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pluralstorieserinptah! Thank you, erinptah! :D See her whole post with clips here!“The inside of Marc Spector’s head is a picturesque, violent landscape touched by Egyptian mythology, Judaic folklore and fragments of his past. But it ain’t always a pretty place.”
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.
LEGACY BLURB:
The action returns to the real world, for some more typical short-form Marvel adventures…except that now Jake and Steven get to be consistently present! (Along with an unusually-helpful Khonshu. Who doesn’t do any of his usual god-level things, so, this might actually be a Khonshu introject?) Sometimes they’re co-conscious in the physical world, sometimes they’re all interacting in headspace, sometimes there’s a psychic realm where they can manifest separately.
The run I get the most mad about, because it has that great setup with so much potential, and then sours it with things like “Jake gets character-assassinated into a wacky sociopath with a secret-baby plot.” Pushes things to the weirdest and most dramatic places possible, which at best means “this is the funniest Moon Knight scene I’ve ever read,” and at worst, “this is the edgiest edgelord cringe.” Drops lines like “Don’t eat that rabies-ridden dolphin meat” in total earnest.
Another reader said “Damn it Bemis, I really need you to stop writing actually good character moments I enjoy and tricking me into thinking for a brief moment this could be a run I liked, rather than one that makes me want to tear my hair out,” which pretty much sums it up.
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 intermediate-focus, cofronting, otherworld, nonhumans [gods], realitymashing, family, teamwork, type: medical, type: spiritual, switching
Content warnings: Extra violence and some fairly gruesome injuries. The system gets some retconned explicit childhood trauma, in the form of “little Marc’s favorite rabbi was secretly a Nazi serial killer.” The main present-day child character isn’t harmed in any major way, but does get kidnapped and/or threatened a lot.
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.
