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Moon Knight Primer Part Thirteen

Moon Knight (2016) #10 - 14

Prologue, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII

And here we get to the end of the Lemire Run, a 5 part story titled Death and Birth, which is not the end of the 2016 volume, as there will be another writer in this who will do a lot more to cement most of what is now considered the origin of the guys’s DiD, the new revised origin of Moon Knight, as well as adding two characters to the canon that are amazing and… sort of erase Randall from reality? Because during all this, there’s not a single mention to Randall Spector to the point that if someone came to these issues after only seen the series one could believe that a) Randall was series only, and b) Randall was a cinnamon roll to be protected despite him being a murderous serial killer at best and a murderous serial killer cult leader at worst in the comics.

There are a couple of things that are a bit controversial of this run, so I will tackle them fast: Mental Health Treatment is NOT as terrible as it is shown here, and I believe electroshock therapy is no longer a thing, at least not in reputable hospitals. However, yeah, this puts the Spector parents in a worse light than before, as you will see soon. Rabbi Elias Spector used to be a loving, if a bit strict father with his absolute pacifism, here he is almost as bad as the spineless man who let his son be abused by his alcoholic wife in the series.

Second, it makes clear that no, the Alters didn’t came to be because of Khonshu’s interference, as Ellis had proposed. While Lemire won’t say clearly why they came to be, it’s clear that Jake, Steven and Marc have been a System since the body was at least 10, Steven and Marc being the first split and Jake coming forward a bit later. The only Alter who comes up after Khonshu’s deal in Cairo is Captain Spector, and Captain Spector is never seen again after Lemire’s run ends.

Third: It makes a MESS out of Marc’s backstory regarding his abilities, as there’s no way that he would have gotten C.I.A. and possibly S.H.I.E.L.D training after his stint as a soldier, and yet, offers no alternative explanation as to why our guys can go against say, Taskmaster toe to toe, without Khonshu giving them extra strength, but there you go.

One and three are, in my opinion, the only parts of the Lemire Run that are bad. There are a few of very purist comic fans who dislike the second part but they’re a minority (and most disliked the Lemire Run in the first place because absolutely Nothing on it happens in the Real World, and it’s ALL in the Guys’s Innerspace and well, that is a bit of a high concept when your favorite hero is the Punisher because he shoots bad guys -really, reading THOSE forums gave me a bit of a headache)

And well, we have to remember that since Everything is in the Guys’s mind? And in specific framed from Marc’s point of view as he remembers, with only one tiny sliver of Jake fronting? It is still an unreliable narrator. It’s not HOW things happen, but how Marc REMEMBERS them happening.

But well, let’s go into exactly how it goes. And once again, instead of going issue by issue, since this still changes fast from flashback to “reality” to the Othervoid which is reachable from Marc’s innerspace -and how cool is that? And let’s start precisely with the new and revised Origin of Moon Knight -and the system.

We begin with Marc and Steven meeting outside Marc’s apartment building. They’re both ten, and anyone can see they’re pretty much identical except for the fact that Steven is not wearing a Kippah, and is dressed in a bit of a more elegant way than Marc. As if he was Marc, born into more money. Marc mentions that his father is the rabbi at the local synagogue, but Steven dismisses his own father as ‘not being around much’ and that it doesn’t matter as he’ll grow to be rich and famous as a movie producer, so he’ll not need his father anymore -this even lines up with the original Moench run where Steven pretty much refused to see Rabbi Spector in his death bed. Marc may have loved his father, but Steven? Steven wanted nothing to do with the man for what he did to Marc.

By the way, Marc’s childhood room? An absolute treasure of easter eggs: He has Max Headroom posters on the wall (Max Headroom being a show about a man working together with an AI made out of his own brain-patterns. An outside Alter, if you will, as Max and Edison do not share the same body, nor the same mind. But it is curious still as they have their origin in the same brain), a telescope and books of astrology, a lot of Star Wars toys, and an Iniana Jones poster, a few trophies for different sorts, an A-team poster, and the fact that he’s a Cubs and Bears fan. He also has a Blast Off figure, whose armor is VERY similar to Moon Knight’s black suit. There’s also a lot of art supplies and an etch-a-sketch, as if Marc was still deciding what he wanted to do with his life. Which is obvious, as he was ten.

The boys’s conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Rabbi Spector, and that’s when we get the wham shot of Marc completely alone in his room, the clear sign that Steven is only in his head, and Rabbi Spector looking devastated at the way his son doesn’t seem to notice this.

A little bit later, we see Marc having a conversation with a psychiatrist and his father. He is confused as to why the doctor asks about Steven, and tries to say something about Steven AND Jake, who is, according to Marc’s father “A new development”. In a heartbreaking moment, we realize that neither the doctor or his father are talking TO Marc, even when he is right there, and instead are talking ABOUT Marc, to the point that soon, they make him leave the room so they can discuss things privately. Marc tries to hear through the door, but he is soon distracted by the arrival of someone else: Khonshu, peering over his shoulder, announcing that no, Rabbi Spector is NOT Marc’s True Father, instead, that HE is, and that He will be waiting, because “Soon” Marc will come to him, and then, he’ll be complete.

As always, Khonshu is sketched and inked in a glitchy way, showing how other wordly he is, compared to Marc’s reality. As Marc is reeling from this, his father comes out from the office and pretty much tells the poor boy that he is sick, and he’s being sent away to be cured because neither Rabbi Spector nor his wife can help Marc with his illness.

And thus, we see the first step for Marc to see his condition as something bad, something to be ashamed off.

As the flashbacks are intermixed with Mr. Knight return to the Asylum to face Khonshu, there’s this incredible sequence where he meets Anubis to barter for Crawley’s soul, and he jumps into the Over void, and we can see short scenes of poor Marc, Steven and Jake’s time in the asylum, as he’s forcibly medicated, told he can’t go home, and finally, as the Alters refuse to be integrated, and fight for their existence as a system, is forced to endure Electroshocks. (And then, he falls into ANOTHER reality, which may or may not be right outside Marc’s head but still in the astral plane, given that we see him come out of the void as if he had just surfaced from water, but I digress)

Notice, by the way, that Lemire DOESN’T give us a reason for the original disassociation, nor for Jake’s appearance as an Alter. With just the information we have, it could have been the abandonment and lack of acceptance of his family, or something else. The point is that it doesn't STIGMATIZE Marc’s Plurality, nor implies that there's a good or bad reason for that first split. The comic, right now, is not making a judgment about it being good or bad. What is CLEARLY bad is the fact that Rabbi Spector couldn’t accept his son… his sons, really, and the way the hospital tried to “Cure” the boys into what is considered “normal” behavior (Side rant: I HATE the world “normal” to describe people. Even among Neurotypicals there’s no such thing as Normal, but this is not for here and now) THAT is what causes Marc to feel ashamed of his condition, to try and hide as much as he can -and I specify MARC, because later we’ll see that Steven, Jake, and yes, even Captain Spector, have a different view of it. And I mean, Captain Spector was a very late comer to the party!

And yes, I know we ended the last arc with a sort of Integration where Marc was the only one left standing, but that is undone in issue 11. I’ll go on about how it happened WHEN we reach that point in the chronological order, not in the narrative order.

So, going back to chronological.

Marc spends at LEAST 8 years in the hospital, away from his family, under the “loving” care of many doctors including Dr. Emmet (Remember her? Oh, we will discuss about this TERRIBLE doctor later. She may not be a Crocodile Goddess, but boy, her license should’ve been revoked LONG before she got her hands on the boys’s case) , and he’s being allowed to go home temporarily as his father has died and he’ll be sitting shiva. Marc, being older, is no longer wearing his kippah all the time, and packs very lightly for the burial and funeral -which is the ONE and only time we see Wendy Spector.

At the funeral, Wendy says that Marc’s father would’ve been happy to see him, something that Marc really doubts as he knew that his father was embarrassed of him for his condition. As the argument grows, and Wendy mentions that all her husband wanted was for Marc to “get better”, Jake takes over fronting duties, trying to save Marc from being upset, to which Wendy responds as if the whole DiD thing was just Marc “being difficult” and not, you know, real.

I REALLY hate the Spector family as not ONE of them ever supported Marc. It’s at this point where I think that the guys WOULD be better off if Khonshu was REALLY their father and not, you know, just claiming them as their avatar on earth.

Speaking of which “Marc” -possibly Jake pretending to be Marc again to keep Wendy off his back- excuses himself to go to the bathroom, instead goes to his childhood room that has no more posters… but still has his old telescope… and, hearing Khonshu call him from the moon? Runs away, apparently to join the military after lying to his recruiter about his mental health issues.

And here’s where we get to the ONE scene in the Lemire’s run that I feel is deeply problematic and is an absolute W.T.F. moment that comes out of nowhere and has nothing to do with the story. See, Marc spends three years in the Marines in this version of his origin, has two tours in Iraq “mostly peace keeping” (because yeah, Lemire is HIGHLY responsible for cleaning Marc’s past ledger in the form of retcons, and thus making it easy for others to blame Moon Knight’s violence on Jake. I love the man, I love his run, I can’t deny he did this), but has a lot of “bizarre” incidents which culminate with him walking straight into a minefield while getting naked as he’s following the voice of the moon.

Sigh.

Yeah, no excuse for falling to THAT stereotype of someone with a mental condition. And while discussing this, Marc sees Khonshu telling him that he “will give his soul” to Khonshu in order to be “cured”. Because yeah, Rabbi Spector did a number on his son.

In any case, that incident causes Marc to be dishonorably discharged as unfit for duty -a new development as as I said, in the past Marc Spector’s record as a soldier was impressive- but before he can be shipped off back to the USA, and probably to the hospital, Marc runs away AGAIN, this time right into the underbelly of the illegal boxing rings of El Cairo. Because We may be whitewashing Marc’s killing as a soldier and mercenary a little later, but NOT his ability to kick ass when needed. During this time, by the way, Steven and Jake also fronted long enough so that Jean Paul Duchamp, good old Frenchie, has ALSO heard of them, but he still goes and recruits Marc. (And we know Marc is the one fronting during the Boxing matches because ALL this is Marc’s POV, remember? At this point, we’re still under the impression that the Alters were gone in the previous arc)

Working for/with Duchamp, Marc becomes a bounty hunter, and learns Arabic. After they capture a heroin dealer, they call the attention of whom Duchamp calls “the worst of the worst” although also “the one who pays the most”. Who is it? Well, our good ol’ friend Bushman, of course! Frenchie wants nothing to do with him, but Marc, enticed by the idea of a good paycheck, convinces him to at least “listen” to the offer.

Bushman hires them for a job to raid an archeological site and, once again whitewashing Marc’s past as a merc, we have him immediately telling Bushman to remember that the people at the dig are “innocents”, not drug runners or soldiers, solidifying that nope, Marc didn’t kill civilians or innocents before (Because his two tours in Iraq had him only seeing action ONCE, according to the man who discharged him). Not only that, but Marc seems convinced that the man with a SKULL TATTOED ON HIS FACE is “just for show” and won’t kill anyone even as Frenchie INSISTS that he doesn’t like the situation

So yeah, this is also the run that proves that the Moon System has exactly ONE collective braincell, and apparently at that point Jake or Steven had the custody of it and weren’t interested in sharing it.

Obviously, Marlene and her dad are at said archeological dig, and when Marlene tries to fight Bushman, he kills her father. Which is when Marc FINALLY realizes that Bushman is a real murderer and tries to fight back. Bushman, of course, knocks him unconscious, kills everyone except for Marlene and a couple of people who assure him they’ll take him to the Pharaoh Tomb, and kidnaps Frenchie in order to make sure that he flies them in and out the tomb.

When Marc recovers consciousness, he’s in the middle of the desert, with no water, no food and no way to survive. He’s walking without direction, and ready to lay down and die. And this is when Steven and Jake come back to him, assuring him that they never left, and will never leave him. Jake tells him to rest enough because once is night, HE will come for them.

And come he does. In this quite interesting take of the origin, Khonshu Temple APPEARS before Marc, from nowhere (although, of course, this is how Marc sees it, not necessarily the truth) , and Khonshu gives him a choice: “Do you want Death, or do you want life?” and when Marc chooses life, Khonshu tells him that in exchange, he’ll become Khonshu’s: His hands, his eyes, his vengeance, his knight”. Which Marc misheards as “night”, which does NOT amuse our old pigeon (yes, Khonshu’s personality on this run is the closest to the one we see in the series).

Khonshu then picks up Marc to set him on the altar of the temple -this is intermixed with something happening in the present, as Bobby and Billy, the jackal orderlies, and dr. Ammut return, confusing Marc, the readers, and reality itself- And as the “present” gives Marc an electroshock… he wakes up in the Pharaoh Tomb, in front of Marlene, and we get the original origin play out as we remembered.

Which means that at the very least everything we saw from the moment Marc recovered consciousness to this moment? Is how HE remembers Khonshu bringing him back to life, and we finally know WHY he woke up convinced he was now Khonshu’s fist of vengeance.

And yes, again, all the changes from the original story? Where Marc HAD known how dangerous Bushman was and so on? Are easy to explain in the sense that as I’ve been saying? This is just how MARC wants to remember things, and what we saw in the Moench run is the reality, at least as far as his mercenary career went.

(Because, again, if not, Moon Knight’s fighting abilities make NO sense, and Marc would be the most himbo to ever himbo to believe that a Mercenary in the middle of a war zone would JUST threaten to kill people)

Anyway, that is it for the re-imagined origin. I can’t call it a straight retcon because of the nature of the unreliable narrator, and as I mention, as much as I love Lemire? I dislike how he treats Marc’s time as a soldier. I can headcanon all I want about how this is not Marc’s true story, but it’s not actually SAID in paper. So. It’s all theories.

Now, as for what ACTUALLY happens in the series, while Marc is reminiscing about his past? Oh, that is a completely different horse and where Lemire redeems himself HARD after the “I need to get rid of all of you Alters” nonsense.

See, we start with Mr. Knight entering Gena’s diner, as he’s retracing his steps backwards to the hospital, and there, he admits to Gena that he knows that while she’s real in the outside world? Right here she’s his memory of her. That he’s been sick for a long time, and wants to get better and this, all the travel out from the hospital and back? Is his way to find a way to get better. This is when we’re seeing the Rabbi Spector’s flashbacks, by the way, so yeah, Marc is still in the “I have to get rid of my sickness” path.

Leaving Gena, he comes again to meet Anubis and Crawley as Mr. Knight. That is when Anubis tells him that if he retrieves something from the Overvoid that Anubis lost, Anubis will give Crawley back. Despite Crawley’s protests -a stark contrast with how Crawley, seen by Jake, was demanding that his sacrifice wasn’t in vain- this is when Mr. Knight jumps into the Overvoid space and, after crossing his childhood memories of the psychiatric ward torture, lands into what seems a a fantasy world with Egyptian men ride giant insects and are ready to sacrifice him to their gods.

Marc is captured, and that’s when he finds what Anubis lost: Anput, his wife, who is being held as a slave.

Here’s where the reality of this unreality gets a bit iffy, as there’s no reason for Marc to know this, or to add this to his mental narrative really, but given how he came to the place (jumping through his memories and then surfacing into the new reality as if he had crossed a pool of water) this can be the astral plane: Still not the outside world, but not necessarily Marc’s mind. The so called “connection” between the Over void and our plane, that Ellis introduced in his run.

And as he’s going to be sacrificed to the god of that particular plane? He’s rescued by none other than Classic Moon Knight, who, in Marc’s mind space, is specifically Jake. And when Marc says that he thought he had killed him, Jake, in all his absolute Jakeness just replies “You didn’t think you could get rid of us that easily, did you, Spector?”

Seeing Marc and Jake fight back to back? A thing of beauty even as Jake reminds him that they “Need to put their differences aside in order to survive” and that by now, Marc should know that “we” are never alone.

Yes, Jake talks in plural when talking about themselves. Because HE is the part of Marc that understands that they don’t need fixing. They have always been this way, and instead of fighting that? They should embrace it.

(Even if, again, their roles re: how much violence is too much violence have been completely reversed)

AS they fight, Steven does the daring suave hero thing of going and rescuing Anput from her cell. He doesn’t fight at all, and even gets saved by Anput herself at some point, but he IS the one who brings Marc his Mr. Knight mask and for now, we are setting as a pattern that Moon Knight is Jake, and Mr. Knight is Marc, and Steven… Steven brings the refreshments (and again in the color code: Jake and Marc? Dressed all in white. Steven is wearing gray slacks, white shirt and black suit. He is the only one who doesn’t “like it when they see me coming”, because HE is the only one in the system who really, REALLY doesn’t like fighting)

And oh, Captain Spector is ALSO back, ready to provide aerial defense, and a way to go back to Marc’s mind space as he confirms that yes, where they were with Anput was ONE reality, and the Hospital where Marc has to face Khonshu is another. Also, for all of Jake’s talk in plural when they were rescuing Anput, now he and Steven agree that the mission that has to be done, and why they can’t stay and rescue all the other slaves, is Marc’s and Marc’s alone: “You have a job to do” and “You can’t afford to get sidetracked”.

Marc realizes they are not coming with him, and Jake tells him that’s right, because HE, Marc, made sure that they can’t go. Steven is sure that the one who can survive is Marc, and Captain Spector points out that just because they can’t “always” be with him now -because of the whole disappearance before- they will ALWAYS be there when Marc needs them.

This is, by the way, not because they’re integrated or shoved back to the back of the mind space. No. It is because THIS specific trip? Is Marc’s path to acceptance. Neither Jake nor Steven need that, because they have NEVER thought they’re broken or in need of fixing. They know they’re Alters, they know they’re a System, and they’re ok with it. Captain Spector had a traumatic way to face this, but he was also young enough as an Alter -and apparently, under Jake’s specific protection given Jake’s reaction to his original disappearance- that he also has come to accept this easily. HE never had Rabbi Spector telling him he was sick, and it shows.

But Marc? Marc still has to get to that point. And he won’t get there if the others are carrying him. This is a path he has to walk on his own, indeed. As an aside? Look how DAMN happy Marc looks once he is reunited with the rest of his system. It's one of the most gorgeous parts of the art, how we go from Sad, dejected, even defeated Marc, to a Marc that has found his family again.

Marc sends Crawley to Gena and keeps walking into the hospital, now led by Khonshu’s voice who is growing more and more manipulative. He calls Marc his pet, his son, and reminds him that this is the way to get “peace” and the “Cure” Marc has been looking for all his life. The hospital is Marc’s brain, Marc’s “weak” mind, and he is absorbed into it, into a black void with only the Moon, Khonshu’s left eye, for company.

Marc has no patience for that, and destroys the moon -much to Khonshu’s annoyance as he had to do “all those craters” by himself- and then fights his way out of the brain despite Khonshu warning him he’s damaging it more because, in Marc’s words? It’s “too late” to worry about that.

Now, here’s where the flashbacks I summarized before and the action finally merge, and while the Electroshocks given by Dr. Ammut and our orderlies are what “Bring” Marc to life back in the past? In the present they are the ones who bring Marc back to THEMSELVES.

Because after the first shock, he gets the strength to break free, and as Bobby screams that “Spector’s Free”, The SYSTEM replies “Not just Spector! All of us!”

And while sometimes he still speaks of himself in the singular? They also shift into the Plural. Because “WE’ve outgrown you, Khonshu”, they say, as they walk into the final encounter. And Khonshu? Starts referring to them by the three names at the same time, even if we only see one body. Because now we're seeing the System, not Marc, or Steven or Jake, but all of them, co-consciously moving forward.

And that’s when Marc realizes the truth. This? This is not really Khonshu. THIS thing that has been telling him to succumb, to let himself go, to let it drive his body so that Marc doesn’t have to think, to kill his Alters and be the only one who decides to let go? Is “That thing in my mind that is wrong.” Yes, THIS Khonshu is his madness, or, more precisely, the FEAR he had about his condition being wrong, something to be ashamed of. And as he reaches for The Madness’ head (because I refuse to keep calling it Khonshu, as it is NOT him), we get the most incredibly affirming dialogue about mental health in GENERAL I’ve read in a comic. And I say Mental Health in general, because I know it can touch a lot of singlets, but I figure it is much more important to Plurals, and so, I am writing it in full here in case you can’t see the image.

Marc: “I am sick. I know that. I will never be cured. This is always going to be who I am. But I can still live. I can still have a life. And I won’t let you ruin that for me anymore.”

The Madness begs, claims that Marc needs him.

But Marc replies, as the art shifts from him, to Steven, to Jake,

“No Khonshu… I AM Marc Spector. I AM Steven Grant. I AM Jake Lockley. And WE are going to be okay. We are going to live with WHO WE ARE. WE ARE MOON KNIGHT. And WE NEVER NEEDED YOU.”

And with that, they crush the Madness skull head into tiny particles of bone, freeing themselves finally from the fear and the stigma that Rabbi Spector had instilled in Marc so, so long ago.

And as we get back to reality? The inner dialogue of the guys shifts completely to plural, as they admit that they’re still not sure if what they’re feeling at the moment, the quiet, the rain, IS real. But it’s Real enough… “and that’s good enough for US.”

So… yeah. With this we close the BEST run of Moon Knight, even if I have to admit it had some stumbles, and we close on 187 issues of Moon Knight from the first Moench issue to now. How do I know it’s 187? Easy. This is when Marvel decided to run the “Legacy” imprint, ignore all the restarts on all their titles and keep the numbering as if they had never cancelled any book and restarted from zero.

So join me in Part 14, as we start the Bemis run with Moon Knight 188, and we get to see the result of Marc, Steven and Jake’s path to acceptance.

Oh, and the cementing of Jake as the violent one as well as my thoughts about why this was a horrible mistake that becomes quite problematic. But, as I said, that is for part 14.

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