Customer Reviews

Moon Knight, Vol. 1: The Bottom

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I really wanted to like this. I don't know whether it was the storytelling by Huston, or the artwork by Finch, but I found it hard to follow. The feel was gritty, violent, and "cool", but unfortunately that flash didn't give way to much substance, either in the artwork, or the story and characters... Worse, the action and dialog just didn't flow in a comprehensible manner from page to page. The binding didn't help, as it seemed like a lot of times the layouts were planned to work across 2-page spreads which were easier to see in the original comic format. The color work was excellent and overall this is a beautiful book. Perhaps it will come together over 12 issues, which would benefit from being repackaged as an oversized HC (the artwork felt cramped, esp. after seeing Finch's work in the Avengers Disassembled and New Avengers Vol 1HCs)

I'll give volume two a shot when it comes out...

This is the first Moon Knight story i've read, so i figured the first volume would be a good place to jump in. I was wrong. The story was very confusing and jumps back and forth throughout the whole book. I usually like this sort of thing but i thought with the first story arc of a reboot of the series they would explain a little more. For example there's this comittee that seems to follow Moon Knight's every move. You never find out why they are there and if they we're in previous stories or why they would even care about a b list super hero. Anyways the parts of the story that didn't confuse me were kind of boring. The only reason i didn't give this book a one or two star rating was because of the art. The art is absolutely fantastic. I also kept in mind that the questions i had about this book might be explained in later volumes so i took that into consideration before i gave it a bad rating. So far i've only read this and the second volume, which picked up a bit. Anyways if you're thinking about getting into moon knight I think a much easier jump in point would be with his new series Vengence of the Moon Knight which has only been out a couple of issues. Do a quick wiki on Moon Knights past, then jump right in. However if you've been reading Moon Knight for years and have a better understanding of his past, i imagine that this would be a pretty decent book.

Moon Knight is back. It's good to see the hero in white to make a comeback. He may be like Batman, but got a bit of Harvey Dent to make him not a cookie cutter hero like Murdock and Parker. No matter what, he is the agent of Khonshu. Unfortunately, the way they wrote his comeback by tying all the plot twists from his back stories into this reincarnation was not very palatable to my senses. I felt like I was watching another Rocky movie. Hopefully they streamline his subplots so it doesn't feel convoluted every time they try to bring in another old character from his series. The cover art is what gave him the extra star.

Huston's Moon Knight is the latest addition to the flawed hero trend in comics. His intense religious conflict(You cannot serve both Khonshu and the Committee!) make him especially interesting and hard to figure out, as one of the villains discovers in this arc. As to villains, the Profiler offers a great opportunity for Huston to get the exposition in and to catch up new readers on Moonie's past in an exciting way. The overblown appearance of the Taskmaster seems hackneyed comic book fare at first in comparison to the more psychological (and physical) challenges presented by the Profiler and the Bushman. But we realize this impression is intentional, and all of "Tasky's" empty flash and trendy rap rhetoric makes sense when he tries to get paid off himself (without completing the job) and is unmasked (literally) and revealed to be the blowhard coward of a pumped up personal trainer for super baddies that he really is.

Bushman's "unmasking" is even more literal. There's a lot of unmasking going on; in fact, everything from masks being bitten off to the removal of the Profiler's dark glasses to see Moon Knight for the in-your-face embodiment of vengeance that is his "mask" supports this theme. Is Moon Knight the mask of Khonshu, or Khonshu's actual incarnation? Who is more real, this shell of a man or the Knight that contains him?

Finch's art is great of course, especially the covers, all of which are included (even the variants), and Huston does a fine job. He does not really have room to get into the quadrophenic sides of the disturbed Knight's personality (reflecting the four quarters of the moon?), though there is a shave and a haircut. And all of the principal supporting characters are re-introduced deftly into the plot. For an exhaustive (and exhausting!) discussion on why he chose to go with white instead of silver for the costume, check out the Comic Geek Speak interview with him on the web. Simply put, it goes back to the "mask" theme in an ironic way. Moon Knight's costume is not meant to hide him but to draw attention to what he is, a fearless masochist with a death wish (or a weird Egyptian confusion of life and death wishing) who defines heroism as being how much you can take and who wants you to see him coming.

Moon Knight is one of my favorite heroes from back in the day. I had just about every issue of the original series and was disappointed when the Fist of Khonshu series flopped. I didn't care that it wasn't quite as good as the original, because it was Moon Knight, dammit.

One big problem with this series is that it suffers from Battlestar Galactica syndrome. It strives to be darker and more mean and gritty than ever before. While this is not a problem for BSG, it's overdone and overblown here. The issues contained herein are angst-ridden, bloody, gory, disconnected, and hard to follow at times. If you don't already know about Moon Knight's past and aren't familiar with some of the villains he's fought, you may become completely confused.

The artwork is done with a superbly skilled hand. However, like the story within, at times, it becomes too much and looks like it was trying to go over the edge just for the sake of shock value. This is definitely not something younger kids should be encouraged to pick up. Also, there are places where, while the artwork is wonderfully done, it seems to jump around and you have to spend some time with it to try and figure out what exactly is going on. I do not doubt the ability of Finch to draw, but I do call into question the ability of whomever had final say over the storyboarding.

The story, itself, is also told in a very confusing manner. It is quite possible this is done intentionally to reflect the conflict going on within Marc Spector. However, it is easy to become completely derailed with the delusions and illusions being thrown around in addition to some very confusing reactions by some of the support characters. Moon Knight could always be considered Marvel's attempt to answer DC's Batman with a few added tweaks, though the story behind MK's artistic creation makes no mention of this. However, there seems to be an almost inferiority complex to the Dark Knight that rears its head in some of the panels of this particular incarnation, which is a bit disappointing.

However, it's Moon Knight. I will still try to keep up with this series in the hopes Huston's storytelling technique will become more cohesive and he'll learn to give some background if more old enemies pop up. It's an interesting start, even if a mostly disappointing one.

Charlie Huston's first foray into the comic book world is nothing short of amazing. Moon Knight: The Bottom is fast paced and nicely written. Although the tormented hero genre seems to be the "in thing" nowadays, Moon Knight stands out because of its excellent prose backed up by Dave Finch's amazing and highly detailed artwork. I can't wait for Volume 2 to come out...

As a forewarning, this is a comic that contains mature material that one wouldn't find in the standard super hero comic.

I've been out of the comic loop for a while now, but after playing "Marvel Ultimate Alliance" I wanted to go back and see what my childhood favorites were up. In the past I had only one "Moon Knight" comic, and it was from a freebie box at a local comic store that is no longer there. Back then I was pleased enough to see any goof ball in a costume run around beating up the baddies.

Strangely enough, a super hero that's often been considered to be part of a the "b-list" has been fleshed out into one of the most interesting characters I've come across. The artwork is both beautiful and grizzly. It's also some of the best writing in a graphic novel I've seen in a while. For those unfamiliar with his past, the collective covers the essential backstory, but it never gets in the way of the present. All in all, there's a great story that unfolds and I look forward to future installments. It's nice to see Moon Knight reborn again in the Marvel Universe.

I'm not big on supes, folks. I've just finished THE BOYS and my mood towards supes kinda reflects Ennis'. I may be more open to them, actually. The point in, the seller who sold me THE BOYS first TPB included this TPB for nothing. That happens occasionally and I usually end up chucking the thing. I assumed this must also be a failure, a nice looking turn of sorts. I mean, the art was ridiculous beautiful right off the bat. But that's not enough for me. I don't really dig Moon Knights cowl. Of all the supes, Moon Knight's silly factor is right up there THEN I realized THE Charlie Huston credited on the cover for writing was the same CH who authored a nifty little thriller called CAUGHT STEALING that I read about a year or so ago. I wasn't in love with that novel, I didn't buy the others, but somehow it got me really curious about he writing for a comic. To get to my point, holy crapola! David Finch's art work is jaw dropping. The idea of reading other Moon Knight comics just isn't attractive to be because it would just be too much a step down. Even when I wasn't bothering myself to follow the story too closely, like when we were in heavily cliche territory (red: girlfriend stuff, etc.), I was still bowled over by the amazing freaking art with its textures and colors. Wow. I am at this moment seeking other David Finch titles in hopes I get to get the same feeling I got from reading this MOON KNIGHT TPB and three quarters of the next TPB. Charlie Huston, too. I don't read just anything, and these guys made be a Moon Knight fan, if not ever so briefly.

This book reprints the first 6 issues of the new Moon Knight ongoing series (2006) by Charlie Huston & David Finch. Moon Knight(MK) is Marvel's answer to DC's Batman character, however MK never really achieved enough popularity to sustain an ongoing series (the last MK comic published prior to this ongoing series was way back in the mid 90's with the series lasting about 5 years) and is considered to be a B-list character. With this new ongoing series, Marvel aims to resurrect the MK character. Marvel has given this series an excellent shot at success by assigning superstar artist David Finch (Avengers Disassembled) and writer Charlie Huston (I believe this is his first shot at comic books, but has made a name for himself through his other works - see Amazon as I am not familiar with them - though for myself his other body of work is irrelevant as I wanted to judge his work solely on these MK issues).

The only thing you need to know going into this book is that the MK's secret identity (alter-ego) is made up of 3 different characters. This is mentioned as well in the book but may present a bit of a confusion to those new to the MK character as usually a "super-hero" would only have 1 secret identity. Otherwise, the book pretty much explains the MK mythos and allows the reader to easily follow the storyline with no prior knowledge needed.

What is this book about? As I am sensitive to spoilers, the best description I can give you is that this book explains where MK has been all these years, and the confluence of events that lead to his ressurection. It is also about setting up a foundation for the MK character for his further adventures. I will let you find out the other details when you read the book.

The art by David Finch is amazing, but a bit of a warning: there are gory scenes in this book that you may not want your pre-teen to be seeing. I consider the art work here to be among the best published for the year and I would pull this book out if a non-comic book person asked me what comic books are all about. The art definitely warrants 5 stars.

The writing to me felt decompressed. I remember after I finished reading the 3rd issue that I felt that nothing much had happened yet at that point. I did like Huston's writing style and will look at his future comic work. I give the writing 3 1/2 stars.

Not much in terms of extras. The book publishes the comic book cover before the start of every issue (a great way to have start/stop points) and the only extra it provided was the variant cover of #1 (pencils of the regular cover) and the variant cover of #6 (different color work of the regular cover). Also, an afterword by Huston on the very last page. I do need to mention that the dustjacket of this book is the awesome cover by Finch of the first issue of MK. As with all Marvel books, this HC is printed on glossy paper.

I would recommend this book to anyone and give it a solid 4 stars. For those trying to save a little money there should be a TPB in a few months that should be $5 less cover price than this HC. As an aside, Finch has left the book so this is a big blow to the MK character's success. I haven't seen the new artist's (Mico Suayan) work but the previews make it seem like his style is similar to Finch's so I hope he works out and continues MK's revival.

i love moon knight as a character. he seems pretty cool. glad he finally got his own series back. love finch's art always, so this should be a great tpb. Wrong! huston isn't good at writing. i felt lost,and found and lost again. i decided to give vol.2 2 try....you can read that on amazon as will.spoiler alert, it's worst than vol.1.