Sunday 6 November 2016

Moon Knight

From the same creative team that brought us 'Injection', Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire, comes 'Moon Knight - From the Dead. Moon Knight remained quite a mysterious character to me, having seen him appear only as a cameo in other stories rather than ever reading any dedicated 'Moon Knight' stories.  From this volume, I gather I've been missing an interesting character. Moon Knight is Marc Spector, a mercenary who whilst looting an archaeological dig in Egypt dies at the foot of a statue of the god Khonshu after trying to protect the people his group are looting from.  He's returned to life by Khonshu as Khonshu's earthly avatar, and after returning to America, in an attempt at redemption, becomes a crime-fighter. That's really only the origin of the character, there's much much more in his development, alter egos, mental illness, all sorts, he appears a very complicated and conflicted character under his cool exterior.  Although this volume assumes you know his long and complicated back story (which I do not), it still works well as a stand alone introduction to the character, and for me, left me wanting more.  This is a collection of short, issue long, stories with Moon Knight employed by the Police to solve some mysterious and eerie crimes (it's a bit tripped out in places), there's also an overarching sun plot. The writing is high quality, it would be, it's Warren Ellis! Though the dialogue is kept to a minimal, with the stories really being delivered through the art. The art and colouring are beautiful and carry the stories with ease. I love the way Moon Knight is depicted in black and white, whereas the rest of the story is rendered in glorious colour.  It really works. I've read it twice in a couple of weeks and was captivated by it both times. It's certainly left me with a hunger to read more Moon Knight.

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