Whatever the opposite of "badass" is

Today's dive doesn't reach as far back as usual. This "back issue" was actually a current issue I'd missed and until today had eluded me. For my money, the best run in recent capes comics was the Warren Ellis/Declan Shalvey/Jordie Bellaire reboot of Moon Knight from 2014. Six issues, in and out, with the creative team leaving behind a smoldering hot set-up for any follow-up creative team to take the reins on. The six issues here remind me of what Grant Morrison did with each mini in Seven Soldiers of Victory: a "pilot episode" for a longer run, streamlining a B-tier character and propping them up to stand side by side with the "heavy hitters".

In six short and quickly read issues, this run positioned Moon Knight as a paranormal investigator in the Marvel U with changeable "modes". Patterned after the phases of the moon, Marc Spector can assume different versions of his Moon Knight persona, from a Batman-like super-ninja to a Ragman-inspired dark arts master. The soldier, the priest, and the prisoner are all represented by Ellis's paradigm. Spector can assume a different version of himself, depending on what kind of story he's in. The comic tells it more simply than I have here; it's not a "high concept" as it might sound.

Here's a quick breakdown of the run. Issue one sees Moon Knight track a serial killer into the sewers, discovering the dark side of SHIELD super-soldier project gone awry in the process. Issue two is a visual spectacle as Moon Knight battles a sniper and the art team gets to experiment with page construction in cool ways as the sniper takes out his victims across a series of pages using a nine panel grid that follows his targets. Once a target is hit, that respective panel goes blank. One by one the panels go blank and dammit I don't think I'm doing this issue justice by trying to explain something so dang visual. Issue three is a classic ghost story with an urban twist. Issue four is a dreamscape trip involving mold spores and lucid dreaming. Issue five is like a level out of Double Dragon or Final Fight translated to the comic page with Moon Knight battling his way up a tenement building.

But yeah, that's the whole "story" so far. Some wicked stuff happens, Moon Knight bombs in and kicks ass, rinse, repeat. Ellis might as well be writing the Morrison Batman-Batgod here, as the protagonist is so completely capable that the interest lies not in if he will succeed, but how.

Issue Six makes the first attempt to create a true nemesis for Ellis's new Moon Knight, and ironically, it's the last issue of the run before he would hand the title off to Brian Wood next ish. A rogue cop looking to make an impression on his mundane reality decides to so his homework and take up the mantle of Marc Spector's old nemesis, Black Spectre.

Not to be confused with the Marvel Universe criminal organization of the same name, Black Spectre was a vietnam vet who used to plague Moon Knight during his earlier series in the 80's and 90's, often tied to the Egyptian god Khonshu that empowers our hero. The new Black Spectre, Ryan Trent, doesn't have all of that to back him up, just a grudge and an inferiority complex. In terms of viciousness however, Trent is right up there with the former Spectre(s).

Trent really does his homework too, using his police contacts to get in touch with Moon Knight's old allies and acquaintances. This culminates in a great scene where Trent tries to pry some useful information out of Jean-Paul Duchamp, an old ally of our hero who has since retreated into a humble life of waiting tables. It's worth noting here that Duchamp is kind of a low-key revolutionary character from the time. He was written as gay, but without the lame Northstar shout-it-from-the-rooftops approach of Scott Lobdell's Alpha Flight. Savvy readers of the time would pick up on Duchamp's sexuality, but it was never used as a gimmick, nor was he ever cast as a social pariah. Anyhoo, Duchamp warns Trent that Spector "can never die", but our fledgling Dark Spectre doesn't heed the warning.

Trent does eventually battle Moon Knight by the end of the issue, but his trap blows up in his face (literally) and he's left a broken mess of a man before the Fist of Khonshu. Moon Knight physically and verbally dissects Trent, then leaves him for dead. We learn that Trent's only error is his need to be loved and accepted, whereas the vaccuum that is Marc Spector doesn't. He's become "all Batman and no Bruce", a focused laser of ass-kicking that can't be defeated because bit by bit . . . he's shedding the aspects that made him "a character" and embracing the ones that make him an almost literal force of nature.

This issue's plot and Trent's origin story tie back to the first issue of Ellis's run and the circle is complete. This could cap off what would have been an excellent miniseries, but instead Marvel tried to keep it afloat with subsequent runs by Brian Wood and Jeff Lemire. While the character has become a place for cool creators to experiment, I don't think either writer has managed to capture what made this run so special. These six issues are a perfect synthesis of art and story. They say so much about the format and where these violent power fantasies ultimately lead.

The cover is an inverse of the cover to issue one, a subtle hint at the creators' thesis. The new Black Spectre couldn't defeat Marc because the old one couldn't. Moon Knight is just a better idea than Black Spectre, and Trent never stood a chance. An opposite can't be stronger than its partner, it can just be the opposite..