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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 1 year ago

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Breaking down the comics: BEMIS. Part 3

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!

Part one is here.

Part two is here.

Part 2: Phases. (Issues 194-200) Published: August 29, 2018

Written by Max Bemis.

Art by Jacen Burrows, Paul Davidson, and Ty Templeton

Editor: Jeff Youngquist

“Moon Knight couldn’t be in better hands”???? Excuse me comicbook.com? I don’t know who wrote that but… I’d like to have some words with them.

Also, I’d like to note that at the end of a few issues, they have Kight Mail. This is something that was started way back in Moench’s run. Fans would write in and they got posted at the end of comics! It showed what they thought of current issues, what they wanted to see, and sometimes they even posted criticism of changes. It was a way to connect to fans and for the writers to feel appreciated or to ask what they wanted to see.

Looking through the fan mail of Bemis’ work in vol one was interesting. All HIGH praises and excitement to see them make Moon Knight dark and gritty. I can’t help but wonder about the demographics of the people writing in at this time. Many of them said they had been long time fans of Bemis’ band “Say Anything”. Which makes me raise an eyebrow.

Now, looking at the first issue of Vol 2.

Still written by BEMIS.

I want to rewind a bit and touch on something that’s going to be VERY important in this next upcoming issue.

Remember how I mentioned that Bemis self identifies as "A Jew who is also a Christian"? Not a lot of people know what that means. It’s also been known as “Jews for Jesus” and Messianic Jewish religious movement.

Messianic Jews are a branch off of Evangelical Protestants.

"They adhere to conventional Christian Beliefs, including the concept of salvation through faith in Jesus (who they refer to as Yeshua by the Hebrew name) as the Jewish Messiah and savior from sin."

I'm not going to get into religious politics or a lot of history here (I'd be here all day)... But if you have even the SMALLEST knowledge about Judaism, you'll feel a creeping sensation along your spine.

The word moshiach (messiah) at its roots meant a leader to the people, not a savior deity. Not a god. It meant that a great king would arise or someone that could lead the people in peace.

So when the Torah mentions the moshiach (messiah), it is referring to a human being that would come to the Jewish people and became a leader, politically usually, who would help Jews and all people thrive in peace.

The "Jews for Jesus" movement is a way to convert Jewish people to Christianity under the guise of still being Jewish. But the problem is that you are either Jewish or you aren't. If you convert to any other religion, you are no longer Jewish. It is a movement meant to recruit more power to the Evangelical Christianity side of things while also removing Jews away from Judaism.

You see, Judaism is a people first and foremost. These people have been killed over and over and over again by so many different countries, religious sects, and political followings. A lot of the major movements (see Spanish Inquisition for more history on that) were not just genocidal, but culturally genocidal with forced conversions. Numerous times, the traditions and culture was almost completely wiped out.

Because of this, there are a lot of VERY strict rules in place to try to save the culture and Jewish religion. One of those rules is that if you convert, you are no longer considered of the Jewish people. You are no longer considered able to speak on their behalf. This may seem confusing and harsh to some Christians or other people that are not Jewish. Perhaps I’m not the one to best explain that to you, but if someone repeatedly tried to kill you and wipe your memory and existence off the face of the planet, then a buddy decided to go join them, would you want that buddy to be able to say “Oh yeah, I know all about how it works. Let me speak for them.”?

They tend to target new converts to Judaism, lonely jews, depressed jews, or at risk Jewish people. They invite them in saying that they want to be friends and to help them celebrate holidays and so on. Then they work on convincing them to convert.

It's scarily like how a cult works.

A "Jew for Jesus" is not a Jew. I don't care what their background growing up is, they no longer have the right to claim to understand the Jewish people or any of that.

So having BEMIS come into Marvel and saying “I can write a Jewish system! I’m Jewish, after all! Representation!” is the biggest load of crap and honestly, it’s almost a hate crime. ….And after reading Vol 2, it WILL be a hate crime. You’ll see.

Aside from the return of Bemis, there is a new artist named Ty Templeton. Templeton only draws for this next issue, which covers the creation of Moon Knight as a child. Then we head back to Burrows.

And Cover artist Becky Cloonan.

I feel bad because this was Becky Cloonan's first time as a cover artist.

Despite the story, that is some AMAZING art.

Issue #194

That’s nice. Looking at that kinda makes you excited right? A story about young Marc! Last time we got young Marc was a few flashbacks in Lemire and I adored those. I’d kill for more of that.

Alright... Opening up, we have the title page that gives you the "previously" blerb.

"Marc Spector recently fought through a gauntlet of enemies old and new as the Sun King joined with Bushman and the Truth to attempt to destroy Moon Knight and everything he held dear, including the daughter he never knew he had. Spector overcame the odds and defeated the Sun King, but now faces an even greater challenge: Fatherhood."

Hmm. Sure. Okay. It's not terrible. Maybe....Maybe this issue will be okay. It’s a false sense of security. A little beam of hope.

We see Marc and Frenchie at a table having drinks and chatting.

I do deeply enjoy the idea of Frenchie coming back as a friend. Not as a loyal devoted pilot, but as a much needed actual friend to Marc. Marc has only ever just had Frenchie.

They're chatting it up. Frenchie asked him if he could have had any job in the world, what would he have liked to have done if he wasn't a mercenary.

Marc says he wanted to be creative. Aww.

Frenchie tells him he'd have made a handsome actor.

But Marc say sno, he wanted to be something creative. "There's a lot going on up here." He points to his head. "Stuff I could express without, you know...Beating people half to death. I'd be fat ad happy and soft."

I mean, that's a pretty good Marc sentiment. And looking back at Lemire's childhood depiction of Marc, it fits. He wanted to do so many things...

This is starting out as a pretty good issue. I like the art more (still a little flat, but it’s a coloristic style). Not nearly as bad as-

Ah.

Okay, so... I... I'm gonna take a very long breath here because we are about to go down a rabbit hole of SEVERE antisemitism.

This is your only trigger warning. Same warnings as in Vol 1. I’m also going to cut a LOT of art out and just describe it to you. It is going to get disgusting.

We are getting the story from Marc's narration as he talks to Frenchie about why he thinks being Jewish is the reason behind all his trauma.

That's now what he said, but it is what is being heavily implied.

Bemis just straight up said "Being Jewish is traumatizing and life would be better if I wasn't."

And coming from a "Jew for Jesus", you know he full on believes this and follows it.

And this is going to get VERY uncomfortable.

MOON KNIGHT HISTORY LESSON REFRESHER:

Moench didn't intentionally write Moon Knight as Jewish.

He picked a name and found out it was of Jewish origins and he thought "Yeah. That sounds good." and rather than ignore it, he went with it full heartedly.

He outright said "Marc is Jewish. The system is Jewish. Moon Knight is a Jewish Comic."

He touched on a lot of heavy themes that in one way or another tended to cycle back around to Jewish issues at the time (1980s.) Moench tended to write about what he was seeing in the world around him and it is done with such care and grace that we can still feel those movements and issues when we re-read it today. His message is never lost.

It wasn't until Zelenetz took over the run that we really got any of Marc's backstory, though.

Zelentz, a man from a Jewish background who taught in a Jewish school, made Marc's father a Jewish Orthodox Rabbi from Czech who fled the Holocaust and Nazi invasion.

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCE was it ever implied that this or any of that upbringing had anything to do with his DID.

In later issues, deep into the 90s and far away from Moech and Zelentz, mostly when talking about his brother, he mentions that his father was very strict and had a lot of rules.

Some writers even hint at some abuse from his father, especially towards Randall Spector. But this conflicts with Zelentz, who stressed that Marc's biggest issue with his father was that he was too passive.

In Lemire, we see another reimagining of Marc's father and see him as a bit more modern day and very concerned about his son's mental health and what others might think of him.

We still don't see the trauma that happened and it doesn't even pretend to hint at it.

I'll cover Marc's trauma in a completely different post much later, but not knowing Marc's trauma and past is a good thing.

But people are curious and they wanted to know. They wanted to know what caused the DID and where Moon Knight came from.

So Bemis thought "I used to be Jewish. Who better to answer this question than me?"

(Anyone. The answer is anyone is better than you, Bemis.)

So we see a bunch of stereotypically Jewish men sitting around a table. They are enjoying some wine after a meal and there are a LOT of books behind them. I'm going to assume they are in a Synagogue and this is a temple gathering.

The artist here CLEARLY tried to copy and feed off of Smallwood. Perhaps in an effort to establish to the reader that we are looking at the same people and this is how the characters now look in cannon.

I can appreciate that.

So we recognize little Marc Spector and Elias Spector.

We know Elias is a Rabbi and Rabbi like to gather with other Rabbi to discuss things and share knowledge.

So I'm going to take a wild stab here that this is a group of Rabbi or other learned men in close proximity to the Rabbi.

"Let me explain. I'd have to start with Rabbi Yitz Perlman, the funniest guy I've ever met in my life.

You know when you're a kid and a grown-up is making grown-up jokes you don't really understand, but they're still so funny you almost Pee?"

We see Rabbi Yitz making a joke that cracks everyone up.

I had to look this one up because the joke flew over my head. Apparently it's an old joke and Bemis did NOT tell it right.

Here is how the joke is really supposed to go:

A Jewish father was troubled by the way his son turned out, and went to see his Rabbi about it. "I brought him up in the faith, gave him a very expensive bar mitzvah, cost me a fortune to educate him. Then he tells me last week he has decided to be a Christian! Rabbi, where did I go wrong?" "Funny you should come to me," said the Rabbi. "Like you, I brought *my* boy up in the faith, put him through University, cost me a fortune, then one day he, too, tells me he has decided to become a Christian." "What did you do?" asked the father. "I turned to God for the answer," replied the Rabbi. "And what did he say?" pressed the father. "God said, 'Funny you should come to me...' "

It’s actually pretty funny when told right. It also says that you should take responsibility to actually raise your kid. But it’s also a Jesus joke in a way. I’ll let you decide if it’s funny or not.

Marc continues:

"There was something exotic about the language he used, the rich, almost mealy-mouthed yiddish inflections he peppered into his monologues, but most importantly... Yitz had the best Jewish jokes of anyone I've met to this day."

Marc… You were RAISED by a rabbi. There should be nothing ‘exotic’. YOU SPEAK YIDDISH.

"Now, let me back up for a second and establish something you've probably caught on to, Frenchie. There's nothing Jews find funnier than making fun of ourselves. As a guy who gave up on organized religion, I sometimes think of it as a weird byproduct of our pride in being "God's Chosen People" (Or at least according to the old testament). Like we can afford to take the piss out of ourselves because, in the end, we're going to be the one's ruling the roost."

I…I have to take a minute to break down why this WHOLE PARAGRAPH is wrong. GAH.

True, Jewish people love to poke fun at themselves. It’s a survival tactic. I once had it explained to me that it was laugh or cry and the Jewish people chose to laugh.

I don’t see Marc as having ‘given up on organized religion’. This is a very common misconception when it comes to Moon Knight. If anything, Marc Spector epitomizes the essence of being Jewish. He very much still is aware of the culture, costumes, and often still shows that he understands. Time and time again in Moench and Zelentz he spoke Yiddish, he saved Jewish people, he stopped antisemitism, he rescued a Rabbi and Torah, he punched out Nazi scum. In MacKay, we see that Marc still knows Hebrew. He still knows the prayers. Jake speaks Yiddish! What’s happened is that Marc observes in his own way and while this doesn’t come across as being overtly religious, that’s the beauty of Judaism. You don’t have to go to a temple or synagogue. You can be at home and follow your own path.

The term Organized Religion in itself is not a Jewish term! It’s Christian! There is no overall ruling power or singular organizer that keeps the rules or how things are done!

Here’s the biggest issue! There is NO pride in being “chosen people”. That’s NOT WHAT THAT MEANS BEMIS AND YOU SHOULD KNOW BETTER.

So, in Judaism, "chosen people" means that Jews are "chosen" to have extra responsibilities than other peoples. In terms of the covenants with G-d (basically, it's referring to circumcision, keeping kosher, etc). It means that the people have been chosen to make the world better. They can’t rely on anyone else. It is their responsibility to do their part! BUT Evangelical Christians interpret "chosen people" to mean "Special." Because Evangelicals believe that Jews are necessary for resurrecting Jesus. Which is where the “we’re going to be the one’s ruling the roost” phrase comes from. THAT IS NOT A JEWISH BELIEF.

He says “Old testament.” There is NO Old testament in Judaism. Because there is no NEW TESTAMENT. That’s a Christian belief and teaching! It’s the Torah! And they aren't even organized the same way!

They can afford to take the piss out of themselves because they have to! They humble themselves. They joke and make light of their situation. They say what they feel and think then laugh it off because they have to!

And...While Marc is explaining this, we see young Marc watching a Seinfeld episode.

Specifically it's the one where Dr. Whatley is suspected of wanting to convert to Judaism because he wants to make Jewish jokes.

It's implying that converts aren't converting for good cause, but with a hidden agenda.

We also see Moon Knight in certain Jewish and biblical settings as he explains things.

"After all I've been through at the hands of one faith or another, I confess sometimes that makes me angry. But then I realize I'm caught up in the cycle itself just by having these thoughts. Inflation of ego, anger, shame...Just a cycle. One that runs on hatred.

But at that point i didn't know anything about that. Jewish humor was just pithy and jolly, and I was proud to be in on the joke. "

AGAIN. These are NOT Jewish ideals. Not Jewish teachings or beliefs!

We see Marc expressing anger about being traumatized by religion and falling into a sort of cycle of inflated ego because he believed he was chosen!

He talks about how it caused hatred and ego! BULL SHIT. It's humbling! When you take it into context, these teachings are MEANT TO BE HUMBLING!

"Yitz was the Rabbi who taught my dad how to be one himself, so he was very much an uncle to me. I loved sitting in the corner of his office and listening to Yitz, Dad, and their friends rant about endless Jewish minutiae and debate its moral significance."

No nonononononononono.

Absolutely not.

"Being, unsurprisingly, a bit of a loner, I'd often go on adventures by myself through the bowels of our Synagogue, staving off dust allergies so I could pretend to be Indiana Jones. As if I'd, like, unearth some lost tablet that held the answers to all of life's questions and get rich. What I found, mostly, were obese mice.

I was a prepubescent kid who was more comfortable with a couple of Old Jewish Guys than I was with a single soul in my homeroom class."

In these depictions, Marc is already an older kid. Judging from how he’s drawn here and in Lemire/Smallwood’s run, they look to be about the same age.

We know that DID has to happen at a very young age from REPEATED horrible trauma. In Lemire’s run, we see Marc already HAS DID at this point, though it isn’t very obvious to him or his parents yet. They are already concerned about his behavior and he is already showing signs of being more than one person, even before we see him be introduced to Steven Grant. We also do know that Marc was a lonely child growing up. He played alone, didn’t have friends, and showed signs of behaving differently from the other children.

How old do you think Marc is here? Cause he looks at least 8-10. And with the way he speaks and behaves, he has to be somewhere in that range, maybe closer to 10.

Marc asks what the Shoah is and his father tells him that he’s too young to know. THen likens it to “The Sex Talk”.

Not only that, but he doesn’t want to tell Marc about it.

Elias says that his father was in a war, and that’s where he met Yitz.

“The Shoah was part of a war. A big war. The biggest war. They called it a ‘world war’ Lots of people died. My dad died there. And my Mom had to move to America to get away from all the fighting, and that’s why we live here and not in Czechoslovakia…Not that I’m complaining.”

NO. NO NO NO. That is NOT how you explain that. You do not casual World War 2. You do not casually explain the HOLOCAUST. ESPECIALLY not as a Rabbi talking to your own sun AT THAT AGE. He should already know about WW2. He should already know about the Shoah. He didn’t even explain it right.

I’m sitting here sobbing. As a history buff that ESPECIALLY focuses in on this time period, I’m dying inside. I’m seething.

He is downplaying the Holocaust. I can’t believe this. LOOK. OKAY. I get that this is a comic. It’s a comic that is rated T. I can understand (BITTERLY) if Marvel does not want to cover something as deep as- ….NO. ACTUALLY. NO I CAN’T.

GO READ MAGNETO. GO READ CAPTAIN AMERICA. Magneto did a beautiful job of covering the Holocaust YEARS AGO. There is no right or reason to have to down play it like this. Bemis is just being a bigoted idiot that is trying to show his father as uncaring, Marc as being ‘special’ and unwell, and Jews in general as being cold!

X-Men: Testament. Magneto

By Greg Pak and illustrated by Carmine Ci Giandomenico.

Published in 2009.

THIS is how you cover the Holocaust while still trying to be a comic set in the Marvel Universe. It is heartbreakingly beautiful and as honest as a comic can get coming from Marvel. GO READ IT IF YOU CAN.

THIS… THIS IS NOT HOW YOU COVER THE HOLOCAUST.

No. Elias doesn’t get to look at him like that. It was a SHIT way to explain it. It was a shit thing that he just did there. He put Marc in that position and failed to teach him about his ancestors, his culture, his history, and the world in general.

It’s not like there is a literal holiday set aside “DAY OF REMEMBRANCE” or that there is a literal prayer SPECIFICALLY WRITTEN for all those who died in the Shoah. And it isn’t like every Passover includes a paragraph ABOUT THE SHOAH. There is NO REASON Marc should not have an idea what the Shoah is. I’m so mad. I’m so mad right now.

Oh! And then we immediately follow that up with a Greedy Jew Joke.

Great. Fantastic. Why is Marc studying in the Rabbi office?

He goofs off a bit more and they have fun. Marc asks Yitz if he can come by and study there again tomorrow while his dad finishes his work at home.

Yitz tells him to come after seven.

"I don't want to convey that I liked Yitz more than my dad. My dad was great. It's just that...Sometimes he wasn't all there. He would zone out sometimes and just...Disappear. Which is...Whatever. But when he got too deep into it, you'd see a flash of something. Something he knew. Something he felt... You'd get the suspicion something was upsetting him. Something he didn't want to discuss. He... Had a lot going on up there."

NOPE. You do not get to play this off like Elias was also mentally ill.

While there IS a very small amount of research that may show that DID can be contributed to by a chemical imbalance in the brain that is hereditary and predisposes them a bit more towards becoming DID if traumatized... There is no proof and studies have not been conclusive or done enough!

Or, perhaps, Bemis is implying that Elias knew about what was coming. WHICH IS EVEN WORSE.

In Lemire’s run, Elias was caring. He wanted to help his son, though he went about it the wrong way. It was what was expected for that time and age.

"I knew Yitz said to come by after Seven, and I was kind of embarrassed to show him how eager I was to hang out...Gotta play the cool kid... But I figured he'd be excited to see me, so it wouldn't matter."

He finds Yitz's office locked so he decides to head down to the basement again to wait.

He finds a trap door in the basement and of course he opens it up and falls inside.

There, he finds Yitz in the dark.

"Oh, Marc. I said to meet me after seven, didn't I?"

If we follow the logic (logic. HA) that Marc doesn’t know what WWII is, what the Shoah is, or what happened, we can also follow that to mean that Marc doesn’t know what a Nazi is. He doesn’t know about antisemitism and he doesn’t know how to avoid danger or dangerous people.

That is a large room. To be hidden under a basement in a synagogue. And no one else knows it’s there? Bullshit.

Also? Marc said that Yitz was a Rabbi that knew his grandfather and who also trained Marc’s father in how to be a Rabbi. This means he’s been a Rabbi for a LONG time. And not everyone just gets to be a Rabbi. It’s a PROCESS. A long process!

I’m not posting the next pages. They are disturbing.

"You must have so many questions. Most importantly, 'what is uncle Ernst doing with that dead boy hanging from the ceiling?' First... He's not dead. Though I was hoping to get that done before our meeting. Truthfully, you're a good sort and you've never been in any danger from knowing me. Until now, that is. Because you have learned. I'm not Uncle Yitz, but Uncle Ernst. Would you like to know how I knew your Grandfather, really?"

He's torturing the hanging man during this speech.

He babbles on for a while. Here's a summary:

When the Nazi invaded, Marc's Grandfather tried to offer up information to the Nazi in an attempt to get his family out and to America. Apparently Ernst was the Nazi that Marc's grandfather pleaded with. Ernst saw that things were not going well in the war and that Hitler's end was coming. So he helped get the family out. In return, he asked to escape with the family.

He disguised himself as "his long-lost Rabbi friend".

Along the way, Ernst killed Marc's Grandfather so no one would learn the truth.

Then he starts talking about how he was part of the Cabal (the people that made the Red Skull). They gave him enhancements too.

"My Enhancement is more simple, more elegant. I discovered a method to elongate my life, so long as I sufficiently stimulate the dark, primordial pleasure center of my brain on a regular basis. And you see... What I enjoy most is killing Jews."

Yeah so... We have a Nazi jew killer from Hitler run Germany who pretended to be a Rabbi????!

This is propaganda. There are literally conspiracy theorists out there that believe that the Jewish people are hiding the Nazi. That they made it all up to hide the Nazi.

Again, it takes SO MUCH to be a Rabbi. He had to study. He had to know All five books of Moses AND the Talmud and the history and teachings and language! There is NO WAY someone just stumbles their way through that.

So this guy goes up to Little Marc and tells him about "what we accomplished together as a nation, less than a century ago. I will tell you of your 'Shoah'."

Hmmmmnn…

And he tells Marc what his FATHER should have told him years before.

About the Holocaust. It's a cliff note version of it.

All of this is told over images of Marc enjoying his life with Marlene and Diatrice.

It's told very matter of fact.

About the trains, ghettos, camps, gas chambers, or of course Dr. Mengele (who, while famouse was not the worst of them).

"It's the same world now that let it happen back then, Marc. It isn't crazy enough that it's impossible. People like me... We'll always be out there waiting to come back for you."

SEE. THIS IS WHY HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN ABOUT THIS BEFORE. He could have gotten the proper introduction. The history. THe proper order of things. The places, the Nazi propoganda war machine, and the Final Solution. It is important to know history so it doesn't happen again. NEVER AGAIN is what they are taught.

But it also teaches them that there are Nazi and people like that out there in the world. It teaches them how to avoid these things. These people. Teaches them about the dangers of people out there that want them dead.

This should not have traumatized him. This was fact. This was what he should have already learned about and dealth with.

So, Little Marc gets pissed off and attacks the man, biting him, punching him, and scratching him.

Marc gets away, but Ernst yells that if he tells anyone he'll come back for him.

This is not what caused Marc's DID.

This is a poor rendition of "Jew Trauma" story telling.

This is a clear play down on the Shoah, a push to show a Nazi hiding as a Jew, and a cold responce to mental health and death.

I hate this. Good thing it gets worse. So...much...worse...

Anyways, Marc finishes his tory and Frenchie looks horrified.

He thanks Marc for telling him. He tells Marc that he needs to eventually find a way to "explain your condition, your world, the complexity of it all" to Diatrice eventually.

You see, Diatrice has been raised by Marlene. Marlene is NOT Jewish.

Even with "Uncle Jake" stopping by to help raise her, as implied in the last volume... It is very VERY doubtful that she is doing raised Jewish.

And we already know that Marc/Jake/Steven’s condition has been hidden from her.

I wish it ended there, though I dislike the use of telling her he's a kook.

But of course it doesn't end there.

"It's probably something that's been in my family for a long time. And I can't help it."

Again, no proof that this is a hereditary thing.

"And when I was little, I got scared very badly and, since my brain was wacky, it wound a wacky way to deal with being scared. I made friends like Uncle Jake and Uncle Steven to keep me company when I feel really lonely or upset."

It…Isn’t a TERRIBLE way to explain things to her, depend on her age…. It’s not exactly accurate to how it works, but it’s a start for a young kid.

But then we get Bemis doing a TERRIBLE call back. Because Marc didn’t do a bad job of explaining this! This was not world ending universe changing news! This was something she’d already run into and now had proper terminology for! She knew her dad was different! She knew about Uncle Jake and Steven! This isn’t the SHOAH.

I really…REALLY wish this was like an annual or something. That it was mentioned then never brought up again. I really REALLY wish they had dropped this story and gone and done something else… ESPECIALLY considering Issue 200 is coming up and it’s a big deal….

It isn’t. It. Keeps. Going.

In the afterward we got whoever being like "Wow! What an intense issue! What a gut punch at the end!"

I think it's the editor. Which is just... They thought this issue was deep and moving.

That should tell you a lot about where this volume is going.

This bread? It’s rotten. Send it back.

Issue #195

This one is drawn by Paul Davidson.

This...This issue? I hated it. I hated it so much. Not even the kind of loathing hate you saw in the last issue. This is just... I felt physically ill reading this one.

Oh. Right. Paul Davidson.

I...I hate this art. I hate it so much.

What I don't get is that his art doesn't always look like this.

Sometimes it's kinda nice and has a good flow with the story.

But it's like they gave him Moon Knight and he went, "Insane guy right? Caricatures it is!"

Okay so... I DO remember reading this issue. It immediately struck me as a hateful commentary on 'radical' thinkers, 'new age' people, and 'people trying to be socialites'.

This is why it's drawn like cruel Caricatures. They want you to hate these people and look down on them and think they snooty and bad.

It’s cropped like that because it just keeps going.

I’m going to save you the trouble of reading that drivel and give you a summary:

You see a leader telling them that The Collective is starting today.

He wants to assess each "former individual".

We have the artist. She name drops a famous artist then tells them she "collects real human skulls of deceased circus clowns". Uh huh.

Then we have the "Aggressive romantic nihilist". He has a collection of jeans that he doesn't wash after sexual conquest. Hmm.

There's the skeptic. She thinks everything needs doubt and states that she hates everyone so far. Cute.

There's the fanboy? He likes the whole group and apparently stalked them online before they even met and made paper-mache busts of them all? Right.

Then you have the leader who is conducting the experiment.

His idea is that he wants to "Fuse our very personalities in defiance of our skin shackles and actualize pure socialism."

WOW. So this is not just a cheap shot at mental health, DID in general, but it's ALSO a political shot at socialism.

Fantastic.

I'm so stoked for this disgusting journey we are about to go on.

I’m going to put a pin in this for a second for some personal commentary.

I’m Ace. I’m deeply uncomfortable when it comes to sexual depictions and situations. Especially in comics. There are comics out there that are sexual in nature and that’s fine! I don’t care. I know not to read those ones. I have nothing against the act, in people enjoying different things, different fetishes, and so on. In fact, I stand very firmly in the beliefs that as long as no one is getting hurt and everyone is consenting, you can enjoy whatever you want. That’s your right.

So when I opened up this issue and was faced repeatedly with deeply uncomfortable situations, implications, and art meant to make fun of these people… Not to mention that it felt like they were trying to make the very act of fetishes ‘funny’ or ‘wrong’... This isn’t good comic book content. It really isn’t.

I’m not going to show you all these pages because they really are disgusting and make my stomach sick. But I’m going to try to pick out a few that are not…the worst…

So now they're at a "secret A.I.M. Base."

They have some technology that the main guy is paying them for access.

Apparently his cousin works at the AIM facility as a member.

"I spent most of my life being spoiled by my parents, drowned in trophies, diplomas, accolades, and doctorates. Yet, as long as I can remember, I've woken up feeling empty and mundane. I'm as much as one man can be on his own. Together, we could be...something more."

Yeah... this is going to be a dunk on DID. I can feel it coming.

"This machine creates psychic bonds". The idea is that it's going to fuse them.

They all gather around the machine and it melts them into one horrible flesh thing.

They spot the AIM worker hiding in the corner and tell him he looks Lonely and "you should join us". And they absorb him too.

And just like that, we are back to NORMAL art. Proving that it was drawn like that originally on purpose to make us instantly feel disgusted and uncomfortable and hate it.

This art right here? I like this. I love the sharp lines. The shading. The dull colors. I like the shape of the faces. I like the noses (I'm a nose person. I love the shapes of faces and the different noses!)

....I'm not sure why they are all fishing and why Steven looks like he's in time out...

Got a good look? Good because the art style is about to change again and we don’t see this style again. I…I don’t get it. Why go back. Why give us ugly and disgusting? Moon Knight should be beautiful. It should make you stop and look at a page for hours just wondering about how he got the oil slick on the street to look like that (still pining for Bill. Always loving Bill.)

So we see the boys sitting on a rock above a boiling water in the mind scape and Marc is complaining that he's done with the meta human "freak market". He wants to take it back to street level with thugs and dirtbags.

Jake tells him "good job on the not-killing-him thing."

He's being sarcastic because he's pretty sure that Sun King is going to show up later to cause problems like they always do.

"It's all good. Bushman and I are really getting to know one another. We exchanged numbers. I think we might start a bowling league."

"Jake, you're by far the worst me."

Hm. Once again the conflict on Marc vs. Jake is just...Not fitting in with their character at all.

And Khonshu catches something on his fishing line.

It's marlene's head and she looks pissed. She yells at him and it snaps him out of his inner world state.

We see them at the movies with Diatrice and his phone is buzzing.

Apparently there's a "Super-Crime alert" app.

He checks it despite being in the theater, completely pissing off Marlene btw, and is more than a little disgruntled to find that it's not a normal problem.

He gets up and heads out "I said no more weirdos. I SAID no more weirdos..." And it is Moon Knighttime.

He arrives to find utter chaos.

He locates two cops and asks where the thing is.

I'm not pleased with this at all.

"All right, where is the guy?"

"It's against the law for me to tell you that."

"Jerry, don't mess with that guy. It's that crazy one. He cuts people's faces off."

OKAY. SO. Let me get into this a bit.

ONE TIME one of the writers had Moon Knight come up against Bushman. He cut his face off and kept it like a souvenir. Literally no one was around to witness this. Yet it's always been a running gag about how insane he is and that he cuts off faces.

Which... I hate that writer for doing it. It was funny at the time... But that was a long time ago and looking back at it, that run was just... It had problems.

I'm not mad at this art style some of the time. It's an interesting costume and I always enjoy seeing interpretations to his costume.

Then we see the thing.

It's pretty grosse. A giant writhing mass of blobby flesh with lots of faces and hands and eyes and teeth. why is it always teeth?

And it has noticed Moon Knight and wishes to absorb him too.

"I don't necessarily like that you know who I am." He is not thrilled about fighting this.

"We are now composed of...At least 32 New Yorkers. Several of which are familiar with your history."

"Would you, say, be willing to not be that?"

It smashes up any darts tossed at it.

It immediately turns to a security guard and sucks him in, absorbing him into the Collective.

Ready for this?

Yeah. I'm so uncomfortable right now.

Moon Knight pulls out two swords and slices and dices but it doesn't really do much.

It manages to tackle Moon Knight and rips off his mask and starts to absorb him.

I'm not showing you that picture.

things go black and then we find Marc, Jake, Steven, and Khonshu in a dank cave like place. They head towards a lighted room and find this thing that haunts my nightmares.

I'm going to show you this because it's really ALL I need to show you to hopefully make you understand WHY I hate this issue So. Very. Much.

Art makes or breaks a comic people. But so does the writer who tells the artist what to draw.

ALSO WHY IS THE ART STYLE SO INCONSISTENT?!

Nnnhhh…. This is not a Dr. Strange comic. There should not be psychedelic imagery. And even this is a bit much for Dr. Strange, because at least that knows how to make sense of the chaos.

There is a fine art to depicting chaos without overwhelming the audience. This isn’t it.

Also, it’s VERY clear that this is supposed to be taking a jab at the hippy collective socialist mentality.

And you 100% know that Bemis thought this up and went “They’re already a collective of DID! This is going to be super awesome to show them joining all these other minds and making sense of it and then getting rejected!”

F@*&%&$ you Bemis.

So that ends that issue.

Great. Next bread please. Get me out of this house of moldy bread.

Issue #196!

Still Davidson. (SIGH)

I hate this cover. I have this thing about depicting the brain so it looks like wormy spaghetti. It doesn't sit well with me. I hate it. You know what else I hate?

Yeah. Yeah… I’ll leave it alone for now. But I can’t stress how MUCH I hate this.

So... Butterfly man gives them a tour of the collective consciousness.

"And this is just the beginning. The human mind has an infinite capacity for diversification. Each new brain we add is another universe within us. So imagine that we keep adding infinity upon infinity every time we absorb someone..."

Jake calls it.

"That's a lot of personalities to deal with. What you've got here is an excess of personality. You realize it's taken my man Marc Spector 30 years to deal with a HANDFUL of identities? No wonder you're just attacking random people on the street. This place is out of control."

No. I mean yes but I also mean no.

A system is not always cool and collected. Sometimes there are disagreements, fights, and struggles for how things should run (and that's just the ones that are aware of themselves being a system).

MARC is not the one keeping their system going. We know this. We've seen it time and time again. Marc is the stubborn ass-hole that keeps them moving. That keeps them doing what they need to do. But he'd work them to death to do what he does.

Jake is the one that cools them off and helps build up their social life and handles the joy in life. Steven is the one that handles the self care, the management of the life that doesn't involve them breaking every bone in their body, and Steven is ALWAYS prepared to pull Marc to the back if things go too far.

They take care of one another. They have their roles.

Marc is NOT in charge.

Just because writers don't know what to do with Jake and Steven and always throw Marc to the front (1990s onward. Moench knew exactly what to do with them), doesn't mean Marc is the man in charge.

Well, Butterfly man says "That's where you come in, Mr. Spector. [....] I'm the de facto ruler of the collective, given that its idea was born of my thought process. But I'm just one man who never had much to say for himself outside of scientific ambition... Which is obviously adequately represented here. Someone needs to kick some butt around here to keep things in line."

So Khonshu and Steven reason that if someone takes charge on how to handle all the ‘personalities’ then the blob will stop going on a rampage.

IS THIS AN ALLEGORY FOR D.I.D.?! Is that what Bemis is trying to do? Oh I hate this.

Butterfly man points out that they are ‘the sum of all your thoughts and whims’ and this somehow manifests….

So.... We get a lot of different designs of Moon Knight. Skrulls and robots and more butterfly sorts and just... The thing Marvel does when it's trying to design a lot of weird designs.

I’m just not impressed. There could be better designs and in this art, they are all just kinda hovering there doing nothing.

And thus… "Moon Knights. Every you you've ever dreamed of. Now, what say we put them to work?"

And Moon Knight goes on a therapy mission to try to fix all the parts of the collective brain universe.

The Moon Knights resolve "the Oedipal complex, the Angst quotient, All suicidal and homicidal tendencies..."

(the fact that they placed suicidal and homicidal together in the same spectrum is down right insulting).

Also there's this...

I don’t even know where to start with this one. I’m going to skip the obvious low hanging fruit of “False masculinity” that should have been called “Toxic masculinity”... And hit the fact that you can feel that Bemis doesn’t like Steven. He writes him as a wimp. He writes him crying all the time and as vain and clinging to Khonshu. He CLEARLY views Steven as useless except as eye candy or worse.

(Not to mention we’ve seen Steven in a speedo before, Speeden as we lovingly call him, and Bill did a FAR better job.)

So they go back to butterfly man to see how things are going, since they resolved so many of the collective's issues.

They take a peak at the outside world and...

I swear to all that is holy in the Moon Knight world...

There's an image of the blob huge and destroying things and what not. Under neath that is a list of emotions the blob is feeling:

Rage 25%, Frustration 25%, Sexual Frustration 40%, inner peace 10%

They decide they need to figure out the core of all the bad emotions and Jake figures that it's the main control guy, the butterfly man.

"All this judgment and messiah complex nonsense--You're kind of a @$#%, huh?"

He denies it, saying "It's not the general sentiment around here" but some of the original collective pop in to tell him that they all think he is.

Butterfly man freaks out, yelling about how none of this would be possible without his genius and blah blah blah

"You think the work you've done is so great? If it weren't for me locking away that sentient virus that's trying to drive the collective insane, things would be way worse!"

And everyone stares at him and asks if that's true about the virus. He denies it.

They restrain him while they decide to open the locked door and deal with whatever problem is hidden behind it.

A bunch of weird goblin like Ork creatures come out in battle armor and tell them all to prepare to die or kneel before their leader.

"One man should never control an entire world, Maurice, and no crappy aspect of someone's personality should define them. Trust me. I would know."

Uh huh. It's ego. They're fighting ego.

So we get some trippy art of all the Moon Knights fighting the goblin things mixed with images of the blob fighting the army and avengers in New York.

UGH.

"All right. You're weird little reign is over" they defeat the goblins.

"It's Facism of the mind! Get Jungian with us and let go, Maurice!"

UGH. "Jungian analysis is a psychoanalysis method to access and experience and integrate unconscious material into awareness." It basically is looking for meaning behind behavior, feeling, and events. It's CARL F-ing Jung. A psychologist "The goal is to achieve psychological healing and wellness by aligning conscious and unconscious aspects of someone's personality".

There are a lot of opinions about Carl Jung out there and I'm not going to get into that. But a lot of this doesn't go well with D.I.D. It has a lot to do with integration of the alters when applied to DID. ...I'm not going to get into that either, because it's a HOT debate in the DID community and I have no business poking that bear with that stick.

So Butterfly man Maurice says "But...I just hate AND love myself so much!"

Jake takes things into his own hands.

"Steve, I don't really know the metaphysical implications of this, but given this guy seems to think he's what's holding this all together, I think it might help to just...Whack him in the face. Give him some perspective, ya know?"

(WHY IS HE CALLING HIM STEVE?!)

(Why did the art style change again? Why did their designs change again?)

The blob explodes in the real world. It's...it's disgusting.

It starts to vomit up all the people like No Face from Spirited away.

Marc sits there, covered in goo. "Well... That was a rough one."

Khonshu reflects. "I wonder if the effects of the change Maurice made to his body will ever come back around again? Can he be contained?"

The police hand cuff Maurice and put him in the cop car.

"It really goes to show how someone's hang-ups can govern everything about them." Marc reflects to Khonshu.

"Certainly a lesson well learned, Marc. For you, for me, for everyone."

"He may be a horrible guy, but I hope some of the work we Moon Knights put in within the collective's mind-state affected his worldview."

Oh thank you it’s over.

And I have reached my 30 image limit again so this is a great place to take a break and a breather before we head into the final countdown of BEMIS.

So this issue is a sort of filler. You see, it was a one off that has nothing to do with the over all arch. It’s designed to give us space between important plot issues so that we feel a sort of passing of time. We start with something that feels like it stands on it’s own. Then we get filler. Then we start what feels like a new plot but it always circles back around to that first issue.

Which means… Things are about to get really really bad.

This issue may feel kind of pointless and like a one off that had no meaning other than to play with the inner workings of MK’s mind… But it was done so badly.

We’ve seen a good rendition of how it’s done in MacKay. When people attack him mentally, his system does what it is supposed to do and acts as a protective force, often bringing great pain and downfall to the people that dare set foot in his mind.

We’re talking about a system that has worked HARD to build up such a force to fight these sorts of attacks that he’s practically immune to them.

Now THAT’S interesting. The idea of a collective hive mind trying to absorb his militarized mind is a fantastic story to tell! It’s exciting! Why? Because you should see HOW the system has learned to function together. How they protect one another. How much of a UNIT these guys are after all these years.

I also really hate that Bemis is trying to get psychological on us. Attempting to reference big names that honestly are so far out of date that he’s not even using them correctly anymore.

And seeing the way he writes, you get the feeling that he is pulling the “I know more than you” ego attitude and is prepared to fight/argue anyone that dares to try to disagree with his take.

Knowing how he has written things here, and seeing how he has handled Moon Knight’s D.I.D so far, this whole issue was just one big jab at their mental illness. It was supposed to be funny and action packed and get MEN (specifically men who read Chuck Palahniuk or who take the Punisher to be pro cops) to agree and get excited about the new edgy Moon Knight.

This isn’t where he’s supposed to be. The story isn’t supposed to go like this. The characters are all falling so short that I can’t wait to see them all leave again.

….We’re so close you guys. Just…Just a few more issues to go.

Part 4 HERE

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Analyzing the comics #BEMIS #Marc Spector #Jake Lockley #Steven Grant #I hated this with a burning passion #No one should have to read this #why is this a thing that happened to us #What did we do as fans to deserve Bemis?#Please... It's been torture

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