Moon Knight #1 (Spoilers.)

[Snidlefighter]

does anyone know who has read it, if that panel with scarlet and moon knight was a redrawn scene/suppose to be the scene when Moon Knight and Scarlet fought during the first volume? It is bugging me but I can't check as I am away at a university and my parents have the better part of my comic collection.

Also anyone manage to pick up the variants to this current issue? I got lucky and my LCS held the one where he carved his name into himself.

[robreedwrites]

Really enjoyed this. A solid debut with some gorgeous imagery. I'm looking forward to having Greg Smallwood autograph my copy on FCBD.

[Snidlefighter]

I just finished reading it after staying up until the wee hours of the morning for the Comixology digital release... I have to write that it was perhaps the strangest and most interesting first issue comic I have read. My poor mind is still kind of blown so my thoughts are a little scattered. The site review doesn't convey just how surreal this issue is even in small details like how the art and coloring changes from fuzzy to clear depending. They even played with text fonts. The potential invasion of New York looked awesome from the roof top with the sands swallowing the city and the giant pyramid. For some reason this scene made me think of the Necrons from Warhammer 40K lol.

They even had a classic rogue cameo in Stained Glass Scarlet that left me wondering how she might play into this. I am not sure what to make of Marlene either.

What's real?

I don't know.

Is Marc just a nut job? Based on Khonshu's dialogue I am wondering if part of this is about Specter finally settling on one identity to answer the question of who he is once and for all for future stories. If so this is potentially really cool. Maybe he will drive other people crazy for a change.

I was really disturbed some how by the violent orderlies at the hospital. They even used the small details like the comb in one of em's hair to make it more real and gritty. Then the use of ... blow up boxes to highlight little details. Now that I think about it the art is gritty and then shifts...

It has horror. It has strangeness. It has insanity... Wierd Egyptian gods playing with minds and New York monuments... This comic is crazy. Even the bed sheet mask to channel "himself."

I really want to read the next issue like now but I have to wait. I liked it. More thoughts later.

Have you guys read this book yet? What are you thinking about it?

This book is messing with me.

I feel like the Stained Glass Scarlet cameo that you're speaking of was the fight Moon Knight had with her way back in his first series. This is where I am confused though, and contemplating things... Marc is supposedly in a mental hospital yet Moon Knight exists? Crawley who is usually the voice of reason and a key person that brings Marc back from his madness says to not listen to the news piece being played because it is all a lie and fabrication....then a page or so later we find out supposedly that every single issue, story, and volume of Moon Knight has been written tales created by Marc since he was 12 (this is how I took it at least). If this is the case then I guess Marlene is a crush/girl he fantasizes about in his dreams or when drugged by the orderlies? She looks vegetative or possibly lobotomized. I wonder where Frenchie is?

This book is giving me strong "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" vibes and I absolutely loved it. After reading your comment on the art I immediately picked the issue right back up and re-read it.

[Prof. Warren]

A good start. If nothing else, Smallwood's art is worth the cover price alone. As for the story, I'm intrigued. Until more of it plays out and more secrets are revealed, I can't make a real definitive judgement but I'm digging it so far!

[Kuwagaton]

I wonder where Frenchie is?

After seeing that Crawley is just some regular old dude (or an actor designed to play Crawley as a regular old dude), I have to wonder if "Frenchie" will even be French.

[Sharkey]

I wonder if anyone else thought the whole archaic "mental asylum" trope was somewhat distasteful?

I rather enjoyed the issue otherwise, but stigmatic stereotypes of abusive orderlies and apathetic psychologists do not sit too well with me. Plastering "Schizophrenic" across the cover I got was a bit much, don't have to try and glorify a condition that shouldn't be!

Positives, the art and the rest of the writing was wonderful though (enough to justify the increased price, for whatever reason that was!) and Moon Knight as a concept is interesting enough for me to carry on. Dream sequences were quite the treat, certainly seeing the clear Egyptian mythological influences.

This issue #1 was certainly not on the same level as the superb Ellis / Shalvey issues but still pretty neat as a whole.

[Darthkostis]

I wonder if anyone else thought the whole archaic "mental asylum" trope was somewhat distasteful?

I rather enjoyed the issue otherwise, but stigmatic stereotypes of abusive orderlies and apathetic psychologists do not sit too well with me. Plastering "Schizophrenic" across the cover I got was a bit much, don't have to try and glorify a condition that shouldn't be!

Positives, the art and the rest of the writing was wonderful though (enough to justify the increased price, for whatever reason that was!) and Moon Knight as a concept is interesting enough for me to carry on. Dream sequences were quite the treat, certainly seeing the clear Egyptian mythological influences.

This issue #1 was certainly not on the same level as the superb Ellis / Shalvey issues but still pretty neat as a whole.

Lemire said that he made the asylum so cliche on purpose, to reinforce the whole real/not real thing.

[Jenn]

That was one of the trippiest comic books I have ever read. I loved it. I love the whole "what's real and what's not" concept and the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest feel that comes out of it. This first issue really intrigued me and I'm really excited to read the next ones. Oh, and the art! It's just gorgeous! Smallwood and Bellaire really know how to convey a story through imagery. I mean you can feel the chaos in Marc's head just by looking at the pictures.

I'll have to re-read the issue later and take a closer look at it as I'm sure there are subtle hints here and there as to what is real and what isn't. I'm pretty sure that in the end, some things we thought true about Marc Spector and Moon Knight will turn out to be false and vice versa, some things that were supposedly false are going to be actually true. Not everything is as it seems in this book and I'm really curious to find out what comes next.

[Sharkey]

Lemire said that he made the asylum so cliche on purpose, to reinforce the whole real/not real thing.

I'd like to believe so, I vaguely recall Lemire discussing how he wanted to tackle mental health stigma in his interviews. I'll carry on with the book for sure to see if this runs true.

[Jenn]

Lemire said that he made the asylum so cliche on purpose, to reinforce the whole real/not real thing.

I'd like to believe so, I vaguely recall Lemire discussing how he wanted to tackle mental health stigma in his interviews. I'll carry on with the book for sure to see if this runs true.

It's pretty obvious to me that the cartoonishly evil orderlies was done on purpose to underline the fact that not everything is as it seems. They are probably not entirely real. Now whether this means the whole hospital isn't real (and possibly created by a magical being who doesn't quite understand the world) or whether this is part of Marc's illness remains to be seen (remember that some mental illness, schizophrenia included, have for symptoms the false belief that people want to harm you).

[numberthirty]

Yeah, it doesn't feel like they were going for "has something to do with reality".

[Inhuman X]

This was weird, in a mostly good way. I said that I think bringing back Moon Knight's old supporting cast is probably a step backwards, but what a way to bring them back! Only thing that rubs me the wrong way is the psychiatrist doesn't make any sense, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take that. She says that Moon Knight is real. She also says that Marc has lived in the hospital all his life and had been making up adventures of Moon Knight since he was a kid. If that was true, Moon Knight would be an old man at this point. Plus, how would he even know about Khonshu to begin with if he was in the hospital? Doesn't really seem like a place with a heavy emphasis on education. Her argument doesn't check out without doing some stretching, and I feel like for the is he/isn't he thing to have really worked, she needed to have a more ironclad argument. If he turned out not to be Moon Knight by the end of this, just a crazy guy also named Marc, it would feel sloppy due to this explanation. On the flip side, it could just be a wink to denote that Marc isn't crazy, but then it might be a little early for that. It's really a little thing all things considered, since this is clearly focused on Marc's journey more than whether or not he's actually crazy in the way that they depict him. Lemire's taking elements from all the major runs so far, so I'm interested to see where it all goes.

I do not think it is supposed to make sense yet. I think the comic has some mystery story points and this is the opening scene for Sherlock. I think it's a clue that one thing is real and one thing is not with just enough detail to hint at a potential truth. Put on the sleuth caps as we got sleuthing to do.

As to the supporting cast I am prone to agree but we may be wrong. So much depends on what the writer does with them and how they are reinvented. You see I never thought CW writers could make the Flash's rogue gallery interesting with goofy characters like Captain Cold and Captain Boomerang but they up and proved me wrong by doing it. They actually made them cool. So I am willing to see what the writer can do with Moon Knight's cast of friends and villains.

I feel like the Stained Glass Scarlet cameo that you're speaking of was the fight Moon Knight had with her way back in his first series. This is where I am confused though, and contemplating things... Marc is supposedly in a mental hospital yet Moon Knight exists? Crawley who is usually the voice of reason and a key person that brings Marc back from his madness says to not listen to the news piece being played because it is all a lie and fabrication....then a page or so later we find out supposedly that every single issue, story, and volume of Moon Knight has been written tales created by Marc since he was 12 (this is how I took it at least). If this is the case then I guess Marlene is a crush/girl he fantasizes about in his dreams or when drugged by the orderlies? She looks vegetative or possibly lobotomized. I wonder where Frenchie is? This book is giving me strong "One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest" vibes and I absolutely loved it. After reading your comment on the art I immediately picked the issue right back up and re-read it.

Stained Glass Scarlet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stained_Glass_Scarlet

Key Quote from Wikipedia: "While Scarlet does not have any apparent powers, she possesses a mysterious psychic bond with Moon Knight. This psychic bond is not systematic. It appears when Stained Glass Scarlet concentrates on Moon Knight, and can manifest in the form of dreams during which their thoughts intermingle and allow them to briefly communicate. This bond between Stained Glass Scarlet and Moon Knight could be due to an entity close to the Egyptian god of the moon, Khonshu, and reincarnated as Stained Glass Scarlet."

Key Question: Was the therapist Stained Glass Scarlet with a white coat, glasses, and her hair bound up as a disguise? The TV scene a hint from some one about the reality of things? Could she be bound to Seth per the wiki entry's hint?

That was one of the trippiest comic books I have ever read. I loved it. I love the whole "what's real and what's not" concept and the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest feel that comes out of it. This first issue really intrigued me and I'm really excited to read the next ones. Oh, and the art! It's just gorgeous! Smallwood and Bellaire really know how to convey a story through imagery. I mean you can feel the chaos in Marc's head just by looking at the pictures. I'll have to re-read the issue later and take a closer look at it as I'm sure there are subtle hints here and there as to what is real and what isn't. I'm pretty sure that in the end, some things we thought true about Marc Spector and Moon Knight will turn out to be false and vice versa, some things that were supposedly false are going to be actually true. Not everything is as it seems in this book and I'm really curious to find out what comes next.

I think I am one of the few people left that look for comic books that actually give me something to talk about each issue rather than being left to talk about how cool character X is. Lemire hit that mark with me this issue so I did the thread.Like you I am curious.

It's pretty obvious to me that the cartoonishly evil orderlies was done on purpose to underline the fact that not everything is as it seems. They are probably not entirely real. Now whether this means the whole hospital isn't real (and possibly created by a magical being who doesn't quite understand the world) or whether this is part of Marc's illness remains to be seen (remember that some mental illness, schizophrenia included, have for symptoms the false belief that people want to harm you).

I don't know.

Pure Speculation: I think those orderlies really are part of the "Army of Seth" and this invasion is real. They are just abusive inhuman prison guards. Moon Knight as potentially the only guy in Marvel that can stop such a thing was imprisoned before the troops landed with all of his allies. Khonshu is using this as an exercise to teach his son about what is real in himself. I mean what better way to launch a new series than show a reader why Moon Knight is unique while showing why he is cool with a big bad only he can deal with on an epic scale like an invasion?

I'd like to believe so, I vaguely recall Lemire discussing how he wanted to tackle mental health stigma in his interviews. I'll carry on with the book for sure to see if this runs true.

Me too. Mental health is just no laughing matter.

[Sharkey]

It's pretty obvious to me that the cartoonishly evil orderlies was done on purpose to underline the fact that not everything is as it seems. They are probably not entirely real. Now whether this means the whole hospital isn't real (and possibly created by a magical being who doesn't quite understand the world) or whether this is part of Marc's illness remains to be seen (remember that some mental illness, schizophrenia included, have for symptoms the false belief that people want to harm you).

Delusions can be part of the condition certainly, it varies massively judging by the diagnosed people I work with. I certainly get what you mean and will re-read it later adopting that frame of mind. I think poor or archaic representation of mental health is a particularly sore topic for myself.

Mental health is just no laughing matter.

I wish more people in the comics industry had that ethos!

[Darthkostis]

I'd like to believe so, I vaguely recall Lemire discussing how he wanted to tackle mental health stigma in his interviews. I'll carry on with the book for sure to see if this runs true.

Yeah, if it was a case of "haha, they be crazy", I'd be pissed, but Lemire's handling Bloodshot great over at Valiant, who's similar to Wolverine and Moon Knight, so I have faith that this is more of a homage/criticism of those cliches.

[Andru]

Loved this issue and the story Lemire is planning to tell.

Very interesting. And the artwork was phenomenal!