One of Marvel’s strangest heroes gets a new shot at a series.
Following Marvel news at the Diamond Retailer Summit, Jeff Lemire confirmed via Twitter he and artist Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire are the creative team on a brand new Moon Knight ongoing series. Smallwood soon followed sharing his “stash” of classic Moon Knight comics and appearances (the vigilante’s debut in Werewolf By Knight) he says he’s using as reference.
When the new series opens Marc Spector is off the streets and in an asylum. Lemire told ComicBook.com where we find Spector when the new series opens:
“That’s a really tricky question to answer without spoiling the story. Marc is in a place I don’t think we’ve seen him before. He is being told one thing, but is starting to believe another. That’s all I want to say about that yet.”
Spector has a long history of using multiple aliases and developing multiple mental issues. The tortured anti-hero’s tragic life takes an even darker turn. Why did Lemire put him in an institution:
“I wish I could say more. I immersed myself in every era of Moon Knight and have a deep appreciation and love for the character. This new series will explore identity, mental health and mysticism, but at its heart is a story about friendship. I’m incredibly excited about my ideas for this Moon Knight series. I think, with the work Greg Smallwood and Jordie Bellaire are also doing on the book, we have something really different and really special here.
As I mentioned above, the opportunity to write Moon Knight offered me the chance to explore themes of identity and mental illness. That’s something that hasn’t been done a lot in super hero comics. At least not in a significant way. I’ve dealt with mental illness in my own life, certainly not to the extreme that Marc Spector has, but still, it’s something I know intimately.
So by starting the story in a mental health institution, it allows me to play with different perceptions of what it means to be mentally ill, both through Marc and also through the supporting cast we will meet in there with him. The hospital Marc is in is very much a throwback to an era gone by. The methods that the doctors use to treat mental illness in the comic are barbaric and outdated, but they reflect the reality of how we as a society saw the mentally ill not that long ago, and in some cases still do.
Now, having said that, I don’t want people to think this comic book is just going to be a preachy polemic about the issue of mental health. It is very much filled with big, crazy, bombastic super hero stories and concepts. It’s got humor and heart and horror. But I think I can use these things as metaphor to address bigger issues as well.”
Lemire follows Brian Wood‘s run who picked up after Warren Ellis and Declan Shavley relaunched the hero. Lemire confirmed this will be a longer story as opposed to the more recent episodic runs.
Moon Knight has starred in multiple volumes with a huge list of top creators including Brian Michael Bendis, Chuck Dixon, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Finch and the character’s co-creators Doug Moench and Don Perlin.
Lemire is adding this new book to his already packed Marvel reel (Extraordinary X-Men, All-New Hawkeye, Old Man Logan) as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel Now.
By Editor