I so want to try these comics, but as long as they’re only reprinted in black and white, I’ll pass. I hope color versions come soon.

Heh…
MOON KNIGHT might be one of the few titles that would actually WORK as just B/W.

A lot of heavy shadows and a B/W costume make it easy to read them that way.
Not to mention that the early Moon Knight stories are very dark, (not quite noir) horror/detective/psychodrama/cult tales anyway.

I doubt that the B/W treatment would hurt them much.

~P~
P-TOR

This actually maks me want to go out and read the original Moon Knight series, which I had never had a desire to do. I’m with T, though. Even if they work well in B&W, I’d much rather read them in color.

Personally, as a kid I thought it was cool in WCA during the Lost is Space-Time story when they reveal that Hawkeye trapped in the past was the one who made Moon Knight’s weapons. Maybe if I had been a Moon Knight fan that would have bugged me, but as a Hawkeye fan I thought it was cool.

Some of the stuff in that Essentials collection is taken from the Moon Knight back-up stories that were featured in the Incredible Hulk Magazine; I don’t know if the originals were in color or black and white, but where most Essentials stuff is reprinted as just the inked pencils, these are done with a gray shading that winds up looking pretty gorgeous. Once you get into the ongoing series, a lot of the stories, especially one set in a haunted house and one involving an axe-murderer stalking the city park, are given a stark, eerie aspect due to the B&W that might not have been there in the original color. As the guy above me said, Moon Knight’s really one of the only mainstream superheroes that might actually work better as a colorless book.
Of course, after all those Batman: Black & White stories, the last thing the character needs is ANOTHER similarity.

Personally I always felt he could have done with a stronger rougues gallery.

I also really loved the fractured personalities angle to it, the idea that someone can fabricate personas and eventually become lost in them. My memory might be completely wrong about this, but I always thought this angle suffered with the characters in the series learning very early on that all of these identities were shared by the same man. I’d have loved them to continue further down this path – having Marc Spector create new identities to reflect the changing world around him.

And yes, I agree its a shame Moon Knight has never managed to stay popular without heading straight into “look how vicious he is” territory. I personally love the slightly unhinged nature of his personality, but don’t see why this means he’s got to go around mutilating people to emphasise how “insane” he is. That being said, I like what they’ve been doing in the current series with the voices in his head.

How long till the current series is cancelled then?

I remember back int he ’90s, a hot new artist (Steven Platt, with the unbeatable signature of S.PLATT!) was put on Moon Knight for its last few issues, after it was annoucned it was cancelled but before the last issues were made. Platt’s art made the comic red-hot, a huge seller, but Marvel stuck to their guns for cancelling an absurdly popular and best-selling comic for lack of sales.

Of course, Moon Knight can’t stay a callous gunman if he wants to be published in a Marvel comic,

Frank Castle might have something to say about that. Of course, at the time Moon Knight debuted, no one was trying to sell Punisher as a hero yet.

So , , , is Moon Knight’s playboy “Steven Grant” identity an in-joke on Moench’s part about Marvel writing colleague Steven Grant (who’s even had the chance to write the character once or twice), or is that somehow supposed to be a coincidence?

There is a bit about writer Steven Grant/ character Steven Grant in a piece Moench wrote about the creation of Moon Knight, which is reprinted in the Moon Knight Essential. It’s quite a good piece. According to it, it’s a coincidence.

Some of the stuff in that Essentials collection is taken from the Moon Knight back-up stories that were featured in the Incredible Hulk Magazine; I don’t know if the originals were in color or black and white

They were in color. Strangely enough, even when Hulk! moved to being only partially color the backup stories (which starred Dominic Fortune by then) remained in color. Only when there were no more b/us did the mag revert to 100% b&w.

The writer Steven Grant has mentioned he only took on the book for a few issues because they thought it would be funny.

I’ve also met people who’s first exposure to the writer was this, and they thought it was a joke pen-name for another writer.

This is the best review of the original Moon Knight comic series & character that I’ve ever read. I have been a fan of the character since the early 1980′s, and started reading the comic with #1 of the original ongoing series. I completely agree that the character has been very unfairly compared to Batman over the years. I have always thought the character of MK was/is very original, both in concept and in the way he was handled .

Volume 1 of MK is, IMHO, one of the best comic book series of all time. Very dark, gritty, noir-ish-type stories that got even better once the title went to “direct-market” mid-way through it’s run and didn’t need to have the comics code requirement anymore.

I also agree that the comic lost a lot of it’s “balance” after B. Sienkiewicz left the title toward the end of it’s first run. His art really fit the comic more than any of the subsequent (or previous) artists, and after his departure the remaining issues of Volume 1 that I read definitely felt like they were missing something.

Re: reprints, I don’t agree that the comic looks better re-printed in the b&w Essentials format, though I understand why someone may think that if they’ve never read the comic in color. IMHO, the color in the original comic really adds to the story, especially with Sienkiewicz’s beautiful painted artwork.

For those who are looking for these original stories in color, later in 2010 Marvel is scheduled to publish a small reprint collection of the original MK stories from the “Hulk” magazine in full color (only the B. Sienkiewicz stories will be reprinted, though). I’ll definitely be getting this, since I don’t have any of these old issues anymore.

Here’s hoping that at some point in the near future, Marvel will publish a full-color Omnibus of MK Volume 1 #1-38. This would be superb, and I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed in the hopes that this will happen.