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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 4 months

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Breaking down the comics: BENDIS. PART 1.

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

ALRIGHT EVERYONE IT'S TIME.

It's 12 issues long.

When this came out, I thought "This is the worst thing ever." and was so disappointed and angry. I refused to purchase the trade and frowned at it real hard any time it was mentioned.

If I could go back in time and tell little me that there were far...FAR...worse things ahead I'm not sure I'd have believed me.

Lucky for me, something spectacular and wondrous and amazing was also ahead.

But we'll get to that later.

Moon Knight: (2011)

publication date: July 2011-June 2012.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Alex Maleev

Editor: Jeff Youngquist

TIME LINE TIME!

Let's start off with a little bit of Comic History!

Moon Knight started in 1975. Moench and Zelenetz took it to 1990.

We hit the 90s and it was a rough go for our pal. I'll cover the 90s later.

Moon Knight then faded into obscurity and only the die hard fans that remembered our friend in white clung to every fleeting background appearance or mention.

He then returned to us in 2006.

The series of runs from 2006-2009 revived the series into a new glorious age of Marvel comics. The comics were far from perfect, the characterization was often WAY off, but it was better than nothing and a lot of good did come out of that age.

2009-2010 brought us Vengeance of Moon Knight, which was also pretty good.

Moon Knight was trucking along.

It was roughly in this age that I became aware of Moon Knight and started reading the old stuff.

Then 2011 they announced a new writer taking over Moon Knight.

I actually went to a convention and remember this announcement.

Marvel editor and Chief Joe Quesada was heading the panel and was super excited. He professed to love Moon Knight and was super enthused to see him not only be continued, but to also be in the hands of such an esteemed writer as Bendis AND joining a west coast team. (I'll get to that).

So from 2011-2012 we got...THIS....

Moon Knight was then swiftly canceled.

It was a disaster and did NOT do well on sales or reviews. (gee. Wonder why).

And in TRUE Marvel fashion, they quietly swept it under the rug. They claimed that interest in Moon Knight had died and they would not continue to write for a comic no one would read.

He had a few small background parts now and then, and fans continued to ask if they were going to bring him back.

It wasn't till 2014 under "Marvel Now" (a new age under Marvel) that he was brought back under Ellis.

Now, a LOT of people hate on Ellis. But they have to understand what Ellis had to work with. Where Ellis was coming from with Moon Knight, and WHY he had to do it so subtly like he did.

So let me show you WHY my appreciation for Ellis runs so deep.

You may have noticed something. I called Bendis an "esteemed writer".

So who is Brian Michael Bendis?

This is the man that is KNOWN for his work in the Avengers.

He was the man that relaunched the Avengers franchise in 2000. Marvel was NOT doing well in the late 90s. DC was on the rise and kicking ass.

I'm not saying this man saved Marvel comics... But he certainly brought the comic fans back in.

Secret War, House of M, Secret Invasion, Siege, Age of Ultron, Avengers Disassembled...

These are BIG name runs that he wrote storylines for and was in charge of. These are big name events!

You all know by now I hate events and tie-in cross-overs (There are two notable exceptions, but those are not Moon Knight related), but I have to appreciate them when they actually do make the comics thrive.

Also, it takes a LOT to keep these events organized. And it takes a good writer to write for large groups like the Avengers.

This man also created some very well known comic characters. Riri Williams, Jessica Jones, and...MILES MORALES.

THAT'S RIGHT. This man gave us MILES!

He's won five Eisner Awards.

He is GOOD at what he does. He's god at writing teams. He keeps the dialogue smooth and flowing. He keeps track of all the characters.

But... You'll notice something....

All those incredibly big name events and series? They are teams. They are groups. They are big hitters. They are mostly super powered and work well in teams.

This brings me to a very big point.

Just because you are good at one thing, does not make you good at all things.

And that's where Marvel messed up.

They happily put Moon Knight into the hands of someone who was used to writing for Captain America and Iron Man.

You all know by now, or you will soon, Moon Knight is a VERY different sort of hero.

He has no powers. He has no armor. He’s not super smart and he isn’t a leader. He's just a man. A man with severe trauma. A man with a past. Oh...And he's actually Three men in a white cape pretending to be one fully functioning normal guy and failing at it miserably. In fact, he’s been offered to lead teams MANY times and every time he turned it down. He doesn’t play well with others. Every time he meets up with another character, they start with a fight before they calm down and introduce themselves (one exception was Hilariously the Punisher who happily shook his hand and invited him into his chopper).

So I can’t be angry at Bendis. Bendis even admitted that he didn’t know who Moon Knight was when he was given the comic. He had to do some quick catching up.

The pressure was on, he didn’t understand the character, and there was a PUSH to introduce Moon Knight to the wider Marvel universe.

So I can’t 100% fault Bendis for the trash heap he gave us. He certainly isn’t Bemis, who is just an overall terrible person.

But I CAN fault him for not doing his research and not treating the major themes that tend to historically follow Moon Knight with respect. The biggest one being: Mental Health.

So if Aaron was a disaster of religious failure, Bemis was a disaster of hate crimes and racism, then Bendis is a disaster of the mind.

Without further rambling, let’s get into it!!

Issue #1 (same image as up top).

Title page as the standard blurb on who the character is.

"Left to die outside an Egyptian temple, mentally unstable mercenary Marc Spector believes himself to have been resurrected by the ancient deity Khonshu to be his supernatural avatar on Earth. When night falls, Spector dons the mantle of Khonshu and fights the darkness as Moon KNight."

Not a great start people. 'dons the mantle of Khonshu'. This is literally all Bendis knew about Moon Knight going in. If this is the only description you have to go on, you are not going to have a good time.

We open with a very Kirk Russel looking version of Marc Spector out in the desert with a dramatic retelling of his fight with Bushman.

What's interesting is that Bushman calls him "Lockley".

They have their shoot out, Marc is shot and Bushman leaves him saying "You were the best there ever was."

Doing his usual, Marc crawls through the desert to the Moon Temple.

He goes to the body of the dead Professor (Marlene's father) and wishes to make it up to him despite dying. He then goes to the Khonshu statue and begs before dying.

Marlene sobs over him, calling him "Jake".

The scene ends and it's to be continued.

Fade to black. Executive Producer Marc Spector.

Yeah... Marc went to Hollywood and made a show about Moon Knight.

You see, up to this point, no one realy knew what Steven was doing to make them money. In the 80s he gave to charities, set up entertainment things like Ballet and museums and things, and played the stocks a bit.

Later he became a producer.

Then, when the writers all decided they didn't want to write Steven anymore because he was 'boring' he turned into Marc and Marc headed the financial aspect of things and became the producer of the shows.

So here we see Marc making the show about himself and using the name Lockley so no one knows it's about him.

He...He's trying.

So the name of the show is "Legend of the Khonshu".

This is the pilot episode and they are at a launch party.

We see Marc hanging with a pretty blond that is NOT Marlene. At this point she’s left him.

"Is it true that you were a really for real mercenary?"

"Well, let's just say... I have learned I'm not the first person in the world to transition their career into Hollywood after a...Less than honorable start."

He gets a call and the person asks if he can go outside.

This is odd. And it should have been my first clue something was wrong.

But we'll get there.

We've got Captain America, Spider-man, and Wolverine asking for Moon Knight.

And while Moon Knight has been an Avenger off and on and off and on at this point, he also has never been well trusted or liked by the big guys like Cap and Iron man.

Cap tells him that "SHIELD's still tryig to gather formal intel, but there's been a rather substantial migration of criminal activity from the East coast to here. Right here in your new backyard. We need you to go to work."

(this was the reason for the West Coast Avengers, but that's a different run).

"Substatial Migration of criminal activity?"

"Maybe if you weren't so busy making crap TV--" Wolverine gets uppity.

"Have you seen the show, Wolverine? It's actually pretty good."

"Yeah, that's what I got time for, watching you sell your soul entirely."

"Good news, though, I'm getting paid a fortune for it."

Cap breaks up the banter and Marc asks for details.

Spider-Man explains that too many super heros lived on the east coast and too many villains were trying to be the kingpin of New York. So now they figure they can go to L.A.

"But now we have you here." "Me?" "You made L.A. your territory." "By living here?"

This has always been an issue. Ever since it became known that Moon Knight had mental issues, all the Avengers have always treated him like “the crazy one”. Especially since he’s the ONLY superhero that is publicly open about his mental health issues.

He’s even come out to the Avengers as having D.I.D and introduced Jake and Steven to them (see Spider-man encounters that was mostly used for LOLs). What’s interesting is seeing which heroes react in what ways.

I could do a whole breakdown on the response of each Avenger to those with mental health issues. From Captain America’s don’t ask don’t tell attitude that stems from being brought up in the 30s-40s to Punisher who takes it in stride and doesn’t care.

So they came all the way out to LA from NY to put him to work. Brings to mind the old meme: This could have been an email.

Cap reminds him that he's an Avender now and part of a team. "If things get to be too much...You send for us. Give the call. We're here for you. That's what being an Avender means. You're not alone."

Problems with that: 1. The Avengers are in NY. He's in LA. That's a few hours away even by Helicarrier. 2. To quote Sassy Steven Grant from MCU "Yeah that's sort of like the problem, innit?"

But ignore that. Look at this ART.

We head over to a warf where two criminal looking thugs are waiting by a van.

They're having some friendly banter about their job and their boss.

"Ask yourself this: This job you have--Who do you think had it before you? Where is that person now? Exactly how dead are they? And which one of the, I don't know, X-Men do you think maybe killed them?"

"I see your point. I just don't agree with it. I want to do the job we were hired to do and then I want to go home."

I do love some good hench men banter.

While they banter, Moon Knight sneaks around up top to watch as a ship comes in.

A very large man gets off the ship and demands to know which one of them has "Mr. Hyde's Money?"

They don't have money. They were just ordered to pick up what's on the boat. The man demands money for the thing on the boat.

He threatens to crush them to death, they threaten to shoot him.

The giant man lifts them up and smashes their heads together.

Alright, time for Moon Knight to swing into action. He first gets his attention with a crescent dart that cuts his cheek.

Just gonna put this right here….

Our buddy Moony has fought many giant strong men before. He's good at holding his own but he's also REAL good at getting utterly annihilated.

He gets in a few good hits but then gets thrown in the harbor.

Then a truck is chucked at him.

His cape gets caught on the front wheels and the truck drags him down into the harbor. (He ends up in the water so much)

One of the thugs from earlier is still alive and he chooses this time to shoot the giant in the arm.

Unfortunately this upsets the giant who comes over and crushes his skull.

Disturbing. But the it's done well with the art style. You see him place his boot then a black frame that says "CRUNCH". This is how you censor but imply the violence. Unlike in Bemis' run that just shows you all the gore in the worst way.

It's amazing how much better I can look at this in comparison.

But an aside: I enjoyed this run until it got to a VERY specific point. We'll get there together, friends. Until we get to that point, we're going to enjoy the art and have fun with our buddy Moony.

Big guy gets ack on the boat and starts to drive away. Suddenly he's whacked in the head by a fire extinguisher.

We see a cloakless/hoodless/maskless Moon Knight wailing on him.

Marc heads down into the cabin thing while the giant is dstunned. He wants to know what the cargo is.

Ohhh hey.... Okay.

So… There are some of you reading this that know exactly what that is. And there are a LOT of you that don’t know other comics or movies and have no idea what that is.

That’s an Ultron. Tony Stark did Tony Stark things and created a super power AI system called Ultron. And in classic AI comic book fashion, it immediately took over EVERYTHING and set out to destroy the world. They eventually defeated it, but it keeps popping up. You’ll find hidden saved files in old computers, SHIELD helicarriers often find ultron files in their systems. Sometimes you find one of the mass produced robots that still carry the potential to boot up and spread the virus around again.

Marc picks up the Ultron skull, wondering why they have a dead Ultron.

It's at this point that he realizes he just knocked out the only one on the boat that was driving.

He's doing fine.

He gets knocked off the boat again and clings to a rope hanging off it. At this point the boat is illuminated by something from above.

Giant man wakes up and yells at the sky about "you better have my money!!"

"You should have thought about that before you killed my employees."

The boat blows up and Marc manages to swim away with the Ultron head.

Back at his place, he calls the Avengers to give them an update.

Again, I want to remind everyone that the Avengers are based out of New York and Marc is in LA. Are they going to fly out there to look at an Ultron head? It's a 5 and a half hour non stop flight on a regular airline.

So...This is another clue that something is wrong here.

They debate on why someone wants an Ultron head.

It IS made out of adamantium alloy, which is very valuable.

I also want to say that I love how they draw Marc here.

So Marc, Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine stand around staring at the Ultron head for a minute.

"You got a good look at the mystery power?"

"Nope. Not from lack of trying, though."

"Hey, Man, you went toe-to-toe with Mr. Hyde."

"Barely."

"That's pretty impressive, my friend."

"I think I broke a rib."

In trying to figure out who the new power player is, he decides that they at least have one up.

"Which means he's looking for me like we're looking for him. I'm glad you guys are here. We have our work cut out for us. This is going to take more than just Moon Knight."

This is heart breaking to hear once you actually know where this run is going. And he isn't alone. Where are Jake and Steven? Why are they banished?

I know that Jake doesn't travel. Jake never leaves New York. I've never really explored why that is. But in Moench's OG run, Jake NEVER left New York.

And writers always leave Steven out. No one since Moench has been able to handle him to this point.

So here we are, Marc Spector making home in a new place and Jake and Steven aren’t there. Then the Avengers show up randomly and tell him to start being Moon Knight again and that he is needed.

And then we are left with this image, which is our biggest reveal that maybe… Maybe something isn’t right here…

So what do we know in the first issue? We can’t trust Marc’s perception of things.

We also have yet to actually address Marc’s D.I.D. They’ve only casually mentioned him being ‘mentally disturbed’. He’s built up what looks like a nice comfortable life for himself in LA and here the Avengers come in (supposedly) and put him back into position to ruin this life.

We know Marlene left him. And his head-mates are being pretty quiet. We can only speculate that we are meant to believe that the ‘Avengers’ are only in his head.

There’s more going on here than Ultron. And in issue one, I’m optimistic. I love the art, Moon Knight is being Moon Knight. But you do get the sense that something is brewing and all you can do is hope that it’s not bad. We have no REASON to think it will be bad at this point. We’ve not had an atrociously bad run yet. We’ve only had mismanagement.

Issue #2.

DAMN fine art, Maleev. Look at the white! The face is a little creepy, but look at that cape!

Title page has the usual blurb and a recap.

"Marc Spector has resurfaced in Los Angeles as the creator and producer of the wildly successful TV show 'Legends of the Khonshu'. As Moon Knight, he intercepts an illegal delivery of an Ultron robot body. The mastermind behind it is unknown, but the battle is fierce and Moon Knight barely escapes.

Guiding him through this new mystery, Moon Knight is supported by his new multiple Personalities in the guises of Spider-man, Wolverine and Captain America."

YEP. There it is everyone!

2011. WAY past the point of DSM defining things and research absolutely could have been done.

But it wasn't done. They had zero interest in informing or teaching the audience about mental health. All they wanted was a gimik to lure you in and say "Look how crazy he is!" And now he's got "NEW" personalities that are also well known super heros!

*SIGH* Issue one was so hopeful. They could have gone so many other routes.

As I mentioned above, Marc has set himself up to be alone. When has Marc Spector ever done well when left alone to his own devises?

Marc has set himself up for massive failure and is on his way for another break down.

But they could have left him alone. Shown him being alone. Shown him struggling alone. They could have then re-introduced Steven and Jake and well....LEMIRE.

Anyways, let's see what happens in issue 2.

We open with Moon Knight, Spider-man, Wolverine, and Captain America overlooking the city.

I love when they get carried away with his cape. It’s like his cape is an entity of itself. Look at that majesty.

Marc has intel and they are deciding on who gets to go investigate. 'Wolverine' decides to go in.

Marc tells him no. "This is my city now. That's the whole point. I'll go."

"I think you should go in undercover first. Stake it out. Lock your target" -Captain America.

"You WOULD think that. I say dive in and tear the place up. That's the only language they understand. It's the only language they respect." - Wolverine.

Cap just wants to shut down the operation.

"A grenade can shut that place down. We're aiming higher. We're aiming for the person who thinks this city is up for grabs and thinks they need an ultron."

'Spider-man' volunteers. No one would expect him.

Moon Knight notes that "It's not like I can stop him."

We head to a sort of strip club sort of thing. The manager woman is in charge of info. A lot of powerful men come to her club/bar and these men often let slip information to the girls that help them 'relax.' She pays the girls for collected information.

She finishes her little speech and Spider-man interrupts.

"Did I miss the audition? I have a dream, you know. A dream to dance!"

"Get out of here or I'll kill you."

"I'm sorry, I don't care for the way you're speaking to me--I'd like to speak to the manager."

So they way they have it, the “Spider-Man personality” is in charge and the others watch and let him act. He has the mouthiness of the REAL spider-man, but he also lacks the strength and acrobatics. This puts him at a disadvantage, as he’s expected to do the same things, but can’t. This honestly is going to go for Wolverine and Captain America too. Three people that distinctly have super powers and skills that Moon Knight and MARC do not have!

An interesting solution is that Spider-man uses web shooters.

And THIS 'Spider-man has hidden Moon Knight's truncheons in the shooters so they get hit by the web and also whacked pretty hard too.

What is so frustrating is that I'd just rather watch Moon Knight fight the bad guys and not 'fake spider-man'.

And the boss lady gets hit by the web shooters with the hidden truncheons inside. She instantly knows "That's not Spider-man."

She starts to fight back, asking who he is.

"Who are you?"

"Who am I? I? Me? People have heard of me! The big question today is how far down the criminal food chain are you?"

She starts to kick his ass.

She puts him in a choke hold demanding to know who he is and who sent him.

Marc and Wolverine start to argue inside the head space. Wolverine wants to step in but Moon Knight wants to give Spider-man a chance.

The mask is ripped off and they start to black out. Wolverine steps in.

The webshoots extend out the retractable claws.

Just as he gets the upper hand, one of the stripper girls tasers him, knocking him down.

He fights through it. The taser doesn't really affect him.

He webs her and the main boss lady picks up the fight.

Captain America is not impressed with the fight. "You're not learning anything and you've made your point. Wrap it up."

Just as he starts to get the upper hand, one of the bounces shoots them in the shoulder.

He doesn't heal like Wolverine would.

He blacks out.

See, my issue is that the writing team doesn’t know anything about Moon Knight. In fact, they know so little that they think he’s boring. So they bring in familiar characters in an effort to ‘make him interesting’. But Moon Knight is NOT those characters. So you end up with a cluster of a whole bunch of mischaracterization on BOTH sides. You got Wrong Moon Knight and you got Wrong Spider-man.

Boss lady tells the other girls to go home and not to talk about anything that just happened.

She says that their BOSS will want to talk to this guy and find out who he is.

They go to move Marc and suddenly one of the stripper girls attacks.

She knocks out the bouncer then knocks out the boss lady.

Marc wakes up much later, patched up in a bed.

Mystery lady tells him "You ruined my cover, Moon Knight."

She tells him that they have mutual friends like Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock.

Her name? Maya Lopez. Hey! It's Echo!

"I was an Avenger for all of 44 seconds."

I...I've never read anything with Echo. I actually have a comic of her team up with Dare Devil waiting in my stack of comics to read.

She was supposed to get her own MCU show on Disney Plus.

I also know that when Greer met up with Marc in the MacKay run, Echo was the one that warned her about what it was like to be with Marc Spector.

I ALSO know that they call her Echo because she's deaf.

That is the extent of what I know about Echo.

Let's learn together!

She tells Marc to look at her when he talks. He figures out it's because she's reading lips.

"You're deaf?"

"I know what's wrong with me. What exactly is wrong with you?" She asks as she holds up the Spider-man mask.

Back with boss lady, we see her talking to her own boss.

She explains that she once fought the Black Widow and Captain America.

"This guy--This guy tonight knows how to fight. I know when someone has been trained. This guy--"

They talk about how they looked up Spiderman and found him still in New York. They also figured out that the one they were fighting was "Moon Knight dressed as Spider-man."

"And acting like a crazy animal."

"Moon Knight."

"Or a crazy guy who thinks he's both. In this world...Never underestimate a good crazy."

The big mystery boss knows Moon Knight. He's faced him rescently apparently.

"He has something of mine and I need it back."

He approves her to hire a team and hunt Moon Knight down.

END ISSUE.

Ya'll...There's so much going on here. My mantra? "At least it isn't BEMIS.'' That's not a good plug. 'Better than Bemis'. That bar is so low that it's buried six feet under.

Also the introduction of Echo is going to get messy. She’s there to be the ‘voice of reason’ to his ‘insanity’, but she’s also there to potentially be a love interest.

Lemme do a little google search real quick.

Okay... She's Native American of the Cheyenne nation. Created in 1999. She first appeared as Ronin in 2005 by Brian Michael Bendis. (That explains why she's in this).

After Kingpin killed her father, he adopted her. Fisk pitted her against Daredevil. She also had a relationship with Matt Murdock cause of course she did. (Everyone has slept with Murdock. EVERYONE.)

Her abilities are photographic reflexes, much like that of Taskmaster. Meaning she can learn people's fighting styles.

Okay. She's interesting.

Makes me sad that she’s just going to be used in this comic to give the reader a point of stability and also a love interest.

Issue #3.

I like the soft colors in the art. And at first glance you get excited because “Bullseye!” And I love a good Bullseye run. But then you notice that jaw line looks very familiar and also he’s holding a familiar looking crescent and you realize what’s about to happen and you’re just disappointed again…..

ALRIGHT. We open on Marc driving a car and making a call to Maya (Echo).

"Hi Maya...This is Marc Spector."

"I'm sorry?"

"From last night."

"What do you want?"

"You believe it's me...Cool."

He spoke to their 'mutual' friends who vouched for her. (I bet Murdock vouched for her).

"If you're not still mad at me for blowing your cover and maybe ruining your life, I thought mabe we could get together and discuss, um, strategy."

Sure. Sure Marc... Strategy.

He invites her to eat. She turns him down.

"I think you might be insane, and I have had enough insane men in my life to last me."

[....]

"I think you're thinking that last night was indicative of my overall behavior and personality."

"It wasn't?"

"It probably was, but I don't think that--"

"I'm hanging up."

"I need help, Maya. And you do too."

We have some serious discrimination going on. The constant use of outdated language to lesson Marc's credibility and constant second guessing him.

Marc gets to the studio to find his assistant there waiting with a list of issues.

The usual studio stuff.

Props have issues, there's calls, and "they still haven't cast the French Guy."

"Not French."

"I thought--"

"He doesn't HAVE to be French. I said he was based on a French person."

(Does this mean that I cacn still dream of Pedro Pascal as Frenchie?)

Anyways... He heads in to a tech person named Buck.

Marc hands him the Ultron head. He asks him to take a peak at it and let him know if it's legit.

We head back to three months ago when Marc was setting up the show and casting people.

Marc had asked for a list of "soldier of fortune consultants".

Marc starts to look through the files.

Honestly, considering his past and connections, he probably knows most of the old timers personally.

He finds one that makes him pause and he tells his assistant that he wants an interview.

Turns out Buck was that guy.

Marc asks Buck how long he's been an Agent of SHIELD.

He recognized the name of a company that Buck listed as work history on his resume.

A company owned by SHIELD and stationed in Latveria (Home of Dr. Doom).

Buck denies it. It's all classified, after all.

Marc tells Buck that "I need a guy who knows weapons and armory. I need a guy who thinks outside the box and knows not to ask questions. I need someone I can trust with my life."

Of course Buck is cagey. Wants to know how Marc got access to the files and what not.

"Do you know your super heroes?"

"Uh...Sure."

Marc tells him. We don't hear what he says.

"I...I, uh... Never heard of you."

"Are you serious?"

"Just messing with you."

Yeah, there was a long time when NO ONE knew who Moon Knight was. Somehow all the bad guys and street people knew him, but NONE of the heros knew him. Just called him "that crazy moon guy."

Marc hires the man as his 'weapons expert' for the show. He also asks the man to work on making special tools and weapons for his 'special needs'.

Here’s Buck at home relaxing.

Oh hey! Bullseye!

So we see "Bullseye" threaten to torture and cut up Buck if he doesn't tell him who Marc Spector is.

Buck refuses to talk.

Bullseye threatens him again and Buck figures it out. "Mister Spector? Is that---Are you--?"

Firstly, where did Marc even get that outfit? And the spike dagger. Bullseye got the spike daggers when he killed Electra (Daredevil comics my old beloved dumpster fire that you were).

Marc apologizes and Buck punches him. He beats on him a moment, pretty pissed off.

"You know I could disarm you and end this in a second, right?"

"You never touch me!"

"Come on. Compared to what they did when you joined SHIELD this was nothing."

"I don't care if you think I--"

"You know I had to."

[....]

"Man, how crazy are you?"

There it is again. And having Marc dress up and mimic Bullseye's manners and expressions is an interesting choice when we already know that he's dealing with being Spider-man, Wolverine, and Captain America too. He's plaing with fire and I can see where Bendis is going to take this and I don't like it.

And this brings us to the present with Buck analyzing the Ultron head.

Turns out to be a real Ultron head.

"The head of the most powerful artificial intelligence known to man cut off from its regenerating power source--"

Buck asks if they should take it to Tony Stark.

Marc doesn't like Tony Stark. This is fair. Tony has never exactly been fair to Marc.

Apparently Hank Pym also had a hand in creating Ultron. That hangs together. (I am not a fan of comics hank pym. He's not a good person).

Marc tells Buck he's going to give it to Steve Rogers when they are done with it.

Buck keeps telling him to get rid of it. WHoever the LA kingpin is, he's going to come looking for it either for parts, the dangerous tech, or to plug it back in and sick it on the world again.

Marc keeps brushing him off.

"Meaning that you should get rid of it immediately...Was my point...That you completely missed. Because you're crazy."

So we head back to boss lady, AKA "Snapdragon". She's talking to a group of assassins for hire. A group called "Night Shift".

Her boss wants to have a chat with Moon Knight and she wants to know who he is.

END ISSUE.

Yeah, you guys can see the growing motif of this run, can’t you? “Wow look how crazy he is!” And it’s going to get worse.

If Aaron was a problem because of the lack of religious sensitivity and research, then Bendis is a problem because of how he handles the topic of Mental Health. (Bemis was just a problem. Every problem forever. Too many to name.)

So let’s head into Issue #4.

Maleev did all his own covers for the runs. Not a common thing to do. I just love how all the covers have such striking colors and how the cape and cowl are always just so BRIGHT white. It’s pretty, okay?

Alright, we open up on Avengers Mansion somewhere in New York. Carol Daners answers the phone (Captain Marvel).

Maya Lopez (Echo) is calling them.

She's doing a check in to find out what the Avengers think of Moon Knight.

Which, fine. If you're going to work with a guy or potentially be interested in them, you check in with your friends that know them.

But ALSO...The Avengers have always been very discriminatory against Moon Knight.

They don't trust him because they think he's dangerous because they think he's insane.

They don't ever make ANY effort to understand what his illness/problems are. They never look into his disorder. They never look into Marc's PTSD. They never take the time to talk him through things.

Much like they never really accept or try to deal with the Punisher's PTSD. He's always just an evil murdering man.

Maybe this is why Marc and Frank have always gotten along.

Spiderman sometimes is kind to him and works with him, but there is always the background joke about Moon Knight being "Loony".

The only one that really gets on with Moon Knight is Ben "The Thing" from FF4. And that's because they're both Jewish and Ben needs more Jewish friends.

ANYWAYS. She asks about Moon Knight.

"I'm asking--How crazy is he on a scale of one to...crazy?"

Oh! This brings me to the well known panel that you should all recognize!!!!

Now you have the context for that panel!

Speaking of discrimination...

Echo calls people all the time. And each time, the person on the other side will go "Wait, how are you using the phone if you're deaf?"

She has a speech to text function that puts their words on her computer screen.

But no one thinks of things that are meant to help those with hearing disabilities. They instantly just think "She's deaf. She can't use the phone! She must not be deaf!"

Ahhh...Avengers...

Back in LA, we find MArc waiting at a hot dog stand where he invited Echo, waiting to see if she'll even show up.

He sits there with 'Captain America', 'Spider-man', and 'Wolverine'.

Wolverine tells him that Marc doesn't need her.

Spider-man thinks it's just a team-up.

"This ain't about a team-up. You know it and he knows it."

"Why can't it be both?"

"Because it just complicates it all."

"Why can't he have a nice girl?"

"Because the damn moon god Khonshu told him he brought him back from the dead so he'd make the world more livable.

Not make crap TV shows and date third-string Avengers."

"Why can't he do ALL those things?"

(I'm a spider-man fan and I love when he is the young innocent one that just wants people to be happy. And considering that THIS is not the real Spider-man, but just Marc's perspective of Spider-man, it makes sense that Spider-man be seen as the one that doesn't understand and just wants to do his best and make people happy. See, THAT is an interesting take and psychological analysis. But Bendis isn't aiming for that or going to explore it... Damn it.)

Captain America reminds them that Echo knows more about what's going on than they do and they need her info.

"The woman's been under-cover in the LA underworld. She knows more than us. We need her."

And Maya shows up.

"I must be out of my mind."

"Oh, come on..."

"Out of my mind."

So he asks her what she knows and how long she's been undercover.

She tells him to go first.

"Listen, if you're here, you checked on me like I checked on you. You know I'm not the idiot you're acting like you want me to think you think I am."

"What?"

"Let's just cut the sass down and have a real conversation. Wouldn't that be nice, if two people who do what we do had a real conversation?"

"It's hard...It's hard to trust...sometimes..."

"I know. Believe me, I know."

They talk a bit about Marc's show and her position in the strp club.

As they talk, a sharp dressed man shows up and comments on what a cute cupple they make.

"What a cute couple."

"Excuse me?"

"I SAID you're a cute couple. What are you, deaf? Oh yeah, you are, aren't you...Eco."

She asks if Marc knows who this man is.

"You see him too?" Nice Marc. Subtle.

The man introduces himself as "Tick Tock." He's a member of the Night Shift.

One of the guys has a pretty cool design. Reminds me of the Classic old old comic/radio show "The Shadow".

The lady's design is....Why is there always a naked lady with tape barely covering up all of her bits? How is that efficient?

Tick Tock claims to be able to see the immediate future.

He sais that in one future they fight and it doesn't end well for anyone.

Marc and Maya don't have powers, but the Night Shift members do.

'Wolverine' decides he isn't putting up with this shit. The flake claws come out and they elect to fight.

The Moon Knight cape comes out and he and Echo start to fight back.

It's a pretty good fight. Echo saves his tail a few times and he takes the hits easily.

The Wolverine claws come out a few times and make a mess.

They take out the baddies but the cops are on the way. Cops usually don’t like Vigilantes and this is LA, where they aren’t used to the New York crew.

And….The only cop that ever liked Moon Knight was Detective Flint.

END ISSUE. WOO! Blazing through!

What gets me is that this HAD the potential to be interesting. It could have been an interesting run! Why did he have to make up the Avengers? Why not just embrace Moon Knight and let him be himself? He’s interesting enough without made up Avengers!

What’s more, you only got three of them in. And the three of them are only bits of themselves based on what Marc knows of them!

So you have the angry and eager to fight Wolverine, who could have just been Marc. You have the up tight analytical and reasonable Captain America, who could have been Steven! Then you have the heart who is gentle and wants to give people a chance but is still tough Spider-man….JAKE!

This run could have been FAR better if it wasn’t the Avengers, but Moon Knight wrestling with himself. Having all three of them trying to suddenly make sense of what it means to work together and coming up with their own fighting styles.

…..HERE’S ISSUE #5.

I actually don’t like this cover. The colors are nice. The art still is on point. But I just really don’t like this cover.

So the cops show up and instantly go "WE GOT MOON KNIGHT!"

Yeah... Most of the cops don't know 'what a Moon Knight' is.

The internal conversation is Spider-man wants them to run. Captain America tells them that they are an Avenger and should explain things to them.

"Officers, I am here to cooperate. I will be more than happy to tell you exactly what just happened. I am actually, believe it or not, one of the good guys, if you'll just let me--"

He does try to calmly explain to the officers what's going on, but they start to get rough and push him around. What gets me is that Moon Knight IS trying to be reasonable. He tries to talk calmly. To explain things. He tries to be peaceful.

It never goes well for him. No one listens to him. No one lets him explain. They assume the worse of him.

Now Wolverine is pissed and wants to get involved.

Cap and Wolverine start yelling at one another and Moon Knight is not having a good trip.

One of the cops says he's going to sell the pictures of Moon Knight getting arrested for tons.

Wolverine wins the argument and Moon Knight starts to fight and breaks free.

The cops attempt to bring Echo in and she puts up a little fight then gets tazed.

Yeah so we get lots of scenes of them yelling at Marc.

They yell at him for leaving Echo behind. But Echo fights the police off and steals one of the cop cars.

Moon Knight follows and joins up.

I can’t fault the comic for the action sequences. They do have a good balance. (Unlike in Bemis where everyone is either just standing there grinning like idiots or it’s chaos and you can’t tell what’s going on except that there is gore).

The banter and conversations are also well managed. Coming from the Bemis run, where every other panel was just a WALL of exposition that made no sense, I appreciate the balance of conversation, action, and stillness. So, points to Bendis and Maleev on this one.

They park the car and have a small argument.

She blames him for bringing 'madness' into her life.

He points out that the Night Shift was actually looking for HER and that they were tracking her, so it's her fault for the madness.

She agrees. "So that makes us even."

She can't go home. The police and bad guys know who she is now.

He tells her to come to his home. Smooth.

They have a moment and he kisses her.

She punches him in the face.

A lot.

I won't make you squint.

"Hey! Listen I just thought..."

Gets beat up.

"Will you marry me?

Look at me...Brave guy making jokes to a deaf girl behind her back."

Alright we head back to Buck. He's at a club. He gets a phone call and heads out.

He's gotta go pick up Marc, who is sadly walking home in his Moon Knight skivvies.

"Hi, Buck."

"Mister Spector."

"Thanks for coming to get me."

"What are you doing in an alley?"

"I didn't start in the alley."

"Who used to do this before me?"

"A guy."

"Where is he?"

"He got sick of me."

"Is he alive?"

"I think so. I hope so."

Frenchie will forever be a sad place in my heart. I miss him and I hope he is alive and well.

We head to the police station where Tik Tok of the Night Shift is being interrogated. He's being interviewed by a former New York cop. He didn't like the Supervillain and Superhero business so he went to LA to get away from it.

As you can imagine, all this recent comotion doesn't have him very happy.

He wants to make sure the whole lot of the Night Shift stays behind bars forever.

But he gives him one opportunity to give up some info and walk out.

"Who hired you? Who sent you after Moon Knight? You give me a name... You walk out of here."

Tik Tok thinks it over.

"You don't, and I will laugh the day I hear that the punisher finds his way into the prison you're rotting in. Just say the name."

Tik Tok starts to talk when suddenly a lawyer comes in and tells Tik Tok that he's being sprung.

The lawyer tells him that they can't hold any of the Night Shift because the police let them be beaten by 'drug addict maniacs'.

Tik Tok walks out and the police guy is pissed.

"I hope you know what you're doing, Moon Knight. Because it's all on you."

END ISSUE.

So… You see my frustration setting in here? This comic run has SO much potential. There is so much more they could be doing and instead they are taking the “HE’S SO CRAZY” route. The art is good. The pacing is good. The Dialogue is pretty evenly placed. Even the overarching plot of the LA kingpin and Ultron head is not bad. It’s just… Why did it have to be Moon Knight?

When you can replace the main character with any other marvel character and still have it be the same, this isn’t a Moon Knight issue. And when the writer is so used to writing for other characters that they end up making it about those other characters, they shouldn’t be given the Moon Knight comic and should just stick with what they are good at!

….At least it isn’t Bemis…

Alright. Part two is coming soon! I’m going to start kicking these out fast. I got a timeline to get through if I’m going to hit all my marks by the new year! Stay with me people! We got this!

PART TWO HERE.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Analyzing the comics #BENDIS #At least it isn't Bemis #Reading things so you don't have to #Marc Spector

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silverjetsystm · 3 months

Note

He holds his tongue. When Moon Knight’s on a team, he tries to mind his manners. Reputations like his bring a lot of assumptions. The cryptic phrasing, sarcasm, and commentary is shelved. Leave his own baggage, the need for control in his personal life and solo operations, at the door. Do what had to be done. Serve. Cap had seen what Jake-and-Marc-Moon Knight had been doing since they came back from Mexico. [Commentary for this entire post, please, only enough space in the ask box. :P]

Pick any passage of 500 words or less from any fanfic I’ve written, and stick that selection in my ask/fan mail. I will then give you the equivalent of a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what’s going on in the character’s heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you’d expect to find on a DVD commentary track. | Accepting! [what is rp]

The post in question!

Darn ask box and their limits. I'm also slapping a read more on this because wow so many images, so little time.

Aight. From the top. Secret Avengers is an interesting time in Marc's life. This is him 'on parole' and finally what should be hope after the grimdark days of the aughts.

Marc's mostly familiar with Hank and the then current X-Men stuff by whispers and rumors. MK (1980) #35 has MK reach out to the X-Men for advice on how to handle a mutant who was dedicated to murdering dancers who defected the Soviet Union (as one does). But that was, shall we say, years ago.

Y'know. Events where MK hangs out in the background happened. So Marc doesn't really know much besides him, Hank, and the rest of the Secret Avengers are hanging out because Cap trusts them enough. To Marc, yeah, Hank's big blue and brilliant but Hank also doesn't have the same background as the rest of this merry band. Hank isn't a spy, or a soldier, or a thief. Normal people don't really exist in Marc's orbit like they do in Steven and Jake's.

Speaking of those events where Marc hangs out in the background, Marc never really knows what's going on. He's usually the last to know, doesn't keep track of everything at large, and is just there to punch people and give ??? looks. (see @/age-of-moon-knight's "where's moony" tag). A lot of those bigshot writers aren't really familiar with MK so they either lean on ableist language, reference Marc tearing faces off, or give him a sort of 'Deadpool in white' characterization. Here's some good ones.

Strange (2022), #5. Writer: MacKay; Penciler: Ferreira; Inker: Poggi; Colorist: Tartaglia; Letterer: Petit

Infinity Wars (2018), #3. Writer: Duggan; Penciler and Inker: Deodato Jr.; Colorist: Martin Jr.; Letterer: Petit

Original Sin (2014), #1. Writer: Aaron; Penciler and Inker: Deodato; Colorist: Martin Jr.; Letterer: Eliopoulos

Annnnnd now the era we're focusing on! -_-

Secret Avengers (2010), #16. Writer: Ellis; Penciler and Inker: McKelvie; Colorist: Wilson; Letterer: Lanphear

Secret Avengers (2010), #19. Writer: Ellis; Penciler: Lark; Inkers: Gaudiano and Thies; Colorist: Villarrubia; Letterer: Lanphear

He is glib. Usually. During Secret Avengers, he's rather….subdued. Taking the remarks as they come and keeping his head down. Trust, it does come back later. Part of it is because well, let's look at how from 2006 to 2011 went:

MK tore Bushman's face off in a mix of vengeance, fear, rage, and disgust. Between the horror of what he did and the extensive injuries, he took a comic two year break. 'Khonshu' as "The One Who Lives on Hearts" (I treat him like an introject) wearing faceless Bushman form, feeding Marc's aggression as he makes it back into street level.

Staying on the sidelines during Civil War.

MK (2006), #8. Writer: Huston; Penciler: Finch; Inkers: Miki and Crimelab Studios; Colorist: D’Armata; Letterer: Caramagna

Marc's had a need to micromanage his entire operation since the early days. Steven and Jake would do their information gathering. MK would either be separate from any of them or Marc clearly would take the wheel and do his own thing. Marlene would invite herself along (and be vital in saving the day). Frenchie would fly the mooncopter. They'd deal with Marc's anger. Later on, this leads to Marc suppressing or requesting Steven and Jake go dormant in order to handle their life that gets increasingly dedicated to His Duty.

MK (2021), #14. Writer: MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Cappuccio; Colorist: Rosenberg; Letterer: Petit

Sure, Jan. The longer Marc keeps his hands and only his hands on the wheel, the harder the struggle is. Steven and Jake poke holes and tear down Marc's internalized ableism (as they have before).

Ironically, Frenchie was once more cavalier, saying MK should kill people or they should run out the mooncopter cannons on muggers.

Marlene starts off by saying Marc shouldn't kill people (that Marc is the past and Steven/MK is the future). She then switches positions in the 90s. 90s!Marlene thinks Marc should have killed Bushman and is frustrated he won't kill because of his merc past. 'I hope you grow up before someone kills you.' People change. I can see her like. She used to think Bushman didn't need to die and that MK was Better Than That. She's also been afraid MK was a "benign monster." And now this. I think part of it is how she helped shape MK as much as the system and Frenchie and Bushman did and is eating at her. Plus, obviously, she doesn't want Marc to get hurt or die. By 2006's run, they've had enough of it. While they come back around to supporting him, they also have big problems with how he's operating.

This is the run where Marc carves moons into people's foreheads. Steven and Jake appear in one issue; they hadn't popped up since.... Ehhh. After volume 1 of MK, they show up in West Coast Avengers, in Moench's mini-series after the disaster that was MS: MK, and sometimes in other books like Black Panther, Hulk, etc.

In the end, Marc's big bad tries to control the city and Marc shoves him off a building, killing him. This leads S.H.I.E.L.D. et al. after Marc. Eminem is played. Marc almost dies.

(classic Moon K.night-Core)

Marc fakes his death and Jake goes to Mexico. However, this version of Jake is written like a 'clean slate' MK who feels more like Marc than Jake. I treat it as co-con, where Jake and Marc share control and skills rather than New Jake.

Jake comes back from Mexico and starts to clean up the MK reputation. He doesn't carve moons in faces. 'Khonshu' becomes tiny and impotent. Marlene comes back around. She proposes to Jake. A baby on the way…. Cap sees the progress Jake-Marc have made and offers him a spot on the Secret Avengers team.

Secret Avengers (2010), #1. Writer: Brubaker; Penciler and Inker: Deodato Jr.; Colorist: Beredo; Letterer: Lanpheare

Which leads to things like this...

Secret Avengers (2010), #21. Writer: Ellis; Penciler: Immonen; Inker: von Grawbadger; Colorist: Sotomayor; Letterer: Lanphear

Fucking Randall ruins a nice personal life. Marlene leaves for good. Which sends Marc further down the spiral into self-isolation, need for control, and neither Steven nor Jake pop up until 2022.

Marc's had A Lot of Bad Doctors. (And we haven't gotten to the doctor in 2014 who tried to take Khonshu from him and try to kill him yet!). He's a terrible patient. 2016 opens with him in an asylum, which isn't quite in reality. But the threat and the fear is very real for Marc. He's trying to behave, get good grades in superhero rehabilitation.

Anyway. At this point where Hank easily makes a car a nuclear weapon, Marc picks up on the moral event horizon nature of it all. Because he's been there. MK's whole thing is Second Chances because Spector died when a seed of compassion sprouted during the merc days.

#asked and answered #positivelybeastly #black ops on mars #v: from the depths

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queerical · 4 months

Text

books of 2023

A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll

A Series of Unfortunate Events 5-13 by Lemony Snicket

Abbott: 1973

Alone in Space: A Collection by Tillie Walden

Aquaman: The Becoming

Aquamen (2022)

Arkham City: The Order of the World

Batgirl (2000)

Bylines In Blood

Cuckoos Three by Cassandra Jean, Mosskat

Crush & Lobo

The Daughters of Ys by M.T. Anderson, Jo Rioux

DC Pride: Tim Drake Special

Elektra (2014)

The Forest by Thomas Ott

Galaxy: The Prettiest Star by Jadzia Axelrod, Jess Taylor

Gimmick! by Youzaburou Kanari

House of Slaughter, Volumes 1-2

The Illustrator by Steven Heller, Julius Wiedemann

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

Jessica Jones (2016)

Jessica Jones: Blind Spot

Justice League: A League of One

The Liminal Zone by Junji Ito

Men I Trust by Tommi Parrish

Metro Survive by Yuki Fujisawa

Midnighter (2016)

Mister Miracle: The Great Escape by Varian Johnson, Daniel Isles

Moon Knight (2011)

More is More is More: Today's Maximalist Interiors by Carl Dellatore

Ms. Marvel (2014), Volumes 1-2

Natsume's Book of Friends, Volumes 12-28 by Yuki Midorikawa

Nimona by N.D. Stevenson

Nubia: Real One by L.L. MicKenney, Robyn Smith

Power Girl Returns

Pretty Deadly

The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang

Rogue Sun, Volume 2

Rough Terrain by Annbeth Albert

Run Away With Me, Girl by Battan

Runaways (2003-2008)

SFSX (Safe Sex)

Silver Diamond, Volumes 1-9 by Shiho Sugiura

Sins of the Black Flamingo

Soulless: The Manga by Gail Carringer

Spider-Man/Deadpool, Volumes 1-6

The Sprite and the Gardener by Rii Abrego, Joe Whitt

Still Life: Contemporary Paintings by Amber Creswell Bell

Storm (2014)

Street Unicorns: Extravagant Fashion Photography From NYC Streets and Beyond by Robbie Quinn

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (2011)

Until I Meet My Husband by Ryounosuke Nanasaki

Wakanda

Watercolor: Paintings of Contemporary Artists

What Did You Eat Yesterday? Volume 19 by Fumi Yoshinaga

Wheels Up by Annabeth Albert

The Well by Jake Wyett, Choo

The Wendy Project by Melissa Jane Osborne, Veronica Fish

The Wild Orphan by Robert Froman

Wonder Woman: Black & Gold

X-Men (2013)

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez, Julie Maroh

Young Avengers (2005-2012)

#queerical reads #bold means strongly recommended #some of these were re-reads #i didnt include the books i finished but didnt like

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uovoc · 1 year

Text

2022 media consumption year in review

God tier

Matthew Swift series and Magicals Anonymous duology by Kate Griffin (reread). London sorcerer is raised from the dead and accidentally gets fused to the blue electric angels of the telephone lines along the way. Luscious prose, best urban magic I've ever read, and wickedly funny sense of humor.

Kane and Feels - podcast. Paranormal investigators go around London poking the mystic forces with a sharp stick. Surreal. Funny. Moderately comprehensible. There's nothing else quite like it. Someone described it as "the anti-TMA: you cannot form any theories about it no matter how hard you try."

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (reread) - two time travelers, defined as people stuck in time loops of their own lives, attempt to unravel the mystery of their existence. Suspenseful and beautifully constructed piece of nonlinear storytelling.

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender (reread) - Rose tastes people's emotions in food. Her brother disappears into thin air. Their parents are fine. Surreal and haunting pearl of a story.

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - after a family tragedy, the surviving Blackwoods live in isolation from the village. A little Piranesi-ish subverted horror: the sense there's a secret at the heart of the world, and the secret is both joyful and terrible.

Our Flag Means Death - the crangst-filled pirate show that it seemed like the internet lost its mind over, for good reason.

Bee and Puppycat: Lazy in Space - Bee travels between the island and fishbowl space working temp jobs with Puppycat, until their pasts catch up with them. Dreamy, bittersweet, and gorgeous. Season finale was a banger.

Vesper Flights by Helen MacDonald (reread). Nature essays on humans and birds. Quiet, luminous, and filled with love of place. Faves were "The Human Flock", "High Rise", "Eulogy", and "What Animals Taught Me"

Natsume's Book of Friends (anime) - Technically about boy who can see youkai, learning how to navigate the world of human relationships. But really about masking, healing from trauma, and learning to trust.

Decent entertainment

The Deep by Rivers Solomon with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, and Jonathan Snipes

Encanto (2021) - movie

The Witcher, season 2 - show

What We Do in the Shadows - seasons 1-3, got bored afterwards

The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (reread)

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives in Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Touch by Claire North (reread)

Sing - movie

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare (reread)

The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren

Moon Knight - show, season 1

Moon Knight comics - 2011, 2014, 2016, 2021

The Batman (2022)

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts (reread)

The Bad Guys (2022)

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (reread)

The Hidden Palace by Helene Wecker

The Pursuit of William Abbey by Claire North

Johannes Cabal series by Jonathan L. Howard (reread): Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, Johannes Cabal the Detective, Johannes Cabal: The Fear Institute, The Brothers Cabal, and The Fall of the House of Cabal

The Owl House season 2

Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (reread)

Strider by Beverly Cleary (reread)

Loki - show, season 1

Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

Paprika (2006) dir. Satoshi Kon (rewatch)

Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar (reread)

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter

Supernatural - seasons 1 – 6, selected episodes

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman - comics (reread)

The Sandman - show, season 1

Microcosmic God: The complete short stories of Theodore Sturgeon, volume II by Theodore Sturgeon

Various Dick King-Smith books (reread): The Merman, Harry's Mad, and Harriet's Hare

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Girl From the Other Side - anime

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

The Farewell (2019) dir. Lulu Wang

Horatio Lyle series by Catherine Webb: The Extraordinary and Unusual Adventures of Horatio Lyle, The Obsidian Dagger, The Doomsday Machine, and The Dream Thief

Mononoke (2007) dir. Kenji Nakamura - anime

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Dark Tales by Shirley Jackson. Fave: "The Beautiful Stranger"

The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson. Faves: "Like Mother Used to Make" and "Flower Garden"

Legend of Nezha (哪吒传奇) - the 2003 cartoon

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Lucie Babbidge's House by Sylvia Cassedy

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Pinocchio (2022) - dir. Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson

Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore

You Suck by Christopher Moore

Bite Me by Christopher Moore

Disliked and usually DNF

Guardian (cdrama)

The Gameshouse by Claire North

Kim's Convenience - show

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire

Victoriocity - podcast

Sporadic Phantoms - podcast

Guardians of Childhood series by William Joyce - okay I finished it out of loyalty but it was no rotg that's for sure

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

Keep Your Hands off Eizouken - anime

Arcane - show

The Girl in the Flammable Skirt by Aimee Bender

Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender

The Color Master by Aimee Bender

Where the Drowned Girls Go by Seanan McGuire

Megan's Island by Willo Davis Roberts (reread)

First Light by Rebecca Stead

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

The Apothecary by Maile Meloy

To Your Eternity - anime

Bloomability by Sharon Creech

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) dir. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert

Malevolent - podcast

Midnight Burger - podcast

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

Sunshine by Robin McKinley

The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley

Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L. Howard

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho

M.E. and Morton by Sylvia Cassedy

Forty Stories by Donald Barthelme

Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

The Bird's Nest by Shirley Jackson

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison

The Stench of Adventure (podcast)

We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry

Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

Assorted nonfiction

Songs of the Gorilla Nation by Dawn Prince-Hughes

The Organized Mind by Daniel J Levitin - nothing new except for the part about using your spatial memory to hack organization.

The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker - how to organize social gatherings for meaningful and memorable experiences

Rust: the Longest War by Jonathan Waldman - investigative journalism book about corrosion, the hazard it presents to physical infrastructure, and how we mitigate it

Fall Down 7 Times, Get Up 8 by Naoki Higashida

Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li - DNF

The One-Minute Manager: The World's Most Popular Management Method by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson - techniques for one-minute goal setting, one-minute praisings, and one-minute reprimands

The Chinese Language: Its History and Current Usage by Daniel Kane. Good concise history of the development of written Mandarin Chinese and the underlying structure of the characters.

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold - essays on the American landscape and conservation ethics ca. 1950. Neat from a historical standpoint, but nothing to write home about these days. Which kinda is the point I guess.

Oregon Salmon: Essays on the State of the Fish At the Turn of the Millennium, ed. Oregon Trout

Caring for your Parents by Hugh Delehanty and Eleanor Ginzler

The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat by Oliver Sacks - DNF

The Grid by Gretchen Bakke - history of how the physical and regulatory infrastructure of the American power grid was developed, and how it needs to be reimagined for the future.

Wildlife Wars : The life and times of a fish and game warden by Terry Grosz. Tales from his career as a California game warden catching poachers.

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio. DNF. author's writing voice was supremely annoying

Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash, 3rd ed (1982) (reread) - history of Americans' changing attitudes towards nature and definitions of wilderness. A classic banger.

Black, Brown, Bruised: How racialized STEM education stifles innovation by Ebony Omotola McGee - good summary of what the successful programs for STEM students of color are doing right, everything else is the same old same old

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb. Account of the experience of going through therapy while working as a therapist. Excellent look at how we construct our personal narratives, and how to change them.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Gremmy, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. Strategies for having effective high-stakes conversations and managing your emotions. Good stuff.

Engineering and Social Justice by Donna Riley. Pretty entry-level, but it's a good bibliography for further reading.

Send in the Idiots by Kamran Nazeer

Why Are We Yelling? The art of productive disagreement by Buster Benson - DNF. disliked his writing style.

#Media consumption #Patter

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freedvmrouge · 5 months

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MASTERLIST.

fandoms: dc comics, marvel, hades game

prompt. fandom. chara.

PACK. dc comics. jason todd. — pov jason todd, jason todd has ptsd, flashbacks, panic attack. jason smells smoke from a pack of cigs for the first time post-resurrection.

HEAT. dc comics. jason todd, koriand'r. — pov jason todd, rhato 2011. beginning of rhato where jason washes up on kori's island.

MYTH/FABLE. dc comics. jason todd, bruce wayne. — pov jason todd, post-doom that came to gotham, child trafficking (implied), prostitution (implied), homelessness. jason's being chased by child traffickers and takes cover in an abandoned apartment building.

MAGNIFICENT. dc comics. bruce wayne, jason todd, roy harper. — pov bruce wayne, parent bruce wayne, roy harper/jason todd, youtuber au, father-son relationship. bruce has empty nest syndrome and longingly watches jason and roy's new youtube video.

INJURY. marvel. moon knight, soldier. — pov marc spector, moon knight (2021-2023), existential dread. marc comes back to midnight mission (is. 25) after a brutal battle and gets patched up by soldier.

ANTICIPATION. dc comics. slade wilson, jason todd. — pov slade wilson, jason todd/slade wilson, omegaverse, alpha slade wilson, omega jason todd, pregnant jason todd, mates. slade tries to do some work while his cuddly omega monopolizes his right arm.

KNITTING AND SEWING. dc comics. kon el/conner kent. — pov kon el, college au-ish. kon is trying to catch up on his college projects when he gets a notification of martha's upcoming birthday and shifts focus.

bingo card.

#masterlist #gen prompt bingo #gen prompt bingo round 25 #bingo card #bingo fill #writing challenge #fanfiction #fanfic #oneshot #one shot #dc comics #marvel #mcu #hades game #hades supergiant #jason todd #red hood #there's just a lot of jason

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luxshine · 2 years

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Moon Knight Primer, Part 7

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1 – 10, Secret Avengers #1-21, Shadowlands: Moon Knight #1-3, Moon Knight (2011) #1-12.

Prologue

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Now we’re entering a time where we say that the Moon Knight comics are in a stable, but mediocre area before going down the gutter fast. Vengeance of the Moon Knight did a lot to undo the damage that the 2006 had done to the characters, but unfortunately, not enough. Then Secret Avengers underutilized Marc in the worst way possible, and Shadowlands… Shadowlands returned to the ableist crap. And then there was the Bendis run.

The Bendis run that was SO BAD that it marked the FIRST Moon Knight series to be explicitly cancelled due to low sales. And yet? It did a couple of things right.

That is the problem with this particular set of issues and story arcs. They’re generally bad, but there are highlights that, if they had been explored, better edited or actually followed through? Could’ve made interesting stories.

But let’s start with Vengeance of the Moon Knight, that marks the first series where Jake fronts 90% of the time… and it STILL not the one who made him the most violent alter.

So yeah, the highlight of this run? We get to know Jake a bit better. Samuels is also back at the job of keeping the System alive as the System is terrible at taking care of themselves, and I love that butler to pieces because he rolls with the punches (And in this particular arc? Will threaten you with a shotgun if you invade Mr. Lockley’s home. YES, Mr. Lockley. Because out of all of the original Moon Knight’s supporting cast? The only one who has NEVER stumbled when calling the one fronting? Is Samuels. He never misses whenever he’s serving Mr. Grant, Mr. Lockley or Mr. Spector.

As I said in part I? Samuels is the best butler this side of Alfred Pennyworth.

But back to Jake as the Alter who fronts pretty much the whole series. It’s interesting because despite the current status quo of Jake being the violent one? Here it’s a constant theme that people tell Jake that “Moon Knight” or “he” enjoy violence and killing? And he NEVER kills. He beats people to unconsciousness. He’s never extremely cruel, not even against freaking Bushman who of course comes back because this guy SHOULD be the one named the Phoenix since he just won’t stay dead, and even as Fake-shu grows to a kaiju size and demands rivers of blood in exchange of his help? Jake will NOT kill. Even the heroes that had written him off in the 2006 volume are starting to come around to see that hey, Moon Knight is not that bad of a guy. Spidey even calls him Moony again.

That is not to say that the way in which the writers deal with neurodivergency improved that much, no. First, we have the issue where Moon Knight meets Sentri, another Marvel character who happens to be a System. Only Sentri IS a horrible caricature of what DiD is, having the “incredibly good and loved by everyone” super good side and the “villain who is scummier than scum, so evil he could destroy the world” evil alter. And well, Sentri LOST his fight with the evil side, and the evil side had to be destroyed by Sentri dying so… seeing Sentri here lecture our guys, who despite having some of the worst writers in the universe dealing with his mental issues… STILL has managed to keep a grip on his sanity and good size (Skinned face of Bushman non-withstanding)

Moon Knight also has a run in with Deadpool, a mercenary who is schizophrenic and immortal where they fight over a child killer. As in, Deadpool was hired to kill the guy, Moon Knight is trying to keep those around the killer alive and let justice in the form of the legal system work, even if he realizes that the guy is a monster who doesn’t deserve to just die peacefully of cancer -which he has. Terminal. It’s just that the woman who hired Deadpool, the mother of one of the victims, doesn’t want him to die peacefully.

That’s the ONLY issue where Jake goes all out in the violence against someone, because Deadpool makes the mistake of telling him that he can’t die. And even then? When we see Deadpool after the fight (Moon Knight beat him in one page after having been “playing nice” for about 10), he’s pretty mobile and has all his extremities where they should be so… again, Jake unwinded, but didn’t go too far.

He didn’t skin Deadpool.

But of course, there’s no conversation about both of them having voices.

Oh, and the writers give Bushman an army of lobotomized patients from a local asylum. That he and his henchmen personally lobotomize. AS I said, these writers? Ableist as hell.

This was the series that pretty much cemented Fake-shu as looking like a bird, although here he still looked like a living bird, feathers and all. But he is still Fake-shu because as I said? He just wants blood to be spilled, innocents be damned. Oh, and he still speaks about getting Punisher as his avatar as “(Punisher)’s god must be well fed”.

What is it with writers making Khonshu fangirl over other heroes? Although I like him better when he idolizes Clint.

Thing is, there is ONE glimmer of hope that Fake-shu is really a fake. After Jake manages NOT to kill Bushman again, despite Fake-shu growing kaiju size and demanding blood, he goes back to his home, now a fancy NY apartment, and sees the files on Marc Spector’s Victims, wondering if he can find redemption for what Marc did, and promising to always strive to be a better man.

And the eyes of statue of Khonshu, that is STILL in his office because no matter what he says, the System is still faithful, shine in approval. Like the old times.

Of course, Marlene, worst girlfriend ever, and Frenchie return. But Frenchie is still there just to be gaybashed and tell Marc he doesn’t deserve friends because all his friends end up hurt (which is most definitely not our Frenchie) and Marlene… well, we do the old song and dance of “I just want MY boyfriend to be sane and not a superhero” before she disappears again.

Oh. There is one page of Moon Knight fighting in his underwear, that happens to be star boxers. And I am including the image because we need a laugh.

And then everything gets de-railed because the Heroic Age happens and Captain America comes to Moon Knight and asks him to join his team of Secret Avengers, which of course Mon Knight does. But that issue has two important things: First, The Irredemable ant-man (Erick O’Grady, aka. The WORST Ant-man) calls Moon Knight a “schitzo” in front of the others, and no one cares because the avengers never defend Moon Knight, and second, the narration specifically goes to say that they’re afraid if the system is a “Psycho or nice guy? Marc or Jake?”

So Jake is STILL the good one, compared to Marc. Who is also good, if a little unhinged.

I can’t lie, I am starting to have a bad feeling about who the hell made Jake the “Bad one”.

Anyway, once we’re done with that little bit of weirdness we get to Secret Avengers which, uhm… yeah. Exists.

The only worthwhile thing of the whole 21 issues, when it comes to Marc is the horrible moments in which the narration calls him “Crazy person” while introducing the team, that one panel where Warren Ellis confuses Moon Knight with Deadpool and makes him say “I’m too psychotic to feel pain” after he’s shoot in the leg, and the fact that in issue 19 we see Mr. Knight for the very first time, and at the time Steven is Fronting, although he is not called Mr. Knight yet.

Oh, and there’s this weird thing… in one of the issues, after Bucky’s second death, this time with the mantle of Captain America? Natasha Romanov, Black Widow, picks a fight with a Buzzfeed-like website about how they don’t get to call Bucky’s death an hoax. They get into a very interesting discussion of what does Death looks like in the Marvel Universe, where unnamed civilians die and that’s it, while Heroes come back every Tuesday, twice on Saturdays. At which point Nat replies with the fact that for heroes, it IS equally traumatic not just for those who died, but also for those who didn’t as they can’t move around.

So Nat knows resurrections, and how they affect everyone.

But in issue 19, precisely the one where Mr. Knight comes in? She says that MK is crazy because He “thinks an Egyptian god revived him”.

Also, in that issue, the “sane” Steve Rogers and Nat set a man on fire to kill him. Sure, he was possessed by a demon, but I’d think of a couple of things to try before arson. (MK, the “Crazy dangerous one” just kicks him out a window, which for Superheroes is pretty much common activities.

Other than that? Moon Knight is literally a body to fill group shots. Oh, and then he gets replaced in issue 22 by Hawkeye of all people! Seriously, what does Hawkeye has that our main System don’t?

After that, came the Daredevil mega crossover Shadowland. Here I need to make an annoying wiki pause. See, for the last 20 years or so, Marvel insists on having an stupid event that spawns most if not all of their titles every year. That includes things like Civil War, The Siege, Secret Invasion, Fear Itself, Secret Empire, Avengers vs. X-men, Civil War II and so on. Which is terrible for every individual title as they have to throw off whatever they’re doing just to accommodate the new series. This is why, for example, the 2006 series had the whole thing with Marc having to get evaluated to be “Allowed” to be a hero. They just cut any build up writers can start because even if they CAN come back to whatever they were doing before? There’s still the tie-in looking like a sore thumb.

A possible compromise are the event tie-in minis, which are apart from the ongoing title and deal with whatever the hell the event was going on. This is what Shadowland: Moon Knight was, a mini series focusing on Jake and the system during the Daredevil event.

So, get this: Moon Knight hasn’t maimed or killed anyone since the end of 2006, but he is still called the crazy unstable one by readers and the MU civilians. Daredevil, on the other hand, who by this time has had his share of stupid things done, becomes the leader of a ninja death cult -and later, possessed by a demon that Mephisto tends to avoid- making himself the leader of the NY crime underground and killing heroes left and right… but nope, he is perfectly sane and everyone loves him after the event is over.

Ah, comics.

Anyway, the demon possessing Daredevil has old history with Khonshu, so Daredevil hires Profile -the guy who can read people with a glance- to get him someone who can kill Moon Knight and get him an old Khonshu relic that is the only thing that can kill the demon.

Khonshu, who is now looking like a Pigeon furry, bird feet and all, demands Moon Knight to kill in exchange of information of how to kill the demon inside of Daredevil, but Jake -who is still fronting at the time- still refuses.

For some reason, Marlene is back with Jake, and this time she acknowledges him as her boyfriend which, given how she has been so far? Is a lot of progress. She also claims Marc “was” the unstable one. Unfortunately, she is also pregnant, she tells Steven and Jake this and both of them are over the moon with happiness, and well, we know what writers do to the System everytime they have a chance to be happy, right?

During this time, again, Moon Knight is a separate alter from Jake, Steven and Marc. At this point, I wish they just made it official that they’re four and skip me the headache.

As Jake keeps refusing to kill, and Profile is looking for someone to kill Moon Knight, we get a lot of flashbacks to the guys’s childhood, and this time, Marc is the older brother, and he’s the one who convinced Randall to join the military.

This is the mini where we get the idea that Moon Knight’s powers went away for his lack of faith in Khonshu which is VERY weird since at this time? Moon Knight has NO powers! While the “new” Shadow Knight who wants to be the “real” avatar of Khonshu… has Cyclops’s like force beams. And he attacks Marlene and of course, causes a miscarriage.

To the surprise of absolutely no one? The “new” Shadow Knight is the “old” Shadow Knight. That’s right, Randall is back from the dead again, horribly jealous of everything his brother has.

Because of Marlene’s miscarriage, Jake has a terrible breakdown and lets Marc front again. Marc, being the extra dramatic little queen he is, not only starts considering killing again, much to the joy of Fake-shu, but also declares Jake dead. Again. And so the mini ends there (Oh, he does get the relic to kill the Beast, and that is solved in the Shadowlands actual event, but the important part for Moon Knight ends here)

Marc, by the way, looks more unhinged than ever thanks to the art.

After the Shadowlands, they put Moon Knight on the Heroes for Hire team. Unfortunately, once again, he’s a body to fill group shots. There’s an issue where he fights a velociraptor, but other than that? Nothing important in those 10 issues.

And thus, we get to the Bendis arc. Oh,dear lord, the Bendis arc. (look, It had so many bad things, I had to make HUGE collages for the last part of this. It was this, or give Bendis it's own place just because of how so many bad examples I had)

First, again, the good things: Bendis MAY have made some research into DiD as he does have Marc talk to his alters, giving each alter their own voice, their own reason to be there. They know they’re Alters, and they know their role is to protect the System.

Unfortunately, said alters are NOT Marc, Jake and Steven so… everything in this run sucks.

Oh, and we get a NEW retelling on the origin, where now Busham killed Prof. Alarune directly in Seti’s tomb, shoot Marc full of holes and then left without the treasure, so that Marc crawled to the foot of Khonshu’s statute and got revived.

Well, Sorta. See, the idea here is that Marc moved to L.A. after everything that happened (Abandoning grieving Marlene, way to go Marc), in order to produce a campy series called Legends of Khonshu about his adventures as Moon Knight. And… that’s the version of the origin in the pilot of said series (That everyone, and I mean EVERYONE in production hates, and I am not sure if it ever actually aired)

And the alters? Are now Wolverine (who IS a crazy sadist killer, so… props for Marc’s subconcious for getting that right? Even if Marc has NEVER met Wolverine?) Spider-man and Captain America. Who are not really analogues to what Steven, Marc and Jake did as part of the system and… feel so wrong. I mean, Marc even asks his new tech guy, a former SHIELD agent, to make him weapons that IMMITATE Spiderman, Wolverine and Captain America weapons! Oh, and at some point, Wolverine kills the other two alters in a fit of fury, because he is also de alter who is more faithful to Khonshu to the point he is the only one who actually mentions him despite the real Wolverine being more of an atheist, so later Marc replaces them with… Echo and Ironman. And he also dresses as Spiderman for a mission when the Spiderman alter fronts.

I am so not surprised this was cancelled due to bad sales.

Besides THAT particular horrible thing, that includes Moon Knight dressing as the other heroes from time to time, and once as Bullseye because why not? I mean, he is crazy! And yes, I am being sarcastic.

This is the run, by the way, that gave us the panel of Spiderman saying that he dated Moon Knight “A little bit”. That is the REAL Spider-man, by the way, not the alter, and I suspect it was part of an attempt of an homophobic joke by Bendis, who spends most of the series making sure we know how heterosexual Marc is, by making him fall head over heels for Echo. Who of course gets fridged because how else can we make Marc loose control and the Wolverine alter kill the others?

Before dying, however, Echo filmed a video where Marc is arguing with his alters, so of course it looks on video as if he’s talking to himself. And while in that series that particular video was only for Echo as part of surveillance? It will come up later in a future, much better run even if the role of it is only to cement once again that yes, the Marvel Universe at large knows that Moon Knight suffers DiD.

At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have Mr. Knight print that in his business cards: “Moon Knight. Mr. Knight. Superhero with DiD.”

But anyway, with that particular horrible thing, the Bendis era is over and we can finally, FINALLY move on to a much better series.

But that will be for next part (And yes, we still have NO idea where the “Jake is the violent alter” idea came from)

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight history #Moon Knight Comic #Marc Spector #Jake Lockley #Steven Grant #A bunch of other alters who I wish didn't exist #Khonshu #Fake-shu

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