Moon Knight #198 - Marvel Comics

MOON KNIGHT No. 198, October 2018

Packed full of some seriously disturbing shenanigans, such as Marc Spector being forced to eat a rabies-ridden dolphin alive in water-filled tank, and then subsequently tasked to gut an innocent infant girl simply to show his inhuman old “Uncle Ernst” he has what it takes to join the Societe des Sadiques, Max Bemis’ narrative for Issue One Hundred and Ninety Eight arguably wholly warranted the “Rated T+” warning placed upon its Becky Cloonan illustrated cover. In fact, it’s hard to recollect such an utterly sickening storyline for a “Marvel Worldwide” publication as the “super-group” singer’s script takes its 17,660 strong audience on a grotesque journey through the disconcerting trials of “uber-sadists”, perturbing Nazi war criminals and depraved wannabe child-mutilators; “Complete the ritual. Become what you were meant to be, beside me, forever.”

Utterly bizarrely however, there is debatably no logical reason as to just why the titular character even permits himself to undergo these inexplicable, cold-blooded sacraments in the first place, considering that the super-hero was last seen ably out-fighting the gun-toting minions of their nefarious inner circle’s mysterious leader during the secret group’s bi-annual feast. Just why the Fist of Khonshu allows himself to be detained by his captors is never explained, nor why he willingly surrenders to spending two weeks locked in a room with nothing to consume but a dangerously infected aquatic mammal, or then cold-bloodedly murders the chair-bound Jess Ebidiah because the FBI has supposedly implicated the morbidly obese felon in “what may be the worst case of animal cruelty in the history of California”..?

Admittedly, towards the end of this twenty-page periodical Spector’s submissive supplication to the desires of a proven serial killer does potentially appear to be based upon Ernst’s threat to “eliminate your child” if the costumed vigilante doesn’t follow his orders. But even though Marc has previously “witnessed [his ‘Uncle’] torturing a man in his synagogue as a child” he surely could have outfought his former rabbi friend when he had the chance earlier..? Certainly, as Moon Knight would soon go on to show in this comic, courtesy of some pugilistic pencilling by Jacen Burrows, he could easily have given the four new inductees a sound “spanking”, and presumably then taken out the long-lived German mere seconds afterwards..?

Writer: Max Bemis, Penciler: Jacen Burrows, and Inker: Guillermo Ortego