Moon Knight Vol 2. Dead Will Rise (Review)

We’re back with another Moon Knight post! It’s been seemingly forever since I did one of these (I’ve been pretty much knee deep in the A Dead Djinn Universe the last couple weeks), and considering the Moon Knight show on Disney+ has uh . . . (ahem) wrapped up, I wasn’t sure when it would make sense to do another one.

But all who are mighty shall bow down before the divine authority that is a library due date lest they face the WRATH OF THE $5 FINE!

Or in other words, I quick read this one during a lunch break so it wouldn’t be overdue. I think my last foray into these comics was with the proceeding volume of this run, Warren Ellis‘ debut with the character in Moon Knight Vol 1: From the Dead. I’m not entirely sure how crediting works in comics go, but Brian Wood seems to be the main name associated with this volume (#2): Dead Will Rise.

Overall Reaction:

Overall, I thought this was a pretty straightforward Moon Knight experience. The character is still a bit of a loaner with side kicks Frenchie, Marlene and Crawley noticeably absent. Marc’s other personalities reprise their roles though and the Moon Knight we see appears to have gained some new gadgets (scarab drones lol) and a burgeoning moral compass. The Moon Knight seems to have any physical conflict well in hand, taking down single foes with ease, however his inner conflicts are not so easily pushed aside.

This would seem a bit of a course correction from the Ellis edition which relied heavily on a more surreal art style, and an extreme amount of violence, to present a pretty amoral hero who only barely cared about things like justice or protecting the innocent.

Or, it might be that — just like the duality noted in epithets of the real Ancient Egyptian god Khonsu — Moon Knight is both protector/healer, and bloodthirsty demon (who lives on hearts yummm), and now that we have seen the darkness in the Ellis books, it’s time to see some heroism.

Other Connections

Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton here. We only get one brief visit back to Egypt at the Pyramid of Giza, in which we see Khonshu’s statue (in a similar inaccuracy to those made in Moon Knight Episode 3 – The Friendly Type), but ultimately the story does not linger there long, and there were no other references to Ancient Egyptians that we hadn’t already seen (that I noted anyway).

Another possible thing of note, was the use of Marc’s alternates in this volume. I mentioned that much of the violence was turned down in this arc, but there was still one instance of needlessly excessive force which happens during a hostage situation early on. Each of the alters are working to resolve the situation in a kind of revolving door of expertise, and when the enemy is finally confronted, he is “disarmed” (literally both his arms are broken) by Lockely. It’s assumed that while this foe is rendered — quite brutally — incapacitated, that he will live to stand trial. But the final panel shows Moon Knight covered in more blood implying that Lockley went further, even though the job was seemingly finished.

For me this was interesting because one of the main changes the show made, was to make Lockley’s character a kind of brutal assassin. It seemed to come as a surprise to everyone (check out reactions in my posts on Episode 4 – The Tomb, and the finale Episode 6 – Gods and Monsters) since in the early days of Moon Knight, the Lockely persona was just a cabbie, used almost exclusively for finding information and talking with informants. Perhaps we are seeing the origin of the show’s version of Lockely in these few panes.

Finally, I did think that Marc and Khonshu’s relationship in this volume took on some more interesting complexity which leads the way for the dynamic we’ll see later in the Jeff Lemire run.

So . . . Read?

I’d say yes. I’ve fallen pretty deep into the Moon Knight hole by this point so I like to look for all the little nuances etc, but even if it’s your first take on the character, I think it’s a pretty straightforward and enjoyable story with some moral questions and lots of tension.

What did y’all think? Leave your comments in the . . . well the comments section!

See you next time!

Moon Knight Vol 1: From the Dead (Review)

Happy Friday everyone! We’ve got another comic book review this week, and because I’m obsessed, it’s another Moon Knight review. If you’re just getting caught up, I’ve been reviewing Moon Knight comics in preparation for the Moon Knight show on Disney+.

So far I’ve managed to read through the 3 books by Jeff Lemire, and a Moon Knight “Essentials” volume, and then of course I’m blogging about the show each week as the episodes come out in my Moon Knight Unwrapped series. It’s a lot of fun, and honestly I’m a little amazed I’m not sick of it yet.

Anyway, THIS week’s review is about Moon Knight Volume 1: From the Dead by Warren Ellis. It came out in 2014, before the Lemire books I read just before this.

In some ways, I felt like this take on the character deviated the most from anything that I’ve seen so far. First, there were lots of references to other marvel properties like Spiderman, Wolverine, and S.H.I.E.L.D. and a lot of allusions to past events which I assume are part of the Moon Knight cannon which I haven’t come across yet (I probably should not be reading these in reverse chronological order hahah). It was not as off-putting as I felt some of the allusions in Lunatic were because Ellis seems to have a more straightforward writing style (when it comes to dialogue at least). Things aren’t referenced so much as explained, and I never really felt all that confused although sometimes I did wish I had experienced them first hand.

I found the artwork in these volumes to be the most enjoyable of anything I’ve read so far. A lot more use of color, and many of the environments were quite surreal. It was great!

However, I also felt that this book was perhaps the most simplistic version of the character I’ve seen yet. Each story focuses almost solely on Mr. Knight, usually punching his way through a slew of enemies. YouTuber Matt Draper does an interesting analysis in Moon Knight – Burdened by and Unknown God, and manages to show the complexity of the Spector/Khonshu relationship as a metaphor for the unknowable nature of religions and their followers . . .

Perhaps this develops, or is more apparent in the books that follow, but to me, it seemed like Ellis rejected some of Moon Knight’s most interesting characteristics, his personalities, and the series’ other characters. Only at the end do we get any idea of where Jean Paul Duchamp (‘Frenchie’) and Marlene are (no mention of Crawley that I noted), and while it is hinted that there was a falling out, but we do not understand why. Ellis’ Moon Knight is a violent loner and that just wasn’t as interesting to me.

Wasn’t Khonsu a healer?

Finally, the violence of these issues actually inspired me to do a bit of research into the Ancient Egyptian God of the Moon Khonsu, because I just couldn’t reconcile this violent portrayal with a deity that in history was seen as a protector and healer.

In From the Dead, Ellis names five aspects of the god which Moon Knight supposedly embodies. They are: Pathfinder, Embracer, Defender, Watcher of Overnight Travelers, and The One Who Lives On Hearts.

Embracer, and Defender, seem to match up with a healing moon deity apparent in the Bentresh Stella, who’s statue healed Ramses’ sister in law. Watcher of Overnight Travelers, and Pathfinder is also quite understandable when we consider:

“. . . which is that it derives from the verb khenes which means “to cross over or traverse”. Khonsu therefore means “the wanderer” or “he who traverses [the sky]” “

https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2020/06/11/khonsu/

But what of this last epithet, The One Who Lives On Hearts?

Well it turns out, Khonsu is represented as being violent and blood thirsty in two sources, the first being the “Cannibal Hymn” from the Pyramid texts, which describe a deceased Wenis/Unas killing and eating gods for sustenance with Khonsu’s help:

It is Wenis who eats men and lives on Gods
Lord of porters who dispatches messages.
It is “Grasper-of-Horns” who is in Khonsu who lassoes them for Wenis

Faulkner, R.O. The “Cannibal Hymn” from the Pyramid Texts, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology v10 no2 1924 pgs 97-103

But it is spell 258 in the Coffin Texts, which identify the moon deity as “Khonsu who lives on hearts“.

I suppose that it should not come as a surprise to learn that this god of the moon was not only benevolent but sometimes malevolent too. After all, most things in Ancient Egyptian epistemology have a duality.

Read this one?

Despite my disappointment, I would still recommend this one. It’s straightforward in it’s approach, and while I was dubious of such a violent representation of the moon deity bearing up to any historical scrutiny, it seems that the evidence is there and that Khonsu had a violent side after all.

I plan to continue on with the next books in this run. We’ll see how things develop!

Has anyone read these already? What were your thoughts? Enjoy this different take on the character? Please leave your thoughts in the comments! See you next week!

Moon Knight Vol 3: Birth and Death (Review)

With a little less than a week (5 days) until Moon Knight releases on Disney+, I’ve been going crazy trying to cram in whatever last little bit of Moon Knight I can get my hands on before we finally experience the show on (for me) Wednesday night.

Needless to say, I’m HYPPPEEEE!!

Anyway, one of those last little bits of Moon Knight content I’ve been able to squeeze in before the release, is the third and final volume of Jeff Lemire’s run with this incredible character (or team of characters). If Moon Knight Vol. 1: Lunatic set the stage but lacked context (thank you Essential Moon Knight Vol. 1 for filling in some of those details even if you were too 70’s to care) and Moon Knight Vol. 2: Reincarnations was a wild ride (though a tad more understandable), Moon Knight Vol. 3: Birth and Death really gives us what we’ve been craving . . . A look into Marc Spector’s past.

In this last amazing issue, we parallel three main stories: 1) The first realization of the splits in Marc’s identity, 2) Marc’s resurrection in the Tomb of Khonshu and the origin of Moon Knight, and 3) the present time in which Marc returns to the mental hospital, faces some challenges, and ultimately must try to kill Khonshu. I won’t spoil what happens (although it’s probably not hard to guess), but I felt that it was indeed a great way to end this run.

Even though this volume covers a lot of the same territory that earlier Moon Knight comics have done (the sequence that leads to Marc getting Khonshu’s cape comes to mind), it felt like these treatments were updated for a more modern audience, and somewhat deeper than in the original I read in the “Essentials” book.

For instance, we get some time with Marc in the military, which felt very familiar to anyone who was around during the 2nd George Bush’s war in Iraq (Fallujah and Baghdad are mentioned specifically and Spector is a Marine. I’ll be curious if they do this with the TV show version as then, depending on the timeline, Spector, Frank Castle (Punisher), and Killmonger could have all been in Iraq at the same time).

We also get to see Marc as a child which was great (and he’s acknowledged to be Jewish which is also great), and I finally learned how Frenchie (actually named Jean-Paul) came on to the scene as well. They mostly call him Jean-Paul which feels a little better these days hahah.

Finally, most of our Ancient Egyptian deity friends are back. Ammut returns, and so does the jackal god, Anubis. Marc must find and rescue his wife Anput. I was dubious when she first appeared on the page, as I had always just assumed Anput was just the feminine way to say Anpu (Anubis) (feminine words in Ancient Egyptian get a T at the end), but upon googling, she does exist! So I learned a new thing.

So Read this one?

I could go on rambling all day about Ancient Egypt, so I’ll get back to business. Yes. Definitely give this one a read. It was a fitting ending to the story we’ve seen so far, and revealed quite a bit about this hero who’ve I’ve been growing to know and love over the last couple reviews.

And that’s pretty much it.

Has anyone read this comic? Thoughts? What are you most excited for in the new show? What villain are you most curious to see? What could it mean if Spector, Castle and Killmonger were all in Iraq at the same time? Leave your answers in the comments below!

Moon Knight Vol 2: Reincarnations (Review)

Only 13 days until Moon Knight drops on Disney+ and it seems I’m continuing my binge, scrounging for anything MK related that I can get my hands on. This week’s review is of Moon Knight Vol 2: Reincarnations by Jeff Lemire, the sequel to Moon Knight Vol 1: Lunatic which I reviewed three weeks ago.

In general, I think I enjoyed this volume more than the first, even though I believe even less context is given (at least in the beginning) for what is happening than in Lunatic. However, this time I was a little more familiar with things, as I had just come off of Essential Moon Knight Volume 1. The disparate members of MK’s team — Crawley, Gena and Frenchie — had much more emotional impact now that I had at least some semblance of a history between these characters.

The same is doubly true for any villains that show up. Moon Knight seems to have a pretty large cast of villains over the years, and I’m curious how the writer decided which one to bring back for this volume. Assuredly, it probably has to do with that villain’s significance within the Moon Knight cannon, but from what I’ve read so far, he didn’t seem any more important than any others and in some cases way less important. Maybe Lemire just liked that one . . . ?

Anyway, I also thought it was interesting that the story shows us which of MK’s personas arrived first, and gives us a little bit of history of the main character. In terms of the history of the comic (IRL), I’m not sure when “Mr. Knight” becomes one of the alters but I’m curious since I though his persona replaced Steven Grant in the role of millionaire playboy. This does not seem to be the case in Reincarnations as Grant is very much a part of the story.

My only disappointment reading was a bit of a bait-and-switch in the opening which (I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say) at first seems to depict Moon Knight fighting with Ramses, the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh. I was stoked to be in Ancient Egypt, but it ends up being the set of a movie production. While I was disappointed at first, I came around to actually enjoying it as it presented an opportunity to poke fun at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all the more ironic with Moon Knight‘s impending release on Disney+

Read?

Much like I said in my review of Vol 1: Lunatic, I think this series will give much more enjoyment if you have some Moon Knight history under your belt to give everything context. If you don’t have that history, it’s going to seem quite strange and very weird, but I think perhaps still enjoyable. Certainly a wild ride.

I’ve already got Moon Knight Volume 3: Birth and Death from the library, so I’m going to continue with this run.

My final pitch for Reincarnations however is just three words: WERWOLVES IN SPACE! If that doesn’t convince you one way or the other, then you’re on your own hahah.

Anyway, that’s all I got for this week. What did y’all think of this one? Too much? Not enough? Confusing? Or just right? I’m leaning towards just right. Leave me your thoughts and opinions in the comments!

See you next time!

Essential #MoonKnight Vol. 1: So 70’s it Hurts

We’re about 19 days from the release of Disney and Marvel’s Moon Knight live action TV show, and I’ve been on a bit of a comics binge trying to get ready for the premier. After watching the initial Moon Knight trailer in February, I was pretty much the living embodiment of that heart-eyes emoji for several reasons, the least of which being that it just looks awesome, and the most of which being that I’m pretty much obsessed with anything even remotely relating to Ancient Egypt.

Since seeing that first glimpse, I’ve written about nine Ancient Egyptian things I hope we see in the show, and was intrigued but confused by Jeff Lemire’s Moon Knight Vol. 1: Lunatic.

On the day I’m writing this, a new Moon Knight featurette trailer dropped and we got a couple more awesome looking movie posters of Moon Knight, Mr. Knight, and Steven Grant. I got chills during the featurette when Ethan Hawke says “Every aspect of this show has a duality”, not only for it’s implications for the main character, but because duality was a central part of Ancient Egyptian epistemology and worldview. Hopefully that’s a clue that they’re considering at least one thing from my list!

Anyway, I’ve digressed. This post is a review of Essential Moon Knight Volume 1, not a gush about the newest Marvel trailer (although it is a bit that too).

Essentially, this book is exactly what I should have read before jumping into Lunatic (mentioned above). It gives the reader a ‘greatest hits’ of Moon Knight comics, starting with the character’s first appearance in Werewolf-By-Night back in 1975, and moving up through MK’s own premiere run starting in November of 1980 (the last of this run we see in this book is #10 Too Many Midnights in August of 1981).

I suppose there are two ways to review this book (speaking of duality), one being to review its merits as a “greatest hits” type publication, and the other, to review the stories within.

As a Greatest Hits?

Since I don’t have much history with this character, I can’t really review its merits as an encapsulation of Moon Knight the comic since I’m not sure which issues I would have included as I’ve only read the few displayed here. I’ll say that I was sad that each of the issues were in black-and-white. It made the lettering hard to read in many places and some of the artwork was pretty difficult to make out with only two colors.

The second bummer was that without any kind of forward, or afterword, there was no context for these issues, historically or culturally (within Marvel comics history, and the larger world). One issue of Hulk magazine, printed just before Moon Knight was about to get his own run, had a letter from Ralph Macchio about his work on issues featuring MK up to that point. Even though it was a wall of nearly unreadable text (and this was a comic book after all), I found myself wishing this kind of commentary had been sprinkled throughout.

But this book did what it said it would do, and gave the reader 26 Moon Knight comics to read and enjoy and so I can’t really knock it too much.

And the Stories Themselves?

In all honesty, they were not the droids I was looking for, and I think I would not have read them had I not been so intrigued by the upcoming show. Very little of what I had seen in the trailers, and limited Wikipedia pages I’ve read (trying to avoid spoilers) seemed apparent at first in the comics shown here.

For instance, Moon Knight’s “origin story” in Werewolf-By-Night is to be given a suitcase containing his iconic costume by a committee of nefarious financiers and told to hunt a werewolf (who’s name is Jack Russell lol). It isn’t until the 1980 Moon Knight issue #1 that we even get the connection to Khonshu (based off the Ancient Egyptian god Khonsu) and when it does arrive, it is relatively shallow and maybe a bit appropriative. Up until that point, MK’s moon powers were thought to stem from a werewolf bite he supposedly sustained during his first appearance (which I totally missed). Seeing them finagle the Khonshu storyline in later on but keep the werewolf fight and several other pieces of MK’s past was interesting in its own right.

The other issues read more like a spy story (thank you 70’s) with the MC being a caped crusader instead of a tuxedoed agent (although MK’s alt Steven Grant wears plenty of tuxedos throughout). They’re focused on mystery and intrigue, cool gadgets (a glider cape, cowl mic and a truncheon that, when doubling as “nunchaku”, a grappling hook, and billy-club, seems to have as many personas as the Moon Knight), and exotic looking vehicles (crescent moon shaped helicopter?).

And lastly, the always beautiful Marlene, who never seems to be wearing much, and always puts up with the MC’s shit no matter how rude or self-centered it comes off (the MC’s alt Jake Lockley in particular seems to have it out for her).

Now I think it is important to point out that 47 years have passed since the first iteration of this character (woah) and so clearly a lot has changed since then. It will be interesting to see which changes the show will make (one big one already is Steven Grant being a low level museum employee, and not a millionaire), and which elements (particularly the villains) they’ll keep.

Some things I hope they do keep are Moon Knight’s supporting cast. Crawley and Gena in particular were always a welcome presence. And obviously any crossovers with other MCU characters will also be a delight. In this volume MK and SPIDERMAN!! face off against each other, and then team up to take on Cyclone. I would LOVE to see that team up sometime in the future.

Read this one then?

If you’re interested in the history of Moon Knight in general and don’t mind some outdated cultural mores then I would say go for it. Despite the seemingly negative review I’ve given, I actually did enjoy getting to know the infancy (and growing pains) of this character. It certainly has expanded my horizons.

I don’t think that I’ll be able to procure Volume 2 before the show premieres on Disney Plus, but I will probably still give it a shot as I’m curious how the Moon Knight I’ve seen in this volume progressed to the Moon Knight we’ll be watching on March 30th.

Has anyone else read this book? What are your thoughts? Any Moon Knight fans out there who’ve been with the comic this long? What are you most excited for in the new show?

Leave your answers in the comments, and I’ll see you all next time!

Moon Knight Vol. 1: Lunatic (Review)

I don’t think I’ve ever reviewed a comic book (graphic novel?) before, either here on the blog or anywhere else, cause in all honesty, I haven’t really ever read them. I own A Game of Thrones Graphic Novel and a couple 007 comics, but I’ve never got around to reading them.

But after seeing the Moon Knight trailer, and coming up with a couple (ok 9) things I hope they do in the Moon Knight show, I wanted to give it a shot and see what all the fuss was about. So here we are.

The first Moon Knight related thing I was able to find was Moon Knight Volume 1: Lunatic, by Jeff Lemire. As an introduction to the character, I’m not really sure this was a good starting place for me. It seems that Lemire’s work assumes that you’re not just familiar with the character, but you have read the previous iterations of the comic before. Purportedly, (from the description on Goodreads) this volume should:

“. . . [call] everything you know about Moon Knight into question.”

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28963358-moon-knight-vol-1

But I didn’t really know anything about Moon Knight to begin with, so I felt like I was catching up most of the time. As such, it’s a little hard to judge whether or not the story was well crafted or not, or even satisfying to read. I can say that in general, it may have tried to do too much, and relied too heavily on the reader’s knowledge of previous iterations of the story, often at the cost of coherency.

I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler to say that the main thrust of the plot is Marc Spector’s attempt to escape from a mental ward, and he has several companions who help him do so. Each appear to have a long history of working with Marc, if only he (and they) can remember it. You are given bits and pieces of that history in flashes, but unfortunately the reader is often still wondering who the heck these characters are.

I did enjoy the depictions of ‘New Egypt’, a kind of post-apocalyptic version of New York which is covered in broken down buildings, sand, and pyramids. It was also fun to see some my favorites from Egyptian mythology show up. I thought the Emmet/Ammut wordplay was fun, and that Ammit — traditionally depicted as a mix between crocodile, hippopotamus, and lion, who supposedly would devour your heart if your judgement went badly, and your heart weighed more than the feather of Ma’at — was an interesting choice of villain. Also fun to see Anubis although I’m not entirely sure what if any symbolism we’re supposed to take from his actions.

Finally, I’m definitely intrigued by the role Khonshu, Seth (who I believe is supposed to be Ancient Egyptian god Set) and the other gods play in this world. It was a bit Ancient Aliens for my tastes, but I’m willing to keep an open mind and see what comes of it.

Worth it?

The short answer to this question I suppose, is yes. Although, I believe that this one will probably be more enjoyable to long-time fans of the character, and if you’re new like me, then maybe look into trying to find some of the older iterations first to give yourself a baseline.

For what it’s worth, I’ve requested volume two.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this so far. Has anyone reading been a long-time fan of this character? Did all the references make sense to you? How’d you feel about the end? What did you Egyptophiles think? Any history or mythology you were hoping would make an appearance? Please leave your answers in the comments. Looking forward to chatting about this one!

See you next time!