Moon Knight Omnibus

by Charlie Huston, David Finch (Illustrator)

Khonshu - God of the Moon, God of Vengeance - saved Marc Spector's life, brought him to glory, and made him Moon Knight. But what Khonshu gives, he also takes away. Spector learned this the hard way, spiraling into madness, depression and worse. Now Specter wants back in the game. Will Khonshu hear his prayer? The ground-breaking series that redefined Moon Knight for the modern age in one great book! Collecting: Moon Knight (2006) 1-13 and Moon Knight Annual (2008) 1.

Genres: Marvel, Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Manga, Comic Book

340 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2022

About the author

Charlie Huston is an American novelist, screenwriter, and comic book writer known for his genre-blending storytelling and character-driven narratives. His twelve novels span crime, horror, and science fiction, and have been published by Ballantine, Del Rey, Mulholland, and Orion, with translations in nine languages. He is the creator of the Henry Thompson trilogy, beginning with Caught Stealing, which was announced in 2024 as a forthcoming film adaptation directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Austin Butler. Huston’s stand-alone novels include The Shotgun Rule, The Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Sleepless, and Skinner. He also authored the vampire noir series Joe Pitt Casebooks while living in Manhattan and later California. Huston has written pilots for FX, FOX, Sony, and Tomorrow Studios, served as a writer and producer on FOX’s Gotham, and developed original projects such as Arcadia. In comics, he rebooted Moon Knight for Marvel, contributed to Ultimates Annual, and penned the Wolverine: The Best There Is series.

Reviews

[It's just Deano · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having never read Moon Knight before I decided to jump on the bandwagon and wanted to check the character out in light of the Disney+ show. Right away it felt like I'd made a mistake with this book.

From the get go I felt as though I was thrown in the deep end here. Being a new reader to Moon Knight I didn't really know who the characters were and there wasn't any detailed explanations, just occasional nods to their shared past, which was slightly irritating as it made it very clear I was missing a lot of details here.

The art is great. It has a distinct horror vibe and gives the book a very dark and bleak feel, which did seem to suit the character and plot very well. There were a few questionable panel choices that seemed to confuse, but overall the style was definitely fitting.

Overall, I can't say I enjoyed my introduction to Moon Knight, the story lacked focus and the conclusion felt very quick. Combine that with the lack of explanation or reintroduction of any characters and it all felt a bit empty with the exception of the art. If like me you're new to Moon Knight I wouldn't start here.

___________________

My score: 3/10

Goodreads: ⭐⭐

___________________

[Shona · Rating 2 out of 5]

With the art style I couldn't tell most of the characters apart and had no clue what was going on half the time. Bit of a disappointment.

[OmniBen · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 2.5/5
Oh boy, where to start with this dog's breakfast... Complex and nuanced character becomes generic, one dimensional revenge machine. Yawn!
I like Moon Knight. I really like Moon Knight. Or rather, I like him when someone is writing him who actually understands the character, and even in trying to do something new, doesn't twist and contort him into some god forsaken, near unrecognisable generic hodge podge of whatever character seemed popular at the time. You get Moon Knight as a discount and poorly written Batman clone. You get Moon Knight as a discount Punisher. You get Moon Knight as any number of terrible and short-lived indie creations. But what you don't get is a hell of a lot of Marc Spector being Marc Spector / Moon Knight. It worked, kinda, right up until it didn't, with the opening half of this book being quite readable, although is far from perfect. It peaks at the end of the Death of Moon Knight arc (come on, you know that's not a spoiler) and it's all downhill from there. And when I saw downhill, you better believe I mean it. This nosedived faster and harder than an elephant attempting to bungy jump. I couldn't even read the last couple of hundred pages.
Despite almost every artist in this book (and there are FAR too many of them) being talented in their own right, very few actually pay off and do the character justice. Seriously, Mark Spector had so many 'looks' throughout this book you could barely pick him out from the other look alike characters. And the less said about the visual interpretation of Konshu the better.
Despite the numerous flaws of the opening half, I still found myself effortlessly turning the pages. If half an omnibus worth of solid yet unspectacular material is worth the price of admission, then give it a go. Otherwise, I'd suggest giving a wide berth and getting the older stuff. 2.5/5


OmniBen.

[Nicola Cavarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first Marvel comic, and I've got to say - I still need to get used to it, but I loved it. From the stunning drawings, to the interesting plot and Moon Knight as a whole character. I definitely need to read more about him!

[Simon Fletcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dark couple for stories. Well told and nicely drawn. A good way to immerse yourself in the Moon Knight mythos before it hits your TV screens.

[Anna Bevilacqua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Era chiaramente una raccolta per conoscitori di Moon Knight molto più avanzati di me, carina ma non ho capito quanto avrei voluto capire purtroppo!

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to rate this collection as it’s comprised of a few different series by various authors. Personally liked the 30 issue 2006 series by Huston. While the tone, art, and plots could easily be Batman stories, they were a fun read and the Texeira art is my favorite.

In a way, the second series, Vengeance of the Moon Knight is better written. Marc Spector stops the brooding anti-hero bit. His scar mysteriously disappeared and hair changed. But although it makes sense that his personality has changed, it doesn’t make sense that Marlene and Frenchie’s personalities have drastically changed. The series ends with a bland superhero teamup.

Third series is a poorly written tie-in with Daredevil. It has important things happening. But most of that is ruined by incoherent plot. If you could overlook the weak end, this collection is worth a read.

[Andy Clarke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd probably give this a higher rating if I had read other Moon Knight books, and were it not for that consideration, I would probably rate it even lower. I thought this would be a good volume to start with, but turns out not. Had no idea what was going on, story made no sense as I was clearly missing context and history. Art is great though, but without a solid enjoyable story that art is for nothing.

[Charles Mennerick · Rating 4 out of 5]

B-

Khonshu is batshit and bloodthirsty, but I enjoyed this run.

[Rorscharch71 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story 4 Complex psyché explored
Art 5 Dark Gory

[Andrew Oh? · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great start and it kinda loses itself in the original Hutson 30 issue run towards the last few in my opinion. Wish David finch did the art for the whole run. The other issues like vengeance of and shadowlands and the annual are also really great reads especially vengeance of moon knight awesome stuff and I’m new to the character.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

While this collection starts off strong, very strong actually, it ends up losing relevance about halfway through the opening story, Moon Knight, Volume 1: The Bottom. The problem is that the need to graphically depict the violence becomes so relentless as it makes the impact of the violence increasingly powerless and irrelevant. Basically it has the opposite of the desired affect. Instead of making Moon Knight seem more of a badass vigilante, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants, it makes him a caricature and a parody. The second half of the collection deals tangentially with the events of Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event and how it impacts Moon Knight and his current case. Basically, it’s just an excuse to have Spider-Man, Captain America, Punisher and Iron Man show up to provide some kind of analysis of Moon Knight’s emotional condition. The epilogue, if you will, is from Moon Knight (2006) #13 and deals with how Moon Knight gets involved with the Initiative, and how he gets his credentials. It’s clever and illustrates some of the character’s strengths whereas much of the rest of the collection doesn’t. In the end, this is clearly not Moon Knight being portrayed at his finest. In fact, it’s really just an excuse to show off ultra violence as edgy and progressive storytelling. It’s not.

[Nathan Aracena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t hugely sold on the tv series and thought this might turn me around on Moon Knight a bit but just couldn’t really get into it. Whilst I like the grittiness of Moon Knight, very much an anti-hero in the ilk of The Punisher, the numerous characters who seem to be faceless or dismembered grows tiresome. It’s also very difficult to follow, with narrative and speech quite messy - there can be pages where 4-5 different people are speaking but not much indication given to who is speaking when. Leads to quite a complicated read. Artwork is good though and some use of full page spreads are really striking.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't even know why I finished this book, I literally had no idea what was going on.

There's zero explanation as to the multiple personalities of MK and no way to differentiate between them. The art style was so dark it's hard to discern anything and every single male character is drawn the same, so I didn't even know who half of the people were in the panels at any given time. The story makes very little sense.

I wouldn't recommend this book to any comic fan, whether new or experienced. There are way better MK stories out there to pick up.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the art style but struggled to tell some of the characters apart. Issues 1-12:

Positives:
good characters, especially Marlene and Frenchie
good bad guy, was excited to see him do some bad stuff

Negatives:
felt the final battle with clock man was cut short
liked the idea of mark having his vertebrae ripped out, but the image could have been more graphic.
i liked the two scenes at once thing that was going on but sometimes took several reads to understand fully.

Issues #13
Loved the art style and colouring especially but was slightly confused on plot

[Brooke Sharples · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this comic and I have an immense love for Moon Knight after finishing the show. However, the storyline was a bit difficult to understand at times but with a little looking up on the internet, I could find the information I needed to understand what was going on. I did enjoy a look into this version of Marc Spector but would have loved to have seen some of his other alters as well. All in all, it was a decent read.

[Socialite · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impulsively pre ordered this back in January as I had read the issues when it was coming out 15 years ago (wow time flies).
I was surprised how a lot of it stands up. I hadn't read moon knight before so this was all new. The art from the three artists works.well with David Finch's art being my favourite.

[William Haydock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly pretty decent the art work is amazing as ususal and it clearly shows Moon Knights repuation with other heroes and villans aswell as Marc's relationship with his God and the mental state of Marc. But I felt it went really slow and lacked stories of his other identities, it only focus on Moon Knight the hero himself

[Reegan Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5
Mostly enjoyed it. I just wish we got to see the different aspects of Marc's character, like his other personalities. And some of the storytelling was a bit all over the place and gave me mental whiplash, but overall I had a good time with it.
I definitely want to read more Moon Knight, he's becoming one of my favourite Marvel characters.

[Charlie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generic 2000's mass market artstyle. This isn't a specific omnibus, so I was hoping it would have some origin or something to the character, but it is an aftermath of years of pain and events that I've no clue even happened. The story itself just screams Daredevil: Born Again, and since I prefer that comic run and the character in general, I'll just stick with that.

[Matthew Prydden · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story line was quite difficult to follow for the most part although there were some good ideas and thoughts in there. Marc's battle with depression being one of them, although strangely we saw none of his disassociatice identity disorder which I felt the book was worse off for.

[Sølvhav · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marc Spector is an horrific aberration against humanity, yet still does good, via unabashed evil.

This omnibus is terrifying, with grotesque visuals, one couldn’t wish for more from our favourite anti-hero.

[Elias Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one had me a little bit disappointed

[Jake Holliday · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not understand this 😂😂

[Kerim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this on the plane. Not the best honestly. The profile was a standout for me but overall just feels like a shitty batman reboot. Marc Spector even has an english butler. Disappointed