This week, it’s Moon Knight’s turn to shine with an All-New, All-Different relaunch.
Is it good?
Moon Knight #1 (Marvel Comics)
The Plot
- Still Marc. Still Crazy.
- …and Khonshu is still a douche.
- In Marc’s defense, I’d be pretty freaked out too if I woke up in the sanitarium from 12 Monkeys.
- The orderlies here clearly lack basic training (and narrative subtlety).
- I would say it’s always nice to see Crawley, but he doesn’t look so hot.
- Never trust anyone in a Moon Knight book who’s wearing red (unless it’s Daredevil).
- Sometimes it pays to listen to the voices.
- …or not.
Is It Good?
From an artistic perspective, this book is an absolute master class on how an art team works together to make a book look great.
Greg Smallwood’s pencils/inks are incredible, of course—particularly the gorgeous two-page spread of Marc’s…uh…vision of New York. But his paneling choices are superb as well. Some lead us into Marc’s jumbled mind via softened edges. Others reduce in size as his world grows dark. Some pages go completely chaotic with small bits of paneled action while others have no panels at all. It probably sounds confusing the way I’m describing it, but trust me, it works.
Colorist Jordie Bellaire deserves some huge props as well. She doesn’t just make the pages look good—her shift in palettes and textures have a huge part in telling the story. Letterer VC Cory Petit does a fantastic job shifting us back and forth from more direct conversations to those that may (or may not) be happening only inside Marc’s head.
As far as the story goes, writer Jeff Lemire is asking a lot from his readers. There are so many Moon Knight stories that hinge on Marc questioning his sanity. The cynical reaction here would be to expect everything to go back to the status quo once this arc is over. It’s worth noting, however, that we’re in the post-Secret War MU. While a lot might be the same, Moon Knight would be the perfect character to explore some new territory.
And to Lemire’s credit, he manages to provide an engaging and exciting narrative with very little Moon Knight/Mr. Knight in the story. But those orderlies who act as the main villains. Ugh. They’re so cartoonish it hurts. You have to think their exaggerated behavior is on purpose—the rest of the writing is too good for it not to be. Even if that’s (hopefully) the case, though, their presence in the story is distracting.
Still, Lemire has done more than enough to make me desperately curious about where this will all go. Add in the fantastic art team, and Moon Knight’s latest relaunch is definitely worth handing over your hard earned cash for…or sacrificing your sanity to Konshu. Whatever you need to do to get this book on your pull list.
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