Marc Spector: Moon Knight #1: Caging the Moon

For all of its critical praise, I haven’t really gotten the chance to dip my toes into Jed MacKay’s tenure on Moon Knight. Doing so has been made more daunting by the constant changes made to the book’s title and numbering, but that’s always been something Marvel has done in trying to scoop up new readers. Well, putting that notion to the test, I decided to jump into Marc Spector: Moon Knight #1 with an open mind.

While not very friendly for those who have no context for the character, I was surprised by how quickly I fell into this issue without any real hangups. As long as you take a second to perhaps peruse a summary of recent events, the structuring of this initial issue is incredibly smooth in how it delivers the right kinds of context for ongoing story lines without inundating both old and new readers with exhausting amounts of exposition. I have some specific, foggy questions after finishing up my second read of the issue, but nothing that actively stalled my interest in continuing on with this title month to month. Quite the opposite, really.

The main story of this issue is so rife with intrigue and interesting presentation that I would continue reading on based off what was set up here even without the other ongoing story threads. Marc finding himself brainwashed and locked up in a twisted ode to The Truman Show, wrestling with his mind as his subconscious fights to pull his lunar identity back to the forefront, is a whole lot of fun and deeply atmospheric in execution. The escalating tension of mismatched sensibilities in our antagonists also paints a really great picture of conflict that escalates into a very exciting cliffhanger that led me to throwing this onto my monthly pulls.

The art ties the whole thing together quite smoothly, Rachelle Rosenberg’s excellent colors painting each scene with a delicate moodiness that bottles up the exact kind of liminal, suffocating environment Marc is trapped in. Dev Pramanik returns on pencils and absolutely kills it with rather creative panel layouts and distinct shifts in style that match the different layers of mental fog Marc is trapped under without them ever feeling out of place.