He worded it oddly, cheap laughs commence on it. Moon Knight and Batman aren’t comparable, except they both brood and angst while stalking the night. And have boomerang themed weaponry.
Bendis should be fine, I give Bendis A LOT of shit, but if it’s a street level gritty character he does very well.
I don’t much care for USM these days, but I highly doubt he himself will die. If he does, it’s temporary. Comics these days are all about temp work.
There is some comparison, Batman fights for vengeance and MoonKnight literally is vengeance. They both use money to help in their aide against crime and both wear costumes that instills fear in their enemies but they’re completely different at the same time
I recently read Essential Moon Knight volumes 1 and 2. It was okay for an '80s comic. It’s got plenty overwriting and awkward, super comic booky quirks. Definitely it’s more memorable for showcasing the evolving artistic wizardry of Bill Sienkiewicz than for the actual stories. There were several pretty good stories throughout, though. It pretty much is Batman with a Marvel twist. Doug Moench gave him multiple identities but I don’t remember if he really delved into Moon Knight’s psychoses. Eventually Moench would do some of his best work in trying to create more poetic comics stories centered around Sienkiewicz’s experimental art.
Moon Knight’s roots essentially portray him to be a psycho Batman. On the surface, he’s pretty much a Batman clad in white: lots of money, lots of gadgets, a variety of moon-themed weaponry (including a Mooncopter), an Alfred-like companion/helper in Frenchie, a supporting cast of allies that betray his theoretical status as a loner, and a bunch of street-level crimes with the occasional horror/supernatural encounters.
The things that set him apart are his multiple identities (which always felt hokey and unnaturally forced in Moench’s writing), his girlfriend Marlene, his background as a mercenary, his age (probably closer to Green Arrow than Batman), his psychoses (which I think have been more pronounced ever since Charlie Huston’s run), and Khonshu.
I think Khonshu is critical in setting Moon Knight apart from Batman. That’s an element that can transform Moon Knight into a unique superhero. It opens up all sorts of avenues for storytelling that might feel awkward with Batman. The whole idea of being called back from death by the Egyptian god of death to be his avatar on Earth is a pretty intense origin for a superhero. Toss in the aspect that Huston introduced where “Khonshu” would talk to Marc Spector (only we’re never quite sure if Khonshu is real or if Marc is just a crazy) and that’s a solid foundation for some unique crimefighting stories.
It could also give Marvel a small window to further flesh out their mythology stuff. Which is already good, but decidedly one sided in what god’s are portrayed.
As for USM, I’m worried mostly because he convinced Bagley to come back. That makes it a bit of a big deal. It seems as if he’s coming back JUST for this arc too, putting emphasis on wanting to end a character he helped create. I also feel like Bendis may have a bug up his ass concerning “anything can happen it’s Ultimate!” Admittedly there are a lot of scenarios that could happen. Peter could stay a superhero, simply changing his moniker to “Scarlet Spider.” Peter could completely quit being a superhero and allow his clone, Spider-Woman, to take over. I just really don’t want him to die. If he does I’ll get over it quickly.
By the way, I was one of the few people bummed Johnny died. Seems a lot of people hated that guy. 
Johnny wasn’t much of a surprise, it’s not like he is a huge deal in Marvel these days. No one really cares because he’ll be back in about three months during some storyline involving stuff.
I’ll check out some Moon Knight work when I get my Strange collection, see what all the hubbub is about.
When does the USM death issue drop?
I think the Death of Spider-Man prelude stuff begins this month. They’re calling it prelude but it’s part of the six issues of the story arc as far as I know.
As far as Strange goes, that mini with him and the girl wasn’t too bad. I think it was released last year or the year before. I thought the girl would end up really annoying but she didn’t. At the very least the demons are colorful and look cool.
The Essential Moon Knights might be worth checking out, especially if you can find 'em for more than 50% off cover price. Those older comics, while art-driven, do have some pretty good stories sprinkled throughout.
The best readable Moon Knight I would say is Charlie Huston’s 13 issue run, collected in two TPBs: The Bottom v.1 and Midnight Sun v. 2. Peter Milligan also wrote a very nice one-shot entitled Moon Knight: Silent Knight.
EDIT: Whaddaya know, someone just wrote a detailed blog post about Moon Knight:
I don’t think I agree with all of the writer’s views but he presents his thoughts very well and provides a superb overview of that particular Moon Knight series.
Yeah, I’m not sure what to think about this coming week’s “Death of Spider-Man” for Ultimate Spider-Man. On one hand, USM is Bendis’s baby. Everything about USM is his. Part of me wants to say destroy the Ultimate Universe because it already has too much continuity, which was its sole reason for existing, and USM is the only title worth reading there (if not the only title). However, it sounds like Bendis still has a lot of plans for USM from the various interviews. Like you said, for all we know, Peter will become Scarlet Spider or someone else will take the mantle of Spider-Man for a while while Peter hangs out with MJ or looks for Kitty to set his love life straight (I was going to say finish high school, but we all know Ultimate Peter is never finishing high school).
Also, count me as one of the few people bummed Johnny died! I kind of knew it would be him, but I kept hoping it’d be Ben XD
Teaser image for Marvel’s upcoming Fear crossover.
TEASER: Find Out How “Fear Itself” Begins - Comic Book Resources
I was bummed, always liked the guy. And I was liking his thing with Daken how little we saw that.
The Daken/Johnny friendship was interesting, bad time to ruin that little thing.
In other News, I’m missing like 4 issues of Secret Avengers, that comic store is really starting to bug me. If it wasn’t for the convenience factor I would go somewhere else. Hopefully they will get my two missing issues of Spider-Man in, I have like four plus another one tomorrow that I haven’t even touched yet.
I’ll probably come on board with that. The name fucking sucks, but the costumes are awesome, I really like them.
Shuma-Gorath’s take down was believable in Invaders Now, considering. I wish Shuma-Gorath actually spoke but it seems like he didn’t because Gage was going for an otherworldly approach. Overall I dug the mini.
Oh and I liked it when the original Human Torch said that his fireballs didn’t work against Shuma-Gorath. Yep, he said fireballs! Now you know, in MvC3 Ryu or Akuma vs. Shuma-Gorath is a bad match up! Who said you can’t learn about fighting games just by reading comics?
Haven’t gone through my entire weekly stash yet but so far the only other Marvel book I got to read was the latest ASM. Slott’s killing it with every issue, Spider-Man is sooooo good right now. In the back they had the new Venom’s origin story too. I’m fine with it. I’ll pick up the .1 issue next week but not really sold on picking the Venom book monthly.
As an aside Galactus in MvC3 as the final boss is FREAKING HUGE! :wow: The 15th is too far away! :lovin:
Hey guys, so, if you add spider-man to your salad, it tastes soooo much better. I hate veggies, but if I add a little spider-man, and maybe some wolverine, and i’ll eat it all day.
And you don’t need to add too much of it either. Just a joke, maybe two; a few eye rolls; and a random punch, and yum yum, salad mania. Don’t even need more than two panels worth.
~
now that i have that out of my system, yeah… against my better judgment, i’m too much of a webhead to not buy those FFs. sigh.
Spoil me how’d he get taken out?
Lol at the fireballs bit, marvel and there advertising.
Invaders Now
[details=Spoiler]They made a point about how no one could really touch him because he wasn’t really of this world, but neither was the old school Invaders Vision so only his blows connected. The ghosts of the sacrificed humans, particularly the guy who had an egg up his butt and wanted the Invaders to die because they let his ancestors die turned over a new leaf and attacked Shuma-Gorath. Since they were ghosts and not of this world their blows connected too. Hey Capcom has Hsenko! We have a prayer!
More fighting ensued with the Invaders fighting the nazi chronies. Steve Rogers eventually got his shield back and beat the living daylights out of Arnim Zola. I mean seriously he opened him up like a can of freaking sardines with his shield no lie! Next he took the Spear of Destiny (magic item for those who haven’t read the series lol) from Arnim, put it in the straps behind his shield and tossed the shield to Invaders Vision. With the ghosts holding Shuma-Gorath down OG Vision plunged the spear into the center of Shuma-Gorath’s pupil! This sent Shuma back into his portal as he never got to fully cross into our plain of existence.[/details]
Wolverine #1,000 (shyeah right Marvel LOL) only had one story that I liked that made up for the purchase of the book. There was one tale called ‘The Adamantium Diaries’ written by Sarah Cross with pencils from Joao Lemos. It was a cute story about a girl who was a Wolverine fangirl.
The rest of the stories were pretty average Wolvie tales but there were at least some nice tidbits here and there. Morrison’s often neglected Weapon Plus program from his X-Men run was mentioed. Another story showed Spiral, and even if it was only for one panel it was nice to see her again. It’s been a while.
The .1 issue for Wolverine was dope! Waaaay better than the Iron Man one, IE not boring. Lots of Marvel guest stars + violence is good! :tup:
Lastly there was a pretty big shocker in Carnage this week! :wow:
Carnage, MAJOR SPOILER
[details=Spoiler]Just when we thought we had a new female Carnage on our hands it turns out the organization that kept the symbiote around also kept Cletus Kasady alive! His lower half is now robotic after Sentry ripped him in half a while back. The symbiote dumped the lady shrink who was wearing and approached Cletus to end the issue.
Now I’m not the biggest Carnage fan but I hope Cletus gets the symbiote back. New Hogoblin and new Venom are cool don’t get me wrong but Marvel PLEASE take a break from Guantletizing Spidey villains for a while…[/details]
That spoiler for Carnage sounds so stupid that I don’t think I would ever read it.
Well said person would be half symbiote, half human and…uh, half robot? I dunno. I don’t much care for Carnage the 90’s gratuitous violence wonder so my interest level is pretty damn low.
I think Shuma will find his way on my MvC3 teams eventually, I’ve been playing a lot of older titles that feature him and enjoy the play style, we shall see!