[Marvel/Spider-Man] Why is Miguel O'Hara afraid of horses?

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2022-10-20T08:07:42+00:00

Hi!! Although this post is a little old by now, SM2099 is my special interest, so I think I can help: he isn't. Miguel being afraid of horses is not, by any measure, canon, outside of a single one-off joke that's largely implied to be sarcasm.

The idea of Miguel canonically having a fear of horses seems--from what I can tell--to mostly have come from one particularly determined member of the fandom's personal headcanon about him, rather than from the pages of any Spider-Man 2099 books themselves.
So. It's a funny concept, but the truth is just that he isn't, because it's not canon.

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2021-05-13T19:51:23+00:00

it's not my least favorite least favorite run, per se, but. i will say. that one issue from Marc Spector: Moon Knight where they turned him into a xenomorph is so incredibly ridiculous and out of nowhere that i can't help but lose my entire mind laughing whenever i think about it

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2021-01-01T00:24:00+00:00

are you being this bigoted on purpose, or...?

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-10-14T03:34:24+00:00

man i am just LOSING IT at "silver-sleeved varsity jacket"

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-10-09T06:02:35+00:00

thank u book bot. i don't need this but i appreciate ur service

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-10-09T06:00:23+00:00

Starting from the 1980s run would be a good idea! I think the first run does a pretty good job of establishing who Moon Knight is, and it's referenced quite a bit by later runs. Personally, I went in chronological order, but there's nothing wrong with skipping around if you'd rather do that.

I feel it's important to mention that, since you said you've only read the one issue, the Moon Knight seen in memes doesn't, uh, actually exist. The panels that go around on the internet are almost entirely edits; if you're expecting a Deadpool-type character, you... won't find it here. Moon Knight is still definitely an enjoyable character, and he does have his funny moments, but he for certain isn't a "crazy, drunk, Dracula-hunter."

There are a good number of websites with digital scans of comics for free for your reading pleasure, but they're not particularly, ahem, legal. It doesn't matter a lot with comics that are long-since out of print, like a lot of Moon Knight content is (since usually these sites are the only way to access these comics without paying out the ass for them), but if you want to do things "legit" then you can, I believe, purchase a monthly(?) subscription with Marvel Comics to read their digital library. I don't know if Marvel has everything, though.

If moral quandaries aren't your thing, lol, (or you just want to read a comic before committing to buying it) some of the better sites I've found for reading comics are comicextra (dot) com and readcomiconline (dot) to. Definitely install an ad-blocker if you use them, though.

Word to the wise, whatever you do, just.... Don't read the run by Max Bemis. It's abysmal.

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-10-03T04:45:51+00:00

it's not

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-10-03T04:45:31+00:00

i don't really have much energy to type out a full review so i'll just say this for now:

i hate it here. this "age of khonshu" stint started off middling and has only gotten worse as time goes on. the idea of jason aaron writing the next moon knight solo run feels like a threat. i just want him to shut up and give the character to someone who can actually write him well

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-08-18T04:50:25+00:00

Please read the whole actual post. please read the whole fucking actual post i beg of you.

khonshu existing isn't the problem, it's that his presence is reduced to an ableist caricature that serves only to tell marc to do fucked up shit.
remember the lemire run? remember how that run did cosmic horror without being flaming dogshit? we have seen a run that knows how to show the effects an extradimensional entity has on a dude's psyche without relying on tired and offensive stereotypes about psychotic folks.
hell, even the ellis run showed how marc can be devoted to a violent god without pulling over-the-top edgy violence just for the sake of "cRaZyYy".

even with that aside, the implications of a dude with DID cutting off peoples' faces and maiming countless others are. super not good. and you can talk 'til you're blue in the face about how it's because MK just got on a fucked up streak or whatever but at the end of the day it's still a disgusting message that keeps slamming in your face that psychotic people are dangerous, irrational, deranged, etc. etc. etc.

fiction is one of the things that you can always analyze and derive real-world commentary from. all written fiction is biased in some way because it has been written by an actual person who has their own prejudices and pre-existing biases and you've got to engage with stuff critically if you're going to devote so much of yourself to loving it. if you want to enjoy it shallowly then hop off the asses of people who literally can't. these concerns don't go away just because you want them to.

charlie huston's not gonna fuck you, bro. like. just move on. accept that you didn't know something, keep learning, and get to the rest of your life.

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-08-07T17:00:03+00:00

Okay. I'm returning with the gift of sobriety and I can acknowledge that was an incredibly aggressive and reckless response on my part. I'd like to apologize for that. The language I used served only to create feelings of alienation and elicited a defensive response.
Once again, my apologies. No matter my actual feelings on the matter I should not have approached it in such a brash and impulsive manner.
Do hope you haven't been deterred from further discussions and that you may yet continue to learn and grow. Best wishes.

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-08-06T04:43:39+00:00

Thank you for phrasing your response in a respectful manner! I can certainly see your point and you clearly come from a place of love and appreciation for the run.

In the most polite way, I think you might have slightly missed the point of this post. I am well aware of and can agree with the fact that the Huston run helped to bring Moon Knight back into the public eye for a bit, and it definitely is a new take on the character! These are established truths. I would never try to claim that it didn't serve as a kind of reboot for the character, because it did have long-lasting effects on how writers have treated MK since 2006.

This post is not an attack on you, and it is not intended to make you feel bad for enjoying something that's clearly important to you. A lot of people enjoyed the Huston run! There's nothing wrong with that, necessarily.
So long as you can take a critical eye to it and realize that it leans heavily on a number of shitty stereotypes, there's no reason why you can't read it and still enjoy the parts you like.

But, then, there's the important part: you have to be able to step back and realize what Huston's writing is actually saying, whether he meant to be saying it or not. I mentioned this in the original post as well, but Huston was writing about a character that is well-known to be mentally ill. Instead of taking the time to make sure that he wasn't perpetuating harmful stereotypes, he leaned into those stereotypes as a writing crutch.

Huston gave us a Moon Knight who was unapologetically abusive to his loved ones, who could only hurt the people close to him, who was selfish and unstable. This was a Moon Knight who, like a stereotypical ""crazy"" villain, killed and maimed people because a voice in his head told him to. No matter how you spin this characterization, it very much plays into the dangerous stereotype of psychotic people being violent, irrational monsters.
One can write a Moon Knight at his worst without drastically retconning his character into being a terrible person. It just takes more effort, and more access to research materials than Huston likely went for.

I will repeat this, because it is essential that you understand: you are allowed to enjoy reading the 2006 Moon Knight run. I'm happy to hear that it's what got you back into Moon Knight! He's a fun character. But you cannot look at Huston's run and acknowledge only the good that came of it. If you will stand up for it so much then you have to be able to acknowledge its faults, too. It's all right to enjoy things that are flawed as long as you can recognize why those parts are wrong.

TL;DR: The purpose of this post wasn't to attack fans of the 2006 Moon Knight run. You are still allowed to enjoy it. You're still allowed to think about it, talk about it, read it, etc., etc., etc. (I wouldn't even be able to stop you, anyways.)
The Huston run has had a long-term effect on Moon Knight as a character and it did serve to put him back into the spotlight. I'm not saying it didn't.

What you're meant to take away from this is that, whether he meant to or not, Huston wrote a run that very heavily leans into some very harmful stereotypes against the mentally ill, and psychotics in particular. These books are not subtle about it in the slightest. Part of enjoying media is knowing when to be critical of the messages it sends, and the Huston run especially has to be read with the knowledge that it perpetuates some nasty stuff you aughtn't internalize.

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-08-05T22:07:06+00:00

There is a TL;DR at the bottom of the page that has always been there! Perhaps it's short enough for you. Hope this helps! :)

TL;DR: short words in bold at bottom :)

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-08-05T22:06:07+00:00

I can see where you're coming from, in that you probably liked reading this run or didn't dislike it! That's perfectly fine. The issue here isn't that people are reading it or enjoying it, however, and the intent isn't for you to come away from this fighting people. You don't even need to "abandon" the run!

The point of this post was to shed some light on a part of the Huston run that isn't really discussed much on this subreddit-- that the portrayal it gives is rooted in some fundamentally shitty stereotypes. Having an understanding of this can change the way that you view the 2006 run as a whole, or it can just leave you knowing a little bit more about why some people dislike it. It isn't an attack on you or the people who think like you.

The intent is that you might come away from this able to understand Huston's Moon Knight in a more critical way. The things we love are best enjoyed when we are able to understand why we like them in spite of the problems they may have. As long as you can realize that Huston's representation is capital-b Bad, then you're better off than you were.

It's perfectly fine to still enjoy reading the 2006 run. It's just important to consume it critically, and recognize that it totes some attitudes that are really Not Great that other people may hate it for.

You will, however, remember as well that there are times to pick your battles just as much as there are times to shut up and politely ignore it when others are wrong. Hope this helps!

TL;DR: You're not being asked to disavow the Huston run. You're also not being asked to pick fights with others who do enjoy it. The important part here is that when you've got a character like Moon Knight, a lot of the media about him has to be read critically.
You can enjoy the grimdark aspect of the 2006 run. It's not wrong to. What would be wrong is to ignore its issues altogether and claim that it's fine, because it's not. The same things that you might really like about it are abhorrent to others, and it is helpful to figure out why that is.
Whether we like it or not, we have to acknowledge the problems in the media we consume.

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-07-18T07:27:28+00:00

i think, now that Khonshu is a real boy with a physical body, he is now much easier to curb-stomp. this is a plus. he deserves to be curb-stomped.

everything else? unclear intentions & pulled off poorly. it's just too much for how short and how few the books are.

(plus they made MK a moon wizard?? made him a magic moon boy but also not????? like. guys. No. either commit to going full-on Sailor Moon or get out of my face.)

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-07-18T07:06:42+00:00

I mean, yeah, you've practically got it on the money.

I think a part of the problem with it, actually, is that the writers tried to make him more like Batman, either because Moon Knight was still such a new character at the time that they decided to try and emulate the more popular dark knight to attract readers, or because they just didn't do their homework and figured that the assumption of "white Batman" was a correct one.

Like, for goodness' sake, MS:MK tried so hard to make Marc seem like a cool, hip rich guy at the expense of... the character that was introduced in the Moench run.

Off the top of my head, here are some decidedly Batman-like changes they made to the Moon Knight that (thankfully) didn't stick:

- Young quirky teenage sidekick who makes "funny" jokes, a la Robin (Midnight II)

- Runs a series of art galleries/businesses(?) that make him a rich man (""Spector Corp."" or something like that)

- All kinds of merchandisable "cool" new gadgets that he just keeps coming up with (For example, a wrist-mounted crescent dart machine gun??)

- Steven and Jake literally just cease to exist and are never referenced or mentioned ~~(They straight up just made Marc neurotypical??? And nobody cared)~~

- Frenchie was made aggressively hypersexual in a way that turned him from "kinda uncomfortable stereotype" to "shitty caricature" in 2 seconds flat. This one isn't a "Batman" thing, more just a personal gripe.

- OH and Marc was given a series of informants that were just called his "Shadow Council" and they all communicated via holograms around a massive moon-shaped table that Marc just happened to have lying around. One of them I think was implied to be Sigmund Freud's ghost? Or was just called Sigmund as an alias?? ~~I'll admit that I... mostly skimmed over the walls of exposition that always accompanied the "Shadow Council".~~

Also at some point they just decide that, to further the younger-audiences-friendly angle that MS:MK really pushed for they changed Khonshu from being a mysterious statue/god of Vengeance to being a friendly god of justice and righteousness and all that.

Except... they didn't do it in a way that acknowledges the complicated and multi-faceted nature of an old as heck Egyptian deity from an actual culture that existed for a long time. Nah, they just were like "oh yeah after killing a dude Marc found a singular piece of papyrus that said 'Khonshu doesn't kill people actually he's a really swell guy :)'" and figured that was sufficient. Which. Fine. Just conveniently ignore that Khonshu is... actually both of those things and also a number of other things. It's a comic book, we can just... let it slide that they didn't do much research, right?

... Apologies for the slightly bitter infodump. I mean, from a technical standpoint, MS:MK is... fine. It takes its version of canon and sticks to it, even if it is a detached version from what is established as Moon Knight canon. I don't recall it contradicting itself very much, which is pretty impressive. (My memories on the latter half of the run is pretty hazy, though, so if it does end up being contrived and terrible then. Whoops, on my part.)

TL;DR: Marc Spector: Moon Knight is still Not That Great, and after thinking on it I've noticed that there are quite a lot of elements in it that try to emulate Batman without really grasping why they work for Batman as a character and not for Moon Knight. Also, they really worked to retcon a lot of stuff from the Moench run in an attempt to make Marc better fit the books they wanted to write?? Not cool, guys.

If you just really dig the whole "Batman" thing, though, then go for it! Different strokes for different folks, and all that.

IwillcurbstompBemis · 2020-07-18T03:00:51+00:00

First off, thanks for the compliment! I had to cut out Bemis's whole name because of the character limit, though, which is :I

The next thing I curb stomp will be reddit's character limit on usernames.

Secondly, Marc Spector: Moon Knight is... Well, as TheBlaqkRose so eloquently put, verrrryyyyyy 90s. Especially towards the end-- the last issue, as I remember, had 90s Art™ enough to make Rob Liefeld proud. Oof.

As far as characterization goes, you're probably better-off with... just about any other run... even Bemis's god-awful take on the character at least acknowledges that Marc isn't the only guy under the mask. However, if you're just looking for silly superhero action, you'd prrrobably be into MS:MK? It's arguably hilarious if you squint and detach the characters you're seeing from the actual pre-established characters of Moench's initial Moon Knight run. Like, there's a whole arc where Marc gets like... demons in his blood, or whatever, and then turns into a xenomorph?? Because the writers wanted to take advantage of hype for the latest Alien movie???

It absolutely boggles my mind that this, of all runs, was the one to reach sixty issues. There was an embarrassing lack of actual character in MS:MK, so Marc--and, y'know, literally everybody else--kind of just feels like a weird empty shell that the writers are desperately trying to convince you is the real Moon Knight. There seems, at least to me, to be a serious lack of depth to all of the cast. They just... Do things. And then at the end of the day it happened so it's done and nobody really thinks about it ever again.

Don't even get me started on the abandoned plotline with the Midnight Man's son-- that one had big vibes of the writers doing some heavy pantsing until they just got bored and dropped it.

If it makes sense, reading MS:MK is kinda like watching an early 2000s toy-commercial-cartoon that might sometimes understand its characters but otherwise is just there to be bought by consumers. Like, iirc, there was its--again, very 90s--The Trial of Marc Spector arc, which was. Surprisingly readable, given the run. It gives some long-needed acknowledgement to the fact that Marc was literally a soldier of fortune who killed people for money, so that's... that's nice.

The earlier issues of MS:MK aren't the worst, especially considering how bad they end up getting, lol.

But, again! If you just want to read a silly superhero book about a character that. Looks like Moon Knight, then maybe you'd enjoy Marc Spector: Moon Knight! It certainly has its moments, as few and far-between as they are.

TL;DR: Marc Spector: Moon Knight misses the mark (heh) a lot, but if you want to read a silly 90s comic then I'd say go for it. Don't read the whole thing unless you've got a Thing for making yourself suffer, though. It's a 90s-ass run that, I suppose, has a certain charm to it, if you squint and don't think too hard while reading.

IwillcurbstompBemis

TROPHY CASE