Marvel Comics 2016
Written by Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Greg Smallwood
Coloured by Jordie Bellaire
Lettered by VC’s Cory Petit
Marc Spector doesn’t know what to believe. Sometimes he sees his surroundings as a nightmarish mental hospital, being run by an abusive staff who claim that his life as Moon Knight is merely delusion. But sometimes Marc sees the Asylum as a trick by Ammut, servant of the God Seth, to hold the Fist of Khonshu captive. Together with Crawley and Frenchie, who share Marc’s vision of the Asylum, Marc mounts an escape, bringing patients Gena and Marlene. But just as they reach their escape route in the New York Subway, the trains at the station discharge their passengers: Mummies.
This kind of ties up every previous Moon Knight series to date by keeping aspects of them all in play and expanding on them. Could it be that it’s been Ammut who is responsible for his having split personalities in the last run? Who knows but what I do know is that this is the kind writing that makes this book incredible! Jeff isn’t playing it safe, he isn’t following Marvel’s normal rules and instead this is very much a thinking man’s comic full of what if’s and what could be’s. Dark, edgy and beyond the realm of normal this is kind of series that makes me love comics.
I'm fully invested, enraptured and enthralled in what’s happening here. I see this is as the next evolution in the story of Marc Spector, Moon Knight. This whole Egyptian theme that’s permeating this arc is beyond wonderful. I mean it was in Egypt that he became Khonshu’s in the first place and very little has been done with that since. We’ve seen him go from this vigilante style crimefighter to Avenger to crazy loon and now it feels like Jeff’s looping it all back to the beginning. As if this story will once again ground him and let him be the Agent of Khonshu that he’s always meant to have been.
Using his established supporting cast in this way has just been superbly handled. I mean I love the idea of them all being kept by Seth’s torturer Ammut in what they think is an Asylum, drugged and confused so as not to realize who they really are. By casting the doubt and having Marc and them face this and realize it on their own is the kind of characterization that they need. Nothing about this seems to have a pattern except of one of sheer awesomeness. I love that this is outside the box.
Then there’s Greg’s contributions. His use of pages and panels keeps the whole tone and feel of the Asylum front and center. Those double page spreads used as they are in genius to me. There’s also the subtlety of the graffiti we see in the backgrounds yeah so much of this is perfectly suited for this. Also his depiction of the Egyptian Gods from Mythology and their henchmen really stand out in a powerful way. There really is something about seeing Ammut’s visage as is and then that striking Anubis.
Moon Knight is a wonderful character, often misunderstood and often misused but always interesting. This latest go-round seems to be taking it all in and blending it up to create something stronger than the sum of it’s parts. I hope to Khonshu that this series will last for a while.