Sometimes I wonder if Warren Ellis is capable of NOT being awesome.
Moon Knight is a much maligned character from outside and in. He’s been criticized from without as a Batman knockoff (despite having an entirely different and mystical origin, he was a rich guy who fought crime so that’s only allowed to be Bruce Wayne, apparently, unless you count Tony Stark, Danny Rand, Oliver Queen, etc.) and he’s been completely broken from within as writers took the streetwise ex-mercenary and turned him into a batshit crazy maniac who thought he had multiple personalities and would sometimes cut people’s faces off. I’ve always liked Moon Knight, though, so I tried hard to like the psychotic version of him, but it never completely took, and then when Brian Michael Bendis decided to make him channel Captain America, Spider-Man and Wolverine for some reason, I gave up more quickly.
Now, Warren Ellis steps in, and in the space of one issue, makes Moon Knight unbelievably awesome again.
Moon Knight #1 is fantastic. Ellis promised a new take on Moon Knight that united all the previous takes (which were pretty disparate, as you can see), but he also delivered something completely new and unassailably cool. He manages to make exposition entertaining, while also giving us a completely new look for the character. He’s back in New York after his LA jaunt, riding around in an automated limousine and tracking a murderer. He’s now snazzily dressed in a white suit and mask, sans hood and cape (either he’s taken Edna Mode’s advice or this is just a temporary thing) and he actively consults with the cops at their murder scenes, and they refer to him as “Mr. Knight” so they don’t have to follow protocol and try to arrest a guy with his crazy reputation. He does some crazy Sherlock Holmes-style detective work to suss out the culprit and faces him down in a smoothly badass manner.
We also get some explanation about why Marc Spector went from high-tech crimefighter with cool Matches Malone-style fake IDs to gruesome savage murderer with Buffalo Bill-style face-wearing, and it works perfectly – and yes, has something to do with Khonshu, the Moon God who resurrected him – handy out, that. And as competent as Spector is in this issue, we see he’s not done with his mental problems. Also, artist Declan Shalvey perfectly delivers when it comes to selling this slick new look that I hope sticks around for a while. “Mr. Knight” might just be the suit he wears to talk to cops, and the classic look was always pretty neat, but one can also understand why maybe they want to try something other than a white guy in a white hood. Plus, the causally dapper crimefighter never gets old and is always in style.
The only thing that gave me pause about this issue was Mr. Knight referring to a hideout as just “a hide,” which made me first think he was talking about someone’s skin again, but that’s so minor it’s even beneath a nitpick, and I’m sure that’s a thing in the UK or something. All in all, Moon Knight #1 is supremely entertaining and I hope Ellis gets a long run with this book.
