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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 6 months

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Breaking down the Comics: Writing a legend, building a history.

Today we aren't reviewing an issue of Moon Knight. Today we are going to talk about something important.

So who wrote Moon Knight?

"Easy!", you might say. "Doug Moench!"

Sure. But you'd be surprised to find that it's not as much as you'd think.

Doug Moench wrote issues 1-15, 17-26, 28-33.

He returns in 1998 for a 4 issue mini seires Vol 3 "Resurrection Wars" which revives Marc Spector, who had been killed off in the previous volume.

He continues in 1999 with Vol 4, another 4 issue mini series "High Strangers/Strangeness" which won an award for favorite limited series.

He also wrote werewolf by Night, which gave us the first iteration of Moon Knight. An instantly popular character that made appearances in other comics like "The Hulk" before he was given his own comic.

He had time to work on the designs with Bill Sienkiewicz. They built up the weapons, the costume, the cab, and the copter.

He also built up the side characters of Gena, Gena's two boys, Crawley, Frenchie, Detective Flint, and Marlene.

He set the ground rules:

Moon Knight system is Jewish.

Marc, Jake, and Steven are a part of a system and are not one man pretending to be someone else

Jake is the one that is friendly and loves being with the people.

Steven is posh, collected, and takes care of things.

Marc is the one with experience, has the skills needed to get things done, and holds all the pain.

They are former Mercenaries who did terrible things and have deep guilt.

Khonshu resurrected them to act as Moon Knight

They strive to protect any who would come to them for help that perhaps might not get it elsewhere

I would even argue that he was building up to the fact that Moon Knight himself was his own form of alter but it has since been glossed over and replaced with the idea that Marc is most often the one under the mask.

Pretty simple rules to follow to make it a Moon Knight comics, but you'd be surprised what some writers have done with it.

These comics were written long before DID was acknowledged and the different forms of PTSD and Dissociation were defined.

And yet, here we stand with a traumazied man from Chicago slowly working through a freshly cognizant system and trying to figure out how three (four) people can work together towards not just a life, but life as a superhero who wants to help people.

Further more, an odd thing happened in this.

We had a comic that often focused more on mental health than on super powers, heroics, or villains.

More often than not, we watched Marc, Jake, and Steven struggle with themselves and one another. We watched stories unfold from the villain's point of view, often just being ordinary people pushed too far by a system that failed them.

More so, we watched Moon Knight sympathise with these villains.

How often he let them walk away or he let them kill their abusers, wondering if he was doing wrong himself.

How can he help when sometimes the help he offers is not what is needed?

We even watched him fail. We saw him lose his temper and cause damage. We saw him curl into a ball and break. We saw him get lost in his own nightmares and dissociative fuges.

Moench stepped forward and often handled current events with raw emotion. We saw his characters cry over the loss of public iconic figures. We watched people struggling as they returned from war. We saw child abuse and poverty. We watched economic struggles with classism and we watched people struggle to deal with grief.

We even watched them deal with antisemitism over and over again. How many times were the victims of his stories Jewish and trying to survive in America? What about the story that took place with the mass shooting in the Synagoug? We heard stories of Generational trauma as elders struggled with survival after the Holocaust.

Moon Knight was a unique comic unlike any other I've ever come across. For it's time and for it's topics at the time. What's more, this comic continued.

It was no 'special of the week' comic and spanned multiple years as they grew.

What do we know about Moench? Who did he write this comic for?

The Moon Knight in the Were Wolf by Night certainly didn't have all this depth. He was just a man dressed in silver, fighting a monster and ultimately choosing the side of the monster.

Moench himself was from Chicago. He knew what it was like to live in the city and see the fall of factories and hard times on the streets. We know he witnessed the times of Vietnam veterans being forgotten and abused. He witnessed a lot of changes happening in the world and the places he was writing about.

He wrote about what spoke to him and what he saw around him.

And in his stories, there often were no clear heroes, winners, or villains.

But there was one issue that he chose to add into this comic that was already filled with so many things that other comics avoided.

Moon Knight wasn't written as Jewish in that one shot cameo. He wasn't written with DID either, but I'll get to that.

There are interviews of Doug admitting that "I didn't say, 'I'm going to sit down and create a Jewish character.'"

In fact, he picked a name and later found out it was a Jewish name. This made him do research. Not just into Judaism, but into the areas that Marc Spector fought in and where his family came from.

Do you have any idea how many writers of that time and our current time simply slap the label of "Jewish" on a character and refuse to actually look into what makes them Jewish?

I can't say how much he researched and how much he got wrong or right, but I do know that when he did choose to dive into topics that touched on certain issues, he handled them with a grace that is often overlooked.

The writer that came after Moench? Alan Zelenetz, a former Jewish day school principal from Brooklyn.

Zelenetz had been acting as an editor for a bit before he took a look at Moench's early start.

And it was in Issue 37 and 38 where we get the real backstory of Marc Spector. A man running from his Rabbi father.

Marc now became the son of an Orthodox Rabbi who had been forced to flee Czechoslovakia after the Nazi invasion.

Here, we get the story of Marc running to the Marines. Running to the mercenaries, and running from home. Perhaps even, running from G-d.

Zelenetz wanted to lean into the Jewish past and Jewish story. He explored themes of using a holy book to create a villain while playing with Jewish myths. He also explored Antisemitism without toning it down or hiding it under comic bookish villainy. He portrayed Moon Knight facing white supremacist vandalizing a Jewish Cemetery. He showed Moon Knight saving the Torah from a Synagogue fire. He also showed a strained relationship and the question of Moon Knight finding his own relationship in what he does with his father's views.

Alan Zelenetz edited/wrote shorts for issues 18, 21–22, 27, 32, Then wrote the whole story for issues 36–38.

Zelenetz voiced that he was looking to add some Jewish representation into his workforce and perhaps into the comic industry at the time. Considering his background, perhaps he was the only one at the time that had the proper knowledge to play with things the way that he did in the story of Elias Spector's death and Marc Spector's pain.

He did not stick around with Moon Knight for long after. Though, he admits that he wanted to play with the fact that Khonshu was an Egyptian god and Marc was from such a Jewish background. I am sad we didn't get to see that story.

After that, Moon Knight's original 1980s run was finished. The question of what to do with Moon Knight, where to take him, and who would take up the mantle of writing him now lay in the hands of Marvel.

Many failed after this. They failed to keep the heart of what Moon Knight stood for and who Moon Knight was. His Jewishness was forgotten and his mental health became a joke.

Not to say all of them failed. There are a few shining stars that gleamed in the darkness and I like to think that it was these moments that kept Moon Knight going all these years.

Moench didn't set out to write a story about mental health, and yet his approach is the most real I've seen. Hardly a shining picture of perfect representation, there is still something there in watching the character almost seem to push back against the unintended desire to push him into a corner.

No matter how often Jake and Steven and Moon Knight were seen as Marc pretending to be someone else, there was always ALWAYS that correction. Always that push back.

Call it the writer's curse of characters misbehaving and taking on a life of their own, but perhaps there was something more there. Perhaps he felt the weight of time and cry of the suppressed and overlooked.

So many of his stories danced the line of "I can't say it because it will get edited out by the big wigs at Marvel, but if you would just look... Just look over here for just a moment..."

And years upon years later, a writer did see the whispers there and said "I see the story of pain. I see the cry of mental health." Lemire told the story that Moench couldn't and from that, we are still pushing forward with McKay.

And more, perhaps we will see the Jewish story that hides in all that also get a spotlight again.

In the era of big battles, cross-over events, explosions, and super villains cackling about domination... I still look back at Stained Glass Scarlet, The Druid, the Music Box, And Colloquy.

As I finish the original 1980s run, I brace myself to dive into what comes next.

I think I'm trying to find where and how the original run ventured so far into the dark and insulting territory it did and the journey back into a revival that now means so much to so many.

In a way, perhaps it mirrors a journey into our own mental health. How easy it is to become lost in what everyone around you tells you that you are and how you are supposed to be until your own doubt sets in to drown you. Perhaps it is the journey of Moon Knight's character emerging from this to find a path to healing that is what kept us here so long.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Analyzing the comics #Marc Spector #Jake Lockley #Steven Grant #Doug Moench #Moon Knight is Jewish #Moon Knight has DID #A system of hope #I'm rambling again #But this is important to me

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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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