Benson gets something many don’t. Namely, simplicity is under-rated. The entire creative team really brought it in this final issue of “The Death of Marc Spector”. Everybody is clicking to Mike’s vision and the result of that is great comics. 

We open to a fight sequence. “That’s so old fashioned” you say. You know what else is old fashioned? Horses, yet everybody knows horses kick ass! Along with opening fight sequences (I’m not sure if that analogy works as well as I hope it does, but I try). My point is that sometimes it’s judicious to stick to tried and tested story-telling methods because, well because they’ve been tried and tested. This book is about a very common thing in superhero comics, the climactic face off between two psychos – Bulleseye and Moon Knight. Benson “gets” that. There’s no fancy schmancy stuff. He just brings the brutal. The first two pages are nothing but gouging, pounding and crunching with dialog kept to a minimum of ooofs and arrghs. The rest of the issue follows through on that action emphasis, cutting in quick scenes with support characters. The entire book is also punctuated with some good character development without bogging the imaginative fight down. Eventually an explosion occurs and the fate of Spector is left to the reader’s interpretation. What makes this Pick of the Week material is that Benson clears up this ambiguity in the last few pages. And you know what? He makes that work just as well, if not better than any cliffhanger or whatever other gimmick he might’ve used. It’s so damn refreshing! He doesn’t toy with the reader. He sticks to his straight forward dictate and delivers the thrills desired.

The art is an excellent fit for the tone of this book. The fighting caters to Texeira’s strength which he draws visceral and raw. You can hear bones crunching and cracking over a heavy metal soundtrack. The silhouetted action shots and sketchy pencils gel very well with Dan Brown’s high contrast and textured color work. The few quieter character moments are great also. The “acting” is believable and engrossing. When wrapped in Brown’s atmospheric lighting you get a real sense of “urban-noir” and a stark “western” edge in the last scene. I think the layouts could use a little more innovation though. Maybe throw some diagonals in there or something. But they are structured legibly, which is more than some flashier comics can claim.

In the current comics climate of event loops and must-read tie-ins
Mike Benson vivifies my love of comics. He reminds me that there are
stories out there that are just that, stories. Not marketing plans. Not branding strategies. Just good old fashioned stories.