A comiXologist Recommends

Moon Knight #1 (Marvel Comics)

Written by Jeff Lemire

Art by Greg Smallwood

Who would have thought, not too many years ago, that Jeff Lemire, author of acclaimed graphic novels like Essex County and the Underwater Welder, and later the strange and heartbreaking Vertigo series Sweet Tooth, would become one of the most sought after and influential writers of superhero comics?  He broke out as one of the brightest stars of DC’s New 52, writing Animal Man and Green Arrow, then the Teen Titans: Earth One graphic novel, and has since gone on to high profile, universe defining runs for Marvel and Valiant (as well as creator owned series for Image), all without sacrificing his signature style.  Lemire’s work can be odd and disturbing, but it’s also heartfelt and sincere, not in a treacly, sentimental way, but in a real, human way that rings true.  The people that Lemire writes about, whether Animal Men or Underwater Welders, are recognizable as people, not just characters on the page.

Now Lemire is bringing that style to Marvel’s Moon Knight, a character who has been revived many times over the years, with many different ideas behind him.  A number of these reboots have been successful because the character, by his nature, is enigmatic, a bit of a cypher- in the earliest version, the character even possessed multiple personalities, essentially he was four different characters inhabiting the same body, something referred to in the early pages of Lemire’s Moon Knight #1.

The tone for the book is set as Marc Spector’s reality shifts between a mystical netherworld and what seems like a very real mental institution.  Is he a madman with delusions of a career as a superhero, or an actual hero, misunderstood and imprisoned in an asylum?  Or is he dead, and experiencing some hellish vision of the afterlife?  Lemire raises more questions than he answers, setting up some very promising obstacles for Moon Knight to overcome as the series progresses.  I definitely plan on sticking around for the ride, and you should too, if you don’t mind a little mind-bending mysticism mixed in with gutter level reality.

Wanna know how Jeff Lemire took the superhero world by storm?  Just read Moon Knight #1.

Harris Smith is a senior production coordinator and social media editor at comiXology.  He both enigmatic and a cypher.