Why should I write Moon Knight? Well, there are at least a dozen reasons and I'm about to run them down in a ranty, roundabout manner, but first and foremost is because I actually get the character. And neither writer working on the new series does.
I hate to say things like that - I hate to sound overly critical and I hate to be critical in the way that insults or offends those I am criticizing - but it is what it is. One of them was a downright awful writer - just plain bad - and the other, while not exactly bad, just does not get the character. I'll leave it up to you to decide which is which, but there it is.
Of course, there is a caveat to this - and it is the very caveat which will likely ensure I never write Moon Knight - and that is that Moon Knight is a property. Above and beyond anything else - character, story, plot, development, continuity - Moon Knight is a property. I know how much beginning and hopeful creators hate to hear that - and believe you me, every single one of us who has ever even had a brush with this industry did, too - but once again, it is what it is. Pretty much everyone who has, or wants to, work in the industry said the same thing you are saying to yourself right now: "When I do it, I'm not going to let them tell me I have to treat it like a property. When I do it, I'm gonna do it like this and I'm gonna do that, and..."
It does not work that way. Yes, the system sucks; yes, it is an impedance to Art; yes, it results in mediocrity; no, it is not likely to change anytime soon.
So we have to temper what I'm saying with this knowledge. After all, the guy who sucks might not actually be a bad writer - this was just a bad fit for him - he couldn't get into the project or he was constantly being edited out of it or something. Actually, that goes for both of them. When all is said and done, Moon Knight is a property and the creators working on the title are limited as to what they can do with it. These limitations can kill a project - in fact, they nearly always do - but no one on the business side of things minds because if the project sells, they make money and if it doesn't, they write it off (and still make money). We can get into all of that some other time, but - yet again - it is what it is.
So why should I write Moon Knight?
The short answer is: you couldn't do any worse.
Ready for the long one?:
I may have told you my Daredevil story - the one where I first discovered comic books? The Moon Knight story is almost the same, just a different vacation: I was with my great-grandparents and we had been driving for a while. We stopped at a convenience store and I bought a pack of three comic books. Moon Knight was one of those. It was a self-contained story about a golem (well, inspired by the Jewish legend of the golem, at any rate) - simply a fantastic, well-written tale and the best introduction to Moon Knight anyone could ask for - unfettered by continuity, history, backstory, etc.
When I got into collecting hardcore, it was many years before I could afford it, but I eventually bought the entire run. Moon Knight has come and gone many times over and has never been one of the uber-popular characters, so it is not an incredible feat. The truth is that it is a mediocre series; like most, it has several bright spots - and when Moon Knight is good, it is flat brilliant - but overall, it is mediocre. And that makes no sense to me, because Moon Knight has the capacity to be one of the coolest characters in the Marvel Universe.
Here's what it is: most people think Moon Knight is Marvel's Batman - not Marvel's "answer" to Bats, but a total rip-off - and that is simply not true. Not one writer yet has ever truly brought Moon Knight to life. His history is a tangled mess and his personality has changed and shifted so many times that I understand why so few have ever gotten into the guy. Who is Moon Knight, after all?
And this is why I should write Moon Knight: because I alone know.
Sound pompous? It really isn't. I alone get it because the character and title have both been rebooted no fewer than three times and none of them have worked because no one gets Moon Knight as a character. And I truly believe I do.
That single, introductory story hit me as a child and I never forgot it. It was so strong that, many years later, I bought every issue I could find and began collecting the series. I can honestly say after reading that single comic book - that one issue - I believe I know Moon Knight as a superhero character better than just about any other, even though I know more about several others. Plus, it's my genre - he's my kinda superhero (well, he was - I do not like this "new" incarnation of him).
And that's why I should write Moon Knight. Because Moon Knight, like so many other comics these days, is lacking one thing and one thing only: heart.
It's just a property, but if Marvel ever wants to make it a hot one (instead of a write-off)... you know. I'm available.
© C Harris Lynn, 2008
A rambling melange of pop-culture.
1 comment:
You know, the more I read of the new series, the less sorry I am for being so critical!
Who are you writing this for, Mr. Benson? You certainly aren't writing it according to the artwork; I've hardly ever seen a comic with less connection to the art! If you and Tex don't get along, then you should move on; you couldn't ask for a more appropriate artist than Mark Texeira!
If he draws a sequence where the talking heads are arguing, YOU NEED TO WRITE DIALOGUE WHICH REFLECTS THAT! If he draws all the Inhumans looking at Venom - obviously reacting to something Venom said - you do NOT need to have them speaking to someone who is not even in the frame!
You need to write books, not comic books; you are not a good writer for the sequential form because you obviously pay absolutely no attention to what is going on in the damned pictures! You are not good at collaboration and you don't seem willing to compromise.
I realize someone else laid this out, so once you get the polishes, if the dialogue doesn't fit, why don't you, you know, DO YOUR JOB AND CHANGE IT SO IT DOES!?
Furthermore, if you write so much as one more page of talking heads, I'm going to threaten to cancel my subscription. Three or four more of those threats and I just might do it! I do not play.
10+ issues of stagnant discussions. You don't even need to write books come to think of it, because the Golden Rule is the same: SHOW, don't tell!
Oh, and if you already know they're not going to print curse words, please - please, please, please, please, please, ####ing please!, for ####'s sake - avoid them! Your excuse for having zero action and a bumbling, meandering plot full of characters you can't tell apart is to fill the balloons with ####ing pound signs! What a load of horse####!
AND YOU AREN'T EVEN THE BAD WRITER!
Interestingly, the issue with Deodato was actually good, which leads me to suspect you wrote that one frame-by-frame (not "The Marvel Way"); you're strong on self-contained stories because you have more control, and you would be good at the ongoing story if you could only control every aspect of both writing and art, am I right?
You are not writing a novel here; if you want to write books, do so! Comic books are not books and they do not depend solely on the written word. You have one of the most incredible artists in the field at your disposal and you're having him draw people talking across tables.
Constantly.
And when the guy goes out on a limb and draws them yelling across a table, you won't even compromise to write YELL-y dialogue to fit it! You just keep plodding along with your restrained, "I'm building atmosphere," #### conversation piece.
Quit Moon Knight and go write for Heroes.
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