Moon Knight has always suffered from identity confusion, not helped by a history of writers who thought mental illness is sort of a superpower. He’s waned as successive phases left him with less and less certainty, overshadowed by a certain Gotham detective, but Marvel realized that he needs to shine with his own light. Which is why they brought in Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey.
Ellis is Dr Frankenstein for old characters, resurrecting intellectual properties to live once more, but he funnels the lightning bolts through his own head. He delves into the guts of the character to find the strong connections, then rebuilds them to better work around their own intelligent principles. His new Knight is certain of his role and his own head (for better or worse), and his history is neatly introduced as a motivation instead of a mess.
Shalvey’s art is perfect, presenting the immaculate white Knight against a filthy city. The logic of wearing white to fight crime is clearly explained, but the sheer mastery required to keep clean in these conditions is implied with every panel and even more powerful.
Moon Knight #1 resurrects a character who’s been through that once already. But this time it takes. A distinctive design. An impressive character. He even manages to turn the “long talk so the villain can explain his motivations” into an intelligent thing someone would actually do. Another such thing would be to read this comic.
