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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 4 months

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Breaking down the comics: BEMIS. Part 4

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

Part three is here.

Issue #197.

Oh look! Burrows is back! …It’s a sad day when that makes me happy. Which means that this is going to start to get gore filled again. Yay.

I'm going to be perfectly honest here... I didn't finish the Bemis run. When it first came out, I was so pissed off after a while that I stopped reading.

I can't remember which one I stopped at, but I have a strong suspicion I know the point it was.

So you guys? We're going to be surprised by the ending together!

Anyways...

Back to the moldy bread factory we go.

We start with three cloaked guys (very cult looking) and five other guys.

The five other guys all sit down at a stupidly long table.

The leader welcomes them all. "Welcome to the Bi-Annual Feast of the Societe des Sadiques. You have been chosen--Selected--from a vast pool of candidates. Having proved your loyalty, your zeal, and your passion."

Oh good... Let's see who we got this time. Bemis seems to like to put in strong stereotypes and then just make fun of them unfairly.

We start with a photographer dude with thick glasses and a bit of a sad stubble face.

Then we have a female drug lord and executive level madame. I have no idea what that is, but she's stressed up in a 'little black dress'.

Then we have someone that is just listed as having 'a particular distinction, even in this group' and he's in a Guy Fieri flame shirt.

Lastly we have a shirtless man with tattoos and piercings all over him and a green mohawk. "A tattoo artist, body piercer, and reality television mogul".

So be prepared to have Bemis give them all incredibly dislikeable characteristics. You ready?

Cause this is a group dedicated to "Sadism, in all its shapes and forms."

We are going to get a look at what Bemis considers extreme sadism as well as people that find it not only enjoyable, but also get off on it sexually.

And I will take the stance that I have nothing against consensual sadism. Every fetish has a time and place as long as everyone involved is enjoying themselves and also has safety in mind!

Bemis isn't going to do that. He’s only going to show the bad side. And try to make it edgy.

The leader asks the four others to tell them how they came to 'know and practice your fascination with the pain of others'.

We start with the photographer named "Liberation".

You see him as a teen getting into photography. Specifically the early 2000s in New York at the "coked-up rock shows". We see him taking pictures at a punk rock show, taking pictures of a couple making out in a dingy dirty corner of the club. Then we see him taking pictures of a passed out person in a toilet stall that has ODed on probably heroin cause there's a needle next to them.

I'm not showing this.

"I photographed my first cadaver in 2001."

He talks about fashion photography that was run more like a frat party. How popular he got and how "brand" he was.

Despite all this, he felt his true calling was in death photography and that he was sure that there would be people interested in "black market photography."

"Snuff Couture".

For those that don't know, Snuff films are films that feature people dying. Many of these films have been proven to be fake death films that are very violently acted and very real looking. On the dark web, there ARE real films out there. It's...Don't look this up. I grew up in the beginning of the internet and remember the unsafe place it used to be. I've seen things I shouldn't have seen. Don't look into this one.

So he was killing people and taking pictures while he did it then selling it to other people that 'taste'.

The group claps and they move on to the next person. The drug lord, Lyla.

She talks about how the mafia isn't what it used to be and that the chinese economy and triad was edging them out of jobs.

"What was going to be a straight-up assassination of the head of the Triads could have turned seriously messy when his wife and 2-month-old child turned out to be home at the time."

You see a bunch of dead guys and a woman holding a baby. They shoot the woman and you see a happy baby covered in blood. The baby is Lyla, who apparently got adopted by the Mafia after they killed her parents.

"See, it would have been some kind of weird fairy tale if I was brought up by the mafia don who ordered the hit. My life would have been a walk in the park. But when they stole me, they entrusted me to Daniel DeCriscio, also known as "the deathbringer" in the press for being, at the time of his death, the most prolific and brutal hitman of all time."

Apparently he taught her exactly where she was from, made her fight on the streets for her food, and she wasn't allowed to sleep or eat till she trained with him.

"I learned to kill before I wore my first bra. And so I did. Kill, that is. A lot. I think I was nearing triple digits by the time I was 20. I was good. I rose through the ranks."

She eventually became his replacement assassin and murdered her 'father'. She became a 'Made Man' (not how it's done but that's a mafia lesson for a later time). She slowly killed off the leaders until she became the main leader.

Badda bing badda boom.

Next guy is "Sol". The Guy Fieri shirt guy.

"Well, I started out by lobbing grenades in public places and running away. No particular motivation besides...throwing a cog in the machine. The weird thing is, they never caught me."

This is called terrorism.

"So, I went on to start murdering random women from 1999 'til the present."

This is called misogyny.

"They didn't catch me for that, either. I guess I made the cut because I'm the only living man who's been both a serial killer and a mass murderer."

Not true. Not true at all.

The group claps.

Lastly, we have "Tilt" the tattoo guy.

Wanna know how I know Bemis has no idea about tattoo culture?

The way he depicts the tattoo parlor.

You don't show up to 'watch people work'. And a topless lady? This would be done with a privacy screen and people wouldn't be gathered around like that taking pictures.

Tattoo artists, PROPER ones are actually very protective of their work. If they designed it, it's their art. Doesn't matter if it's on your body, it's still their art.

We see depictions of 'outrageous' piercings. Some of which are medically unsound. (A piercing that goes on the underside of an eyelid? Yeah, have fun with your corneal ulcer).

Then he did a tattoo show. We aren't going to talk about the controversial tattoo show who I won't name here. Just know... It's not well thought of in a lot of circles.

He got rich and "Being rich made it so I could have whatever I wanted. And all I ever really wanted....Was to pierce someone to death."

Uh huh.

So we see shadow images of bodies with outlandish piercings (Which, not all of them would actually cause death... I've seen people with some of these piercings).

He brags about perfecting the art of 'hurt'.

He then tosses in a completely unnecessary background. It's just not needed. He should have ended it with the images of the piercing. This is just over explanation of things and bad writing.

"See, I came from nothing. Grew up in pretty horrible circumstances. I was already mad then. And once I had money, they started treating me different. Like now I was finally worth something. That made me even madder. So now... I get even."

Why is he shirtless here? Why when you have a heavily tattooed and pierced man do you always have them be shirtless? Is it a macho thing? Wear a shirt! You have to protect your tattoo from the sun! They're going to fade and get shitty!

Anyways, the group claps.

One of the hooded figures sits down with the group.

"Woo-Hoo! Another classic. I love how not dark this whole thing is!"

Lyla is offended by the hooded guy sitting next to her.

"What do you think you're doing? Do you know who we are? You're barely fit to serve us booze."

"It was pretty good, though, right? I heard this wine pairs well with psychopathology."

"Get out of that seat, trash."

"Well, the thing is, Lyla, you charming flatterer... I'm actually here for the induction ceremony. I'd like to throw my hat in the ring."

He takes off his hood and....

I hate this art. I hate so much about this.

A sadist. Making Moon Knight into a sadist. Specifically Marc.

Marc is not a sadist. Marc hates how violent he is. He hates his anger issues. He had issues in other runs with…murdering the bad guys… But I don’t think Bemis knows what makes a sadist.

A Sadist is NOT someone out to watch others be murdered, be out for revenge, or tossing grenades and running away.

According to the dictionary… “Sadist: A person who derives pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting pain or humiliation on others. “

They bask in other’s pain. They cause pain and enjoy witnessing the pain they are causing.

So... Moon Knight assures them that "No, no! I'm not $%#& with you! I really am! I mean, yeah, I got into what I do to save people's lives. I'm a good guy. But I was messed up as a child and ended up with Dossociatve Identity Disorder. LIke, there are other people living in my head. People cope with mental illness in different ways.

Rather than become a bad person myself, I decided to start professionally beating the snow out of evil criminals. It's basically my job. And you have to start enjoying your work or...what's the point?

That broken part of me is made of bleak, pitch-black fury. So, the blood-spray and bone breaking... I won't lie, I enjoy it. I look forward to it, sometimes. Hard to admit, but it's true."

I HAVE SO MANY PROBLEMS WITH THIS.

He is implying that mentally ill people are inherently violent. 'rather than become a bad person'. He says that he has people living in his head (as if he is the house owner and they are paying rent!?) and rather than become bad, he had to chose to fight crime.

That his trauma, his illness, his everything means he was going to fall down the same path of evil.

DID DOES NOT MAKE A PERSON EVIL! I know so many systems and they are all such kind and wonderful people. They are traumatized. They are in pain. They are doing what they can with their lives and NONE of them are bad people or violent or evil!

Marc carries on. "So, I'm going to hurt every one of you. Hurt you badly, if you don't cooperate. And yeah... I'm going to kind of really, really enjoy it. Did I make the cut?"

The other henchmen open fire on him.

Just as things are about to turn into a brawl, someone else enters, telling them to stop.

"The masked man is not to be harmed. At least...Not yet. I knew this day would come. In the exclusive circles I run in... The threat of your existence, as well as your true identity, are a known quantity."

He's not exactly ever been good at hiding his identity, but Bemis keeps saying "my exclusive circles know you well!" Who the hell are these circles? Is there a MK watch group out there? I wouldn't be surprised.

Oh good. They're playing coy banter.

"And I knew you'd know And that one day I'd find you. Why do you think I'm here?"

And the new mystery figure tells him that he's arrived in time for the ritual.

Then he gives Moon Knight a hug that no one is happy about.

"[...] You've earned a personal invitation...courtesy of your Uncle Ernst."

Oh good. The Nazi is back.

And that ends this absolute trash of an issue. Nothing happened in this episode. We got people doing their best to be VAGUELY scary or menacing then had them immediately be upstaged and then an old Nazi showed up that looked weird and gave Moon Knight a hug.

ISSUE #198.

Alright, intro! Oh look, the blurb has updated.

Why is the society of sadists in French? French doesn't automatically make things authentic or fancy.

The Societe des Sadiques. "A secret group of uber-sadists" is meeting up for some biannual feast for their new inductees. Moon Knight shows up, on the hunt for their 'mysterious leader-Ernst, the Nazi who Marc witnessed torturing a man in his synagogue as a child, the traumatic event thta fed into Marc's dissociative identity disorder."

I hate that I had to type that sentence. It was long and badly worked and also just... I feel so dirty.

"Now Ernst can follow through on his ultimate plan..."

Oh for cry out loud...

I don't even know where to start.

So... We have Ernst addressing his audience, made to look like he's talking to the reader. He's got a little Moon Knight toy and he's wearing what looks like a purple jester collar.

I'll show you in a second because I want you to appreciate this.

He's gonna monologue for a solid minute or two.

"And so our drama begins, dear audience. In which a flawed hero is tested. His already dubious moral standing called into question Is he man, or is he dragon? Today, the societe des Sadiques will tease out the essence of his core."

So are we supposed to forget the fact that he's an ACTUAL Nazi?

Here's the problem. Now Bemis is going to try to turn him into a modern day villain that's worse than the Nazi he was.

And you can't do that. You can't take an original Nazi that admitted to atrocious crimes against Jewish people and then put him in America as the head of some murderous sadistic cult. That doesn't make him worse. He was already as bad as he can get. This feels like a step backwards and almost like you're apologizing for him being a Nazi in the first place and trying to explain it away.

If Bemis tries to make it about Ernst having a terrible childhood to explain his sadistic needs to be a jew torturing/murdering Nazi I swear I'm going to lose it.

"I confess...There's a part of me that wants to see him escape this spiritually unscathed. But this is our GAUNTLET. Where the contenders for entrance into our society are made to discover just how truly merciless they are.

In the end, they'll face one another, and if they can live up to that...Then we shall bless them."

What on earth is he talking about and why should we care. Bemis sure loves his long pointless exposition babble.

"As for our Little "Surprise" guest...I can only say his arrival has been anticipated. Call him a Pet Project.

If I were a betting man... I'd bet that what we are about to witness...Is the birth of a monster."

Uh huh. That's disgusting. Why was this needed? Ew.

And now we have Moon Knight on some sort of light runway with people in masks all around clapping.

Why is this all so bad?

Oh no. Here we go. Here it is people! What you've ALL been waiting for.

You've heard us talk about it in passing. "Don't read Bemis. Rabid Dolphins".

YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND.

And now here we are.

I give you... Rabid Dolphin:

As someone who has spent an upsetting amount of time studying Rabies… I have a LOT of questions. But I’m just going to move on. I don’t want to give this more brain power than I need to. Because what’s about to happen is upsetting enough. I’m just going to apologize for making you witness the rabid dolphin incident.

In this next part it's called "Second trial Man vs. Inhumanity.

I don't even know what is happening here. YOu've got some sort of paper mache room? There are animals in statue paper mache and some big guy that's covered in paper so only his head is visible.

Marc walks into the room and finds a newspaper article on the wall. The paper man yells at him and tells him not to read the paper. He's pissed that he's there and swears up and down that he knows people that can make his life a living hell.

Marc reads the paper. "Sickening 'torture farm' raided by FBI. Jess Ebidiah, 38, implicated in what may be the worst case of animal cruelty in the history of California."

Uh huh.

Marc takes out a moon crescent and it just says "Trial passed."

Third Trial: "Man vs Himself".

This is where I just get angry. The dolphin hurt my head and made me tired. Now I'm seething.

So you see a guy in a weird outfit that looks like a cross between the punisher, a luchadore, and a gimp outfit.

He introduces himself "Greg Salinger, AKA Foolkiller."

He's a crime fighter that is also a licensed Shrink.

What does that mean? Is he a therapist? A psychologist? A Psychiatrist? What the hell does 'SHRINK' make him? What credentials does he have? Not all 'shrinks' are trained in how to handle all problems. Some specialize in PTSD, dissociative states, or other things. Not all are equiped to handle D.I.D.

The man addresses Marc by name and tells him that the cultists are forcing him to do this under threat that his family be killed if he doesn't 'assess' Marc.

Marc takes a seat at the couch and the shrink asks what Marc did to the man in the last room.

We don't get to hear the story, but in the next panel "Three minutes later" we see the therapist trying not to vomit (that's professional). Even the cultist guy with the gun on them looks shocked.

This is a cope out. Bemis wants us to think it's some unfathomable horror that can even make the therapist vomit.

"Marc, it's my opinion that you suffer from certain...OTHER chemical--and Personality-based--Disorders outside your clinical diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder. See, I know what it's like to want to stop criminals from hurting people, but...The sort of actions you describe suggest a pathology that...Marc, has anyone ever spoken with you about Bipolar II? Or the spectrum of Personality Disorders relating to Borderline thinking?"

PAUSE. MAJOR PAUSE.

As I noted off the bat in part 1. Bemis is Bipolar. Self diagnosed or professionally, I'm not here to question it. If he says he is Bipolar, then he's Bipolar.

He's attempting to Move Marc into a position he can self identify with. Which, unfortunately, moves him away from DID and into a different area that Bemis can claim to now be an expert on and therefore no one can question him.

There's a major problem with this. It DOES take him away from the spectrum of DID that exists and forces him into another one and also putting all these negative traits he's given to Marc onto Bi Polar people, making the audience start to associate all these terrible and dangerous things with them.

It ALSO is taking away from something called System Accountability.

This is something that is learned in systems and it does take time to trust in the system for it to work. It also involves a heavy amount of intersystem communication.

It means that if someone in your system is an asshole, the WHOLE system is responsible for making sure that this asshole gets help as well as attempts to NOT be an asshole.

It means that no one is out there beating their spouse and claiming it was 'the bad alter'.

Even deeper, it means that they have developed a fail safe to protect the body. If someone is hurting the body or putting it at risk, the rest of the system can take charge and make sure that person is no longer given access to the body until they are able to get help.

You only get one body and you have to share it. This takes time and trust, but it is something I've seen done.

We've seen it done in the MacKay run when Steven forced control away from Marc so as not to cause them further trauma.

UGH.

UNPAUSE...

"All very common. These things don't ever make you a mean person. On their own they in no way imply... But the MIX... You've got a heady mix, there, champ. And it's pretty apparent someone hurt you very badly at some point. The thing about it is...

I think you need to admit to yourself that your need to hurt people may go beyond just wanting to protect others. An addiction to sadism isn't anything to scoff at...Or frame with a pretty costume and make disappear. I'm sorry, Marc. You have to start thinking of it like...A nearly incurable disease."

NO. NOPE. Not even remotely… This is SUCH a cope out. And why in each run does Bemis have an ‘epiphany’ moment with Marc realizing that he’s a terrible person and having to go on some inner journey down some path where he realizes the bad guy is right?

The therapist babbling about some sort of ‘mix of personality’ issues… ANd ‘incurable diseases’. Ableist shit.

What Marc has is trauma. Extreme trauma coming from more than one person or place in his past timeline. He hasn’t learned how to handle his trauma or how to connect with people. He views himself as deserving of his trauma. Thus, he views himself as a bad person or thing that deserved what happened to him. He’s also incredibly angry about it and dealing with generational trauma being placed on top of everything else!

This is a fact. This is coming from the Moench/Zelenitz run. In the Lemire run he takes it a step further and deals with Marc’s fear of attachment and abandonment issues. As well as his uncomfortable realization and acceptance that he has DID and he has to learn to communicate and talk to Steven and Jake and they have to work as a team.

Putting ALL this on MARC alone is not okay. Treating it as some sort of horrible disease and blaming his violent tendencies and ‘insanity’ on a chemical imbalance and on his DID is just… I want to beat Bemis with a DSM book.

"Third Trial completed. The Hero is crowned a Prince of Death." And we see him being dressed in cult robes by guys in moon knight like masks. I don't even know anymore.

Even though we see them clearly fitting him and measuring him in PURPLE, in the next scene he's in a fully new and fixed up white Moon Knight suit. Who knows.

….I don’t remember this next part. I honestly think I stopped reading the run at the dolphin bit. Oh no. I thought I got further than this. There’s still two issues left. Oh no…. Did I skim the rest out of frustrated rage? You and me, dear reader…We’re going to get through this together. We got this.

Fourth Trial time. "Fun with Morpheus, Dream Eater."

YOU. HAVE.GOT.TO.BE.KIDDING ME.

I'm gonna... I'm going to punch something.

That's not Morpheus. And Marc knows how to handle Morpheus. This isn't what Morpheus DOES.

"That's for that time with the thing."

BEMIS DOESN"T EVEN KNOW WHO MORPHEUS IS OR WHAT HAPPENED. He's just throwing him in because he thinks he can mess with Marc's mind!

Morpheus is a DREAM maker! He attacks with 'dream waves' because he himself can't sleep or dream.

So we go to the inner world where we see the boys all in gladiator and medieval armor in ruins.

Steven: "I thought he said he wanted to handle this himself."

Khonshu: "He is holding onto a grip that is...Tenuous, to say the least."

This is bullshit.

This is not how his system works.

this is not how they work.

See current MacKay run to see how they work together when they are attacked psychically.

He also went ahead and gave them 'roles'.

Steven is "The Mind", Jake is "The Robust Undercarriage". Khonshu is "The Spirit".

Then we see a fourth blank space, probably reserved for Marc?

So... Fifth Trial. "Royale"?

We see him just fighting the four other guys from earlier.

His outfit looks purple here. Maybe it was supposed to be purple in the other image and they got the shading wrong. I don't know. I hate this art.

Moon Knight has zero trouble dealing with these 'sadists'. "Trial? Nah. Spanking" it says.

You see, these guys aren't fighters. I don't know why they think they are or Bemis thinks they should fight MK.

They are sadists that enjoy picking on the innocent and incapacitating their victims to torture them and kill them. The only one that knows how to fight is the assassin, and all she does is stand there with a gun shooting him till he punches her out.

Marc stands over the bludgeoned members of the cult and yells at a camera. "Ernst. I get the damn point. I'm ready and I'm yours. I've always been %#^& YOURS!"

I would like to remind you that Ernst is a Nazi.

Steven in the background says "I...I can't do it anymore..."

Khonshu tells him to "Let him go, Steven. He will not let our traits serve him now. That duty falls to...the other."

Ernst calls him 'my son' and invites him in.

"Trial 666." clever.

"The entire society, though not present tonight, has been anticipating this moment for a long time. I knew eventually when you were ready, you'd track me down. I knew the seeds I planted would bear fruit, my little...First-round pick."

Bull shit. Marc was not supposed to find out about Ernst. He told Marc not to go to his office till much later and he wasn't expecting Marc to find his hidden place in the basement. Then he ran off and didn't confront Marc again. This wasn't 'all according to plan!' I HATE when the bad guys do that. There was no plan. It cheapens the value of the surprise of the hero finding out in the first place!

We see a very TIRED and broken down Marc as he follows Ernst into the back room.

"All it took was the careful manipulation of your...Friend...Jake Lockley's undesirable "sources". I always saw something in you. Now you must see it in yourself."

Are you kidding me. Is he going to blame this all on Jake?

Jake the Most Jewish Part of his System?! The one that speaks Yiddish and openly presents himself as Jewish?!

Ernst walks Moon Knight down a long badly designed hallway with pictures of members. You see some guys in Nazi uniforms from WWII and various other guys that we don't get close up pictures of. Because Bemis lacks imagination...or Historical knowledge.

"Choice one. You fight us. ALl of us, our full might, focused soley on you. You almost assuredly, will not make it back to see your daughter alive, nor save her from me. Two. You abstain. I eliminate your child. It would take a wave of my hand. Only your value to me has prevented this so far. Or THREE. Complete the ritual. Become what you were MEANT to be, beside me, forever." And he gives Marc a picture of Diatrice.

Oh. Oh wait. No. I remember this now. Fuck. I had completely blocked it out of my memory. Fuck. I have regrets.

I’m going to need a minute and I advise that you all take a minute too.

This…This is worse than I thought it was. Worse than I thought it could be.

EXTREME TRIGGER WARNING: Racism. Nazi idealization. Race wars. Implied child harm.

This is bad. I can’t stress this enough. We’re about to talk about some really fucked up things.

I am going to… very carefully…sensor this. It needs to be talked about. This didn’t age well. Especially with the way things have been going for the past several years.

So please… tread carefully and take care of yourself. If you need to nope out, I respect that. If you have had enough and need to just stop and go “Yeah. Bemis was bad. I’m glad I didn’t read that” then do it. If you need to know, then let’s continue.

***************EXTREME TRIGGER AHEAD*****************

So Marc turns to the door after he's locked in a room with his choice on what he has to do.

Fight them all (which I don't get how this is a choice because we know what Marc can do. But the threat of him losing and them going after his daughter is there.) Surrendering and losing his daughter. Or becoming one of them and doing 'what needs to be done'.

He turns around to find out what his next task is.

I don't want to draw this out. I really don't. Bemis does. It does it because he wants the impact of what his choice is to hit you hard in the stomach.

And it does. It hits VERY hard. But not in the way Bemis wants it to. He thinks he's being clever. He thinks that he's set it up so that Marc has been pushed too hard and realized like he did with the Sun King that the villain is right and he has to do it.

So he wants the reader to think the hero has given in and might actually do it.

This is BAD writing.

Instead, the way it comes across is scary. It's fucking scary because of the current climate. Because of all the things that happened in 2020. Because of all the things happening now.

I'm so angry right now. I'm angry and hurt.

I'm going to just TELL YOU what the choice is then I'm going to back track and show you the lead up to it. Okay?

*****He wants Marc to murder a little black girl*****

Backing up. Let’s…Let’s just take this a panel at a time.

Marc sees the 'choice' before him and he reacts with disgust.

And we finally see Jake speak up. He's been pretty quiet this issue besides lurking in the background.

And knowing what Bemis does with Jake and what he obviously thinks of Jake... You're about to see why. And Bemis probably feels like he's being so clever and doing some sort of redeemed character arch. Only the character he tarnished himself and now is trying to make better?

"Being your dark side"

I'm so angry.

I don't even have the energy to explain it. I've been explaining it. If I haven't gotten through to you yet...

"And now you won't even...To save her life? Sometimes horrible decisions have to be made when Nazis get involved."

This is how the holocaust got started.

This is why no one stood up against them when they saw and then denied and refused to acknowledge what was happening.

"You think I want this to have to be my call?!" Jake is yelling at Marc.

Marc shuts down and curls up in a little ball on the floor.

"I don't wanna. I don't wanna. Ah God... Dad... Dad, where are you? He made me... I saw..."

So we see Bemis' version of a PTSD type of flashback shut down.

I can't say if this is accurate or not because everyone is different. I've had shut downs before. Both silent and a few with some sort of pleading similar to this but never to anyone in particular. So sure. Close enough I guess.

In this shut down, we see Steven, Khonshu, and Jake standing there watching.

None of them move to comfort Marc.

Jake "take that as 'feel free to take over until I grow a set of STONES, Jake'"

I'm frowning so hard.

Jake pops up in the body, complete with full mustache. I guess it was in his pocket? Even though he is wearing a whole new outfit?

"Hi, my name is Jake. Don't worry about anything. Just be...Just be very still."

The 'choice' pleads with him not to hurt her.

"God in heaven, I'm sorry. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this!"

Yeah... Ignoring all the other issues... There's also a major flaw in the religious talk here too.

Jake stops and drops his crescent dart. "I don't want to do this."

Ernst is displeased. He thought for sure Marc would do it and join him. Because...I don't know. I have no idea. I just... Maybe I'm not filled with enough self righteous rage to be able to think like a Nazi?

He tells his people to "Clean up and move out. This is over".

And we get our first look at the girl. I'll let you judge how she's portrayed.

It’s pretty clear that he asked for the most innocent young looking version of a black girl he could get. Even gave her the pigtails.

Before he can do anything, the room opens up to show them in the middle of a forest clearing surrounded by cloaked guys.

A large airship shows up. Moon Knight prepares to fight all these guys.

We get TWO quotes.

Now... Keep in mind that this run has been about Nazis.

So do we get a quote from that time period? Or a quote about the evils in the world?

Nope.

"The Killing was a means to an end. That was the least satisfactory part." -Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer.

The serial killer, Dahmer. The one that was a sex offender who killed and dismembered a whole lot of young men. He then ate and performed necrophilia on them. As well as turning parts of them into things like lamp shades and thing...

Dahmer was diagnosed with Borderline personality disorder, schizotypal personality disorder, and psychotic disorder.

I'm sensing Bemis is trying to make a parallel.

Next quote?

"A psychoneurosis must be understood, ultimately, as the suffering of a soul which has not discovered its meaning." -Carl Gustav Jung.

Back to quoting JUNG. I have a lot of issues with JUNG's philosophy Especially when it comes to his views on the nature of personality and roles and how they can often be wrongly attributed to D.I.D. I’m nog going to get into it, but at lot of people jump to Jung in an effort to sound smart and like they know what they’re talking about even though they only ever read maybe ONE thing on Jung or heard a quote by him once and went “there’s a smart guy!”

Anyways. This issue is over.

Two more to go. Just two more… Then we never have to look at this bread again.

ISSUE #199.

Oh look. We got a new artist. Davidson. Ah fuck it's Paul Davidson again.

Becky Cloonan did the cover. Which is why it looks so nice and lures you into a false sense of security.

Can we skip this one? Like…. Legit… Is it needed? It is the most garbage filled issue. You thought the last Davidson issue was bad with Mr. Butterflyman and the collective?

So... We open with Ernst in a cafe with Marc.

Ernst is yelling at him about how there "No such thing as Multiple Personality DIsorder or whatever your legion of soft, pliable brats choose to call it these days."

Uh huh.

"Your trio of imaginary friends are merely extensions of your own whim. 'Mental illness'? 'Social Awareness'? Do not even get me started on the proliferated fallacies of 'queer' and 'multiethnic'. 'Me too! Me too!' SHEEP. You choose to dwell among sheep!"

This is hate speech. I've heard it in person. I've heard a lot of these EXACT things said in person.

He's attempting to caricature the people who make these speeches, but he's doing a piss poor job of it and it makes them come off as being 'in the right'.

He tells Marc, who looks sad and pitiful here in this style., that he has been 'whisked away from your punching circus and shot with drugs'.

This is what we call a cop out. He didn't want to have to write or lay out or have them draw the HUGE brawl that he lined up for us at the end of the last issue.

So he's taken it away and put us somewhere else so we can listen to this guy MONOLOGUE for an ENTIRE ISSUE about the bad things in today's society.

See why I want to skip it?

He also says "What happened to the little girl? [....] is irrelevant. Fill in the blanks yourself. Hehe. he."

Yeah... I don't like what that implies.

He tells Marc that this is his last chance. If he doesn't comprehend what Ernst is trying to do in this last test then Diatrice dies.

Marc starts to see a weird Cthulu thing walking by. Ernst tells him not to be distracted.

He calls him weak and crazy.

"I stole your heart in your youth...But this is not your Ghetto. Here I can grip it tight and squeeze."

I take serious displeasure in the fact that he talks about Marc's Ghetto. We know Marc grew up well off in a proper home. And a Nazi using the term Ghetto to describe his growing up conditions is just poor taste.

"Ask yourself....Did I break your mind? Or did we break your genes?"

Uh huh.

"We're friends, Marc. And I have seen your power. I am in need of an heir. And a young, able fist."

Ew.

"See. I was never a true anti-semite. I was and am a REALIST."

Are you fucking kidding me right now

"I realist offers fame, money, and power consolidated. Bargain bin vigilantes. You do not belong among them. Besides, soon none of you or your kind will matter. Du schwein."

This is disgusting.

You see why this is wrong, right?

He's now backtracking from the Nazi plot line. Saying "Oh fuck. I should have just made him a cult leader from the start. But I had to use some way to traumatize his past so his being Jewish was the problem the whole time!"

So now Marc is tripping pretty hard on the drugs and seeing monsters and demons and things.

You can see why I’m not posting much art from this issue.

Between the art (I hate this so much) and that LONG meaningless hate speech there, there is literally nothing of merit to this issue.

He goes on and on like this.

I have no idea what he's talking about. He's just saying things that sound meaningful and metaphorical at this point.

Blah blah blah "Here we can hear the fait, weak sounds of self-knowledge as our dark idea literally comes to life. Here, we taught it how to both love and despise itself. Perhaps what we created can think at this point? Like a child. AN IDIOT GOLEM who fancies itself some kind of philosopher."

The not so subtle use of anti-semetic language is not lost on me.

And you know what else we need more of? That’s right. Racism.

Marc protests he won't hurt these people.

Ernst yells at him to do it. "Make them hurt like you want the world to hurt, Marc!"

They are now in some druggy's house. He tells Marc to look at the man deeper and see the monsters inside him.

Marc yells out for Khonshu, Steven, and even Jake, asking for help.

And we see them trapped in some sort of Egyptian bubble thing under Ra's eye.

Marc rebells and Ernst kicks him in the balls. I kid you not.

Then tells him to "Say you're nothing but an errant SLAVE."

ANd Marc is on his knees crying and says he's his slave.

"Say I'm the first man you ever loved."

"You're not my dad. YOu're not my dad!"

"Join me or she dies!"

"I...You're the first man I ever..."

"Ha! You are like clay! Now. Say these words. 'I am no hero. I don't deserve my own infinity. ANd today is the day I finally give up."

NOPE. NOPE NOPE NOPE.

This here? This is anti-semitism propaganda.

They believe that the jewish people think they are uppity and holier than thou and will be the rulers of the earth and afterlife.

This is incorrect. This is Messianich teachings. And Bemis slipped it in. Didn't think we'd notice, but we did.

Marc refuses to say it and he fights back. We see Khonshu and Jake and Steven break free and start to fight the monsters and Marc hits him in the gut.

"Because I would rather my daughter DIE than grow up in your sick fable."

Marc tells him that he doesn't think his daughter is in danger because once the cultists saw Marc fighting back, they abandoned Ernst.

Ernst begs him. "Stop. you don't know what it was like, Marc. In Germany. For a man like me."

"I can imagine. My grandparents were Czech, remember?"

It's like Bemis can't decide what to do with the story line he already set down with Ernst killing Marc's Grandfather and fleeing Europe.

Even the art is inconsistent.

And he heads back out to the streets and it's still covered in demons and angels and cherubs and devils and so on...

And then he runs into "The Sun King".

Who Bemis probably thinks is the best villain ever because he made him. What a twist.

He doesn’t look like Jesus anymore. Why does he look like Rasputin now? Ra Ra Rasputin… LOL It’s a pun. And now that song is stuck in my head.

You know what REALLY upsets me?

The fact that BEMIS got a huge milestone…

ISSUE #200.

Art back to Jacen Burrows. Cover by Becky Cloonan.

This is an oversized anniversary issue. LAST ISSUE EVERYONE. I can see the end of this endless torture and bread factory.

Oh, Jesus is back.

Thanks Burrows.

Also… I have ZERO memory of this issue. I legit don’t think I read this issue so getting to the end will be a surprise to me.

We get a flashback to them all leaving the island.

Marc is talking to Sun King.

"I mean it! It's a Quasi-Max asylum run by the government, and they'll put you down if you even try to escape, but...I belive you can be redeemed. Maybe. In all seriousness, you need help."

Truth, remember him?, asks if he can go too.

Truth legit wants to be helped.

Ra is pretty pissy at the whole ordeal.

We get to hear a lot of psycho babble as Truth and Ra are analyzed.

I'm not typing all that up.

WOW. They just attacked Asecuality too! They're just adding to the list aren't they?

"The Truth's Asexuality a normal reaction due to being socially abandoned."

I lied. Here's more that boils my blood.

"...Mental Illness being both a difficult and challenging trait and a beautiful gift to be shared with others when utilized in a positive, giving way, as referred to in Dr. Lemire's seminal thesis, 'Healing, or: How to be okay with being you.'"

At least he's getting CLOSER to what Lemire was getting at.

We see Sun King starting to heal and also get his fire powers back. He is happy to have been paired with the Truth. They're bonding.

Then we see Ernst bust in with his cult. He spouts things about old money buying them out and tells them to come get one more shot at Moon Knight.

Now we are back to present times and Sun King looks weird again???

Marc tackles him in the street and threatens him. Truth tells him to stop and listen to him for a second but Marc isn't listening. So Ra attacks and burns up the cult followers around them.

Where is this going? Am I the only one that doesn’t understand where this is going now? With Ernst ‘gone’ and Sun king on his side for now and Truth doing his own thing… How are there so many pages left?

Sun King tells Marc that Ra can go to hell because Moon Knight is a good man while he himself is not. But he was born with fire powers so he's going to "Prevent the creation of 'monsters' like me. For the rest of my life. Or I will die, trying to eradicate that dead Nazi's legacy."

Marc tells Sun King that he needs his crew.

Oh look. It's the army of random regular people that Marc recruited from the island.

They all head to Marlene's house.

Marc tells Marlene that a crazy group of Nazi sadists are coming after them so he hired the Sun King and his goons to come help protect them.

Marlene Maces the Sun King despite being told not to.

Marlene starts to yell at Marc about his 'weirdness' and problems and that she can take care of herself.

Marc, Jake, Steven, and Khonshu gather with Marelne to form a plan.

Marlene points out that she can't see or hear Jake, Steven, and Khonshu and that Marc is just standing there in silence.

In the background we get a cameo with Dr. Emmett yelling about making Sun King Believe.

whoopie doo. Chaos. Fun. everyone's crazy. wheeee.

Diatrice interrupts (and she is drawn very poorly and kinda looks like a frog face with pink hair. I hate this art.

She drew a comic of them all saving the world.

Marc is in good spirits now so he and Sun King run off to...I don't know. Things.

And we find Moon Knight and Sun King facing the giant hover craft after it catches fire and crashes.

The dialogue here is... It's bad.

They fight more cultists.

And there's a big battle scene of Marc's army fighting cultists and things are on fire and Moon Knight and Sun King are fighting...

It's a mess of just like.... 2 giant spreads of just chaotic fighting.

Glad they are using this 200 issue anniversary well.

Sun King tells Marc that "you're pathologically violent but you, almost literally, wouldn't hurt a fly."

Then we...get Sun King's LONG back story that includes things like "My past is spotty, but I know I'm from the southern states and that I was born a Christian."

Who even asked?

"We 'Play for the same team'. Christians come from Jews who come from...It goes on."

It literally doesn't go on. It literally doesn't. But history. Can't be bothered, right?

He starts talking about Atheists, magicians, witches, and beautiful people all fighting for the right to believe in anything.

Then he goes on about "our fixation with the beauty of the Egyptian spirituality' and 'reconciling our peoples' ancient struggle and the uselessness of bigotry."

Whhhhhhyyyyy is he still going on about this?! NO ONE ASKED.

"Now imagine a mentally Ill "Power" whose ability was to take his own inner devastation and then force the world to believe it."

Almost sounds like you're saying DID isn't a real thing but just a construct of the mind that is being forced on others... Careful there, Bemis. You might give yourself away.

He tells Marc that there is a new leader to the cult. The real enermy is "The False Truth".

And we see Truth attached to some sort of weird machine thing. Ernst brain washed him to do his dirty work.

The Truth attacks and forces Ernst's knowledge on them.

Here we go...Ready?

"1935. Ernst is imbued by one of Hiler's mystical artifacts with what we will refer to as 'the blue corruption'." It infects people with 'self-created thought virus, or Meme."

fuuuuuuuuuuuu-

"1936 Jose Mengele creates an unseen subsect of Jewish people 'Infected' by the artifact under Ernst's supervision, using his brain as a conduit."

-uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

"This plan is unsuccessful, but the altered children remain and disperse into the post-holocaust diaspora.

There are images here. I'm not showing you those. They aren't good.

1938....(the war ended in 1945. Why is he...FINE. Let's go with it...) Something about comic books with 'corrupted ink' and preserving the medium's integrity.

1944 the war is closing. Erst is the only Nazi officer who has the corruption. His psychological devastation and personal history cause the corruption to turn into a sort of Venom?

Marc concludes that this all can't be true because then he can change what happened too and still have all his friends and be married to Marlene and have been there for their baby's birth....

This is false logic and I have no idea what he's talking about.

Marc tells him that he's too crazy to fall for Ernst's memories and truth.

They tell truth that the blue goo Ernst was injecting into him is making him crazy and aggressive.

Truth attacks them Moon Knight and Sun King again.

Things are said... Bad things.

They argue back and forth in an attempt for Truth to get them fighting. ...I'm not going to waste my time on what they said. Just know that it's poorly informed crap and more stuff about Jews being slaves to Egypt.

Then....Jake... sorta takes over? He attacks truth, smashes up the machine. He yells that he's "a Jew too." Then Khonshu attacks him too....

Then Moon Knight declares he is "No Man's Slave" and breaks his arm.

Marlene shows up? She yells at Sun King for a bit. Threatens to mace him if he ever goes near her kid again.

Sun King sticks up for Truth and notes that "allowed himself to have his mind warped by abusers." He offers his friendship to Marc.

Marc and Marlene agree...as long as he goes to a mental health facility first.

The orderlies offer to take Marc in for help too. He tells them he's fine and leaves.

Marc calls up Marlene to tell her he's coming home.

And we get at long last... WTF am I looking at?

I…I’m exhausted. It’s 3am Christmas Eve and I’m exhausted.

Why did I read this. Why did I put myself through this? Why did Marvel let this happen? Why did Bemis get away with this crime?

How did Moon Knight survive this run?!

Why did this run follow one of the best written runs ever?

I had plans to type up a big breakdown on why this whole two trade run was so bad… But if you made it this far with me (Thank you. Thank you so much. And I’m sorry), you know why it’s bad. You saw it.

I’ll be real… I lost steam here. This was like a 10+ psych hit attack and I’m just baffled now. That ending was so convoluted and trash. The plot didn’t know where it was going. The characters were so rushed. The pace had issues. The bad guy didn’t know he was a bad guy till he suddenly needed a bad guy. The main bad guy couldn’t decide on why he was the main bad guy… And the good guy kept having existential moments of “Maybe I’m the villain?”

It’s safe to say that EVERYTHING Bemis set up in these comics all faded away and were never touched again. With good reason.

It’s like he set up a whole world ready for people to use and patted himself on the back and thought he’d done a really good job and done everyone a favor and then the world had time to process what he did. And the smart people? They took one look and went “No. No no nononono.” And closed that door again.

Keep it closed. Lock it tight. Don’t let any of it sneak out. I beg you.

We don’t need this racist, anti-semetic, homophobic, ableist shit in this fandom. If you know someone that is a Bemis fan and cites it as ‘an amazing run’ or ‘one of the best runs’, I encourage you to REALLY look at that person. They’re probably not healthy to be around.

So… This was Bemis. Thank you for taking this journey with me. I need to go… go do anything that isn’t this. Expect some Moench soon. I need to not have this taste in my brain anymore. Questions and comments are welcome. Hate and bigotry are not. Feel free to discuss this run. But remember, Friends don’t let Friends read Bemis.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comic #Analyzing the comics #BEMIS #It's done you guys #I'm free #Friends don't let friends read Bemis #I did this for you #I'm sorry #I have so many regrets #Gonna go to bed #then read some GOOD Moon Knight

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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 4 months

Text

Breaking down the comics: BEMIS. Part 1

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

Alright, I covered "Age of Khonshu" and honestly was so incensed that I had to make a post talking about it.

So let's get this other bread (and burn it).

A lot of new Moon Knight fans have heard the cry when asked what to read and where to get started. And true fans everywhere agree: DON'T READ BEMIS.

And there are long posts and screams and sobbing about why not to read it that come out to "It's so bad!"

But there are the curious out there. They want to know why it's bad. They want to know what happened. And...well...

It spans a few issues. I…I was foolish and thought “I can do this in one go! How long can this take? I don’t want to spend that much time on BEMIS.” ….I forgot that doing one of these usually takes me the better part of a day to cover ONE issue.

I’m going to break this up into Four (fuck you Tumblr) parts and cover both volumes instead of a post per issue. I don’t want Bemis to take up that much space so prepare for a few VERY LONG posts.

Let's ruin my month! (AKA: Watch me slowly descend into blind rage).

Marvel Legacy: Moon Knight. 2017. Issues 188-200.

Part 1: Crazy Runs in the Family. (Issues 188-193) Published: November 08, 2017

Written by: Max Bemis

Art by: Jacen Burrows

Editor: Jeff Youngquist

Let's start with:

WHO IS MAX BEMIS?

Oh my god he's in a band. He's the lead singer for the rock band "Say Anything".

My level of disappointment just doubled.

According to his bio: He was raised in a 'strong Jewish environment'. His grandparents survived the Holocaust. All this has inspired his music.

(I can't even begin to tell you how much actually looking up who he is has made me ten times angrier).

In 2013 he started to write comics. More importantly, he wrote for characters that suffered different mental health issues. ('Polarity' at Boom! Studios about a hero with bipolar disorder).

He then ended up at Marvel.

For his personal life: He has bipolar disorder and self medicates with drugs (Marijuana).

He also self identifies as "A Jew who is also a Christian", which he considers a "New age, metaphysical view" on religion.

Good. Great. Fantastic. Now I know who this man is and I hate him even more.

What's even funnier? Apparently his music fans ALSO hate him because he's "a sanctimonious hypocrite".

Seriously, there's a whole Reddit page on why he's a terrible person. I'm not going to site any sources because I can't fact check a lot of those claims and maybe they are false or maybe they are true. I'm not here to slander a life. I'm here to talk about Moon Knight.

I’ve procrastinated enough. Let’s go….

We open on "Ravencroft Asylum". Good start.

We see a Doctor Emmett talking to a patient in a locked cell that's stylized like a prison interrogation cell.

"You say remembering your youth is like looking through a layer of Jell-O. Were do things become lucid? When did you become yourself?"

(I already hate it).

"I learned who I was in the army, that much is clear." The patient responds.

"I get it. The army. The incident. Aside from the physical, what did you walk away with on the day you hurt them?" The doctor looks at the files.

And the patient is hesitant to speak on it, but he tells her that "In the army, I learned that there is a God."

He talks about how he saw God 'in his fire' and that non-believers, atheists, skeptics, and all that are wrong. How they can't understand how big God is.

(And now I remember when I first read this how uncomfortable this first issue made me.)

"They weren't very nice to me in the Army, but why would they be? I had to show them I was more devoted, more significant than they were."

I'm going to put a pause on this right here after just two pages. There are some Trigger Warnings that need to be discussed real quick.

I grew up in the deep south and I’ve legit heard talk like this in real life. It’s terrifying.

I knew a lot of 'born again' Christians who tried to 'save my soul'.

This comic is going to get VERY uncomfortable for anyone that has had to deal with religious trauma. Just putting it out there. Skip if you can't handle any sort of religious trauma like excessive God Talk, Cultish behavior, Come to Jesus moments, or severe Antisemitism.

On top of the religions issues, this comic is also going to have significant mental health mishandling. We’re talking about abuse from Doctor figures, use of improper terminology, abuse of the mentally ill, and severe discrimination.

OH and misogyny. Let’s not forget the misogyny.

This comic run also gets very…disgusting. I had many moments when reading this that legitimately turned my stomach. There is going to be depictions of self mutilation, gore, suicidal acts, and violence.

I AM GOING TO CENSOR THINGS. I will not blur images, but I will NOT be posting any of the comic pages that depict any of these violent, shock value, images. I’ll give a brief rundown of what’s going on and tell you that there is an image that I am going to skip. I’m telling you guys, these two runs were disgusting and curdled my stomach many times. Especially issue two.

So…Those are your only trigger warnings.

Let’s continue.

So now we see a narration by Dr. Emmett.

It is not going to paint a good light on Dr. Emmett.

She's in her office at night going over files.

"Sometimes, this job is guiltily fun... To be frank, patient 86 is @#%$ FASCINATING. He attributes his pyromania to a leap of faith. Conversely, I might argue that it was the fifth canteen full of force-fed urine that inspired him.

Sometimes I get him so fully that it's like I want to have a beer with the guy.

He wears self-delusion with so much dignity. I wish I had that level of resolve, that I could stop fixating on the...SPECTOR conundrum.

I'm just a failure of a doctor, left without a shell-shocked dissociative bipolar to shove away in a box.

In any other instance, I'd dial this one in. It's just that one nagging thing.

Lunatic joins the army. Said lunatic freaks out and ends up spiritually reborn in a near-death experience.

Sound like anyone you know?"

OH GOOD. GREAT. I just... Deep breath. Deep breath.

We’re going to play that angle. Woman psychiatrist/psychologist falls for her feminine desire to get with her patient. She can’t be expected to uphold her standards as a doctor or her doctor patient relationship. She has to dream for that exciting patient. She plays it off as wanting the award winning famous patient that makes her career into something amazing but because she’s a woman she has to play the dreamy sighing “Oh look how amazing he is!” role. And of course she’s after Marc. She can’t have Marc, so she finds this other patient that has a similar start of PTSD military based trauma and she’s going to fail to help him because she wants him to be like the other guy.

Not to mention she's using outdated terms like "Shell Shocked".

A term coined in WWI when for the first time, the world witnessed large groups of men coming back from war after encountering new aged weapons never dealt with or seen before.

Then she calls him Bipolar and links it to his Dissociative disorder.

I don't have a degree in psychology, but I do have a special interest. From what I've seen in the OG early comics by Moench, Marc Spector is not Bipolar. He does not exhibit episodes of mania followed by deep periods of depression. I'd go further into it, but trust me... He has a LOT of issues, but Bipolar was not one of them to start with.

In fact, after Schizophrenia, Bipolar was one of the most commonly misdiagnosed mental illnesses. A lot of people with DID were misdiagnosed with Bipolar disorder because of the way the symptoms presented in many cases. You didn't have another person in your brain, you were just exhibiting mania and now you're depressed.

ANOTHER THING to take issue with!

This comic is coming DIRECTLY on the heels of Lemire's run. In that run, it was the first time we dealt with Marc's official time in the army and his dissociative states.

We saw Marc wandering through the desert, dissociating and dealing with Khonshu issues.

The off handed tick about "Lunatic joins the army. Said lunatic freaks out and ends up spiritually reborn in a near-death experience."

1. The army did not lead to a Near-Death experience for Marc Spector. He joined the Mercenaries and was killed when his conscious got the better of him and his leader shot him for trying to save someone.

2. A doctor of psychology should NOT be using terms like 'Lunatic'.

3. Marc didn't 'FREAK OUT'. He had several dissociative episodes that ended up with him being discharged.

4. Marc was NOT 'spiritually reborn'. Depending on who is writing and how Khonshu himself is being depicted... An ancient god revived him as his avatar. This is not converting him in any sense of the word. Marc Spector may have issues with his Jewish beliefs and upbringing, but he is still very Jewish. He was NOT 'spiritually reborn'. He was brought back to life to act as Avatar and Marc took this to being Moon Knight, vengeance, paying for the pain he caused, and trying to be a better person. To be a different person. To be anyone except Marc Spector. Jake and Steven took this to just mean that they wanted to help people.

So... Yeah... Now we move on to the title page.

This is going well. We can already tell that Bemis either just didn’t read the Lemire run and got the cliff notes, or he just didn’t care and only took away bits without understanding the actual story it had to tell.

ON THE TITLE PAGE. Ohhhhh man you guys. ON THE TITLE PAGE.

Every title page has a little blurb explaining who the character is and what's been going on in previously connected issues. This way, people can pick it up and just go without having to dig through old comics. It's also a good reminder for people like me, who have shit memories and have forgotten what's going on after having to wait a whole month for the new issue.

I honestly have no idea who writes these blurbs. Sometimes you'll get the same blurb that lass for YEARS. (see Bendis run and how that carried over for runs and runs).

"Marc Spector. Steven Grant. Jake Lockley. Each a distinct personality of one man vying for control. Spector, the original personality, has asserted his dominance and fights to retain that control. But years ago, as a mercenary, Spector died in Egypt under a statue of the Moon God Khonshu. In the shadow of the ancient deity, Marc returned to life. From then on, Marc took on a new aspect in honor of Khonshu, dedicating his second life to fighting crime as....

MOON KNIGHT".

I want to fight someone. I don’t know who. But I want to fight someone. Whoever wrote this… This is what Marvel took away from the Lemire run. His beautiful run that for the first time, really dealt with Moon Knight’s mental health struggles. That said “They have dissociative Identity Disorder. They are a system. They have learned how to work together. They have found peace in who they are.” And whoever wrote this blurb went “Nawh, but Marc is the dominant and original personality and he’s in charge now!”

Editor in Chief: Axel Alonso

Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada.

Ah... These guys. These guys are to blame. We meet again Quesada...

Alright. We now see Dr. Emmett at some party (birthday party? They're all wearing party hats but they're clearly eating dinner and one guy is wearing a kippah and someone else is wearing a top hat and one guy is wearing no hat. I... I don't even know. This is all a disaster at this point.)

The group is laughing about things and Dr. Emmett is day dreaming about Marc Spector.

"Marc, my former patient. And this new one, patient 86. Traumatic experiences in the middle east. The similarity is brazen. Was there something in Marc's experience that patient 86 could..."

Her thoughts are interrupted as one of her colleagues takes a jab at her. "Still stuck on the hooded leotard guy?"

She snaps to defense and they tell her to let it go. That she can do better than 'that loser'.

Back at home, she's angry. Moon Knight is not a loser in a leotard.

And we see her shrine. Yeah... This is healthy.

Oh good. Back at work she's dealing with patient 86. She's attempting to explain how his brain works to him.

Get ready for some grade A psychology here people.

She explains that on one side of his brain is chemistry and the other is "Personality. Socially ingrained behavior. I want you to see the distinction."

He asks her that the fact that he's murdered people should label him as insane.

She disagrees. "I'm not sure the fact that you're a murderer proves anything about your nature."

Hmm.

She goes on to explain that "So many have been clinically impared by their unique brain chemistry. They needed help. We failed them. Imagine hearing audible voices that told you to eat a person. These people needed treatment."

And she points to cases like Sam, Gein, and Fish.

Yeah... Because Gein needed treatment. I'm just gonna... Just gonna.... ARGH.

"You developed bipolar disorder during your early adulthood. Moods fluctuating from mania to depression to utterly convincing delusion. Compounded by the traumatic childhood on the street, in state homes, and juvie that you barely recall. None of these things were your fault. Nor what happened in the desert."

Okay, they're just throwing out things at this point. They're just going to start listing off the sterotypical bad childhood leads to a bad kid and trauma things.

She then goes on to tell him that she understands what he did. That it was not his fault, that he was looking for something to control and fire was his answer. Not to mention God. "None of these symbols are inherently harmful. I've seen the power of symbolism redeem one of my patients who was literally split apart by trauma."

oh no. no no no no...That's not how... ARGH.

"Imagine what it could do for someone who was ready to receive help. Bipolar disorder, when tempered, can produce intense inspiration and creativity. I want to help you."

And she adds "Kurt Cobain" to the list.

I'm just going to... To sit here... quietly raging.

Alright, so now we see Dr. Emmett walking through the Egyptian exhibit at the museum.

"If Egyptian Mythology worked for Spector...It could work for my mysteriously nameness patient."

HOW IS HE NAMELESS?! HE WAS IN THE ARMY. They KNOW where he was stationed, they know what unit he was in, they know the trauma he faced and bullying, and they know the group of people he killed! OF COURSE THEY ARE GOING TO KNOW WHO HE IS.

"As I stand in front of the statue of Khonshu, Marc's main squeeze, I have a very important realization--Marc Spector may be legally insane... But he was never crazy at all.

Is every priest who hears the voice of their lord crazy? Every shaman? The damn writers of the constitution, invoking god on every page?

Marc manifested the meaning of this icon. His dissociative identity disorder simply brought it more vividly to life.

He needed an emblem of his inner bedlam and his innate need to protect victims. And the god of these qualities--Khonshu--came to him literally."

THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS. He didn't get DID out in the desert. He's had it since he was a very young boy! He didn't go to Khonshu to try to make sense of it! His DID didn't 'bring it to light'. It didn't make him hear the voice of god!

So she decides to pick out a god for her patient.

Cause that's healthy.

She considers Osiris, Horus, ....Imhotep...

But of course she stops at Ra.

You know what's really getting to me right now? This so called Ivy league doctor that clearly has no idea what she's doing, has zero ability to draw the line at doctor patient relationship, her obsessive tendencies, and pushing her obsession onto another patient.

Furthermore, when you look at Patient 86, you do see a man that recognizes that he did something wrong. That he needs help and is in a place to try to understand how his own brain is working. We see him clinging to her words and trying to understand where she's going with her treatment.

She explains that Khonshu is Ra's son.

"I explain my understanding of the two gods' dynamic to 86. Some of it comes from established myth, some from Freudian interpretation."

FREUDIAN. THEY ARE GOING FREUDIAN. This is a no Freud zone.

"Amon Ra represented the burning, blazing emblem of masculine virility that is the sun. In many cultures, the sun stands for the sovereignty of masculinity --logic and raw power. But in the New Kingdom of Egyptian lore it was his Adopted son Khonshu who was described as "Greatest God of the Great Gods."

(Nope. There was a brief Khonshu cult where they briefly played at worshiping the Moon instead of the sun. This was later put down and Ra resurged as the leading deity again. And it certainly wasn't the 'New Kingdom' path to look at him as the greatest of the great).

"Khonsu of the moon, a universal symbol for the redemptive power of insubordination--femininity and sensitivity. The Ras of this world resent becoming passe. It makes them angry. And they burn harder to spite their own impotence. Established society can't accept change. Can't accept that the old ways don't work anymore."

Oh good. Misogynistic teachings. Just what he needs.

"Something happened to you when you were young, dropped you into a sea of lost children. I believe what you're hiding from yourself was most likely some form of abuse."

She asks him to try to remember and he does remember abuse from the people in the army but also as a child being abused.

Now we have the utmost breach of doctor patient confidentiality.

"Finally, I reveal the tale of Marc Spector to 86. How a confused mentally unstable boy drew on the figurative power of the Moon to justify his nature.

Marc's transformation into the hero called Moon Knight...A role model for the bewildered.

I pass along all my endless research and documentation of his life since he was under my care, as well as several well-regarded books considering Egyptian mythology."

AHHHHHHHHHH.

"And madly enough, patient 86 gets it. It clicks in him. He sees how Spector, like him, was not just insane, but was truly immersed in a living myth. It was never the moon's fault that it shone so brightly."

Now we see Dr. Emmett having a nightmare.

She sits in a large empty and white office when she's suddenly attacked by mummies.

Moon Knight shows up to save her and rips apart the mummies.

But wait, it's not Moon Knight!

JESUS. I don't know why that reminded me. But this patient is purposefully drawn to resemble the white Christian version of Jesus. So that’s another contention I have with this comic.

I’m also 90% certain that that cat wasn’t white a few pages ago…

Alright, back at the asylum, we see a changed patient. He's more confident. More thoughtful.

She tells him he needs to be present and not dissociating into the void. She wants to continue his 'traditional therapy' as well as his "...studies."

He tells her that he knows who he is now.

She tells him that even if "the allegory of Khonshu brings you resolve, you still need medicine. You still need therapy."

"So, it's just a story now? I suppose Ra never let his wrath rain down on his errant son? That everything you taught me was an illusion?"

Suddenly she's back peddling. Saying she didn't teach him that. It's not what she was trying to get him to understand.

He asks her to leave. He has things to think about.

I mean, honestly what did she think was going to happen?

She has a patient that believes that he has been touched by the divine and has become godly. So she has given him a god that is involved in FIRE, the thing he is associating with god. She's basically given him a path to his own displacement!!

She FINALLY realizes that she can just go to the military hospital to try to figure out who he really is.

At the military medical facility, she talks to another doctor.

"I don't say this a lot about multiple murderers, but... If you're asking what I thought of the man, I'd have to admit he brought nothing but warmth to this place."

And that's the thing. He's a quiet and pleasant man. Introspective and not really possessing his own unique personality. He accepts what is put on him. A sort of trauma processing and self defense.

The doctor then explains that patient 86 signed up for the army under a forged alias. Okay. So that explains why they don't know who he is... But they could call him by that name instead of just 86.

While she's there, another patient runs up, having overhead who they were talking about.

He screams about how he was there and he saw what happened.

"We all know the truth. It was impossible. They had him tied up. Naked. How could he have possibly started that fire? No matches, no lighter. I know what he--"

The orderlies show up and of course pull him away.

At the same time she gets an emergency message from her own asylum telling her to get back there right away.

She gets back to find 's room covered in blood.

Her response?

"How could this be? Was it all for nothing? As a doctor, I believed I could make a difference. But again, I am just at the whim of the raw, elemental power of insanity."

NO. You most certainly are not at the whim of the power of insanity! THIS IS YOUR JOB. Your job is to help people who have mental health issues! Being a doctor in a mental health institution is HARD. You have the lives of people at their most vulnerable in your hands!

So what happened?

Another nurse tells Dr. Emmett: "We found him like this and immediately restrained him. So nobody else besides Nurse Hayworth could be hurt. ALso... There was no other way to retrieve her nose."

Cool. We're going Hannibal Lecter now? For dramatics? For shock value?

I'm not going to show you the comic picture here. I hate it. It hurts to look at. It's disgusting. It's clearly done for shock value.

But we see wrapped up in a restraint jacket with blood all over his face. Behind him he's drawn RANDOM vaguely Egyptian hieroglyphs in blood.

She asks him why he did it.

"When I revealed myself to her... She didn't believe me."

Dr. Emmett is confused. She thought he was a kind and compassionate man who had a terrible upbringing and didn't know who he was.

He tells her that she should know who he is since she taught it to him.

"Khonshu." She answers. Because she's an idiot.

"Khonshu is nothing next to me."

He bursts into flames, igniting the whole room.

"I wanted to speak to you before I go, but...I'll have to take leave of you now, Dr. E. Whatever made me the way I am is irrelevant. You brought me purpose. You showed me that I am--and always have been--A God."

"Dear Lord. Amon Ra."

He tells her that Khonshu is going to bow to him even if he has to crack his spine and so on and so on....

He leaves the hospital, leaving the doctor to die in the flames.

We see flashes of his past where he set fire to his abusers as a kid and again in the army. Fire caused by his own mind.

"He was always meant to become this. And now I know what trauma robbed him of his memories. Sometimes the sun gives birth to a bright brilliant Moon, changing us for the better. But sometimes it consumes us... And we burn, it becomes all we can see."

We cut to a shot of the hospital being on fire and emergency services there.

Look! They found a survivor in the flames! The commentary between the paramedics is disgusting. And the casual way they move to treat the survivor is also just disgusting.

We get to see the survivor and it's Dr. Emmett. Completely burned up but still alive. Again... shock value and I'm not going to show you the image here. But it's bad.

She is laughing and yelling about how she believes.

We see 86 walking away from the hospital down the road, happy, and also naked. I honestly don’t know why this became a thing in comics with naked guys all over the place. It’s obviously used as a way to elicit some sort of reaction from the reader. One of disgust, something to laugh at, or just “Oh no! The man is naked now!” I hate it.

Then we get a few pages from Khonshu. A recap on Marc's story.

It's not told right. But I will forgive it because it's told from Khonshu's point of view, and that asshole probably sees it this way. So... I suppose I'll turn a blind eye to how wrong the story is here.

You would see it as Marc begging, wouldn't you, you stupid pigeon.

"He became...A hero. He used my powers to fight crime. To find redemption. It only cost him his mind. You see, the criminals aren't the only thing Marc Spector fights. He also fights...

"The voices in his head. Marc Suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder."

I've said it before. It stopped being called Multiple Personality Disorder YEARS ago. This is lazy writing with no research. And coming off of Lemire's run, this is just insulting.

Also calling it 'voices in his head' is just outright pitiful.

"But given time, he has managed to make peace with those voices. Including mine. No, together, we are... MOON KNIGHT."

And that's the end of the issue.

We get an afterward from the author.

It angers me beyond words.

"Writing Moon Knight (not "a book like Moon Knight" or "Writing such a huge project for Marvel"...Writing Moon Knight) is a dream come true. I couldn't pick a better place in the Marvel U to inject my passion into, and it is the pinnacle of everything I've worked towards as a writer.

Anyone who treats a superhero comic as an easy paycheck needs to check themselves and realize why they're our most prevalent modern myths. Thank YOU (and my fam at Marvel) for letting me write this, supporting my previous work, and allowing me to make comics with someone as esteemed and talented as Jacen.

I only ask that if you enjoyed this somewhat bizarre issue, keep reading this book. I want to enjoy it with you. Maybe we can claw away at something horrible together.

It will not, however, be pretty.

-Thanks,

Max Bemis."

We also get an afterword by the artist, Jacen Burrows that notes that they are following in the wake of legends like Smallwood and Lemire as well as Ellis and Shalvey who worked hard to re-awaken Moon Knight after it's cancellation (see Bendis). They note that they are working to tell a new and defining chapter in his character and a thought-provoking, intense, and scary note in Marc Spector's life.

I'm going to go punch a wall now.

NEXT ISSUE! #189!

Here we go… issue two… Let’s get this…moldy… bread.

We open on... NYC Subway. We see a happy dude driving the subway car. As the car rolls into the station, a large man steps into the cab with him.

"Happy to have made it to Friday? The stench of your jubilance is offensive. But you're right to rejoice. Today you learn the truth."

He touches the driver's shoulder and slowly a blue beam over takes him and his eyes turn blood red and start to bleed. ...I'm not posting a picture.

"Tell me what you've learned by knowing me. I'm living in you now."

The driver starts to stammer and talk. "H...H..Humanity is perverse. Genocide is the comeuppance we deserve. There is no creator. Undebatable. Love is a contrivance. Undebatable. The white house is the death star. Twitter is a virus. And when the nukes raze everything we know...Only a fool would claim it wasn't our destiny."

Yeah... The large man calls himself "THE TRUTH" and has the ability to send these visions into the people he touches. It makes the driver hate everything and he starts up the car again, out to spread the truth.

We are back to Khonshu narrating.

"My name is Khonshu. Moon God of Egypt. I'm here to tell you a story about a mad vigilante named Marc Spector. Our tale finds us here, on a standard night for Marc, who, when dressed in all white and donning a cape, refers to himself as Moon Knight.

Marc has spent ten minutes decorating this bar with the blood of these drug dealers and slavers. The cacophony of snapping collarbones and pit-pattering plasma is like whale songs to him.

As the thud of a man being literally punted across the room sounds, Marc Spector is grateful for his life.

For the privilege of serving me. Khonshu, protector of travelers in the night.

You see, Marc Spector is crazy. But in the context of my blessing, he is, well...A 'Super Hero'."

I overlooked it before, considering it comes from Khonshu's narrative and Khonshu WOULD see things differently.... But I can't. I can't even attribute this to Khonshu. This is just tripe bullshit.

We're going to start fast forwarding here because... It just keeps going on like this. The old bird just doesn't shut up. He carries on for three pages and there is a LOT of text there.

We see Moon Knight beating up a bunch of guys to a bloody mess. Then we move down to see a bandaged up Marc heading up to his VERY run down, grungy, apartment building. He waves hello to some old lady behind the glass that runs the place.

He tells her he'll have the rent for her in the morning.

Khonshu again calls Marc having just recovered from a 'personal crisis' and taking his problems more seriously, like his struggle with 'multiple personality disorder'.

Khonshu boasts about how hard it is to live with a demigod in your head and that Marc has learned to 'live with his lunacy and wield it like a weapon'.

We see Marc ironing his Moon Knight outfit while watching TV.

Khonshu AGAIN talks about how Marc has learned to use his three distinct identities and that therapy has let him come a long way. About how Marc came to him begging to have his life saved and now Marc is his 'earthly champion'.

"Or perhaps he was a space cadet whose psychosis was triggered by being shot up and dried out in the baking middle east sun. Your call."

THIS IS WHAT YOU GOT FROM LEMIRE?! THIS?! How...How... HOW.

We now see Marc passed out in bed.

"Marc is ready to become someone else."

Yeah so… We got him ‘becoming’ Steven. Who talks to Khonshu. Sure. Fine. Whatever. Khonshu calls him Narcissistic and decadent.

FIRST OF ALL. Oh. You did NOT just come for Steven Grant. Oh we are going to have words now.

Steven Grant is a beautiful wonderful man who has dreams of charity, peace, and living the perfect life that he was EXPECTED to live as a child under his father’s role. He’s the ideal son he was supposed to be, but he keeps his eyes on what’s right and what’s wrong and has STRONG moral opinions. He takes care of the body because he HAS TO. Marc isn’t going to do it. If it wasn’t for Steven, they’d turn into a walking festering infection with broken bones and starve to death! Steven keeps them alive and HEALTHY. He is the epitome of the one that gives because he believes in living a good life as a good person.

Oh. Now you're gonna come for my boy Jake?! YEAH. YOU BETTER AVOID DISCUSSING HIM FOR NOW. I’LL BITE ANYONE THAT COMES FOR JAKE. (spoilers: I know exactly what he does with Jake later and I am furious).

Alright. Back to Patient 86, or RA as he's going to be called later for a bit.

We see him in a homeless shelter getting soup. He talks to various homeless people, prostitutes and druggies in an effort to locate someone. There are heavy implications in some of these images that he 'did things' to get the information he wanted. I’m not going to post them because of the nature of the way these people are being depicted.

Back with Khonshu and Steven. He's at some business meeting. He's made them a lot of money. Everyone is happy and celebrating. Apparently Steven goes to struggling companies and makes them VERY wealthy.

He's decided to donate his portion of the new wealth towards his "Lunar Lives" charity fund that feeds the displaced youth of New York.

Steven shrugs saying that money is boring and he finds it fun to toss it to places where it doesn't belong.

Sure, we'll go with that version of Steven Grant being a kind and charitable man.

The party is interrupted by news reports that a subway conductor committed suicide by crashing the car. The survivors of the crash are now apparently acting strange, "self mutilating" and acting violent towards the aid workers trying to help the scene.

Steven slips away from the party.

Moon Knight time.

But first, we go back to RA.

He's found the person he's looking for. He's guarded by thugs. After a little encounter, Ra sets fire to one of the thugs and heads up to meet the man.

Back at the subway crash, we see chaos as rescue workers try to put out the fire, help the injured, and deal with the ones that are suddenly acting violently.

And Khonshu is still going. It's an interesting choice. I'll give them that. Having Khonshu narrate instead of hearing at ALL from the Moon Knight system. I suppose it gives them bigger leeway when it comes to the unreliable narrator because Khonshu WOULD see things differently. An excuse to not depict Marc and the others correctly?

....But it still does swing widely and miss far too often.

"Quite familiar with all the things that make men weep and soil themselves, Marc Spector felt at home in these derelict tunnels."

We see Moon Knight walk past the crash and into the train tunnels.

"After too much time confined in a white room, the odor of dead rat fart and fungal growth actually calmed his busy brain. He was in his element-The inspector holmes of king fu madmen."

See, this is where it falls flat. If Steven is dealing with the business aspect, Marc isn't going to care about that room.

And again we get ANOTHER jab at Marc being 'insane' and liking the disgusting things and being more at home in dank and terrible places.

Perhaps Marc is more at home in sewers (there was a sewer man) than Steven or Jake... But it has nothing to do with his mental state. It's because, as Moon Knight, he isn't above things like that. He's not the perfect clean hero that Captain America or Iron man is. He's the man of the people that puts himself down there in the lowest parts because it's where he's needed.

Moon Knight rightly is able to look at the scene of chaos at the crash site and deduct that it's a psionic attack.

"Historically, he had found telepaths to generally be meek characters using their sway over the mind as compensation for physical frailty. Like sexually feeble men with muscle cars."

Unnecessary jab.

Now, as much as I dislike this art style, it's a choice and there is SOME merit to it. Look, here's a nice page.

Here’s a badly cropped version. I like the way they drew Moon Knight in the first two panels with the play of the light and shadows. That big angry dude down there is the Truth guy. And I cropped it there because under him is a bunch of guys he’s shown the truth to who are writhing on the ground, bleeding from the eyes and shouting terrible things.

Moon Knight goes in swinging and lands a few blows, trying to know him out to release the affected people from his psychic attacks.

The guy is pretty big and he takes the hits easily.

He manages to grab Moon Knight by the neck and starts to use his abilities on him.

So what truth does Marc see?

"I'm a mad circus clown... This is all for myself. There is no Moon God. Just another...Sick... Delusion..."

I...honestly can see Marc having that issue. It's an issue he's had before where he thinks this is all his own way to keep being violent and that Khonshu is just a product of his need to justify what he does.

Marc snaps himself out of the psychic attack by punching himself in the face.

And I forgot that Bemis has decided that Marc Spector is a masochist and he loves it.

Literally, it has Moon Knight yelling "Ghhh. I #@$% Love it!"

He attacks the Truth again, slicing him up with his crescent darts and landing blows.

The Truth remains standing.

Moon Knight decides to look inward for help.

"Not having a lot of luck here, Fellas. Khonshu's more of a talker and this guy's power set is the real deal. Grant's useless...Doubt the Truth is looking for stock tips."

(I forgot that Bemis considers Khonshu to be his own version of an Alter without being an alter? That he just lives in their head.)

UGH. Yep. Here we go. This is what he's done to Jake.

"I'm gonna need..." And Moon Knight lets out a scream of rage as Marc steps out and tells Jake to "Do your worst."

Apparently... Bemis has decided that Jake is the wild card, violent, unpredictable, and brutal. Worse than Marc for some reason. That Jake is the powerhouse of hits...

I honestly has no idea why he went this route when MARC of all people has always been the one to be the guy that doesn't go down and always hits back. It just makes no sense.

What even.

Jake comes right at the Truth, spits a tooth in his face, then challenges him.

"You want to step into Jake Lockley's mind, you gigantic freak? I @#$% Dare you.

You met Marc. Marc's disturbed as hell. Now imagine that he took all the worst parts of himself and let them fuse into a living person. Now go ahead and taste MY truth, you leech."

I HAVE SO MANY THINGS TO SAY ABOUT THIS.

DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER DOESN’T WORK THAT WAY. It’s not making people out of things! You don’t go “Well I hate that I burn all the cakes so I’m going to make this person my cake burning person!” ALSO Marc isn’t that bad either! Marc did terrible things, but Marc is also the hardest on himself! Marc could burn a cake and then use it as proof that he’s the worst person in the world! And Jake ISN’T a bad person! Jake is a good kind loving man with friends and a good heart and I’M SO ANGRY RIGHT NOW.

And the whole time, you see ghostly Marc off to the side looking less than pleased at the situation and reminding Jake that "You're not allowed to kill him, Jake."

And the Truth pulls away in pain.

"Dear God. The things...The things you've done."

WHAT?! WHAT DID JAKE DO?! DRINK HOT COFFEE AND BURN HIS TONGUE?! DID HE PLAY BALL WITH ONE OF THE LOCAL KIDS AND MISS THE HOOP!? DID HE DOUBLE PARK HIS CAB!?

Truth is still reeling. "He has no idea...Does he? You blind him to your foul actions! I'll tell him, you fool! I'll tell him about..."

and Jake cuts Truth off by shoving two crescent darts into his eyes. Yeah...they got an eye thing in this run. I'm not a fan.

Jake gives the body back to Marc, who instantly wants to know what Truth was talking about.

He chastises Jake for his actions and tells him that he's going to get a talking to about this later.

And Marc makes a bad pun about "The Truth Hurts" over the unconscious Truth.

Khonshu and Steven shake their heads at him and Marc claims to be the funny man.

whoopy doo.

With the Truth gone, the afflicted people seem to be recovering now.

Back at RA's part of the story, he finally makes it upstairs to to see the guy he's been looking for.

Oh. Oh no. I forgot about this. I totally wiped it from my mind.

We see someone sitting at a chair. Ra tells him that he's been put here to destroy Khonshu.......

"As a manifestation of his father, Ra, I am offended that he continues to breathe and spread his gospel of dissent through a foul Avatar. A HEBREW, no less. I want your help to end Marc Spector."

I'm... I'm going to take a minute here.

I want to make a few things Very...VERY clear.

I don't care who the fuck is writing this, how they were raised, or where they stand with things now.

This is not okay. Not in a comic book, not in real life, and not in any sense of the word.

We have a figure who is CLEARLY styled to look like a Jesus figure that believes he is the Egyptian god Ra. We have him out to destroy Moon Knight because 1. He works with Khonshu and 2. He is a 'Hebrew'.

This is just disgusting.

And to put it in a comic. Where people of all ages read it and think that it's okay.

Maybe you had some teen or young adult that was identifying with the bad guy. It happens. They see a bad guy that came from a bad situation and they root for them or fantasize what it would be like to burn things like they do. And they start spitting hate like this. Violence towards Jewish people. You are giving them permission to hate a people too. To blame them. To look at them as inferior.

Or maybe you have a young naive kid that has never heard talk like this before and suddenly "Hebrew" becomes a slanderous hateful word. Congrats. You've just turned that kid into always associating that word with bad and disgusting things. It's only a step away from becoming antisemitic in their life.

I just... I can't. I can't even begin to tell you how much this is painful to see. To see Marvel allow this as a company. A company founded on Jewish people. To see Moon Knight as a comic, based around a Jewish system that was originally designed to be about dealing with trauma and hate and pain and finding a way to get better and continue to find the light in the dark.

Anyways... Back to the comic...

The man behind the chair is eager to take down Marc Spector, but he knows it takes more than a man. So Ra sets the place on fire to show off his skills.

The man stands up, impressed.

Oh look... It's Bushman.

A very poorly drawn Bushman that BARELY makes it past the caricature of an old racist cartoon black man. And it only gets worse from there. And as much as Bushman is the bad guy and used to (USED TO) be Marc's biggest enemy... This version of him only goes downhill from here. And we've moved on from antisemitism to racism.

fun times for all....

Oh good. This issue is done.

Can you tell I’m regretting this decision yet?

You know what? I’ve got a question for you to think about! We can all get mad at Bemis. We can point at his horrible story and all the terrible things he wrote about (and boy howdy are there more and they get worse as we go on)... But what about the art?

As MacKay said “Art can make or break a comic”. You can have the most beautiful story in the world and then have it drawn like shit. So who decided to make everything gory and bloody and shocking? Who decided to make Bushman into…THAT? Did Bemis say “I want you to make him look like this” and then pull up a 1940s comic? Or did Burrows make this call all on his own? Are there really two people to blame for these comics? Can we be angry at the artist too?

I’m already pretty pissed at the editors that let this happen… But who drew this?

Jacen Burrows started working with Warren Ellis in 2000. Ah... That explains some of the gore.

Also illustrated adaptations of Alan Moore. Yup. That explains the gore. Those two have very specific styles that usually translate into a lot of gore.

Oh yup. He's also worked a lot with Garth Ennis.

So we've got three of the four most graphic big name comic writers there. This explains a lot.

I don't have much on his personal life, or things that would show WHY he drew things this way... Perhaps it was direction or perhaps it was choice. Looking at some of his other works, they don't all look like this. So who knows?

NEXT ISSUE! #190!

I don’t want this bread. Send it back. I want different bread.

You know what? Why even bring Bushman into this?

This is a move designed to pull the old fans back in and to elicite "OH MAN" emotions from people. And it is not done well.

Bushman started as the big bad. He was the one that worked with Marc as a mercinary and the one that killed him. He's shown up a few times over the years, putting fear into Marc as Bushman threatened his friends. Then Marc killed him (and cut off his face).

So why bring him back? He's done. Marc has burried this particular thing of the past. He's a memory of a ruthless and brutal time.

And what they do with him here is just... They mock him. They make that memory into something grose and shameful.

You'll see in a bit.

So the next issue opens on some look backs at Moon Knight through the ages. We've seen this before. Other one shots and annuals have touched on the other Knights of Khonshu.

This time we see it through Ra's eyes.

"And so it has been since the days the gods themselves walked the earth. Ra and Khonshu, vengeful father and errant son. Warring for the very soul of the world, reborn again and again through earthly avatars. And in every instance....Ra is humbled. Shamed."

....Did Bemis even do mythological research? Is he just going based on "Ah yes, the sun and the moon!"

I'm no Egypt mythology expert, but I can tell you this... Khonshu (or Khonsu as it's really supposed to be spelled) is the son of Amun and Mut. Amun and Ra used to be two different gods but eventually merged into Amun-Ra when two big cities rose to power. He was then attributed with being the king of all.

Khonsu is often depicted as a child! He's drawn with a side-ponytail, which is the "sidelock of youth" and depicts youth in ancient art.

At first Khonsu was incredibly violent. He absorbed other gods' powers by eating their organs. Eventually, he was changed to a mellow god of Time, Measurement, and prosperity.

As I mentioned before, there was a brief period when a popular city worshiped Khonsu as the superior god, but it didn't last and Ra was put back in power when that city fell.

So Bemis clearly didn’t do any research into how the story originally goes. I’m not surprised.

He babbles almost incoherently about Karma and balance and how Khonshu always wins because the Sun God failed to find a proper Avatar.

He says Ra is here to break the cycle and bring order back to mankind. Because mankind needs discipline and order.

"I'm not like those who came before me. I'm not like you, victims of Khonshu's pride. I was born with the flame within me."

So apparently this is a big speech to some henchmen. Or just a bunch of guys looking to get revenge on Moon Knight? Unclear.

Ra's speech done, who is now known as the Sun King, Bushman gives his own speech.

He admits that he now lives his life dealing crack and isn't at his best.

"Marc Spector...Scares the crap out of me, simply put, I don't want to die again. I wouldn't come near Moon Knight with a ten-foot pole at this point, but with Sun King's determination and power?"

He tells them that with Sun King's fire, they can take down Moon Knight.

Sure.

Back to Mr. Spector himself... We see him meditating and holding a little talk with Jake.

Still we get Khonshu's narration:

"The inside of Marc Spector's head is a picturesque, violent landscape touched by Egyptian mythology, Judaic folklore and Fragments of his past."

I have so much I want to argue about with this that I don't even know where to start.

So we see an abstract headscape here. Marc has Jake in a boxing ring and is beating the crap out of him.

He's angry at Jake for keeping things from him and he wants answers.

And here we get a childish depiction of their argument that holds no research and insulting implications.

It's supposed to be funny. It has a certain charm to it that a much much younger me might have found agreeable, but older me has learned a lot and it just makes me tired. And upset at the character assassination that has been happening to my good buddy Jake.

I'm also upset at the implication that Jake is just 'a piece of Marc'. The parts Marc didn't want.

So they continue to fight while Khonshu and Steven watch. Steven is upset at their fighting and tries to get them to stop.

Jake takes a bad blow. "Look, Steven is the wealthy benefactor. Khonshu is our connection to the bigger picture. You're the voice of reason. And I deal in the grimy leftovers. You BUILT us this way."

I hate it. Marc didn't BUILD them. He didn't sit down one day and decide to make other people to hold things! It also depicts Khonshu as being an altar.

While I've often toyed with that idea, it's always been clear from day one that Khonshu is NOT another aspect in their head. There IS a good chance that they have someone that has been formed as a fictive or even a persecutor in the form of Khonshu... But that's an argument for another day. For the sake of this review, Khonshu himself has always been an outside force!

ALSO. Marc. Marc Spector. The voice of reason?! How do you get a character SO WRONG that you are writing a whole comic book for? When has Marc Spector EVER been the voice of reason?

Jake puts Marc in a sleeper hold and threatens to "put you to sleep" if Marc doesn't chill out.

"It's not your fault that your mind ended up like this. All we can do is embrace the crazy and let you move on with your life. Which means you need to trust me, Marc. Capiche?"

I have always been a huge fan of the implication that because of their unique mental health issues, DID, and dealings with Khonshu, along with repeated trauma and death, that the Moon Knight system has the ability to surpass expectation and use these things as secret weapons. The number of times people have attacked them mentally and just been destroyed is amazing. I love it.

THIS. This I hate. "Embrace the crazy". This is clearly the message Bemis got from Lemire's run. That they went through all that so that they could be crazier and use it as a wild card. NO. Just no.

Anyways, Marc and Jake make up and relax while Steven hugs Khonshu in the background in celebration.

We now to go the Sun King, who is knocking on a door to a fancy looking house.

And who answers the door? Marlene Alraune.

For those that don't know, Some time after Moench left Moon Knight, Marlene also left them. When Moon Knight picked up again for the Houston run, Marlene came back, but it was a rocky relationship. She left them again, saying she couldn't be with them for her own health.

Sun King poses as a charity drive door to door person and while Marlene is getting her check book, he notices a picture on the wall. He freaks out and calls in Bushman.

Marlene is famliar with Raoul Bushman. He's the man that killed her father, after all. The one that killed Marc and started it all.

Bushman notices the picture and taunts Marlene.

He calls her a damsel-in-distress. This has never been the case. Marlene has NEVER been a damsel-in-distress. As much as I harp on her from the old days, that girl could take care of herself! Half the time she was the one rescuing Moon Knight!

So to see her passive and not knowing how to fight or take care of herself? No.

We head back to Moon Knight, who is fighting a bunch of "disabled gentlemen", most of which are missing arms and legs and the such. It's implied they work for Bushman and Moon Knight is to blame for their missing pieces. hmm.

While fighting, he gets a phone call. In typical "My ex" fashion, the caller ID says "Do NOT pick up, Psychopath! Let it go!"

Hm.

He answers. Khonshu is not pleased by this but Marc can't help but answer. It says that Marc is still obsessed with her.

He's super happy to hear from her.

Marlene tells him that she's missed him and wants him back in her life.

She attempts to warn him, telling him that maybe it's best if he didn't come over, but Sun King is there and puts the squeeze on her.

Marc is far too eager to go meet up.

I'M GOING TO PUT A PAUSE ON THIS FOR A SECOND.

This is something that has bothered me for AGES and this is the run that started it. (Bemis. Always blame Bemis. But there is also another writer that messed it up too. I'll get to that MUCH later.)

Moench originally wrote that Marlene was in love with Steven.

Jake was incredibly indifferent to Marlene. ANy time they interacted, he treated her as a friend, but was more interested in headint to Gena's. Jake was not into the fancy rich life and how she wanted to live.

Marlene hated Marc Spector. Marc was violent, had a dark past, and was involved in her father's death, her brother's death, and various other tragedies.

If Marlene was going to do anything, it would NOT be Marc. OR JAKE. It would be Steven. In the whole Moench run, she always insisted in calling them Steven. She wanted them to just be Steven and give up the other lives.

BACK TO THE COMIC.

We see a flashback of Marc and Marlene on a raft.

"From the first time you saw me? Huh. Even though I was some mercenary who hadn't showered for a week?"

BULL. SHIT. The first time Marlene saw him, he was working with Bushman and had imprisoned them all, then her father had been killed. The first time she spoke to Marc I'm pretty sure she either told him off or he was dying and she was happy because she thought he'd killed her father.

He's telling her the story of when he had to kill his own brother. (he's not telling the story right). Then he talks about his dead girlfriend and other trauma from his past.

What makes me mad is that this is conceivable. We have Marc Spector (Marc, not the other two) talking to Marlene about his past, his trauma. It’s possible that over time she could have decided to get to know Marc. That she realized that Marc is not just a murdering scary man and made peace with the fact that she needs to know him if she wants to be with Steven. It’s possible that she got him to open up and tell her his trauma and what made him what he is now. It’s even possible she started to date him too. I can get behind that! It’s growth for BOTH Marc and Marlene.

And I wish this was how it was done. How it was left. I wish that they had this growth. That Marc and Marlene could become closer. That he and Steven learned to trust one another so much that they learned to be with Marlene and share. But this isn’t how Bemis does it.

We are back in the now and Marc shows up at Marlene's with flowers and a suit.

He tells her she looks great. He really thinks they are getting back together. Denial is a land that Marc Spector is king of.

And Sun King is standing in the dining room waiting for him.

Sun King pretends to be Marlene's boyfriend who has been living with her.

He tells Marc that Marlene told him all about how he was Moon Knight. It's not like this is a big secret. Marc was only mildly into secret identities. He wasn't very good at it.

And Marc isn't taking this well. While Sun King pretends to be a guy that's with Marlene, he then starts to talk about how someone else has been 'getting with Marlene.'

He tells Marc to ask Jake Lockley.

And in the inner world, Marc is a giant monster pissed off and turning on Jake.

Not how that works. But sure. Why not. Also, let’s propagate the notion that DID promotes distrust in the system and that there’s an evil alter that goes around doing things behind their back like this.

AND THIS. This is disgusting.

She claims to have never stopped loving him and was so desperate for him that she got with Jake?! Not the same person! You don't get a hankering for Marc and go for Jake instead!

And then the notion that Jake came to her telling her to keep it a secret?!

And then telling them that Jake was never "warm". That Jake has evil in him and he just didn't stand up to Marc?!

WHY IS JAKE The EVIL ALTER!? He isn't. Jake Lockley is a loving kind and caring man. He goes to Gena's every day and asks her how her kids are doing. He feeds the homeless. He makes friends with the people on the street.

And she tells Marc that she tried to break it off with Jake but it was too late and she couldn't do it alone.

And that's when Bushman shows up.

Yep. There’s the daughter. And the fact that she calls him “Uncle Jake” and not “Dad” despite the obvious implication that Jake has been in her life for a long time…

Maybe they were trying to protect her from the Moon Knight curse but not letting people know she was his daughter… But still…

Her name is Diatrice. She has pink hair.

This is the ONE thing that came out of Bemis that is kinda okay.

It isn't till MacKay gets his hands on her that I actually started to like her. She's a force.

I admit, change scares me. And I've been jaded by the "We have to introduce a child to keep it interesting!" concept that show-runners and authors seem to have. I was also so incensed by Bemis' terrible writing that I took the stance of HATING Diatrice when I first saw her.

But it was bad writing. And give her to a good writer and she can do such wonderful things.

When Jed MacKay got to put her in a story, she was smart, she was fiesty, and she embraced her dad. More so, he embraced her.

Amazing what happens when someone does something not for the shock value.

And now we move to the next issue. Good. Great. I hate the art. I hate how weepy Marlene is here. Old Marlene would have been pissed. She would not have put up with this shit. She was smart. She would have found a way to warm him. To do something. I honestly can’t tell if this is misogynistic or just BAD writing? Maybe both?

Issue #191.

So the cover is the famous picture of the farmers. It's supposed to depict family homesteading life.

In the real picture, it's not well known, but it is the farmer and the daughter, NOT his wife. Just a little art knowledge there for you.

So we are back to Khonshu narrating.

I don't even know what he's narrating. Something about gods and the power structure of gods and his moon battle against the sun. Something about the moon representing mythical and birth and creation and then sun representing the psychopath and the ground and humans.

Not even mythologically correct in...ANY culture as far as I'm aware. At least none of the one's I've read about. Maybe in some. I don't know. But I doubt very much if there is, Bemis knows about it.

He also starts talking about evil and angels and devils. Dude has got his theology mixed up.

Also, Marc should be a bit more upset about seeing Bushman here. They have...HISTORY.

(There she is. There’s the Marlene I know and care about.)

So everything is on fire. Marc grabs Diatrice and gets her out.

He tells Marlene to get out. She just stands there DESPITE THERE BEING A SLIDING GLASS DOOR BEHIND HER.

He tells Diatrice to go find a place to hide, he has to go help Marlene.

She asks him if he's crazy because you're supposed to run away from fire.

He just looks at her before going back inside.

Marlene is still standing there with a sliding glass door directly behind her and fire in front of her. I don't even....

Marc calls out Raoul Bushman while he fights the henchmen.

"You're such a %$#@!!!"

Roul shoots him in the shoulder. Marc doesn't care. He knocks the gun out of his hand and slams his face into the wall.

Sun King sets Marc on fire. Marc strips down to his skivvies and throws his burning pants into Sun King's face.

Yeah. I can see Moon Knight (especially Marc) doing this. It's a good fighting tactic. It's a good depiction of Marc's talent for hard combat with quick thinking. (See? I can see the good too. Still angry, but there is soooooome good.)

See… It isn’t beneath Marc. This guy pretends to know Marc because of the terrible psychologist and being connected to ‘Ra’. But this isn’t beneath Marc. This is classic Marc fighting.

So they now face one another.

"What are YOU supposed to be?"

"I am Ra's chosen sword. Here to strike you down. I'm the Sun King."

"....Of course you are."

"My purpose is to make your death a mockery. In fact, I wouldn't be doing my job if I just struck you down. It's gotta be so tragic that it means something."

He goes on like this for a hot (LOL) minute. Honestly, Marc's heard it all before. This isn't the first time he's fought a guy with delusions of whatever he's got going on.

At this point Diatrice shows up again and is pissed off that her swing set is on fire.

Marc grabs her and makes a run for it.

He asks her what her name is. She tells him Diatrice and that he already knows that.

Marc is just caught up in the weird name.

"Mommy let me change my name to whatever I wanted!"

Which is super just... Considering she could never even bother to get Marc, Jake, or Steven's name right... Way to go Marlene I guess?

Marc feels the same way.

It's at this point that he runs BACK into the burning house holding his child for some reason? There's a note on the wall "We have your queen."

Well, Marlene's been kidnapped. Not the first time.

Probably for the best, honestly, considering she couldn't figure out how to use ANY of the exits that were surrounding her.

Back at Marc Spector's apartment, we find Marc failing real hard at talking to his daughter.

So this means that Marlene told her that JAKE was not her dad and that her dad was a super hero. Meaning she pretty much told her that Marc was her father.

Look. I know a couple of systems that have children. How they choose to discuss their DID with their children is up to them. Some chose not to discuss it at all until the kid is old enough to understand difficult concepts like this. But they also don’t hide it. None of the systems I know hide it from their children. The kids just learn to recognize the different members of the system, and to them, they are all “Mommy” or “Daddy” because that is the role that they inhabit while present.

It falls back to the whole “Hold your system accountable” aspect of being a functioning system. It means that they hold each other responsible and they all understand that they have a child and must function as a parental figure to protect and care for their child.

So the fact the Marlene is telling her that one of them is the dad and not the other… Hiding it from one and that Jake hid it from them. There is a disconnect here that is damaging and insulting.

So we see her argue with Marc about him not being a super hero. He doesn't look or act like Captain America, he can't fly, and he looks tired and smells funny.

He declares it was an 'off day'.

But, it's what I love about Moon Knight in general. He's just a guy. He has zero powers. He's even a bit of an idiot sometimes. He's just a guy out there that takes a lot of beatings and has a lot of trauma that he works out while wearing a mask.

As they talk, we see Jake, Steven, and Khonshu in the background watching.

Honestly, fair. I have seen systems be put in situations where perhaps a member they don't really trust yet is present in a situation that could be dangerous to them in general. Perhaps a little is present when they shouldn't be. Perhaps a high trauma holder is present in a potentially triggering situation. Or perhaps a persecutor that has a history is out around a member of the family that they don't trust them to be around.

You'll have the protectors and gate keepers VERY close by monitoring and ready to step in if need be.

At least this is true in the systems I've spoken to. Feel free to sound off if you have other experiences. I love to hear from systems about their own experiences and how they handle the family situation.

So now that they've argued on if Marc is or is not actually a super hero, she asks about her mom.

He assures her that she isn't going to die because he's going to save her and "seriously hurt those bad guys".

She asks if he likes Katy Perry. He says no. He asks if she likes Dazzler.

So they put on a record of Dazzler and have some bonding time while Jake keeps watch.

We head out to a high security prison to find some guards chatting.

One of the guards is missing an eye and wearing an eye patch.

He heads to a cell and asks the person inside to head to the city and get revenge for him. He wants him to kill Bushman.

Hey look, The Truth guy is back.

Considering the Truth guy ALSO got his eyes stabbed out... I'm not sure how he's walking around like that without any training or aid or anything...

Also, this guy was seriously not that impressive as a bad guy. He's just big and has a 'scary' design to him. I'm not impressed by this attempt to make a recurring bad guy. It's just not an impressive reveal of a returning bad guy.

So the Truth heads out of the jail easy peasy.

Back in Marc's apartment, Diatrice is asleep and Marc is holding a meeting in the head space.

You've got Marc, Jake, Steven, and Khonshu on a platform with Cthulhu in the background. I don't know. Do they think that the head space can just conjure anything based on need or emotion? Maybe it does? Maybe it doesn't? I Don't know.

Apparently this is a recurring thing Khonshu does because Jake tells him "Khonshu... Don't you be giving me that "Cthulhu" Bullshit. Not you." And Steven agrees. "He's kind of right. We can't just use squids to explain all weird things in this world."

You ready for this? I bet you aren’t.

Yeah I… I’m gonna… I am not touching this. I don't have the time or energy to sit down and type up a whole manifesto on what's wrong with this page.

And this is where the now famous line comes from:

Also let’s add some eating disorders to the mix. Why not? Do you have a disorder and feel left out? Don’t worry! I’m sure Bemis will get to that too! Not to mention there is a very underhanded homosexuality jab mixed in with that too! Blink and you’ll miss it, but this is a common way for older shows and media to take a jab at how wrong the GBLTQ world was. Make the villain have some latent homosexual tendencies, usually towards the main hero of the show.

So now we see Busman, Truth, and Sun King hanging out.

Truth is following them now, though apprently he sometimes accidentally uses his powers.

They review a map and discuss where they want to go.

Bushman tells them about a "Backwards tribe that I 'liberated' before we took over."

Yeah cause that's... Hmmm.

They decide to go t that island to start a "new eden".

Sun King tells Marlene the plan in a gloating fashion.

"You've gone so far as to tie up a super hero's girlfriend and you're bragging to her about your evil plan.

You're not profound. You're a linkless wikipedia reference waiting to happen."

Well, at least she gets that jab in.

"Perhaps that's so. But I'm still going to kill your child while her dad looks on. Just to prove the uselessness of his cause."

He tells Marlene he's going to use her to lure Marc to his doom. He also asks Truth to create an army.

Back with Marc, he is telling her about Frenchie.

Look, I've always been a big Jean-Paul Duchamp fan. I love him. It breaks my heart that things went the way they did and he eventually left Marc and they had a huge falling out. But I am happy Frenchie found love and has his own chance to be happy.

Do not bring my poor Frenchie into this world of Bemis.

…I’m sorry, did Marc just describe Frenchie as “A father figure”?! In what universe? Who are these people that think he’s a father figure to him?!

So Marc has called in Frenchie to baby sit Diatrice while he goes off to save Marlene.

I'm just sighing right now. Because it's been established that Frenchie is not talking to Marc anymore. He isn't adventuring anymore.

Frenchie lost both his legs in a mission gone wrong. He fell in love with his PT person and now they run a restaurant together. While Frenchie still misses the adventures, he also is tired of the PTSD and the pain that follows Moon Knight.

This is just shoddy editing by team Marvel.

Also this...

And this is how they ended this issue. Cliffhanger dead zombie Frenchie. Why is he in scrubs?

(It's at this point that I realized that Tumblr would only let me upload 30 images and I was going to have to break this up into more than two long ass posts. I'm so very very sorry.)

Part two will be linked very soon. Until then, I'm going to thank you for sticking around this long and hope you finish this rage filled adventure with me.

I'm going to admit that I am biased in not just hating Bemis, but also hating this art.

There are places for art like this. I've seen it utilized well in comics where the nature of the comics stands very well with this sort of art. Punisher Max for instance. For those that don't know, Punisher Max is a stand alone version of Frank Castle that was created in order to depict the ultra violence that Frank Castle is capable of in his search for justice and his never ending war.

The problem is that Moon Knight has gotten a reputation for being incredibly violent and unpredictable. You can probably thank Houston for that, but I'm sure the problem dates back to the 90s (always blame the 90s).

On the one hand, Marc is a former soldier, mercenary, and has anger issues. On the other hand, people have been using the excuse that "He's insane, of course he's going to be violent and unpredictable."

This has, most unfortunately, attracted writers like Bemis to the comic and then recruited artists that are more adept at drawing shocking gore or acts.

And even worse, this has attracted in a VERY specific fan base that reads comics looking for the gore, action, and hyper violence. They pick up an issue of Moon Knight, that has traditionally been based around dealing with mental health, classism, depression, and political issues.

These sorts of readers are easy to spot. They will list issues like Bemis, Aaron, and Bendis as their favorite issues. They will complain that newer stuff is boring or that they can't read the old stuff because it's too chatty. They want the action. they want to see Marc ripping a man's face off and biting out their throats.

Things like this are what goad on the perpetuation of Mentally I'll people being dangerous and scary and untrustworthy.

I'll touch on it more next time, but when we see things like this, it's so important that we don't put up with it. That we tell the big companies that Marvel, DC, and so on that we won't stand for this. That they are the problem. Don't put up with things like this. Don't put up with Bemis.

...Also I just really hate this art style. Every page feels SO static. Everyone is always just standing around grinning at things. Maybe I was spoiled by Bill Sienkiewicz, Declan Shalvey, Smallwood, and Alessandro Cappuccio. These people made even standing still look beautiful and full of life. They knew that sometimes just having Moon Knight standing in the rain could say more than words ever could.

PART TWO HERE.

Let's finish this bread.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Analyzing the comics #BEMIS #This is a labor of love/hate you guys #Please it took me so long #It was so painful #I'm doing this for you #We can't just ignore it anymore #We have to understand the bad comics so that they don't happen again #We have to call this bull shit out

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