WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Contagion #5 by Ed Brisson, Adam Gorham, Veronica Gandini and Cory Petit, in stores now.
Over the course of the Contagion weekly event series, a virus created by a race of plant-like creatures known as the H'ylthri was unleashed. The virus, known as the Urchin, was found in the catacombs underneath K'un-Lun by monks. Soon after, it used one of these monks as a host and traveled to New York City, where it surfaced on Yancy Street. It quickly took down three of the Fantastic Four and countless other victims. Superheroes such as the Avengers, Doctor Strange and Luke Cage all fell, despite the virus being contained to New York by a magical barrier.
Once infected by the Urchin, victims fall unconscious. The host is able to replicate their powers, while it feeds on their bodies and accesses their minds in a shared network. In Contagion #5, time is now almost up. Worse still, the magical barrier has fallen. With no other option left, the remaining heroes reveal their secret weapon: Moon Knight.
As Contagion's final chapter begins, the Urchin has woken up every people it holds in its thrall and created an army of zombies for itself. They all obey as one, following its commands, infecting anyone they come into contact with. Since the heroes can't defeat the Urchin with their fists, Moon Knight willingly surrenders himself to it. Marc Spector's logic is that, since he is used to living with multiple personalities in his head, he believes he can join the mindscape of the Urchin and free all of the heroes it is controlling from the inside.
Once infected, Moon Knight finds himself inside the Urchin's grotesque mind maze. As an expert in calling upon the personality he most needs at any given time, Spector navigates the network of minds all the way to its center, where he finds the connection to the host. Inside, he also finds Pei, the young new Iron Fist, frees her from the Urchin's control and recruits her in his fight. Moon Knight then takes the Urchin head on in a horrific battle while Pei helps in waking up the other heroes.
And, finally, Moon Knight severs the Urchin's connection to its host.
Marc Spector, as well as every other person that was taken over by the Urchin, then wakes up, free from its control and cured from the fungal infection. All that's left is for the newly-returned Fantastic Four to contain the Urchin itself and keep it under lock and key once again.
Marvel's First Family may have been the ones to contain the virus, but it was Moon Knight who saved, well, everyone. When facing a threat that couldn't be punched into submission, Marc Spector proved himself one of the greatest heroes in the Marvel Universe -- something long overdue.
Add Comments