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Breaking Down the Comics: Don't Hurt Yourself (Issue 13)

Published 2007

Writer Charlie Huston

Artist: Tomm Coker

(Hats off to the color artist Dean White. Bang up Job in this one)

The Initiative

Issue 13: The Uses of Restraint

A special Double Sized Issue!

Welp... We are about to go down the hole that now is a scar on the Moon Knight history.

In the start of the Huston run, we see how the old Moon Knight family had broken up, Marc had fallen down the hole of drug addiction, self pity, and unchecked failing mental health.

We saw him dig his way out of the pit of Marc Despair and try to get the band back together only to be met with the obstacle of his own stalkerish obsession with Marlene.

We ALSO got caught up in the middle of the first Marvel Civil War Event where neither side wanted him but neither side wants the other side to have him. He's considered a liability and too unstable to leave alone.

Marc, faced with the fact that no one wants him, starts to develop a desperate need to be seen as 'valuable.'

You ready for this trip?

Let's take a minute to appreciate this ID card though!

Height: 6'2". A pretty average man height. Maybe just a little taller than average. Not much. Weight; 225. Honestly, he's kind of a light weight. He has muscle but with those stats? He's a lean guy!

Powers: Inactive. Back at the start, he had some MOON POWERS. Related to his interaction with a werewolf, he used to get pretty strong at the full moon. The powers started to fade by the time OG comics came around and he was pretty pissed about it. The prophetic visions is also interesting too.

Also, what is that picture, Marc? What are you wearing? You look like a disgruntled office worker.

What’s even MORE hilarious is that this card pops up in a much later issue and it’s pretty worn down and crumbled up. Marc kept this stupid card in his wallet for ages. I love when continuity does call backs.

I do like the art in this. It's very gritty and shadowed but clear. It honestly reminds me of the BENDIS run's art style... Which... You all know how I feel about the BENDIS run. Not good. But amazing art. Hmmmm...

ALRIGHT. We open with Moon Knight standing mysteriously on a roof top next to Iron Man.

Iron Man is pushing him to do something that Marc doesn't seem too amped to do.

IM: Agreed, then?

MK: I don't like it.

IM: It's for the best.

MK: So you say. But I still don't like it.

IM: Yes, but this way you get to do what you need to do. And I--

He takes off his helmet and we see skull face Khonshu face. (They are still running with the Skinned face of Bushman, though in some renditions it's starting to look more like the Red Skull.)

Khonshu: I get the exposure I require.

MK: It's not the way--

Khonshu: Your way will get you arrested or in the booby hatch. What good to me are you in the booby hatch?

MK: It isn't about--

Khonshu: That's exactly what it's about. Don't fool yourself otherwise.

MK: No. It's about them.

Moon Knight is looking at a newspaper clipping of some accused war criminal who has been declared a freeman by courts.

"It's about the things they do. And the price they have to pay."

Khonshu: The question is, do you want to stay on the field? Or do you want to have them stick you on the bench? See, we're on the same page. Me, I'm a businessman. I understand how the game is played. It's a quid pro quo world. Give some to get some."

Moon Knight agrees to do it and then proceeds to jump off the roof in the most awkward position ever. It looks like a cat pouncing straight up to land on something.

Alright, inside a police station. We see from a clock on the wall and the GIGANTIC SIZE OF THE MOON that it's almost 11 or 12pm.

The station is dark and we have two cops with a guy handcuffed to their desk.

I question the validity of this near midnight empty station in the dark booking.

The guy is arguing about how he 'got rights'. The cop is internal monologuing about how he missed the peaceful quiet nights.

Wait, can it be? Is this my favorite detective?

The criminal goes on to incriminate himself. "I mean, here I am, here I am, having a whatyacall,a domestic situation with my kid. That's a private matter, that is. What happens in a man's home, his castle. That's not just a law, that's a, a you know, a principle on which this country is founded. Bedrock, that is."

The detective goes on to miss the sweet bliss of the quiet years.

"An' if I want to teach that little #### a lesson behind the closed doors of my castle, that's whose business? Mine, that's whose." He then goes on to describe how 'a freak' came and busted through his window and disfigured him.

Yep. Criminal has a nice crescent moon carved into his forehead. Sometimes I forget that Marc did that for a while. A stain that unfortunately became so iconic that it stayed with the characterization and persists to this day of the days of Moon Knight carving up his prey.

Detective Flint isn't happy about having to listen to this guy. The other cop tells him that "You get him. Lieutenant says you get ALL of them like this one. Lieutenant says anyone comes in that HE did this to, you deal with them. [...] He's your problem as long as he's on the unregistered list." He then asks Flint if he did something that bad that he pissed off the Lieutenant to end up with these cases.

Flint tells the detective that the man was arrested incorrectly so they have to set him loose. The man complains and complains and swears he's going to lodge a complaint on Moon Knight and the department for harassment and assault.

Flint sets the record straight.

"The guy did that to you, "The freak", seems he keeps records. Leastways, that's how I figure he remembers to check up on his favorites."

He shows the creep pictures of the other 'favorites.'

I mean… The one with the four moons all in a row. Are you kidding me right now, Marc? I thought for sure he’d be like three strikes and you are out. Cause you know, the first one is centered, then you see the second one off to the side, then one to the other side, then you are out of room? Did he look at that one guy and go “LOOK AT THIS MASSIVE FOREHEAD” and just start off to the side? They aren’t even centered? Did he lose count? Was that the first guy? He wasn’t sure where to start or how many to call it? What happens when he gets five? Get one on the nose? WHERE DO YOU DRAW THE LINE MARC?!

(I also love how blahzeh the one guy looks. Like he’s just sitting there like “Yeah. I deserved it. This was fair.”)

So the creep runs off.

The other cop laughs it off then asks: "So what you say, Detective, he gonna come in from the cold and get legaled up? Just that there's a pool, and I can get some great odds if you say he might. Got any skinny?"

At this point a lot of unregistered heroes had been taken down, arrested, and shipped off to the floating fortress prison supplied by Shield. Some of the bigger ones had gotten lawyers (Merdock included) and others had put the cape away to avoid capture. Others were running to Tony's side just to avoid the messy arrest and fight.

Flint calls it like it is. He's been around Moon Knight a LONG time.

"Sure, sure, I got skinny. Skinny is, the Moon Man will do what come natural. Meaning he'll do whatever ####S #### up the most."

I mean... HE ISN'T WRONG.

We head to another moon filled apartment where you see one man in bed and another sitting up. It's Frenchie and Rob!

We get what I assume is Frenchie internal monologue, though I'm sure it would be in French and not English: "It's Madness. To feel this again. After so long."

He mumbles to himself in French anyways: Imbecile de fou.

This wakes up Rob.

"Hm, wha?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep, Rob."

"Easy for you to say, Chatty."

"Was I talking aloud? Desole. I didn't realize."

"Do you think I keep earplugs next to the bed so I won't hear the cats screwing in the alley? You talk to yourself all the time. And in your sleep."

"What do I talk about?"

"Marc. What else?"

Ahhhh Frenchie... This man. I could wax on and on about him. What we all forget is that he was probably seeing hard combat long before Marc signed up. A Legionair. A spy. A merc. He was pretty much already in it deep before Marc's pretty smile walked in. Then he was really in it. If I recall correctly, it was Frenchie that brought Marc into Bushman's company. I could be wrong. I think that story gets retold different ways a few times. But at the end, Frenchie was pretty committed to following this Moon Eyed idiot. Who else would understand the PTSD? Who else let Frenchie keep the adventure going? Let him stay where he is most comfortable and safe? Made him a part of the family?

Then, across town, we see Marlene looking up at the moon, lost in thought.

"Something on your mind?" Her current boyfriend startles her.

"Hm? No. Why? Was I?"

"You haven't said a word since we got out of the movie. Did you not like it?"

"No it was..."

"You don't remember, do you? You were bored. You're bored all the time lately."

"That's not true. I'm just a little distracted. By work. Or something."

"You're bored, Marlene. So bored, you're barely with me."

"Now look--"

"It's okay, really, it's ok. Seriously, Marlene, I don't mind."

"Oh, well thank you for the permission to be a little out of sorts."

"I know you're used to a different kind of energy. It's not a big surprise someone mellow takes getting used to. Change is hard work."

Ah, Marlene. I give her a bad wrap but I have mad respect for her. She was out there, a single young woman, growing up in archeological digs where they had to hire people to protect them from bandits. Her father was murdered in an honestly pretty horrific manner and then she left with the only option she had, to follow Marc back to New York where she lived a life of adventure, danger, and a LOT of violence.

I'll be perfectly honest, I think Marlene and Marc were 100% in a toxic relationship on both sides. But man when they were on they were stellar together.

But that was the problem. They were only good in battle. When things got hot. When things cooled and mellowed... It was not great.

Back in the Moon Lair, we see Ray (Genna's surviving boy). He's on the phone with Genna, assuring her that he's working and now 'with some girl'. He lies, telling her he's "A graveyard security guard'. He also assures her that 'it's not dangerous. It's Long Island, for God's Sake, how can it be dangerous?"

He's lying because Genna wants nothing to do with Marc anymore. She blames him for just leaving. For the death of her other boy, Ricky, who idolized Marc and ran off and got killed. Ray, who has also now seen combat, can't let go of the need to do something. He too has latched onto Marc, the one who will understand the need to fight.

And lastly... We find circle back around to two guys in a car who... It's really dark and I can't 100% make out who they are but I see red glasses so probably Profiler. It seems he has stolen Dare Devil’s trade-mark red glasses. They seem to be looking for someone.

Back with Frenchie, we see him out of bed and getting dressed. He’s had an argument and clearly not processing well the fact that he talks about Marc in his sleep.

He’s doing great.

Speaking of doing great…. Marlene is also having good relationship choices.

Wait… Ex-husband? Yeah just did a little research into that and... When I tell you that sometimes Marvel flies off the rails, it takes a soaring flight. I’m not even going to get into it. But… let’s just say the 90s were an adventure. A coke riddled adventure.

The jist of it? Marc gave up Moon Knight and settled to live as Steven Grant, claiming to be of sound mind. Marc came back and left to go BACK to Sudan (Bad things happened there). She told him that if he went back to being crazy and Moon Knight she'd leave. He left anyways and she left him. She went to college and had a husband "Eric Fontaine". Apparently she leaves him and returns to him MULTIPLE times. She just can't stay out of Marc's orbit.

ANYWAYS. Back to the current comic–

The two are interrupted by two guys that punch Marlene's new squeeze and grab Marlene.

Back in the car, Profile has finally found his target through his binoculars and does his usual babble about a shitty childhood and mommy issues and what not that seems to be a routine Marvel thing when trying to bring down a description of a sad man.

Profiler is bored of the man and honestly, I'm pretty bored of that standard use of depicting a pig-headed misogynistic man with sexual deviancy and childhood issues with Mommy and Daddy. It was big to try to be edgy in this way at this time in Marvel writing and Huston took to it like a fly to sugar.

Back with Marlene's mugging... Yeah, it's going about as well as you'd expect of anyone trying to mug Marlene.

She plays dirty. It does NOT go well for them.

That's another thing about Marlene. She was trained for YEARS by Marc on how to fight and Marc showed her how to be violent and she took to it VERY well.

The one guy that is still able to runs off. The other? Let's just say he took a fist full of car keys to his eyes.

In other news, Frenchie finds himself outside of the Mansion, trying to talk himself into just going home before he gets too involved.

Across town somewhere else, we see Marc dressed up in a business suit that reminds me of Office Space. He walks into a shield building and passes through security.

Or he tries to. He sets off just about every alarm there is at the metal detector.

The scanners light up. "Jesus. You been in a war or something?"

"Something like that."

Marc... You are filled with so much hardware and shrapnel that I hope you never make enemies out of Magneto.

....Okay as much as I like the art style... My biggest complaint about switching styles and artists is that sometimes you don't recognize the characters. ESPECIALLY since at this point in time a lot of Moon Knight characters are all pretty much just designed to look like 'some guy'.

We see some guy working on a door lock complaining about shoddy tech. And Marc goes past him to another some guy working on a video recorder and not getting it to work. He's Dr. Depford.

Looks like he's been expecting Marc. Ah, more of the Avenger mandated therapy sessions?

I have a lot of thoughts about how the Avengers handle mental health. A LOT of thoughts.

(Look Another “Some guy!”)

So the doctor checks in Marc, scans his ID, checks him to make sure he isn't a shape shifter, skrull, or otherwise somehow replaced by a teleporter.

Marc, of course being a punk ass, asks if that has ever happened. The doctor says it hasn't. Marc asks how he can be so sure. The doctor says that he can't be sure until they started talking. So Marc then asks "So am I me, then?"

"Wellll... Well, I suppose that's what we're here to determine, in a way."

Marc... Stop playing with the therapist.

"Funny, I thought we were here to determine if I'm crazy."

(Let me tell you, I love when Marvel writers pretend to be hip to psychiatry.)

Yeah no, he thinks he knows where Marc is going.

"There's no doubt that you're crazy. So you can stop pretending that you are capable of self-deprecating banter or any other healthy social strategies that might put one at ease."

LOL Marc PRETENDING to self depreciate?! Dude wouldn't know how to like himself if his life depended on it. AND IT HAS A FEW TIMES. Yeah... That confused look on his face is pretty spot on.

Where's that meme of the guy going ???????? at something really stupid? Cause that's Marc right now.

So the Therapist doctor makes it clear that they had always intended to reject Marc's application to join Shield and Tony and the other 'heroes'.

They sit there for a panel in silence. Marc processes.

"I'm curious. Does that work often? Trying to provoke volatile interviewees into sudden violent explosions? Does it work often?"

"Sometimes. Not always. But sometimes."

"And when it does work, what keeps the volatile interviewees from hurting you?"

A man off screen responds "I do." and puts a large caliber gun to the back of Marc's head.

See... The common perception of most Avengers/Shield/Hero groups is that Moon Knight is just some off the wall incredibly explosively violent individual. And as much as Marc has an anger management problem... He isn't known for exactly flying off the wall randomly or without control.

Marc, when he IS Marc, is incredibly controlled and honestly, often pretty calm and blank. He is uncomfortable being MARC. Marc hates Marc so much that he would do anything to not be Marc. So when he has to go around unmasked and acting like 'himself', that 'himself' is often not even present. He's dissociating so much right now that he's not even in this galaxy right now.

The mask cover identity doesn't really come into play until MUCH later under a different writer, but it isn't hard to get from here to there seeing what I see here now. I see a blank non-responsive man struggling to pass as a normal human.

And ANY good psychiatrist worth their weight would see this.

Gun man offers to stay. Doctor declines and sends him on his way.

He continues to review Marc's resume.

"Military service. CIA contractor. Former Avenger. Several well-documented years as a masked vigilante."

The doctor notes that all of Marc's training would at least get him out of the training program.

"The physical you took when you came in last week was... Borderline. Excellent general condition for a man in ihs late thirties."

Dude.

"Buuuut, several serious injuries over the years."

What I do love about this is that while this guy reads through Marc's files, we see glimpses of Marc holding it together. Digging his fingers into his knees. Sitting perfectly still and stiff.

"Looking at this, the miracle isn't that you completed the twenty-mile run in the endurance test, it's that you walked in here on your own. Which raises a question. Why haven't you registered your powers?"

"I don't have powers."

As I mentioned before, it's a rather touchy subject for Marc. when he first started losing his powers, he felt them going and he could feel his endurance and strength fading little by little. He was angry and pretty uh....complaintive... about it.

The man asks what it was like to have powers.

"Powers.”

He remembers glory.

“They’re….Overrated. They make you cocky. Sloppy. And people get hurt."

And he remembers failure.

I love this page.

The people he failed to protect. The intense grief he has felt. The people he has lost. Private moments that only Moon Knight knows. Things that won’t show up on reports.

"Hm. A wise answer. Well--Considered and compassionate. And wholly out of character. I hope you'll understand if I discount it."

I'm going to fight this therapist.

That answer is NOT out of character. Moon Knight understands consequences. A man of vengeance knows consequences more than anyone. He IS a consequence.

"By the way. Would you prefer the shade up?" He pulls back the blinds to reveal the aggressively large full moon.

Marc turns away. "Makes no difference to me."

The doctor goes on to note that trying to establish that one has no powers is very difficult. Marc tries to ignore the fact that Khonshu is outside the window making finger guns at the doctor.

"Just to be safe and thorough, I think it would be best if we registered your "former" powers.

"If that's what it takes."

The doctor informs him that what's happening is that they are trying to assess his sanity and character so that they can determine what level of "cautionary alert" is put on his record.

I’m going to fight this next page.

We see Marc doing his best dissociative "try to stay present" tactic. This whole thing is beyond what Marc is comfortable with. People looking at his character. Judging him. Forcing him to face his own person and acknowledge his problems. Not exactly things Marc is good at.

THEN he asks to talk to Marc's former associates. People he cares about and who he knows aren't exactly cheering him on right now. Marlene, Frenchie, Genna? Yeah, this guy going to them could be painful for THEM and Marc doesn't like that idea.

THEN this quack asks to talk to Jake and Steven.

Now, it's been a LONG time since we've heard from either of those two at this point. Marc has been front stuck for a while and gone back to his preset status of not accepting that they are there. He believes what people keep telling him that he made them up. He isn't ready to accept his status as DID.

And considering that at this point, Marvel STILL calls him Schizophrenic and not MPD or DID... It's kind of a shit move. It's a move made to get a rise out of Marc. To test him. To force him to either 'pretend' to be okay, 'pretend' to be them, or to force them out. It's a trigger.

He starts in with a Moon Hypnosis. Forces Marc to stare at the moon and phase out.

And you see, this isn't how alters work. And Marc knows what is expected.

He plays the game.

"Feeling rested?"

"Rested? Ya kiddin' me, Mack? I had nothin' but rest fer years now. I feel rested like a corpse feels rested. Like I bin tucked away in a pine box and put six-feet under is how rested I feel."

So bad New York-ish accent is obviously Jake Lockley.

But if you look closely, it feels wrong. He's angry. Angry at Marc. He degrades him. Calls him a 'son of a bitch'. A double crosser. Is angry at Marlene. "Decided he was better off without good old Jake." Says he was locked up with "that damn fancy pants and all his high-falutin' jibber-jabber".

It's... An interesting take. Possibly the origins of Jake being the angry bad guy.

Considering Huston is pretty much what brought Moon Knight kicking and screaming into the modern era, I can see other writers going back to this run and finding angry Jake without context and just...going with it.

But you have to look closer. Look at what is being said. How it’s said.

So now we move on to Steven Grant.

We get a rich guy story about misunderstandings. Accidentally picking up hookers while lost. Not likely.

The posture is rich guy old money posture. The hand gestures. The phony smile. It's what you expect from a 'fancy-pants uppity' rich guy.

He puts them back into hypnosis and it seems they are 'out'.

The doctor uses that time to talk into a recorder about them.

"...Clearly unfit to serve in either an official or an unofficial capacity. I'm recommending that Spector be classified as a low-red risk factor, advanced to a high-red if he's ever found to possess powers. As it is, his utter instability of mind combined with his combat training makes him a serious danger. Whatever technical resources and or armaments at his disposal should be confiscated at once."

He goes on to recommend bringing legal action against Moon Knight and incarcerating him. Basically putting him into the looney bin.

At this moment, Khonshu starts to speak through Marc.

"Little Man. Insect. Why do you task my servant, Insect? Why do you seek to impede my work with your petty laws and governance? What price do you hope to win? What punishment do you suppose you can escape for this trespass?"

OH. I just realized/remembered who the second man in the car with Profiler is and who he was looking for. (I haven’t read this comic since it came out.)

The doctor is understandably confused. Khonshu has not been understood to be his own entity, presence, or alter up to this point.

(LOL Marc what are you doing. What is that face. Try harder Marc.)

'Khonshu' goes on to belittle the man further. He tells him that he 'sees' him. talks about his childhood trauma. All the pitiful things Profiler was talking about earlier. Mommy issues, sexual deviancies, superiority complexes...

He then goes on to belittle the man further and then demand that he knee and 'serve your lord'.

Understandably the doctor is shaken and he instantly kneels.

Which... considering Marc's chosen posture...

LOL. It’s how I fall asleep in my chair. His neck is going to haaaaate him later.

Marc then pretends to wake up, looking confused and startled.

The doctor tells him that the paperwork needs to be validated before it processes downstairs.

"Congratulations, Mr. Spector. Moon Knight is a licensed...well...Hero." And he gets a certificate.

"You are registered as an independent no SHIELD or Government Affiliation."

He's then told that he doesn't need to come back or do anything extra. No interviews with his associates. He's done.

Marc takes his paper and steps out of the office, taking a moment to clear his head before he leaves.

The doctor tears up all his files on Marc and deletes any recordings he has.

Marc leaves the building and gets in the car with Profiler.

"And how'd that go?"

"It worked."

"Was there ever a question?"

"There was for me."

"No there wasn't. Making people believe you're something else is your gift. Making yourself believe is the problem."

"Get out, I have things to do."

"No doubt, no doubt. That license must be burning a hole in your pocket."

He checks to make sure that the doctor won't go on to hurt anyone. Profiler assures him that he won't. He'll be messed up for life now, but he won't hurt anyone.

"He's evil."

"Sadly, no he's not. He's just human."

Marc drives away.

We see the big crime lord from the start of the comic getting in his comic and we find Moon Knight there waiting for him.

"I've been reading about some of the things you did. And wondering if you know what they might feel like."

Cut to the drivers up front listening to the news on the radio on the latest in Tony Stark's hero licensing and the concerns of anyone getting licensed without restrictions.

We cut to the outside of the car and see the man get thrown out of the very thick glass window.

Marc….what is this thing you have about busting through windows?

And Moon Knight walks away from the now bloody car. The crime boss and his two drivers are now unconscious with crescent moons cared into their foreheads.

The boss has something shoved into his mouth.

It's the registration for Marc Spector to be a hero.

Back at the Moon Lair, Frenchie and Ray are talking. Ray asks why Frenchie is there. Maybe nightmares? No, Frenchie no longer suffers Nightmares. He's lucky.

Ray has nightmares. Nightmares about his lost friends and brother.

Frenchie apologizes for bringing it up.

Ray points out that Frenchie is family and can ask these things.

"'Sides--- Not like you never lost anything yourself, is it?"

Frenchie picks up his old moon hat from back in the day and stares at it.

"I have lost some things. My legs, yes? When I first was paralyzed, it was a challenge to overcome. Not to be able to walk, to stand on my own. Terrible, yes? But it taught me things. How better to rely on others. To ask for help. To love honestly."

We see Marlene sitting on some steps, looking at her still bloody hands.

Marc walks up and helps her up the stairs and to the bathroom sink where she can wash the blood away.

"Later, I was told I might walk again." Frenchie continues. "But the surgery would require I lose a part of myself. My lower legs. My feet. Parts, yes, that I had not used for years. But still I was in terror of losing them. As if in fear of losing the ground I had once walked on."

Marlene and Marc make out.

"Fear that in standing again, I would lose the ability I had found. Great loss, it teaches us what we love. The things lost. The new things found."

Frenchie continues to look at the old hat.

Ray asks if Frenchie wants his old job back.

Frenchie declines.

"No. Only that there are things one can desire, without understanding."

Ray tells Frenchie about all the new changes Marc asked him to make to the chopper and their new buildings.

"Tell ya, you and me may live in the past some, but he is a man for the future."

"No, you are wrong, he wants only the past. He does not know how to bid farewell to what must be cut off."

Ray agrees and moves to show Frenchie that he found Jake's old cab hidden under a tarp.

"How's that for living in the past?"

"Yes, you see, it is hard. It is hard for old soldiers to say goodbye to their past. To say goodbye to their armor and their weapons. The trappings of the past. To leave gracefully the field of battle."

And we see Marlene and Marc did more than make out. Marlene sits up in bed in the dark in a 'what the hell did I Just Do' pose.

And it ends there.

THERE IS SO MUCH TO UNPACK IN THIS ONE.

So let’s talk about the genius and strategy of Marc Spector. Marc is more than a violent lunatic. People see his dossier of war and military and violence and think he just punches and shoots things. Marc worked for the CIA as a contract for hire. He often went undercover. He worked both sides of the field. Hell, he probably double crossed more than a few nations. Sure, he’s an idiot in a lot of situations, but when it comes to full out combat, Marc is a genius.

He understands what needs to happen to win. Even at his own cost. I think one comic even noted that Marc specialized in BRINGING DOWN GOVERNMENTS. He was often sent into highly volatile situations to countries with unstable dictatorships or weaker leaders. He would work to unsettle the people and system and bring them down to make way for someone else to take charge.

So Marc took one look at the situation. There is a criminal that has done BAD things that he desperately wants to get. He knows he is already walking on thin ice just being a vigilante without SHIELD’s approval. This particular criminal has already been deemed untouchable by the court system. If he swings in and gets him, they will hunt him down and he will go to the SHIELD jail.

He needs a license to hunt criminals.

He already knows that Tony dislikes him. But in the chaos of Civil War, the new registration acts laws are not exactly clear. There is a lot of debate and unclear guidelines. Basically bureaucratic things. Government things. Lines to cross.

He needs to apply. He knows he will never pass the psychological test.

If there is one thing Marc knows better than war… It’s psychologists.

At this point in the Moon Knight time line, it’s really unclear what Marc has been through as a kid. BEMIS hasn’t fucked things up yet and tried to explain his trauma. But we DO know that Marc had some trauma in his past. He was a violent kid and he ran from home, joined the military and got hit with a section-8 (discharging personnel deemed mentally unfit, inapt, or undesirable - Thank you MASH). One can infer that he was probably seen by the military doctors before they discharged him.

This is PROBABLY not his first run in with a psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist. If we go off the OG time line and Huston’s run up to this point, Marc is in serious denial about his problem and doesn’t think Jake and Steven are real. He thinks he’s schizophrenic. Hearing voices, hallucinating, the works (Thanks Khonshu). There is a good chance that if he DID have time in a hospital, he’s probably blocked it out.

Regardless of his past experiences, Marc has made it his business to understand how profiling works and how professionals assess mental health.

It doesn’t take much to work out who the doctor is that will be checking him. He does his own research. Doesn’t like what he finds. He has to play dirty.

He goes to Profiler. The man who can look at someone and instantly read all their dirty secrets and weaknesses.

He goes in. He’s uncomfortable. He’s clearly fighting his own demons and PTSD but he has to stick with the plan. There’s a point where he clearly wants nothing more than to lose it, but he knows that if he can pull this ONE hat trick off, nothing else he says or does will matter. All he has to do is make sure that the doctor believes him.

So Marc has to walk a very thin line of his own sanity to make sure it’s just enough to make the doctor believe.

You can’t open with that trick. He needs to set it up so that he himself looks meek. Uncomfortable. Guarded. Pretty easy for him to pull off.

It tells the doctor that he has something to hide. That maybe he’s unsure of himself. That he doesn't know his own problems.

There is a very good chance that Marc wasn’t sure HOW he was going to pull it off. He knew the bomb he had to drop, but maybe he didn’t know when or how exactly to drop it. Perhaps his initial plan was just to get through it all then black mail him? Something that can easily backfire. He needs something more solid.

So he waited. He knew that a man with a superiority complex would want to toy with him. Would want every reason to call him a psycho and write him off in the worst way.

So when the idea of the doctor talking to Jake and Steven comes up, Marc plays it up. He knows what’s in his file. MPD.

I mentioned how the dialogue with Jake and Steven wasn’t right. It was a show. Jake was too angry at Marc. Steven was too much of a caricature of a rich man.

I strongly believe that these were not REALLY Jake and Steven. I think these were projections of Marc. Ideas he had of them. Afterall, what did the doctor know about loveable good natured Cab driver Jake? Of charitable and kind Steven? All he knows is how bad Marc is.

And maybe it hurt him a little. Maybe his guilt came out here. How he feels about them. How he feels that THEY feel about him. How he feels about himself. And maybe he thinks he did lock them up. He stopped letting them live their lives and he feels guilty. Is afraid they hate him. Thinks they should.

And, maybe he’s afraid that they really aren’t real. That he really did make them up and what that would mean. If they aren’t real, how crazy is he? And maybe pretending to be them, he’s worried it would be too easy to slip back in. To let them back out. To go back into his old life.

A life that isn’t there anymore.

You have the whole speech about how Marc can’t let go of the past, after all.

There is also always the possibility that Jake and Steven were there. Maybe it wasn’t fully them, but maybe they woke up just enough.

At the end, Marc stands outside that door, face in hands, just long enough to show that this was NOT easy for him. This whole meeting was a huge mental workout that he didn’t want to do.

So when he finally DOES pull off the Khonshu bit, he has to sell it. He has to repeat back everything he has heard Khonshu say to him. Calling him a pathetic insect. A slave. A good for nothing that is only good for one thing and it’s violence.

He has to sell it so hard that maybe he believes it. Maybe he wonders. As Profiler put it, Marc is GOOD at making people believe. Even himself.

So Maybe it scared him. Was Khonshu real? Is he just a man pretending to be Khonshu like he pretend to be Jake and Steven? Is Khonshu inside him? These are all things Marc is struggling with.

In the end, Marc won. But as with all battles with Marc… There is always a cost.

Then we go back to Marlene. The violence. The things she knows. And then sleeping with him.

Something she knew would be tempting. To go back to him again. To go back to how it was like Marc wants. It just isn’t something they should do. Toxic relationship beyond. She can’t let him go and it only fuels the addiction.

On the other hand, we see Frenchie. Frenchie returns, but he returns to see that it’s all the same. There isn’t anything for him there. He returns to find that he has moved on and he just needs to accept that he will always feel the pull to go back, but that he has a better life now.

Then, after all that. After everything he just went through. Moon Knight still crosses the line. He finds the crime boss, beat shim up, carves a moon into his head, and then takes the paper he worked so hard to get and shoves it in his house. A message.

But what is the message?

“Look here. I got the required certificate. The thing YOU said I could never have. I got it anyways. And despite all your rules and regulations, I still did my own thing. Your system is broken. Your system let this evil man go and your system let ME have the authority to do what I want and you want to come after me? Your system is broken.”

And in the next run, Tony starts to ask those questions.

Stick around. I promise I’ll get to more as we finish off Huston and welcome in the next writer: Mike Benson!