Marc Spector is Moon Knight!…Or is he? It’s hard to tell these days, especially when New York’s wildest vigilante protects the street with two-fisted justice and three—that’s right, count 'em—different personalities! But even with the mystical force of Khonshu fueling his crusade, how does the night's greatest detective save a city that's as twisted as he is? The road to victory is going to hurt. A lot. Marvel's most mind-bending adventure begins NOW as Moon Knight sleuths his way to the rotten core of New York's most bizarre mysteries!
Once again, Marc's identity crisis takes front stage in this series. Long has the man known as Moon Knight struggled with his mercenary persona throughout his crime fighting career. Even when writer Mike Benson tried to kill off the Marc Spector persona during his 2008 run in the third volume of Moon Knight, the vigilante's original identity was resurrected not long after during the "Shadowland" cross-title event.
That's not the only interesting thing about the solicitation, though: Moon Knight will be utilizing three personas again. The big question, then, is who are these personas? Marc Spector definitely takes one spot, and it's still unclear whether Moon Knight occupies another. Will Ellis honor the character's history as he said he would and dust off the Lunar Crusader's Jake Lockley and Steven Grant identities? I hope so, because I personally didn't care for his personality trio of Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America in the last Moon Knight series by Brian Michael Bendis. Moon Knight was just fine being his violent self, and I'd rather not see him try to embody his fellow Avengers again.Also, Khonshu is back! I loved the dynamic between the avatar and the Ancient Egyptian god in the third volume and Vengeance of the Moon Knight. When Bendis completely omitted Khonshu from his series, I was pretty miffed. In fact, it's hard to call Bendis' series a true Moon Knight series. There are three defining elements to a Moon Knight book, in my opinion: the holy triad of personalities (Marc, Jake, and Steven), Khonshu's implicit or explicit presence, and Moon Knight's main supporting cast. There's still no word on whether Ellis will include Marc's friends—Marlene Alraune, Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, Bertrand Crawley, and Gena Landers and her sons—but, again, I hope that Ellis will stay true to Moon Knight's classic stories.
The most exciting things to come from this solicitation, however, are the variants. Well, one in particular, that is; but I'll give Cook's a fair mention, too.
These "animal variant covers" Marvel has been pumping out have been equally as fun as the "baby variants" by Skottie Young (although never as satisfying as the "Venom variants" from last year were, in my opinion). As fun as it is to see Moon Knight as a hippopotamus, I feel this was a lost opportunity on Cook's part to create "Moo Knight," the Lunar Cow of Vengeance and a hilarious response to DC's Bat-Cow. Besides, what sort of connection does a hippo have to Moon Knight in the first place? Ah, well. (Also, Marvel had better be careful about claiming Moon Knight as "the night's greatest detective." He already has an unfair reputation of being called a Batman copycat!)
We get our first peek at Moon Knight's iconic look under Shalvey's hand with his variant cover. Additionally, it looks like the hero will be getting an updated costume with some influences from the original jet-and-silver design and the armored upgrade from Vengeance of the Moon Knight. Gotta say, I'm loving this new look. Also, Shalvey's variant reminds me of something from his Venom days of recent history…
He confirmed with me on Twitter that the resemblance was unintentional, but I like to think he did that just for
Moon Knight #1 will be available in March 2014 as a part of Marvel's second season of NOW! titles. Are you excited for the next chapter in Moon Knight's career? What are your thoughts on the new threads?
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