The City is The Thing.
If you’ve ever read any of Brian Wood’s books, especially
his Creator Owned Comics – because those are the best kind of comics, natch – then
you know that the writer fiercely loves New York City, and the city tends to
pervade the work.
In books written by Brian Wood (Channel Zero, The New York Four, and DMZ probably serving as the best example), New York City transcends
its status as mere metropolitan setting and becomes a thematic undercurrent, if
not one of the characters outright. That’s certainly the case with his
inaugural issue of the new Moon Knight,
a character which has sort of shifted recently from his convoluted continuity roots
to embody that new ideal.
If Wilson was “The Ghost Protector of Chinatown” in DMZ, then I’m gonna’ take some liberties
with Brian Wood’s writing and go ahead and go on record and say that Moon
Knight is “The Ghost Protector of Marvel’s NYC.”
For this run on Moon
Knight, Brian Wood is collaborating with Greg Smallwood (ok, go ahead and
get all of the “Big Wood” and “Small Wood” jokes out of your system, you
idiots, I swear I’ve heard them all during my LCS shifts, and I’ll wait for you
to compose yourself, because this book is more important than that vapid
nonsense), along with Eisner-Winning Color Queen Jordie Bellaire. In a nod at providing
consistency with Warren Ellis’ approach on the title, Declan Shalvey remains on
cover art duty, Bellaire’s coloring itself is a welcome holdover, and Greg
Smallwood brings a similar intent to the creative team.
Smallwood’s sense of purpose is all about layout fluidity
and panel ingenuity. As was the case with Shalvey, there’s deliberately a sense
of experimentation at play, but Smallwood puts a lot of his own English on the
ball, if you’ll pardon the pool term. If you caught his captivating work on Dream Thief with Jai Nitz, then you’ll
particularly notice his superb use of sound effects as panels. You’ll notice small flourishes like the manga-inspired
visual symbol for a dead cell battery. It adds so much life to such a throwaway
moment when you consider what the alternative might have been. What, a little
red battery icon that said 0%? C’mon. What we get instead is a memorable moment
instead of a flyover panel. When you understand and have mastered the
fundamentals and then selectively break those rules, you know what that’s
called? That’s called style.
I’ll draw your attention to two additional pages that’ll
allow me to sing the praises of Greg Smallwood. On page 8, he uses the first of
two 15-panel grids(!) contained in the issue to illustrate an urban blackout.
This design punctuates the proceedings with a manic sense of claustrophobia and
lurking danger. It’s just beat after beat after beat selling you on what it
feels like to be in this dark city with a vigilante waiting in the shadows. I’d
be remiss in not also calling out Jordie Bellaire’s lighting on this page,
which sort of works its way up the side of the sequence, ignoring panel borders
and inconsequential gutters to illuminate the area where your eye needs to
eventually arrive. If you liked stuff like David Aja’s work with Matt Fraction
on The Immortal Iron Fist, or their
later collaboration on the popular Hawkeye
for something slightly more contemporary, then Moon Knight is the place you need to be.
For the coup de grace to all of the lesser artists out there
(sorry to be so direct, but y’all need to step up your game after this page),
I’ll direct your attention to page 20. Moon
Knight calls his Wing in for an emergency airlift. Simultaneously, this
inventive page layout: A) provides a very cool panel-busting reveal for his aerial
gadget, B) moves your eye down the page, falling with gravity in a series of
inverted trapezoids, which C) bring you to your final destination, looking into
the scope of a rifle, unwittingly carrying all of the storytelling action
without any pesky dialogue, and D) pull back and the entire fucking page forms
an exclamation point which punches you in the face while it punctuates
everything I just described! That’s some multivalent shit happening right
there. This is the kind of original art piece that people lust after.
Brian Wood’s script also deliberately pays its respects to
Warren Ellis and what came before. It captures the perfect blend of “if it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it,” while still putting his stamp on the work for discerning
readers. There’s an effort made to capture the elusive feel of what Ellis
instituted, not just the look. The book continues the use of the same intro
text. There’s the same inclusion of forward-thinking technology that futurist
fiction writers love to dabble in. It works as a done-in-one, but now connects
to a larger narrative arc. Moon Knight’s sense of humor has that deadpan voice
to it, evidenced by lines like “Carry
on.” Moon Knight might be a raving loon. Everyone else he encounters might
think he’s a raving loon (albeit with moments of stark clarity). But, Moon
Knight doesn’t think he’s a raving loon. He’s quite serious. He doesn’t exist
relative to anyone else’s perception of him. The best villains and anti-heroes
are always the protagonists of their own narrative. It’s that juxtaposition
that allows this brand of straight-faced humor to work.
It may be a little early to posit observations like this,
but I do think this could function as one of Brian Wood’s “New York City
Books,” because of the way the city already seems intent on establishing itself
as a fundamental element. Moon Knight says as much, that this is his city,
protecting the city is important, the city is a living breathing organism
that’s just been knocked unconscious, the city is something more than the sum
of its constituent parts. Wood also laces the script with some of his trademark
moves (DMZ again service as a good
example), like the newsfeed used as a contextual backdrop, the awareness of
global political tension, or the sense of social unrest that seems to be
bubbling just below the surface.
The Wood and
Smallwood Moon Knight strikes me as
slightly less the offbeat psychological recluse of the Ellis and Shalvey Moon Knight, a necessary adjustment
reflecting the proclivities of (primarily) the writer. If the Ellis Moon Knight was half Suited White Knight
Detective (subverting its roots as Marvel’s own Dark Knight derivative), and
half, I don’t know, Doctor Strange,
then the Wood Moon Knight is
portrayed as more half Suited White Knight Detective, half “Ghost Protector of
NYC,” and that’s just fine for the more grounded sensibilities.
Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood’s Moon Knight is a strong continuation of the Warren Ellis and Declan
Shalvey incarnation, one which adds their own unique characteristics, both
aesthetically and thematically. It’s delightful, refreshing, and just plain
cool. I think that Wood may have finally found his home in the Marvel Universe,
applying his outsider ethos and indie voice to a property with mainstream
appeal and rich potential. Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey would have been a
tough act for anyone to follow, but Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood have done it
with grace and style. Grade A+.
