by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Matt Wilson, Matt Hollingsworth, Cory Petit
collects Moon Knight #1-7, #8-12 [complete]
While not as strong as their run on Daredveil, Bendis and Maleev’s Moon Knight is still pretty solid. It’s probably the first Moon Knight I’ll recommend to folks now that the original volume 1’s author is officially human garbage; and I’m also betting this run will mirror MK’s adaptation to the small screen, especially now that Echo has been confirmed to appear.
Marc Spector has moved to LA to produce a show about his life (which had some room for humor but doesn’t go much further than establishing his backstory); his efforts as Moon Knight to expose a kingpin in LA leads him to a few minor supervillains, a severed Ultron head, and Maya Lopez aka Echo.
Marc’s DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) usually takes the form of several “personalities” like John Lockley, but here they’re expressed as different Avengers, and all with different viewpoints that likely reflect Marc’s own personality. I don’t have DID nor am I anywhere close to being an expert, and while the use of Cap, Spidey and Wolverine is effective, I’m not crazy about the fact that Marc calls himself and is called “crazy” several times. Hopefully he gets an actual diagnosis because the tone it sets otherwise feels insensitive.
Otherwise I think his character work was strong and is what kept me reading more than the story itself, which dragged on a bit, and the villain is a bit of a snore too. That being said it would have been nice to see some aspects of his personality that weren’t just dark and troubled. The fact that he’s Jewish (and the son of a rabbi) doesn’t have to necessarily be front and center, but I was disappointed that it’s completely missing along with any other aspects of his character (especially since Bendis himself is Jewish).
Echo is an interesting foil to Marc, but she is mostly relegated to love interest aside from one or two fight scenes, which is disappointing. I appreciated that they don’t shy away from Maya’s deafness but they missed an important opportunity when the police try to arrest Marc and Maya – police often don’t consider people might be deaf, and they often confuse it with ignoring police or resisting arrest.
Maleev’s art isn’t my favorite, it’s a bit too gritty for me, but it still communicates the story well, particularly when Spector is disoriented. He is a very straightforward artist and when Bendis’ dialogue gets a little wordy he and the art team handle the text bubbles very well. Even though this is LA rather than New York, Wilson and Hollingsworth’s colors are still pretty dark, muddy and gritty, unless we see some city lights or something. I also liked how the thoughts of Marc’s Avengers were expressed in different colors, our first major clue that they weren’t the real heroes.
Overall this isn’t the best comic I’ve ever read but a solid introduction to Moon Knight particularly for those who are excited about his upcoming series.
review for issues #8-12 below
**MAJOR SPOILERS***
I really didn’t enjoy this conclusion, especially because Echo is promptly killed off – and Bendis, you *chose* to kill off the only deaf and Native American woman superhero in existence, so it should probably be for a damn good reason! Nope, it serves no other purpose than for Marc’s growth. (We don’t see a funeral according to her tribe, none of her Avengers friends and family mourning her – even though she called Mockingbird in the first arc – literally nothing. She’s just added to Marc’s voices in his head.) Moon Knight’s face off with Count Nefaria didn’t wow me (possibly because Nefaria has zero percent wow factor in my book), and the Avengers taking care of business took the air out of the final fight.
The final pages basically meant that this was all a setup for the “Age of Ultron” event, which is…disappointing. If Bendis didn’t have to shoehorn in Ultron, he could have done a much better Daredevil treatment of Moon Knight.
But he also completely forgets about Marc’s Jewishness and again, kills Echo for reasons that feel very reminiscent of Batman: The Killing Joke and those are not the kind of Alan More comparisons you want. Blech. This was on the verge of becoming my favorite MK run, but for now, it stays with the Lemire & Smallwood series.
Reading Art 