I’m a
huge fan of Warren Ellis. He’s undoubtedly one of the comic book greats. I love
his writing for many reasons but I’d like to focus on just a few in this review
because they tie into what made Moon Knight:
From the Dead such a fantastic comic.
Warren Ellis
is very skilled at revitalization old properties. He’s also good at taking
familiar concepts or characters and giving them new life. There are other
skilled creators from Ellis’s generation that are also good at this, but it
doesn’t take away from his ability to do it and to do it well. A few examples
of this would be the work he’s done with Doom
2099, Stormwatch and The Authority, and the work he’s done on
the X-men franchise. He’s also had
quite a bit of success doing this in Marvel’s Ultimate line of comics with
titles such as the Ultimate Galactus
Trilogy, Iron Man, Ultimate Human, and Ultimate Fantastic Four.
It’s no
surprise then that he revitalizes Moon Knight in a subtle yet meaningful way. It
seems so simple and simplicity is another characteristic of some (not all) of
Ellis’s work. All he does it boil down Moon Knight to a few core elements, to
his core essence. He doesn’t needlessly revise the characters origins or give
him an unnecessary cast of secondary characters to support the main character. He
doesn’t drag it out into a bloated decompressed character revamp 12 issue maxi
series either. He focuses on a few ideas, the strongest ideas, and structures
the story around that to heighten the impact of the character and the story. He
doesn’t overuse his ideas nor does he throw in more ideas than is necessary or functional.
He avoids diluting the narrative in exchange for potency. This leads us into
the second reason why he is such a great writer.
