originals. While the series features some (but not all) of the core Marvel Knights characters (Punisher, Daredevil, Black Panther) and includes some I don't associate with MK (big example being The Hulk) it lacks the freshness and story-telling appeal of the originals.
However, it's not a bad story at all - - it just misses the mark. For five issues Marvel Knights 20th is a fun, engaging revisit to earlier times using the device of mass amnesia to get all the characters to recall their past deeds. It's the sixth and final issue that disappoints with a flimsy explanation of why these characters forgot who they were and why it happened, as well as a rushed ending. There are several inside jokes and Easter eggs that will be amusing to readers familiar with the back-stories and events.
End result is that the situations that occur in this series are really not part of an "event" and have no lasting meaning in the regular continuity of these titles. There's a particularly dramatic end to a major villain that loses it's impact when you realize that nothing has changed. Also, it's hard to believe that this particular villain could have been eliminated so easily - - especially when the person responsible for the death gets taken out later with one well-placed punch. Hmmn, glass jaw on the big guy? That never happened before either.
Still, this series has its moments and it's remarkably consistent for those five issues in spite of a rotating team of writers and artists all held together by main writer Donny Cates. It should be choppy and confusing because of that, but it's not.
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