Customer Reviews

Moon Knight, Vol. 2: Midnight Sun (v. 2)

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

 

 

I believe I own every appearance of the Moon Knight character from his debut in Werewolf by Night to the new Charlie Houston series, so I think that makes me some-what of an expert on the character. Over the years Moon Knight has gone through numerous tweaks and changes, some good and some not so good. I have seen Moon Knight go from a low level powered superhero after being bitten by a Werewolf, to being a cheap imitation Batman, to being an Egyptian decked out minor hero. The new series has turned him into a psychotic schizophrenic vigilante- and finally made him into the character he is capable of being- interesting and with depth.

Make no mistake about it, this generation Moon Knight is NOT a hero. Oh, he will be listed in the Handbooks as a "good guy" but he's not. He's more akin to the Punisher (who makes a brief appearance in this book), the only thing separating them is, so far, Moon Knight isn't killing everyone. He is only torturing and dismembering them. The violence in this book is a little too much at times. Moon Knight is constantly disfiguring and torturing people and there is a lot of blood, but his interaction with the disfigured Bushman/Khonsu character is excellent.

The only negative, and the thing which keeps me from giving it five stars, is the rewriting of his continuity without explanation. Marc Spector (Moon Knight) went from being a mercenary presumably based around the Vietnam era, to a thirty-something former Iraq War veteran. It's a common problem as heroes age but Marc Spector hasn't aged proportionately to Spider-Man (who also appears briefly in this series). Spiderman, as a teenager, interacted with Moon Knight years ago, now Peter Parker is (in this continuity) knocking on thirty himself and Marc Spector has regressed in age. Marvel is on the verge of having to do a DC Universe Crisis type event to address these situations. I do think the re-writing of Moon Knight's history was a bit unnecessary as the character would work just as well as a mid-40's nearly over the hill, banged up, anti-hero.

This edition also contains the Moon Knight Annual 1 which, in my opinion, was an awful, simplistic, issue. I don't think it took away from the addition, but it didn't add anything either.

Finally, bringing Frenchie "out of the closet" as a homosexual was an interesting twist that finally brought some depth to the most two dimensional character of the Moon Knight family. His interaction with Marc Spector brings a fantastic sense of reality to the book and finally gave Frenchie a purpose other than being a glorified helicopter pilot.

Guest appearances in this edition: Spiderman (brief), The Punisher, Captain America (Brief, as Steve Rogers), Ironman (as Tony Stark)

In Midnight Sun, Charlie Huston continues his reinvention of Marc Spector, a.k.a. Moon Knight, as a broken, hateful, possibly insane and largely ineffectual hero.

With his ex-girlfriend wisely seeking love elsewhere and his former sidekick trying not to get involved, Spector attempts in this volume to build a new stable of supporting characters -- none of whom, so far, make much of an impression. So, perhaps in an effort to lure readers back to the book, Huston brings in a four-pack of solid and reliable guest heroes -- Spider-Man, Captain America, Iron Man and Punisher -- while skirting the issue of the Civil War, the concurrent "big event" in the Marvel arena.

But nothing changes the fact that it's really hard to like this new incarnation of a once popular, second-tier character. Neither truly helpful nor homicidal (Moon Knight won't kill, although maiming and disfiguring people is all in a day's work), he seems rather to exist in some sort of heroic gray area -- at this point, still struggling to justify his existence more than anything else.

Sadly, Moon Knight continues to be a boring, even distasteful read. And there's just no good excuse for that failure.

by Tom Knapp, Rambles.(net) editor

Hey, I've gotta give this a really really solid 5 stars.
I started out with this volume, having never read moon knight ever before and I think this reallly really kicks some serious @ss!!!

The character Moon knight has apparently been around for a long time.
People have always criticized the character as "Marvel's Batman".
I can see them getting away with that before this volume came out.
Not anymore though.
Moon Knight in this volume is a harder, grittier, crazier, character than I've yet to see in all of Marvel.
I think he could make batman cry and go hide in his cave, but we won't get into that debate.

Older fans seem to have been disappointed by the characters revamp, but it's a common problem for older fans to hate the changes and modernizations of their favorite old superheros.
Which I think is giving an unfair and skewed review of this very good book.
I can see Moon Knight's fan base exploding after all this. I don't think you could ask for a better revamp or a stronger, more interesting character. Modernization is something we all have to come to terms with.

The book's writing is severely enjoyable, complex, and well styled. The art is on par with any high end comic and just as superb as the writing.

This book deserves a solid 5 star overall rating for what it is, not what old people who can't deal with change expect it to be.

This second volume does drag its feet a bit compared to the first, but hey, that's character development for you. Artwork is still amazing and writing is still getting even gutsier.

Moon Knight's second (and much longer) book encompasses issues #7-13 of the regular series plus the Moon Knight Annual #1 comic as well. These seven issues introduce the Moon Knight's new arch-nemesis, Midnight. Obviously taking a page from the Midnight Man, Moon Knight's old adversary, and turning that page into a bloody napkin, Midnight is a ruthless, crazy killer who dismembers his victims and uses their limbs as bloody paintbrushes to mark his "territory." Moon Knight struggles to find and destroy this foe and at the same time, is faced with Khonshu breathing down his back trying to make him do terrible things to good people and spread the name of the almighty moon god and Stark and Rogers are approaching him because of the Civil War that's going on with the Registration Act going into place. Marc's insanity doesn't stop him from putting Midnight out of his misery and at the same time, registering himself and trying to keep his friends close and his arch enemies closer.

Marc is crazy as can be. However, that's been pretty well established at this point. Throughout the book, you see Marc's old friends become new allies once again and his love for Marlene still a rocky road of doom and despair. You also see Marc's opposition to the Registration Act and his final reluctance as he gets officially registered in even though he's not all for it. Issue 13 has a different artist take the helm and I don't like him half as much as the guy that normally does the art. The writing was good as there was just as much action as story and dialogue. The design for Midnight's costume in the end was a cool choice to show he was just an even-more-nuts-Moon-Knight-wanna-be and having the Punisher have a brief cameo was a neat addition as well. I will say that, as far as I know, there is a bit of a story retcon in here in the way of Moon Knight originally being the man responsible for his brother's death. However, in this, it's revealed that the Punisher is now the killer, and not Marc himself. Overall, it was a really good read and a hefty book compared to the others in the series so it's well worth the price tag!

...you'll like this edition. I, for one, have found team-ups to become less and less exciting as I get older. When I was a kid, I loved them, but the story always ends up suffering. This is no exception. Quite frankly, I wanted to give this 4 stars, because I really want the run to continue. Three is more fitting. I dig Moon Knight, and I want to see the storytelling in 'The Bottom' continue. Don't get me wrong. This compilation has its moments, but it seems as all hands were on deck for the Civil War storyline, so this story had to get integrated into that one. Team-ups is the way they did it, which makes sense considering that Moon Knight has been on the shelf for a while. I do like the way they 'registered' MK, though. It is fitting, but I'll be waiting for more from The Fist of Khonshu in the third compilation. Let's hope it improves.

This volume carries on the story from volume 1 in excellent form, reviving one of MK's classic villans and updating him for today's standards. This series is definitely more enjoyable for readers familiar with the character, and Huston's flashbacks and mindgames can make this a confusing read. But for those willing to put in the thought and maybe check out the Moon Knight Essential vols 1 and 2, there is a lot of gold here. The next arc has a new writer and the stories become a little more straight forward, but you need to read these to be caught up for those.

Also, ignore the ramblings of the review from Tom Knapp. I've never read a review from anyone who understood Moon Knight less than that guy. He needs to stick to simpler reading material with old fashioned heroes that he can comprehend.

I was very eager to get this, as I liked the previous Huston/Finch Moon Knight book. This one, however, was a bit of a disappointment. My issues boil down to two. The first is that the artwork is very uneven. I think Finch does and amazing job with Moon Knight himself, but when his depiction of human faces often borders on amateurish. I don't understand how this can be, as he obviously is a very talented artist. I found that very frustrating. The other problem I had is that I found the story to be frustratingly confusing. There was a lot of crosscutting and a cinematic technique of carrying sound (usually dialog) from one scene as a bridge into the next, which is okay for a bit, but seemed overdone and gimmicky. This also surprised me, as Charlie Huston is a very good writer (see his Joe Pitt vampire novels.) I will point out that I'm not a long-time reader of Moon Knight, as is another reviewer, so it's possible that my confusion is a result of not having enough of the backstory, but on the other hand, one would hope that this could be picked up and at least clearly understood by a Moon Knight newbie.

Charlie Hudson, i would like to thank you for killing moon knight. maybe that's way they relaunched moon knight with a new series recently. i couldn't finish this book. about half way through the book, i figured out it was a waste of my time. i can't recall a time where even i couldn't finish a bad tpb(any recent hulk loeb tpb comes to mind) i wanted to like this. sad that hudson even gets any work after this. never read his novels either, but people seem to like his writing. it's mind-boggling.

Loved the first collection. Had a lot of promise, but this one falls far short of what was expected. The art is great at times and then not so much.
The plot is convoluted too.

This one gets the hardcover glossy treatment - making me assume that there's a halfway decent story inside...unfortunately, as mentioned by others here, the reinvention of Moon Knight ends up being convoluted and self serving rather than interesting. The premise is potentially engaging, but too many characters and artwork that doesn't distinguish a from b, and internal from external points of view - let's say that creating a viable schizophrenic hero takes a lot more crafting. The edginess is there, but the pseudo-structure of a storyline does not an interesting hero or anti-hero make. There are some interesting ideas here and there, but this is a grimy read where there's no black or white, or much reason to focus on anything. If that is the intended effect, fine, but it just doesn't work. Readers may find themselves unentertained and certainly unengaged. Time to dig out my old Moon Knight comics! For those of you looking for something better , try the Punisher for twisted moral ambiguity...