If you’re familiar with Moon Knight then you know how many voices he has speaking simultaneously in his head…if you’re not, then let me give you an idea. Marc Spector (aka Moon Knight) has Dissociative identity disorder and has two alters – Steven Grant and Jake Lockley. But there’s another voice in his head, the Egyptian God Khonshu who grants him the powers that make him The Fist of Khonshu in the form of Moon Knight. Now add in the symbiote known as Venom, and you end up with a messy set of characters and personalities to contend with. Although there is definitely an effort to do so, it appears that What If… Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? fails to do it interestingly or engagingly enough.
[Warning: Spoilers for the book down below!]
What If… Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? can be so confusing at times
I can imagine it’s no easy feat to juggle so many characters at once, from the get-go go you have Marc and his two alters, along with Khonshu in one body. Then you’re introduced to another Marc (along with his alters) and Venom. Due to the events within the novel, it’s brought down to Jake/Steven/Marc with Khonshu in one body and Marc with Venom in another one. To differentiate the two Marcs, one is referred to by the first name and the other is “Spector”. But when Venom gets added into the mix, he uses the majestic plural “we” to speak of himself within Marc.
Basically, there are many folks in one story, and the chapters are marked by the character’s name most closely followed. While the premise is exciting, adding more voices into Marc’s head, it suffers at the hand of being confusing at times. Without a visual medium, you really have to pay close attention not to get a little lost occasionally.
The one saving grace is that when Khonshu speaks, it is italicized, which offers brief relief occasionally. It’s not incredibly difficult to follow who’s speaking or what’s going on, but there’s a lack of a hook that should have been easily teed up based on the idea alone. Yet part of me can empathize with the Herculean effort to bring this story to life, it appears author Mike Chen did his best all things considered. But if you lack familiarity with Moon Knight and/or Venom, this one might be a bit of a struggle.
The possibilities in this What if..? story are so great, but the delivery lacks
One of the first things that came to mind was how over-powered Moon Knight would be if paired up with Venom. Regrettably, that actual scenario doesn’t exactly play out which the title What If . . . Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? suggested. Venom shows up and pushes Khonshu out of this universe’s body into the one he arrived with, which had never become Moon Knight. So while you don’t see a Venom-ed up Moon Knight, seeing Jake and Steven interact with Khonshu for the first time is entertaining enough, especially since they lack Marc for the majority of the mission.
Likewise, having Marc with just Venom and no Khonshu, Steven or Jake is fascinating in its own way as he now only has one other voice in his head. Of course, Venom is an entirely different situation compared to what Marc had lived through before, but it made for an almost endearing sense of acceptance of the symbiote as Marc learned to live with Venom inside him.
The main conflict is the two bodies against each other, Jake/Steven/Khonshu versus Marc/Venom, and how the former is trying to prevent the latter from destroying many universes by using the psi-phon. The psi-phon, described as literal headphones that require a major energy source, allows the user to activate and collect the essences of its variants across all multiverses for…reasons I still do not fully understand. The Whisperer is the one truly behind these events. He had threatened Venom and its Hive Mind, if they did not go on this journey to activate the device utilizing Marc Spector’s body as the main host to collect the essences.
The underlying multiverse narrative of What If… Marc Spector Was Host to Venom?
One of the first characters that comes to mind when it comes to multiverse would easily be America Chavez. She’s able to navigate it freely through her powers, which means she’s able to watch things transpire across the vast multiverses that exist. She only has about 2–3 chapters devoted to her, but it’s cool to see the pauses from the Moon Knight story to connect it all back to an underlying multiverse narrative that (gasp!) picks back up whenever the next What If… novel releases in 2025.
The “Whisperer” who was the main antagonist in this novel is revealed to be none other than… Doom! Along with the tease of Jean Grey as the next main character, the upcoming set of novels seems to continue with interesting premises for a fun exercise of multiversal possibilities. It was neat to see America continue to have a couple of chapters to herself to try and sort out this mess and what it could all mean. This concluded with a cool epilogue that more stories are coming. Equally, seeing her elevate herself beyond simply being a Watcher, and therefore upsetting the other Watchers was a great addition to her arc.
Overall, What If… Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? was rather disappointing, since it’s a narrative mess that had the most promise based on the title. If anything, this should have instead been a comic book that would have had much more clarity had the characters been speaking to each other on the pages. Credit has to be given to Chen though as he does what he can within the story.
What If… Marc Spector Was Host to Venom? by Mike Chen is now available wherever books are sold. Did you read the other two What If… novels? See our reviews of those below! Are you excited to see America Chavez return in 2025 with more stories? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or join our official Discord server to discuss this and much more!
Book Review: Marvel: What If…Loki Was Worthy? (A Loki & Valkyrie Story) by Madeleine Roux
Book Review: Marvel: What if…Wanda Maximoff and Peter Parker Were Siblings? by Seanan McGuire
