 Mercenary Mark Spector died in Egypt, under a statue of the ancient deity Konshu. He returned to life in the shadow of the moon god, and wore his aspect to fight crime for his own redemption. He went completely insane and disappeared. This is what happened next. Hey everyone, welcome to another exciting episode, another edition, another review here at Awaken Geekdom. My name is Giovanni Menendez, and today we're going to be reviewing an instant modern classic. Yeah, I can say that. It's pretty famous, it's pretty cool, and a lot of people have recommended this book to me over the years. I actually had read it, and I re-read it for this video. It is Warren Ellis' and Declan Shelby's Moon Knight Run. I do believe this was part of Marvel Now, way back in 2014, if I remember correctly. Here's the back cover, front, and this is a very stylish, down-to-earth, gritty, grimy reintroduction to a character that not a lot of people know too much about. Even though the introductory piece that I did basically sums it all up. This mercenary gets killed and gets brought back in front of Konshu. And if you follow your Egyptian mythology, you know that Konshu basically had like four different aspects to him, and that is represented in Spectre's four-split personality and the way that he behaves. It's very different. It's depending on the run, and even like it can be a little bit meta itself because writers tend to write him a certain way that's different from what's been done before. But that's neither here nor there. What we're talking about is the fact that Mark Spectre, he's famous for being sort of this kooky superhero that not a lot of people or not a lot of fans know about. I myself don't really know too much about Moon Knight. I have to be completely honest with you guys. I only know about this run and the Jeff Lemire stuff, which I also have. I have not read the original runs from when the character debuted. I have not read the Bendis material, all that stuff. So I really do want to explore that at a later time. And this just happens to coincide with the fact that Moon Knight is getting a TV series, which is something a lot of people have been asking for for so long. Ever since they started doing superhero TV shows with Agents of Shield and then the Netflix ABC Marvel stuff or whatever you want to call it with Daredevil and all that. Everybody's been wanting, let's do a Netflix Moon Knight series. It's going to be awesome. Well, finally we're getting one with Disney Plus. So, hooray for the Moon Knight fans. But yeah, back to the book. I do believe that Warren Ellis really did the best thing possible, and that is to wipe the slate clean. You don't need to know anything about Moon Knight. You can go in 100% blind and still enjoy this very awesome read. It's very quick. It's only six issues and part of it is more of a visual experience with minimal dialogue. But what we do get is golden. Obviously, a lot of people really liked the whole white suit with a white bag look. I myself prefer the classic look more, and especially the updated one. You can see here in the book with the black and patterns and all that stuff. But the character is very interesting because it does tackle things like the ID dissociative identity disorder. And it really does play with your head if the character is like that because of what happened in Egypt, or is it something else, or it's all a farce. It's up to you to decide what you think of the character. And I think that is a pretty interesting aspect that not a lot of superheroes have. There are maybe a few exceptions out there, but for the most part, everybody is pretty black and white with the way they behave and their mental state. And with Moon Knight, it's a little bit different. The stories that were presented here by Warren Ellis, they border in between cop drama to vigilanteism, to just an exploration of the psyche of a man that's been broken. He died and came back, and he's trying to do good in the world, or in this case, New York City. And the stories, they follow a certain beat with it being him solving crimes and looking for these characters that are doing harm to citizens and all that stuff. So it's very straightforward in that regard. But the way Ellis writes the book, it's very, it's very grimy. It feels like you're watching a real-life police drama. And the art is the biggest selling factor here, because Shelby is amazing, and I love his artwork so much. And the stuff that he does here, the panel work, the coloring, all the stuff that went into the creation of this book is A-plus material. I love this so much from weird panels, such as this thing right there, to the usage of grids and white space to highlight emptiness and, you know, lapses in time through scenes and panels and stuff. It's honestly quite masterful. I love it so much. And then each issue has a certain color to it, a certain theme, if you will, that goes hand in hand with the story, as you'll see here. It's all very different, very stylish. Look at it. Look at that thing. Look at that. Won't tell you what that is, but if you read the story, it's pretty shocking when you find out what that is, or the implications of what that is. Then you also have probably the fan favorite of this run, of this small six-issue run. This raid movie-style thing, story, I should say, from Moon Knight, where he's going to rescue this girl that's been taken hostage on this apartment complex, I guess. And what follows is just a straight-up beatdown that it just oozes style and gusto. And it's very easy to follow, and it flows like you're watching a storyboard from a movie, or an animated movie. It's very stylistic and pretty badass that I do wholeheartedly recommend everybody should check out. If you've never read Moon Knight, you want to get started on the character, I think this is the best, safest, and coolest way to get introduced to a character that not a lot of people, not a lot of mainstream... He hasn't had the mainstream attention that he deserves. Yeah, he's had appearances with other characters. Yeah, you've done the whole team up Wolverine and Spider-Man and whatever, but he's never had the attention that he deserves. And I'm very excited that the character is getting a TV show, or getting introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if you will. But yeah, solid, awesome writing, fantastic artwork, low entry point, cash wise, you can pick this up for dirt cheap money and have a really fun time. This is easily my favorite image right there. I love that. So yeah, cannot recommend it enough. And I say modern classic, because you're able to take a character, wipe the slate clean, reintroduce it to everybody, and still be amazing, and still add something to the original source material, to the original issues. And I do believe that most stories, you can just go in blind and enjoy it for what they are. There's always a connective tissue between superheroes and the different authors that are doing runs on these characters. But with Mark, you know, since he's a little bit cuckoo in the head, and you don't really know what's going on, each time you pick up a new book from a new writer, you could say it's a starting point. Same with the Jeff Lemire stuff. You don't, like it's recommended that you know about the other stuff, but you can go in and read that and enjoy it as well. But if you want a clear, concise, good read, then I do wholeheartedly recommend this, especially on the art alone, simply for those pretty amazing action set pieces. There's a, you know, it's just a very fluid sequential art at its finest. And this book provides that. It's awesome all the way through, and an instant modern classic because of it, because of all the reasons I stated. And yeah, what more is there to say? Moon Knight from Warren Ellis. It's very easy to read, very comprehensible, and the art in it will blow your mind with how down and grimy and gritty and just violent and beautiful it all is, especially, and I should mention this because it's pretty iconic, the stark contrast with the backgrounds and the white suit here with Moon Knight, or Mr. Knight, really pop, really makes the panels and the pages pop in a very interesting way. If you want to read something different and add to your Marvel library, then look no further than this book or any of the excellent runs that follow this as well. What do you think about Moon Knight? What do you think about the character? What do you think about this run? Let me know in the comment section down below. Guys, thank you so much for liking, commenting, subscribing to it, we can geek them. We're past 1500 subscribers. That is mind boggling. I cannot thank you enough. I'm honored and flattered and it's awesome that so many people like the content on this channel. Thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart. You are the absolute best. Thank you once again. Follow me on your favorite social media platform, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that fun stuff so we can keep the conversation going over there. Hit the notification bell and what's left to say. Oh yeah, I have got to go. I will catch all of you on our next episode. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.