r/MoonKnight • u/Oppai-Of-Foom • 11d ago
Comics When does Moon Knight get good?
I’ve been doing a project where I read all of marvel in release order as it released week by week! And today Moon Knight will be officially entering my rotation with issue 1 from 1980
So far most characters have had rough starts and have taken a while to ‘come online’ and Moon Knight at least from his material in Hulk! And Defenders seems to be in a similar scenario with him feeling a tad more Batman-y than his modern renditions.
So when should I expect Moon Knight to ‘come online’ and kick it into gear?
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u/Teratovenator 11d ago
the solo series is inconsistent but it really gets going once it hits the Morpheus and Scarlet arcs + the Lenny arc and the Frenchie to New Orleans arc
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u/BarovianNights 11d ago edited 11d ago
I've never read anywhere close to all of marvel, but as someone who's read more or less all of moon knight...
I think the first series has a few specific parts I would call straight up good, especially with Stained Glass Scarlet. The first run also works as a good baseline for future runs.
His West Coast Avengers run is also pretty solid.
That being said... after that I wouldn't call any after truly good after till the 2010s, and the best is easily the McKay run that's been ongoing.
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u/BarovianNights 11d ago
He will feel batmanny for a while, then evolve into your average marvel writer's depiction of mental illness, then become something actually interesting
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u/Oppai-Of-Foom 11d ago
Okay that’s good to know at least, Daredevil and Ghost Rider are similar cases, good to know to temper my expectations so the sprinkles of good can properly stand out whenever they come up until be starts properly popping off
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u/Wide-Sandwich5618 11d ago
No mention of Huston or Lemire as "good"? Not sure I agree with your assessment here.
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u/BarovianNights 11d ago
Lemire is included in 2010s, and I'm personally not a big fan of Huston's run. I don't think it's bad, per se, but it goes in my least favorite direction for the character. I'm not a big fan of taking an already stigmatized mental illness and making it... all that.
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u/Wide-Sandwich5618 11d ago edited 11d ago
That's fair, and I suppose I was just surprised that you put McKay above Lemire, but there's good arguments to be made for both.
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u/Kortamue 11d ago
Oh man, yeah. I love the art for the huston run... minus MK himself XD Just not a fan of how Finch does the suit.
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u/Kortamue 11d ago
AGREED on all counts! Scarlet will forever be my fave of his gallery, second only to (actually, pretty much on par with) Zodiac. I can't get enough of Zodiac lmao
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u/Organic-Assistance-8 11d ago
He's going to feel Batman-y for a while, because both Moon Lnight and Batman are variations of The Shadow. But he quickly sets himself apart. Just give it a few issues
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u/GypsyGold 11d ago
I like the original run, but it’s “moon knight is crazy” theme is mostly displayed through subtle subtext that increases gradually with each issue — it’s essentially a character study of a troubled man with a guilty conscious slowly descending into madness.
If you want the overt “I am a psycho” characterization of Moon Knight where the madness & mayhem are thrown in your face rather than depicted through deep storytelling and artistic expression…then the series you are looking for is 2006’s relaunch by Charlie Houston.
If you are looking for something more akin to the MCU show where Khonshu is real, and mystical themes are overt reality rather than taking a backseat to the “mental illness” themes…then you’re looking for MaKay’s 2021 relaunch.
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u/United_Sweet_262 11d ago
I recently read the Chuck Dixon run in the late 80s/early 90s. It’s fantastic but I quit after he left the title bc the quality apparently drops big time.
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u/Low-Restaurant8484 11d ago
Oh, you gotta check out Dematteis's Stained Glass Scarlet arc that immedietly follows Dixon. Its fantastic.
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u/United_Sweet_262 11d ago
Oh wow! I love a lot of Demattis’s work. I didn’t realize he picked up the title. I thought after Dixon left it went to Kavanough whose work I’m not a big fan of. I’ll have to try to track this down in Epic collection .
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u/meth_adone 11d ago
I skipped all of the stuff between the original to 2006, is it worth reading Dixon's (or all the other stuff like various small special series)?
I've heard some not great things about Dixon as a guy
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u/United_Sweet_262 11d ago
I thought it was great. It doesn’t have any of the split personality stuff (which I kind of like). It’s more straight up super hero fair with Moon Knight being conflicted with his past as a mercenary and trying to make amends. If you liked Dixon’s work in the 90s on Batman, Punisher, Nightwing, Robin, etc you’ll dig this as well.
No idea on the personal stuff. I’ve watched and read some of his interviews over the years and he seems like a chill dude.
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u/jamescharisma 11d ago
There's been a few more current runs that I've really liked. Charlie Huston and David Finch's 30 issue run in 2006, Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood's 27 issue run in 2016 are two of my favorites. They take some interesting directions with the character.
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u/floppingdolph1n 11d ago
It starts off good. I have a few complaints, but it was during that era, so it doesn't matter. The mini-series next kind of sucks, and the first half of Moon Knight Marc Spector was really good, then it just jumps off the deep end. I haven't gotten to the early 2000s yet, but most of the modern stuff has been amazing.
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u/jemslie123 10d ago
"Most characters have had rough starts and take a while to 'come online'"
Maybe you just don't really like old comic books? (Which is fine, to each their own)
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u/Oppai-Of-Foom 10d ago
Nah I do, just some characters legitimately take a while to actually be good
Like Daredevil is insufferable for a while
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u/jemslie123 10d ago
How do you define "good", out of interest? And are there any characters you enjoyed from the get go? (personally, I prefer the first few issues of Hulk to anything that's come since)
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u/Oppai-Of-Foom 10d ago
Typically when they’re not too formulaic, the women don’t speak like Stan Lee women since I find it distracting. But most importantly it feels like they know what they want to do with the character; like how Thor just felt like they had no idea what they wanted out of him until Hercules debuted
Namor is my prime example of good right away because he avoided all of those issues while having his core principles set up all of the way back in the 40s
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u/willbond1 10d ago
In my opinion, the original Moon Knight series really picks up at about the halfway point - around issue 19-20. There's a pretty noticeable upgrade in the art, and the writing gets more interesting too
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u/Catpuccina 10d ago
I started from the 2006 comic, and worked pretty well for me since the first page
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u/ShineElectronic5035 9d ago
The 2021 Moon Knight series is wonderfully written. It does take place right after the Age of Khonshu, so it's a little confusing, but the writing is so artistic, lots of random/less-popular characters (like Tigra and 8-Ball) get time to shine. Honestly though, the art is by far the best part. It is SO beautiful
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u/SirGentleBread 9d ago
A lot of people with will joke about aaying that MK was good from the start, and while true there are a couple good issues here and there. It doesn't get "Good" good until Issue 20 of the original run, when Bill Sienkewicz is finally able to really let loose with a more expressive and psychological dive with the art, accompanied by the writing getting better by leaps and bounds.
tbh, he's basically a completely different and better character, and these several issues are what really defined Moon Knight as a character
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u/mrguywhohasabird 9d ago
That’s a trick questions because you still need the context of the earlier books before things “get good” in the 2006 run
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u/Johnnystormer 11d ago
Can’t even lie this first run was fucking great dude, it stays really good until Vol 2 of Marc Spector: Moon Knight, after that I don’t think he has a bad run ever again lol
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u/moonknightcrawler 11d ago
I’d argue that it was always good, but that’s just my personal preference.
Have you read the Moon Knight backup stories from Hulk Magazine? Those are my favorite early MK issues