Moon Knight #6 Review: The End of an Era

Writing -- Warren Ellis

Artist -- Declan Shalvey

Colorist -- Jordie Bellaire

Letterer -- Chris Eliopoulos

It was a match made in heaven. It was the best of times; it was the worst number of issues.

Moon Knight from Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey was always a joy to read no matter in what form it was presented. Every time we received a new issue of the comic book, fans were always lined up to read the mind bending tales hidden within the comic book series. This take on Moon Knight offered post-modern adventures diving head first into the new stories of the surrealist environments surrounding Moon Knight. Each issue of the series was enjoyable in its own right, and this comic, that explored the character in one-off stories, was a lovely reprieve from some of the other superhero books on the stands which are stuck in static environment where nothing moves for an extended period of time. Moon Knight broke all of these stylistic traditions and gave readers something that was completely and holistically unique. In many ways, this series is a comic that is obsessed with the form and structure of how things are written.

The indelible Grant Morrison always refers to the single issue as the same form as a 'pop song'. It has a beginning, middle, and end. The single issue should serve to dig its hooks into readers early on in the title.

Warren Ellis seemed to conform to that method of thinking in his storyline. He experiments with the form that he is creating in. The author has done this same hat trick time-and-time-again with series like Planetary or Secret Avengers, and it is hard to deny the appeal contained within the title. Instead of writing simple 'pop songs' in this tale, Ellis shifted the form about and made some insane experimentation within the issue. #6 is a classic example of this bold use of experimentation. The story offers most of its point-of-view from a character that is not our lead Marc Spector. This issue gives readers insight into what would drive an average policeman towards something else. The pacing in this issue is absolutely integral in sustaining the structure of the tale in motion. With just a few simple pages, this tale economically moves towards a greater purpose that will leave readers with an emotional reaction. Great art is built off of strong emotion, and with each of Moon Knight, it’s hard to think about some fans being pissed off by the comic.

This isn’t a tale that is necessarily easy to understand, especially with the morally complex characters that are littered throughout the tale. Missing the so-called ‘point’ of the story is a serious danger that some fans may fall into. After all, this volume of Moon Knight is nothing if not experimental. Then again, there are plenty of pop bands that are in deep phases of experimentation delivering some of the most fascinating music today. The story takes some of those same ideas and melds them into a whole that is completely unique.

Enter Declan Shalvey.

The amount of bold colors by Jordie Bellaire, and vivid experimentation from Shalvey, makes this comic worth the steep price tag, and it also gets readers in on the ground floor. Simple boxes filled with dialogue contain a hidden amount of vivid facial expression and lovely aspects of color are capitalized on throughout the tale. Readers that are not taken aback by the astute line work and detailed renditions of the backgrounds and action making each and every panel engaging to look at, are not appreciating this tale to the fullest. The worst part is that this is the last time we will ever see these two creators working together on Moon Knight.

Once the pair have achieved near perfection, they simply broke away from each other. Comics are all about the next big thing, but many are hoping that Ellis and Shalvey will stay together for the long term. Thank the Khonshu that we have Ellis’ and Shalvey's upcoming Injection series to look forward to. Adding Bellaire with the duo is just icing on the cake. Good luck to Brian Wood and Greg Smallwood, good luck on taking over one of Marvel's best books.

Moon Knight #6 achieves near perfection with a 9 out of 10. 

Injection #1 ships in April 2015, CBN UK will be reviewing the comic.