Moon Knight #1 was the issue that the Revolution just could not wait to read. Will carry on the tradition of the first volume of Moon Knight done by Moenich and Sienkiewicz? Or will it be like the lousy later volumes? Let’s find out.
Creative Team
Writer: Charlie Huston
Penciller: David Finch
Inker: Danny Miki
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10.
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Total Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: The issue starts with a high-speed gang shoot out between two cars. Moon Knight is on the scene. During this entire action scene, Moon Knight is narrating how much he loved the fun stuff. The fun stuff is kicking the crap out of the bad guys. Moon Knight’s monologue goes on about how the Avengers are for alien invasions, Fantastic Four are for giant monsters, the X-Men are for Magneto trying to wipe out the human race. Moon Knight is for the dirty stuff. All day to day criminals.
Moon Knight brutally kicks the crap out of the criminals in this fight scene. At one point Moon Knight puts on some nasty looking spiked knuckles and beats the hell out of one of the criminals. Moon Knight goes on in his monologue about why he wears white. One so the bad guys can see him coming because no matter how much of a target he is, the bad guys’ hands shake so bad they couldn’t hit the moon. The second reason is to honor his God, Khonshu.
Moon Knight goes back into his crescent-shaped ship being piloted by his ever-present friend, Frenchie. Moon Knight goes home and into the loving arms of his lover, Marlene. We see the two of them in bed getting it on. Moon Knight continues in his monologue that every single night he gets to do all of this again. And again. Over and over. Every night better than the one before. Then the comic goes black.
Then we see Moon Knight with long hair, long beard and in a wheelchair in a dark barren room with bottles of booze all over the floor. Moon Knight begs Khonshu for another chance to be a hero.
We then go through 4 pages of flashback scenes mixed with the present-day scene with no dialogue. We see Moon Knight lying on the ground with his broken legs. Then we see him present day trying to open a bottle of painkillers. We see Marc Spector in a wheelchair drunk yelling. We see his house being emptied of its furniture and valuables. We see Marlene trying to console him and Marc snapping and punching her in the face.
Then we see present-day Marc dropping his painkiller and struggling to get out of his wheelchair to get the pill. We see Mar in the past spitting on the face of Khonshu’s statue. Then the issue ends with a full-page shot of present-day Marc huddled at the feet of the same statute of Khonshu begging for him to be a hero again.
Comments
The Good: Moon Knight #1 was absolutely incredible. The Revolution was not disappointed at all! This issue not only met our highest expectations but then blew past them to another level.
First, Huston’s writing was just fantastic. Huston perfectly captured the original and proper mood of Moon Knight. I love how this entire issue had absolutely no dialogue. The only words were Moon Knight’s monologue that ran through the entire issue. That was such an effective tool in letting us into the warped psyche of Moon Knight. It also created a nice eerie dream-like feel to the comic.
The monologue, in the beginning, was well done in demonstrating the differences between Moon Knight and the super-heroes in the Marvel Universe. That is always necessary for the first issue of a title for new readers. It also gave Moon Knight a “Batman” feel to his place in the Marvel Universe.
The final part of the comic, where it snaps back to present-day Marc Spector in his wheelchair was incredible. The final 6 pages only had 3 very short sentences. Huston demonstrates that many times less is more. It was a very powerful ending that wonderfully displayed the chaos and insanity that resides in the mind of Marc Spector.
The action scene, in the beginning, was well done. Huston was able to display Moon Knight’s ultra-violent side.
This is the original Moon Knight from the Moenich/ Sienkiewicz era! But, to his credit, Huston does an excellent job re-creating the same feel without Moon Knight #1 feeling like a re-tread or a copycat.
David Finch’s art is just fantastic. Absolutely beautiful. Finch perfectly captures the proper feel of Moon Knight. Finch’s art creates wonderful darkness and a gorgeous somber tone. Finch does a great job shouldering the burden of Huston not using much dialogue. That puts a lot of pressure on the artist to convey the words and emotions through their art. And Finch comes through in a huge way. Then last 6 pages, Finch’s art sucks the reader into Marc Spector’s emotionally unstable universe. Well done.
The Bad: Absolutely nothing. Go out right now and RUN to your nearest comic book store and buy Moon Knight #1.