By WALLY MONK – Paint Monk’s Library Editor

When I heard that Moon Knight was being relaunched this summer (followed in a month or two by my favorite Jungle Lord, Ka-Zar), I was filled with excitement but also with much trepidation.

Those of you who have followed this blog for the last few years know that I am a classic comic collector; I have little love of today’s sequential art or the way in which it is assembled. To say that the last iteration of Moon Knight turned me off immensely is an understatement. Max Bemis and Jacen Burrows, although very talented, phoned in a bizarre and surreal version of Moon Knight and his world that was unrecognizable and alien, at least to my middle-aged sensibilities.

But after reading Moon Knight #1 today, I am pleased to say that readers are in for a fun and familiar – yet subtly different – ride in the months to come.

In Marc Spector’s latest outing, Moon Knight is the estranged-yet-still-servile Fist of Khonshu, who acknowledges he’s serving a God who is imprisoned (the resolution of the Age of Khonshu storyline from the Avengers). He is now the protector of those who travel in the night.

Vampires, Vermin (remember the old Spider-Man villain who looked like a rat-man?) and other “Things That Go Bump in the Night” are all antagonists now of our shadowy silver lunar warrior. He runs the “Midnight Mission” (a fitting pun given Spector is the “priest” of Khonshu), and people come to him to protect them from all sorts of these aforementioned fiends.

While this seems overly simple, we still see touches of madness in Spector. In meeting with his psychiatrist, he dresses and interacts in his Mr. Knight persona. On the streets, as a warrior, he is the caped Moon Knight that we know and love. Somewhere underneath both personas lurk Steven Grant and Jake Locksley, too.

It is interesting to see how writer Jed MacKay weaves the story together, grabbing all the popular aspects of Moon Knight from the last few iterations, and cramming them all into this premiere issue. It seems that he’s keeping the “good stuff” and rooting out all of the things that made Moon Knight so convoluted, but how effective that will be can only be determined after a few issues. I think it’s important Spector remains complicated; yet the ability of readers to understand his complexity shouldn’t be as muddy as it has been in previous outings.

The artwork of Alessandro Cappuccio is first-rate, too. On some pages, you see the inspiration of the artwork from the 1990s Marc Spector: Moon Knight in his work. On others, you can feel the spirit of Charlie Huston and David Finch. Or in some, you feel as if you’re back in the days of Alan Zelenetz and Chris Warner’s Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu.

This is not a book to miss. It will be interesting to see how the first issues are fleshed out. I am certain that somehow a foundation is being laid for some form of tie-in to the upcoming Disney+ series, and time will tell.

On a scale of 1-10, I’d give Moon Knight #1 (2021) 8 out of 10 stars.