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pluralstories2023-12-27 09:19 pm
- 1+:abuse:low-focus,
- 1+:cofronting,
- 1+:fusion/integration,
- 1+:memory work,
- 1+:otherworld,
- 1+:realitymashing,
- 1+:relationships:family,
- 1+:relationships:teamwork,
- 1+:type:medical,
- 1+:type:nonswitching,
- 1+:type:spiritual,
- audience:adults,
- audience:teens,
- genre:superhero,
- length:long,
- medium:comics,
- time:2010s
Moon Knight, vol. 8 #1-14, by Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood (superhero comics, 2016)
erinptah! Thank you, erinptah! :D See her whole post with clips here!“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.”
Blurb: After dying and being resurrected (for the first time, but not the last) by the Egyptian god of the moon, mercenary Marc Spector sets out to atone for the harm he caused…by becoming a moon-themed superhero. That’s on top of being Steven Grant, rich CEO/investor in unspecified businesses. And being Jake Lockley, who ranges from “friendly, easygoing, regular guy” to “comedically murderous sociopath” depending on who’s writing this run.
VOLUME 8 BLURB:
Marc wakes up in the mental hospital where he’s been living, lost in delusional fantasies of being a caped vigilante. Or has he? No, the whole thing is a setup by the goddess Ammit, to keep Khonshu’s Avatar trapped and helpless while she takes over the world. Or is it?
The trippy, twisty, reality-bending, beautifully-drawn run that redefined Moon Knight — this time, in a way readers actually liked. Marc flounders around in a world with multiple levels of reality, regularly slipping into different scenes from his past, trying to rescue a handful of people who might be his old friends or just his memories…and finally getting a substantial team-up with Jake and Steven.
Reimagined and expanded flashbacks finally establish that Steven and Jake didn’t just appear when Marc was an adult; they’ve been a system since childhood. The headmates spend a few issues split across different reality-sequences, with stunningly different art styles; but the plots keep blurring together, until they find their way into the same scene again. Sometimes we get gritty montages from Marc’s mercenary past; sometimes we get a sci-fi dream about fighting werewolves on the moon.
This isn’t a good place to start reading Moon Knight, because it’s dense with references to feelings and relationships that won’t land if you don’t have the context. And it’s confusing enough even with context! At least read some of the ’80s run first. But then, yeah, read this one.
Why is it worth your time?: Marvel Comics’ longest-running and most-successful attempt to portray a superhero with DID. (Some writers don’t actually attempt it — but we’re limiting this roundup to the runs where they remembered.)“Most-successful” still means plenty of flaws, drawbacks, and general comic-book nonsense! But at its best, the writing is a heartfelt, complex, insightful, funny portrayal of A Troubled System Doing Their Best, which a lot of IRL plural readers have found relatable.
Plural tags: abuse low-focus, cofronting, fusion/integration, memory work, otherworld, realitymashing, relationships: family, relationships: teamwork, type: medical, type: spiritual, type: switching
Content warnings: Medical abuse and general poor treatment in the hospital scenes (which might be due to them being run by evil gods, but then again, it might not). Abuse and manipulation from Khonshu. A potentially distressing “Marc gets rid of Jake and Steven” sequence partway through; it’s a fakeout, they’ll be back.
Access Notes: Most of these are available in print collections of some sort, as well as digitally through Marvel. Nothing audio or screenreadable as far as I know.
