Reviews

Essential Moon Knight, Vol. 1 by Doug Moench, Steven Grant, Frank Miller, Bill Mantlo

hperks18's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

literarygoblin's review against another edition

2.0

Essential Moon Knight Volume One is unfortunately… not essential. Yes, when it comes to the introduction of Moon Knight/Marc Spector, issues in this volume are undeniably essential, however, so many of the stories found within these pages felt incomplete, underdeveloped, or simply lacking in information. I can’t say whether this is due to poor writing or if it’s due to story arcs being absent from the book, but Essential Moon Knight always felt as if there was something missing.

Aside from this feeling of missing information, this volume also suffers from continued lulls in the storyline. The book initially starts with a number of engaging stories, but a few issues in, the journeys of Moon Knight begin to fall flat. By the final third of the book, the plots begin to pick up again, but unfortunately, other weaknesses keep the stories bogged down. And what bogs these stories down is weak characterizations across the board.

The concept of Marc Spector is interesting in theory - Spector is an ex-soldier who may or may not have been given moon-based powers in a near death experience. This event led Spector to take up a life of fighting crime, however, it also tapped into his traumas and caused him to lapse back into Dissociative Identity Disorder.

Or so we’re told.

Although the writers want us to believe that Spector has some kind of disorder, not once in this story did I see any legitimate clues of it. Sure, he takes up different personalities, but this always happens out of convenience, and he never seems to truly struggle with these varying identities. These stories try so hard to tell us that Marc is complex, but never once does he truly read that way. It’s unfortunate, because he could be a great character - perhaps this is improved in later series, but as Spector is in his first solo series, he’s nothing more than an incredibly basic Batman knockoff.

Spector isn’t the only one that suffers weak characterization - nearly everyone in this series is boring. All of Moon Knight’s associates are bland, and none of them feel essential to his story, but rather it feels as if the writers are fighting to keep these characters relevant. And don’t even ask about Moon Knight’s adversaries - none of them were even memorable enough to write about.

It’s unfortunate that this series is so lackluster, as all the possibilities for greatness can be seen right there on the page. Spector has potential as a leading man, the ensemble has potential to each have their own interesting stories, and the plots point at the possibility of being engaging, and yet, nothing in this series is given the room to grow. Hopefully, Essential Moon Knight Volume Two, will show a progression for Marc Spector that befits the type of character he’s capable of becoming.

invertible_hulk's review against another edition

2.0

I tried.
I really did.
But I just couldn't stick with this one.

Weird, choppy writing; triple identities; no basic plot to be found.
But then again, I only made it through the first 3-4 issues found within. It may have started to get better further in, but I just didn't have the patience to make it that far.