CBR NEWS: Around Midnight: Huston talks "Moon Knight"

[Arune Singh]

This November, a new story begins for Moon Knight in the "Civil War" tie-in story "Midnight Sun," which finds Marc Spector encountering a number of Marvel heroes and a powerful and mysterious villain. CBR News spoke with writer Charlie Huston about the arc.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...em.cgi?id=8460

[Atom_basher]

damn, finch draw a beautiful moonknight

[MakeMineMarvel]

Great article! I am hoping that Huston is able to stay on the title and can find a way around his novelist commitments. Finch is the man too! Can't wait to see what happens when Moon Knight is introduced to the Civil War.

[drwho]

That was a good article and I may give Moon Knight another chance when the new story starts.

[Young Avenger]

Good Article. I hope that Huston stays on Moon Knight. The last five issues have been great and I like his plans with the Superhero team-ups for the next arc. Is it me or is David Finch artwork better in black & white?

[Sean Walsh]

"He's completely out of Moon Knight's class and he doesn't stand a chance," Huston explained. "I'm going to say this is a familiar face who is a new villain."

It's Arcade, isn't it? ;) :p

EDIT: Totally enjoying the vibe (here and elsewhere) about the new MK series. Am totally picking up the trade (since finding issues is difficult for some reason....oh yeah, it's selling well; that'd be it :p )

[Kefky]

As an old-school fan of Doug Moench's MK, I couldn't be happier with this book. Houston's respecting the character's history, while giving a very cool new take on him. And Finch is just doing the best work of his career here.

I really hope Houston doesn't leave, but if he does, I hope his replacement has a firm grasp on the character like he does.

[Majinlex]

Looks like Marc shaves and cuts his hair.
Damn. That was a good look for him.

Plus, the Punisher? :D My wish come true.

[kalorama]

As an old-school fan of Doug Moench's MK, I couldn't be happier with this book. Houston's respecting the character's history, while giving a very cool new take on him. And Finch is just doing the best work of his career here.

I really hope Houston doesn't leave...

As an old school fan of Moench's MK, I could not disagree more.

[TinMan]

As an old school fan of Moench's MK, I could not disagree more.

Why is that, if you don't mind me asking?

I think this book is TITS and I really wish Huston didn't have novel commitments cause I LOVE the way he's portraying this character. Bring on more Moon Knight!!

[kalorama]

Why is that, if you don't mind me asking?

Don't mind at all.

I think the art is awful. A perfect distillation of some of the worst excess of 80's comics from the Image school. No subtlety, no nuance, all over-muscled over-rendered blunt force trauma. I've never been a big fan of Finch's work, but I think this is some of the worst stuff I've seen from him in recent memory.

The story is moving "forward" at a glacial pace. Five issues in and he's just now suiting up? Two-thirds of the first issue spent on a flashback of him beating up some thugs? Couldn't Houston have found a better way to fill the space leading up to the reveal at the end? Over two issues just to get Spector out of the house? Along walk for a very short trip.

I find it a bit surprising that people who like the series say they're also fans of the Moench/Sienkiewicz run, because I see nothing of that in this.

[Jessica Drew]

Don't mind at all.

I think the art is awful. A perfect distillation of some of the worst excess of 80's comics from the Image school. No subtlety, no nuance, all over-muscled over-rendered blunt force trauma. I've never been a big fan of Finch's work, but I think this is some of the worst stuff I've seen from him in recent memory.

The story is moving "forward" at a glacial pace. Five issues in and he's just now suiting up? Two-thirds of the first issue spent on a flashback of him beating up some thugs? Couldn't Houston have found a better way to fill the space leading up to the reveal at the end? Over two issues just to get Spector out of the house? Along walk for a very short trip.

I find it a bit surprising that people who like the series say they're also fans of the Moench/Sienkiewicz run, because I see nothing of that in this.

I couldn't agree more. I like some of what Finch does, and I thought that this project would be ideal for him, but I think it's just brought out his Liefeldian excesses. Was no one else bothered by the Liefeldian Captain America-like stature and musculature of Taskmaster? Wow. I just read #5 last night, and I it will be the last issue of this run I'll read.

[TinMan]

Don't mind at all.

I think the art is awful. A perfect distillation of some of the worst excess of 80's comics from the Image school. No subtlety, no nuance, all over-muscled over-rendered blunt force trauma. I've never been a big fan of Finch's work, but I think this is some of the worst stuff I've seen from him in recent memory.

Fair enough, personally I love it, artists like Finch are what got me into comics to begin with, so I can't relate with you there. I feel Finch is doing his best work ever on this book, so I can't complain one iota.

The story is moving "forward" at a glacial pace. Five issues in and he's just now suiting up? Two-thirds of the first issue spent on a flashback of him beating up some thugs? Couldn't Houston have found a better way to fill the space leading up to the reveal at the end? Over two issues just to get Spector out of the house? Along walk for a very short trip.

I disagree, I love the more cinematic approach many writers are taking to books presently. The old school "cut out parts of the story to speed things up" style from the 60's, 70's and early 80's has never impressed me, in fact I find it annoying. The more realistic, dramatic styles used to portray the story are great: rather than having a character tell you what happened at a specific time in some throw away dialogue, you get to see for yourself what happened during those important plot points (I wish I could think of a couple good examples for this right off hand, but I can't). I've always hated the way the hero's in older comics just somehow knew where the bad guys were chillin or what they were doing next without any evidence or detective work, those sort of things have been aleviated over the last several years and I really enjoy that progression over the "jump the gun" mentality that the 60's, 70's and 80's represented.

I also didn't have a problem with the way Huston told the story, each issue (if I'm remembering correctly) has had Moon Knight in costume and in action- sure they may have been flashbacks, but so what? We still got to see Moony kickin ass and takin names, but also got a lot of good character progression between Spector, his supporting cast and the Commitee. Great stuff in my book.

I find it a bit surprising that people who like the series say they're also fans of the Moench/Sienkiewicz run, because I see nothing of that in this.

I haven't read all of the Moench era stuff, but I have the Essential Moon Knight and I've read synopses of the rest of Moench's run. I really think Huston does justice to those old Moench issues: he's given him a VERY violent/hard edge that he deserves, he's definitely nutty like Moench's MK, it's dark and marred with shades of moral gray... the only difference is that Huston doesn't write in that "jump the gun" old school comic style, they just take a bit longer to play out, more like a movie. I really dig that and I also believe that this arc will read better as a TPB just because you can read it in one solid sitting, I think the monthly/semi-monthly schedule kills it for some people because the pace is a bit slower, though more detailed.

[kalorama]

I haven't read all of the Moench era stuff, but I have the Essential Moon Knight and I've read synopses of the rest of Moench's run. I really think Huston does justice to those old Moench issues: he's given him a VERY violent/hard edge that he deserves, he's definitely nutty like Moench's MK, it's dark and marred with shades of moral gray... the only difference is that Huston doesn't write in that "jump the gun" old school comic style, they just take a bit longer to play out, more like a movie. I really dig that and I also believe that this arc will read better as a TPB just because you can read it in one solid sitting, I think the monthly/semi-monthly schedule kills it for some people because the pace is a bit slower, though more detailed.

I won't comment on the rest of what you wrote because it's all a matter of opinion and nothing to be gained by getting into a back and forth on it. We agree to disagree on whether the book is any good. That's fine; room enough for all opinions. But I want to comment on these points because I think they touch on more concrete issues.

(A) I read the entire Moench/Sienkiewicz (as well as most of the MK stories Moench wrote pre Bill S.) and the guy in this book bears little resemblance to him. Moench's MK was not, as you put it "nutty" nor was a single minded, violence driven vengeance machine. This seems to me like another relic of the "grim and gritty" late-80s/early 90s. The guy in this book is not the same MK that Moench wrote. And I'm not saying he has to be; if Huston has a different take on him, that's his right. But I fail to see where people are coming from when they say this MK is faithful to Moench's. It's really not. He has much more in common with Frank Miller's Batman.

(B) I like movies too. But comic books aren't movies. Storytelling techniques that are suitable for one don't necessarily work for another. It has nothing to do with "old school writing." It has to do with writing and pacing a story in a way that makes sense for the medium in which the story is being presented. To my eye, Huston isn't doing that.

(C) As a general rule I'm a "wait for the trade" guy, mostly for time, space, and money reasons. But as long as monthly comics are being published, it would seem to make sense for creators whose work is being published monthly to make stories that suit that format. Huston's not doing that. He's hardly the only culprit, but he appears to me to be one of the most egregious.

[TinMan]

I won't comment on the rest of what you wrote because it's all a matter of opinion and nothing to be gained by getting into a back and forth on it. We agree to disagree on whether the book is any good. That's fine; room enough for all opinions. But I want to comment on these points because I think they touch on more concrete issues.

Agreed, no point in splitting hairs over our own personal likes and dislikes.

(A) I read the entire Moench/Sienkiewicz (as well as most of the MK stories Moench wrote pre Bill S.) and the guy in this book bears little resemblance to him. Moench's MK was not, as you put it "nutty" nor was a single minded, violence driven vengeance machine. This seems to me like another relic of the "grim and gritty" late-80s/early 90s. The guy in this book is not the same MK that Moench wrote. And I'm not saying he has to be; if Huston has a different take on him, that's his right. But I fail to see where people are coming from when they say this MK is faithful to Moench's. It's really not. He has much more in common with Frank Miller's Batman.

See, I think Huston's MK is faithful to Moench's, just crazier. Moench always wrote MK as ambiguous when it came to his split personality, he wouldn't talk as if he were really nutso, but he would refer to his other personas in third person (and even gave them different personalities and language tendancies) and always corrected Marlene, Samuels, Crawley, etc, when they called him anything but the persona he was in at that time.

Huston has just pushed him even further with his "fall from grace" and I feel thats understandable, it works with the story. Now I would imagine it's something we can see him recover from as time moves on, since he's gettin his life back together.

I also read the older issues of Moon Knight prior to this launch because I wanted to bone up on his history before hand, and the whole time I was reading those old Moench issues I found myself envisioning MK even darker than what Moench had (and he was fairly dark under Moench's pen, even for the 70's), so I was very pleased to see how Huston was handling him. In my eyes, MK is a character that fits "dark and gritty" to a T: he's the Fist of Konshu, the spirit of vengeance.

(B) I like movies too. But comic books aren't movies. Storytelling techniques that are suitable for one don't necessarily work for another. It has nothing to do with "old school writing." It has to do with writing and pacing a story in a way that makes sense for the medium in which the story is being presented. To my eye, Huston isn't doing that.

I think this qualifies as another agree to disagree moment: whereas you see Huston's writing style as inappropriate for comics storytelling, I find it completely appropriate and enjoy it.

(C) As a general rule I'm a "wait for the trade" guy, mostly for time, space, and money reasons. But as long as monthly comics are being published, it would seem to make sense for creators whose work is being published monthly to make stories that suit that format. Huston's not doing that. He's hardly the only culprit, but he appears to me to be one of the most egregious.

I'm to impatient to wait for trades, so I by my monthlies; even then this type of storytelling doesn't bother me. I would probably stop reading comics if I had to be subjected to the older "extremely fast paced, detailless, single issue" stories of yesteryear.