Conclusion of a stellar (lunar?) run: Review of Moon Knight (2016) #10-14

Thanks to Marvel’s ‘Legacy’ reboot, a new Moon Knight series with a new creative team has started recently (more on that in a later blogpost). The last 5 issues of the Lemire/Smallwood run have been collected as trade paperback vol. 3: “Birth and Death” (even though the story arc is titled “Death and Birth” in the individual comic books), and if there was any justice in the world, this comic would now show up on all of those year-end best-of lists for 2017 (it doesn’t – more on that in a later post). For what it’s worth, here’s why you should read it anyway.

Language: English
Authors: Jeff Lemire (writer), Greg Smallwood (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colourist)
Publisher: Marvel
Pages per issue: 20
Price per issue: $3.99
Website: http://marvel.com/comics/series/20488/moon_knight_2016_-_present

Previously in Moon Knight: Marc Spector has escaped the mental asylum, but his friend Crawley is being held captive by the god Anubis. And Moon Knight has yet to confront Khonshu, the god who created him.

In the beginning of this new story arc, Moon Knight seeks out Anubis. They strike a deal: if Moon Knight succeeds in rescuing Anubis’s wife Anput from the Overvoid (a parallel dimension reminiscent of ancient Egypt, except that people ride on giant dragonflies through the air and pyramids float above the ground), Crawley will be released. This story is intertwined with another, Moon Knight’s origin, the two strands alternating in segments of 3-6 pages each.

Marc Spector (right) and his new friend Steven Grant in Moon Knight #10

The flashback to Moon Knight’s past starts early, in Marc Spector’s childhood. We learn that already back then he created an imaginary friend (or so his psychiatrist says), Steven Grant, who later becomes an aspect of his own personality. And Marc is already visited by Khonshu who introduces himself as Marc’s real father.

Later, we see Marc as a U.S. Marine in Iraq when he gets dishonorably discharged because of his mental illness. He stays in the region and becomes first an illegal prizefighter, then a mercenary. On a mission to plunder an archaeological excavation site “near the Sudanese-Egyptian border”, he turns against his employer, Bushman, when the latter ruthlessly kills the archaeologists. Spector is defeated by Bushman and left to die alone in the desert, but Khonshu resurrects him.

Then we’re back in the present again and Marc faces Khonshu. I won’t spoil the outcome of this confrontation, but let’s look instead at that last transition from past to present in detail: in issue #14, p. 4 we’re in the desert in Marc’s past. Then on p. 5, Moon Knight in his ‘Mr Knight’ persona in the white suit is in the mental asylum again. He enters a room where he is greeted by his “good friends Bobby and Billy and Doc Ammut” – hybrid creatures of asylum staff and mythological figures. They subdue Mr Knight and give him an injection which knocks him out.

On the first panel of p. 6, we’re in the Egyptian temple in the desert again, where Khonshu carries the dying Marc Spector onto an altar before the statue of Khonshu. Marc asks, “Wh-what is this? What’s happening to me?”, and Khonshu replies: “This is a flashback, Marc. It is being intercut with the present.” On the next panel, the unconscious Marc is put on a table too, but this time by Bobby and Billy in the mental hospital. Khonshu’s voice continues though: “Time means little here.” This back-and-forth goes on for the next 4 panels of the page and so does Khonshu: “So past and present intermingle. They blend together and become one. Just like different aspects of your broken mind. The moment of your birth is here and there. It is then and now. All times lead to this instant.”

As past and present are about to fuse, the middle axis of the page no longer serves as a mirror axis that separates the two columns in the 2 × 3 panel layout of p. 6 in Moon Knight #14. Also note on the right panel how the hospital couch onto which Marc is fixated to undergo eletroconvulsive therapy has turned into an Ancient altar.

This is the most (delightfully) confusing and metafictional transition sequence, but there are many more of these mind-bending moments in this comic, and they are the main reason why it’s so brilliant. Add to this all the clever design, layout, composition and colouring decisions that Jeff Lemire, Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire have made and you get one of the most remarkable superhero comics in recent history.

Rating: ● ● ● ● ○

The best Moon Knight ever? Review of Moon Knight (2016) #1-5

One of the many series recently rebooted by Marvel was Moon Knight, and as Moon Knight is a character I tend to follow (see my previous reviews of his series: Moon Knight (2011) #6-8 and #9-12, Moon Knight (2014) #1-3 and #4-6), I thought I’d give him another try.

Language: English
Authors: Jeff Lemire (writer), Greg Smallwood (artist), Jordie Bellaire (colourist)
Publisher: Marvel
Pages per issue: 20
Price per issue: $3.99
Website: http://marvel.com/comics/series/20488/moon_knight_2016_-_present

Previously in Moon Knight: No idea what happened at the end of the previous series, because I dropped it when Warren Ellis left after only six issues. (Maybe I should have stuck to it, because it turns out Greg Smallwood’s artwork is almost as striking as Declan Shalvey’s who left the book shortly after Ellis…)

One of Moon Knight’s/Marc Spector’s defining characteristics is his precarious mental health, so it makes sense for Jeff Lemire to start the story with Marc being a patient – or should we say ‘inmate’? – in a mental hospital. Marc has these memories about being Moon Knight, but none about how he got there, and the hospital psychiatrist tells him that he has been there since he was twelve years old. Then again, he has these visions of his Egyptian patron deity, Khonshu, which suggest to him that the hospital staff are in fact other, evil Egyptian mythological beings.

Mental asylum break stories (if that’s a thing) are powerful when they manage to convey the feeling of despair in the protagonist: he or she is the only one who knows what’s really going on, but everyone else thinks he or she is just crazy (think Terminator 2: Judgment Day). This Moon Knight series adds the thrill of leaving the reader in the dark, at least initially, about which is the truth and which is Marc’s imagination: we are shown both the hospital staff and, alternately, the Egyptian gods, but only one of the two can be real (think David Cronenberg’s Spider).

One of the few things in which Ellis didn’t succeed in his run was the handling of Moon Knight’s backstory. Lemire achieves this by including several of Moon Knight’s supporting cast, and by putting more emphasis on his different personas (the millionaire, the taxi driver).

And then there’s the art. Often there are only few panels on a page, of different size and horizontally centered so that there is a lot of white space, giving a massive, iconic, grave and simply powerful impression. Some guest artists were involved in issue #5, which makes sense because each draws a different scene in a dream (?) sequence. Alas, from the solicitations it looks like Smallwood leaves the series after #6.

If there’s one thing I don’t like about this Moon Knight, it’s that the Egyptian gods often don’t talk like one would expect gods to talk, thus appearing less awe-inspiring than they could be. Granted, deities in the Marvel Universe are more mundane beings than the omnipotent gods from ‘real’ mythological tradition, but still…

All things considered, this might indeed be the best Moon Knight series ever, and (together with The Vision) the best Marvel book right now.