There are a few moments of combat in this issue in which time seems to slow down and reaccelerate, suggesting Karnak’s talents at both perception and execution. The plot presents a strong answer to the question of how Karnak works as a lead: put an unconventional character into a traditional story and watch him either knowingly hit or cleverly subvert the expected beats.Īs readers of Ellis’ runs on Moon Knight and Global Frequency can attest, the man is fond of neatly-orchestrated fight scenes, of which this series promises plenty. Alternately, this scenario is a reminder than he’s an outlier among outliers. He’s an ideologically consistent character, but one coming from a very different ethical and philosophical background. Karnak, meanwhile, requests a donation for his religion and unsettles the SHIELD agents (including Avengers breakout spook Phil Coulson) working with him.

Introduce superheroes to the parents of an Inhuman child who’s been abducted and the caped ones will most likely fly off immediately in search of them, virtue as its own incentive. He lives in a tower where he leads a group of monks the resulting character plays out like an unpredictable philosopher cast into a shared superhero-dominated universe. His idea of compassion comes across in statements such as, “I can comprehend the relative difficulty of your lives,” said to the parents of a kidnapped child. As Warren Ellis writes him in the first issue of this new series, he’s less a righteous figure battling evil and more an aloof antihero, impossible to read and potentially lethal to those who oppose him. Karnak harbors the ability to find a weak point in anyone or thing once he has found that flaw, he prods it until the entity it exists within breaks. He’s a figure of mystery and menace who represents a blend of the intellectual and visceral. Karnak has, historically, been an ominous supporting character in many a storyline involving the cult Kirby superhero group, the Inhumans. To say that the title character and protagonist of Karnak was a left-field choice to headline his own book would be an understatement.

Karnak by Warren Ellis