Deez Knights: The Epic Troll-Job of "Moon Knight #1" by Lemire, Smallwood, and Bellaire

I'd be angry too, Spector.

Decompression in comics storytelling is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but for the purposes of what I'm writing about today on JHI, let's say that "decompression" refers to the "purposeful elongation of a storyline that might, if judiciously edited, take place in one issue of a comic book series." I'm not against decompression in my comic book storytelling, if it's done very well.

Saga, by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples, is currently dominating the Image lineup, partly by providing readers with a story that ages with them. Six trade paperbacks in, and baby Hazel is just starting to walk for the first time. She's taking her first steps along with readers into the strange world of robot Princes, Lying Cats, and bounty hunters like The Will. Those small storytelling steps, on a monthly basis, help the book to develop smaller character moments, like the deep and affecting story of marriage set against the stars with Marko and Alana.

It's easy to forget, too, that the comic book that got me into this expensive habit, Bendis & Bagley's Ultimate Spider-Man, was essentially the Patron Saint of Decompression. The Ultimate line of books began with the publisher deciding it should take 4 issues for Uncle Ben Parker to meet with his fate, and that a smaller-scale battle with a powered-up Norman Osborn should dominate the better part of 2 issues immediately after. Of course, the Bendis approach to storytelling in those books paid dividends as character interaction piled up; the rapport developed between the strong women in the book (like Mary Jane, Gwen Stacy, and the best Aunt May ever published) and Peter's early-series superheroic confession to his girlfriend were only possible because of the time taken by a craftsman like Bendis. I tend to strongly object whenever someone reads a decompressed book and complains that "nothing happens."

Well, nothing fucking happens in Moon Knight #1. Written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire, this $4.99 whopper is about as filling as a fast-food sandwich, and half as pleasurable to consume. Marc Spector, the Moon Knight, begins the issue and ends it in a mental hospital, being treated for psychosis and told that his beliefs about being Moon Knight are just that: beliefs. I'm no zealot about moving a story at a breakneck pace, but when your character starts a #1 issue not-quite-believing that he's the Moon Knight and that he might be under the spell of some Egyptian villain, and it ends the exact same way, I might feel like I'm getting trolled a little bit. I'd give Marvel all the credit in the world if they were willing to actually have Marc Spector not be Moon Knight at the end of the arc, but I doubt that's coming.

If that story sandwich were peppered with other interesting ingredients, it might work better than this post-Secret Wars debut for Khonshu & Co. Spector is surrounded, throughout the issue, by allusions to older Moon Knight stories, and a couple of guards in his Arkham-lite hospital that make the orderlies in Sucker Punch look subtle. Khonshu looks good when he's dressed in Moon Knight's traditional three-piece suit, but many of the other costumes, including the wildly unfortunate bedsheet headwrap worn by Spector during a botched escape, just don't work in the context of this relatively barebones book.

A book this thick shouldn't feel so barren, either. The art takes a respectably minimalist stance toward paneling and division of frames, allowing Smallwood's pencils to bleed from moment to moment. This is an especially nice technique for the longer scenes of dialogue, and again, Khonshu has never looked more menacing than when he towers over Spector. Smallwood can only do so much to carry the otherwise thin material, though, and you realize before long that you're being strong-armed into buying issue #2.

All of this is especially heartbreaking in the wake of the absolutely stunning, and dearly departed, Marvel NOW! run on Moon Knight that was spearheaded by Warren Ellis. Those books, anchored by one-off stories that explored what a New York City protected by the Knight would be like, found time to include a ridiculously propulsive take on The Raid and an amazing encounter with a scarred S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. These self-contained stories managed to explore more of Spector's 4 possible personas and approaches to crime-fighting with more nuance than any decompressed arc could possibly achieve: while Lemire's take focuses on asking IF Spector is even Moon Knight, the earlier issues wanted to show how awesome Moon Knight can be. A drastic difference in storytelling approaches, and a major step down for what could be an exciting series from Marvel.

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