Part of an ongoing series revisiting graphic novels and collected editions from days gone by....

As I noted in my review nearly two decades ago, the 2006 reboot of Moon Knight failed to impress me because it took a hero I liked and made him an asshole. I gave up on the series fairly quickly, after it became plain that this "edgy" new direction was going to stay around for a while.

So, recently, while scanning my shelves of books from back in the day, I noticed a long-ignored copy of Moon Knight: Divided We Fall, a one-shot from 1992. Seeing it was a short read, I decided to revisit the days when Moon Knight, as well as his alter-ego Marc Spector, were cool.

Turns out, he's kind of an asshole. Wait, are my memories wrong? Was he always an asshole?

Well, I am not invested in the character enough to revisit those monthly issues from my younger days. Let's just look at what we have here.

Spoilers ahead.

Moon Knight is on a mission with his best friend and sidekick Jean-Paul DuChamp, aka Frenchie, who's sort of a younger, more active (and French) version of Batman's Alfred. Things go awry and Frenchie is wounded; Frenchie blames Spector's ancient tech, while Spector blames Frenchie. They argue, and Frenchie leaves. When Spector's girlfriend Marlene Alraune speaks up on Frenchie's behalf, Spector verbally attacks her, too.

Oddly, Spector slips a bug onto each of them -- atypical behavior and kind of a dick move on his part, so you can assume it will come into play later.

Sure enough, Frenchie and Marlene are both approached, drugged and mind-controlled by Richard Blaine, an agent for Moon Knight's arch-nemesis Bushman, and maneuvered into an elaborate plot to assassinate Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who will be in New York City for a speech and a meeting with U.S. President George Bush. Blaine, later posing as a CIA operative, also recruits Moon Knight to provide additional protection for the visiting dignitary -- the goal being for Spector to be forced to watch as Frenchie and Marlene are gunned down by federal agents.

It's a fairly convoluted plan, one doomed to fail, especially when Spector turns on his listening devices at the precise moments needed to overhear some vital clues. Of course, he saves the day, prevents the murder, catches the real bad guys, and is reunited with his no-longer-mind-controlled friends, who have now completely forgiven him for his earlier dickish behavior.

I don't know. Maybe I don't like Moon Knight after all. Or maybe I simply have access to books that don't reflect the aspects of the hero I previously enjoyed. In any case, I don't feel like Bruce Jones wrote a very likable character here, nor is his storyline very effective. Denys Cowan doesn't help matters with ungainly, awkwardly angled illustrations.

I don't remember why I bought this book, nor do I know why I kept it all these years. I do know it's headed for the discard pile.