Moon Knight #1I’ve always been a big fan of Moon Knight. I’ve heard the people saying he’s just Marvel’s knock-off of Batman, and I can see some of the point, but I like the character anyway. I like his look, that he has different identities set up to help his fight on crime, and that he does actually seem to be an agent of an ancient god, given another chance at life to redeem his past as a soldier for hire.
Marvel doesn’t quite seem to know what to do with him. He’s had many different series, been a member of both the main and West Coast Avengers, and is now in the “Secret Avengers,” an espionage/intel gathering type team. Over the past several years, they seem to be wanting to make Marc Spector, the man behind Moon Knight’s hood, actually insane. When I saw the new series, I hoped that Brian Michael Bendis would treat the character with more respect than that.
Moon Knight #1 opens with a Hollywood premier party- apparently Marc Spector is producing a tv show about his early exploits as a mercenary: “Legend of the Khonshu.” Now, how Marc is keeping a secret ID when his show seems to be retelling his origin and also bandying about the name of a very obscure god whose only other public reference these days is in relation to Moon Knight, I’m not sure, but we’ll see. Marc is pulled away from his party when the Avengers, in the persons of Captain America, Wolverine, and Spider-Man, summon him to a meeting. Since Marc’s in Hollywood now, they want him to look into rumors of new criminal activity on the west coast.
Despite many barbs from Wolverine about his tv show, Marc agrees, and Moon Knight shows up at the docks later that night, where two local thugs for hire await a shipment of some kind. The thugs debate about their jobs, and their mysterious employer who apparently has told them he can give them powers, but hasn’t yet. The thugs’ night takes a turn for the worse when they find they are meeting the hugely powerful Mr. Hyde, who demands payment. They weren’t told they needed to have money, and Hyde, with his usual restraint, argues with them and then attacks. Moon Knight leaps into the fray, and does a credible job for a non-powered (but used to have powers) human against a vastly superhumanly powerful villain. Moon Knight, in the course of the fight, gets onto the ship, and sees Hyde’s mysterious cargo is a deactivated (and decapitated) Ultron.
Someone we never actually see, who seems very powerful, shows up and makes their displeasure with Hyde known. What exactly happens is unclear, but Hyde either is killed or teleported elsewhere, or blasted out of the panel’s view. Moon Knight returns to his base of operations with Ultron’s head, and debates with Cap, Wolvie, and Spidey about what all this could mean. I really kinda liked this right up to the last panel, where we see Moon Knight is in the room alone. It’s never actually said, but strongly implied, that the Avengers were never there, and he’s off into hallucinations again. This story will be continued in issue two.
What I liked and what I didn’t:
I could see Marc in Hollywood, and, aside from the secret ID concerns I expressed above, the tv show could be interesting. I always like seeing Moon Knight in action, and the fact that they let him make a good showing against the incredible strength of Mr. Hyde was nice to see. I really liked the issue, mostly, right up until that last page.
He’s insane again? Really? We’re supposed to believe that Marc is having ongoing, vivid hallucinations, but his team mates in the Secret Avengers haven’t noticed? And do we really need the man to be shown as a nut job again? How about some actual decent treatment of the character? My further problems with the issue are both about this issue particularly, and some messes they’ve created in the Moon Knight mythos by this point. He used to have superhuman strength under the full moon- a real clear explanation of what happened to that would be nice. Further, none of his supporting cast is here- long time fans like me wonder what happened to Marlene, Frenchie, and even his new pilot from his most recent series before this. And finally, they decide to make some continuity problems for themselves here: the bad guy of this part of the story is Mr. Hyde. You know, Mr. Hyde who is presently in prison and being evaluated for Marvel’s redemption program, the Thunderbolts? Shouldn’t someone have checked that? And personally, I found the art to be a bit muddy in places, not really clear. Maybe that stylistic and eventually we’ll work out that’s when he’s hallucinating, but it was distracting, for me at least.
I wanted to love this, and I was ok with it, even with the continuity glitch, right up to that last page. I don’t want Marc Spector: madman. I want Moon Knight, the hero. At this point, it’s really open to interpretation whether the first meeting with the Avengers, where he actually got some respect from both Cap and Spidey, even happened. I don’t need another story where you’re always going to be wondering “Ok, is this happening, or is he in the Land of Make Believe?” I really hope they get this insanity issue squared away, or I, for one, will drop this book at the end of the first arc. It’s ok, though, it’s Moon Knight. With Marvel lately, it will probably be cancelled and yet another new series announced within a year.
A COMIC BOOK BLOG RATINGProsConsMoon Knight in action and being given some respect, the Hollywood take was interestingthe Mr. Hyde glitch, no supporting cast, and he’s nuts again Rating70% You might also like...
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Secret Avengers #3 ReviewBy BlogsdnaTagged with: Alex Maleev Brian Michael Bendis Moon KnightLeave a ReplyClick here to cancel replyYour name (Required)
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This post was added on 5 May 2011, 1:38 by Wayland who has contributed 296 posts to this blog.
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