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According to Know Your Meme, the “Hail HYDRA” meme has been around a while because, well, HYDRA is a Marvel Comics institution. But they cite Twitter user ‏@ReyEstupendo (his Bert & Ernie above) as the first to start the current iteration spawning from Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It reminds me of the #TrueDetectiveSeason2 meme which was equally entertaining, but not nearly as nerdy. Anyway, recent events have caused it to completely explode and we’ve captured a measly 21 amusing instances of it we’ve found online.

My apologies in advance if any of the source links I provide are not the original source. This thing has spread like wildfire. Got more? Share them in the comments!

Found here.

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Moon Knight is a cool character who, sadly, has often suffered from strange decisions and some creators not knowing what to do with him. Throughout it all, he’s remained Marc Spector, a former mercenary who became a vigilante cloaked in silver because he absolutely wants the bad guys to see him coming. Recently, writer Warren Ellis and artists Declan Shelvey and Jordie Bellaire have reinvented the character for the new ongoing Moon Knight series. I highly recommend it for fans old and new.

But before we chat any further about the new series, let’s delve into the history of this lunar avenger of the night who had to die before he could live as a hero.

MARC SPECTOR, WEREWOLF HUNTER

Moon Knight was created to be a werewolf fighter, first appearing in Werewolf by Night #32 (1975), written by Doug Moench (later known for many Batman stories), pencilled by Don Perlin and colored by Phil Rache. The series Werewolf by Night starred the cursed hero Jack Russell, whose enemies included a clandestine cabal of corrupt people called the Committee. In issue #32, the Committee decides to send Marcus Spector after Russell. It’s explained that Marc is a mercenary who used to be heavyweight boxer and a marine, a highly trained man with a bit of a mean streak and rebellious nature.

To fight the werewolf, the Committee gave Spector a silver costume with silver gauntlets, each with a silver cestus (spiked gloves) attached, silver throwing blades, and silver truncheons. This is about as anti-werewolf as your gear can get. It’s also intentionally ironic that a monster empowered/cursed by the moon would be hunted by a “Moon Knight.” Spector thought it was a dumb name but didn’t argue when the Committee gave it to him since he was getting paid.

Notice Moon Knight’s first suit has a black shirt and black interior section of the trousers. White coloring is used to give texture. The gauntlets, boots, belt and cloak are all meant to be silver. The narration says Marc’s mask is “silver gauze which covered his face like ectoplasm.” The wing-like cape is attached directly to the gauntlets for use as a limited parachute/glider. Also notice, unlike the later versions, this outfit has a noticeable cape clasp and a collar separate from the hood. That last bit is indicative of Moon Knight being created in the 1970s. It’s not a bad suit but I worry having the cape attached to his gauntlets could add the awkward vulnerability of getting tangled or grabbed.

During his adventure with Jack Russell, Moon Knight realized this guy, werewolf or not, had more honor and decency to him than the Committee members. So he turned against his employers and went on his merry way, keeping the costume.

Moon Knight next appeared in Marvel Spotlight #28 and was now a vigilante. In keeping with the non-lethal tactics of the typical Marvel superhero, Moon Knight ditched the cesti gauntlets which ensured bloodshed and just wore silver gloves with his bracers. The mask was altered slightly, now with visible eye holes. Marvel Spotlight established Moon Knight used several cover identities to in his operations. One was a cab driver, later said to be named Jake Lockley, but his most frequently used identity was millionaire Steven Grant, a resident of Long Island, NY who mingled with the wealthy and powerful.

This premise is borrowed from the influential pulp fiction magazine character known as the Shadow. For years, the Shadow’s secret identity was wealthy Lamont Cranston. But readers knew this was not his true name, it was just a cover he’d adopted as his main civilian identity, and he had other covers to use when circumstances required it. After several years of stories, the Shadow was eventually revealed to have been mercenary and pilot Kent Allard, but he left that life and name behind when he came to New York to wage a war on crime. So if people tell you “Moon Knight is basically Batman,” you can counter “he has more in common with the Shadow.” Isn’t learning fun?

Along with his change from mercenary to vigilante, Moon Knight now had moon-based strength. His encounter with Jack Russell’s teeth had resulted in some werewolf saliva mixing with his blood. Under a dark new moon, Marc was just a highly athletic human, the waxing moon increased his strength, and a full moon took it to a superhuman level where he could lift roughly 2 tons over his head.

After his first solo adventure in Marvel Spotlight, Moon Knight made appearances in stories across the Marvel Universe, sometimes on his own and sometimes teaming up with superheroes. He also got a small supporting cast which included his lover Marlene Alraune and his buddy/pilot Jean-Paul “Frenchie” DuChamp.

As the adventures went on, artists started coloring Moon Knight’s shirt to be white/silver like his hood and cape. Though it eliminated some nice contrast from the costume, the fact was it wasn’t always clear to readers anyway the shirt was supposed to be black. This happened to several other superheroes, such as Spider-Man whose black and red costume quickly became blue and red because of how the coloring style changed.

When he appeared in Defenders, Moon Knight’s trousers became all white as well, losing the interior black. Then, Marvel Two-In-One #52 (1979) had Moon Knight join forces with the Thing (not unexpected, as it was a Thing team-up series) while displaying yet another costume change. Starting in this issue, Moon Knight’s cape was finally set free, no longer attached to his bracers.

Moon Knight also received a solo feature in Marvel Preview. In these black and white tales, his glider cape extended in length and now took on the shape of a crescent moon when he grabbed its edges. This last change finally gave us what we now consider to be the first classic Moon Knight costume design. This is the costume he wore when he got his own series in 1980.

HIS OWN SERIES AT LAST

Moon Knight vol. 1 #1 came out in 1980. Written by Moon Knight creator Doug Moench, the new series retconned the hero’s origin. The in-universe history now said Marc Spector had been operating as the hero Moon Knight before he was ever hired by the Committee to fight Jack Russell. He’d only worked with the Committee to learn more about the criminal organization so he could disrupt their plans. So how the heck did Marc become the Moon Knight then?

The new origin reveals Marc Spector, during his mercenary days, is working in Egypt alongside his buddy Frenchie and Raoul Bushman, known for vicious methods and having literal steel teeth. One night, Bushman targets an archaeologist named Peter Alraune who recently discovered a hidden tomb of Pharaoh Seti I. Bushman wants the artifacts from the tomb and kills the archeologist when he didn’t comply, after which he opens fire on a nearby village. Appalled, Marc sends Dr. Alraune’s daughter Marlene away to safety and confronts Bushman. Marc is defeated and left in the desert to die. He wanders for some time until he is close to Seti I’s tomb and collapses. Marlene and others find him and bring him into the tomb, hoping to help. They place him nearby a statue of the moon god Khonshu (which oddly has an silver cloak decorating it), but it’s too late. Marc has no signs of life.

Moments later, Marc sits up and then stands to examine the statue of Khonshu. He claims the moon god has resurrected him. Marlene can’t explain Marc’s sudden recovery, but worries he’s delirious from dehydration and exhaustion. Marc glibly says he’s now a literal specter serving Khonshu, chosen to be “the moon’s knight of vengeance.” He dons the statue’s cloak and takes down Bushman, who from that point on is a recurring enemy. Believing Khonshu wants him to protect the innocent, he returns to the U.S., taking the cloak and statue with him. With the money he’d made as a merc, he sets up his new life as Steven Grant, then his cabbie cover as Jake Lockley, and starts his career as Moon Knight, designing his costume after Khonshu’s appearance.

Marvel also got rid of the idea of werewolf saliva giving him moon-based strength. Now, Moon Knight credited this lunar superpower to Khonshu’s influence. Some comics proposed this might have been another delusion and Marc just pushed his limits further and tapped into hidden strength because of his belief in Khonshu. Years later, the whole “the moon makes him stronger” idea was dropped. Whatever the case, NEW ORIGIN AND PREMISE UNLOCKED!

Though Doug Moench scripted this new origin, it came about through conversations and shared input between him, editor Jim Shooter and editor Denny O’Neil (who would later become the head editor of Batman for many years). According to O’Neil, he thought of the scene of Marcdying in front of the statue of Khonshu in a tomb and then reviving moments later, while Shooter and Moench figured out the rest.

Let’s briefly talk about the real Khonshu of Egyptian mythology. He is indeed a moon god, though his name is usually spelled as Khonsu or Chons. Rather than a white/silver figure with no face and a pharaoh’s headdress, he was often depicted as a young man in a silver/white robe or as a figure with the head of a falcon. In both cases, he wore a headdress of a crescent moon over a full moon disc.

Early myths have him as a bloodthirsty and vengeful being, as well as a god-killer known as “The One Who Lives on Hearts.” He was said to have a rage which could destroy lives. As time passed, his role changed. Stories speak of him as a force of protection, healing, life and fertility. Since he was associated with light and the passage of time, he was also sometimes known as the “maker of men’s destinies.” One story says Khonsu helped in the creation of the universe, becoming a snake who fertilized a cosmic egg. It’s generally held his name means “Traveler,” referencing the moon’s journeys across the sky and the fact that Khonsu looked over those who traveled at night.

Moon Knight’s costume doesn’t resemble the real Khonsu. But that’s ok. His connection to the moon god was decided on five years after he was created. Marvel’s Thor doesn’t physically resemble the Thor of actual mythology either (and the reason for that was eventually explained through reincarnation). All in all, Moon Knight’s classic suit is still pretty cool. Once he got his own series, his mask would sometimes go from being white and in shadow to being a literal black mask and then back again.

During this time, Moon Knight’s costume evolved a little more. His gloves were simplified, no longer decorated by bracers. He now had visible white shorts on over his trousers. The trousers and the shirt darkened, intended to be black with a silver sheen for texture. Some stories still called him a “jet and silver” hero or the “jet black and silver avenger.”

Now here’s a funny thing. Despite the fact the Marvel Universe says many gods of Earth’s history were living beings from other worlds or dimensions, the Moon Knight comics kept it very sketchy as to whether or not Marc had actually been tapped by such a being or had hallucinated the encounter. Maybe he wasn’t dead and then resurrected, maybe he was just extremely weak and had a miraculous recovery. You’d think Marc could have just asked Thor, who’d met the Egyptian gods, if he could contact the real Khonshu and verify his beliefs, but this didn’t happen. Basically, Marvel wanted readers to wonder if the crescent moon crusader was also a lunatic. I guess that was only natural when you have a hero connected to the moon and the pun is just too tempting.

Going along with the “is he a nuts or not” theme, the Moon Knight series eventually had Marc develop Multiple Personality Disorder (which today is known as Dissociative Identity Disorder), a result of the stress of maintaining multiple cover identities on a regular basis. Even for superhero comics, this is ridiculous. Although the diagnosis has controversy and disagreement about it, the research is clear that DID is not something you catch or develop by adopting different identities on a regular basis. Otherwise, actors of all sorts would widely suffer form it. But that’s what the comics said and it wasn’t until 2014 we were told differently.

Before we move on, it’s interesting to note Moon Knight habitually finds enemies who visually model themselves after him. During his first solo series, he fought the villain Anton Mogart aka Midnight Man, who dressed in a similar costume that was completely black, and Carson Knowles aka the Black Spectre, who fancied himself an anti-thesis to Moon Knight. Marc also fought his own brother Randall, who became the serial killer Hatchet-Man before his untimely death. In the 1990s, history was retconned and the dead Hatchet-Man was said to be someone else entirely. Randall was reintroduced at the same time as Shadow Knight, who wanted to usurp Moon Knight’s place as Khonshu’s champion and later dressed as a mummy version of the hero. Odd how Marc keeps inspiring mimicry in villains.

The first Moon Knight series was cancelled with issue #38 in the summer of 1984. After the god Khonshu intervened and healed Marc Spector’s fragmented mind, the hero had one last adventure which involved his father and non-literal ghosts of his past. He then decided to retire from the superhero life so he could go live happily ever after with Marlene. Of course, readers were told in the same issue that Moon Knight would be back the following year.

FIST OF KHONSHU

In 1985, the silver-garbed avenger of evil reappeared in the six-issue mini-series Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu. It was written by Alan Zelenetz (who had been the last writer on the previous series), with art by Chris Warner, Christie Scheele and E.R. Cruz. The story began with Marc Spector and Marlene living their quiet lives. Marc set up the Spector International Art Gallery and wound up auctioning the Khonshu statue he had held onto for years. Seems a little messed up to auction off the statue instead of, I don’t know, returning it to Egypt since you kinda stole it. But I digress.

Marc has visions of Khonshu telling him evil is rising in Egypt. Marc tells Marlene he has to investigate, but she gets angry he’s returning to his old insane life and leaves. Marc then heads to the Valley of Kings and discovers a cave inhabited by a priesthood dedicated to Khonshu. He learns of an ancient priest of Anubis named Araamses who was mummified thousands of years before, his body placed in the very tomb in which Marc later experienced his resurrection. Just as Marc was revived to serve Khonshu, Araamses was resurrected to serve Anubis. In actual mythology, Anubis was an afterlife god who judged the dead before they went to their final fate and protected the spirits of the innocent. But in Marvel Comics, he was seen as an aspect of death and therefore a bad guy who was the opposite number of Khonshu, who represented healing and life, as well as vengeance.

In any event, the priests knew Araamses was now rising in power, thanks in part to his having bought the statue of Khonshu from Marc’s auction. Marc had to become Moon Knight again, to act as the fist of Khonshu on Earth, so he could recover the statue and stop Araamses, who was now an avatar of Anubis. To help, the priests gave Marc new weapons magically charmed to aid against evil, such as a metal ankh that would glow to warn of nearby danger (and orcs, presumably). They also granted him a new suit decorated by the ankh (a symbol of life), a golden belt, and golden bracers. So Moon Knight was given a soft reboot, donning a new costume and becoming a man who fought mystical forces rather than serial killers and gangsters.

To carry all this new stuff, Moony had a new pouch attached to the back of his belt. Honestly, he probably should’ve kept the bag more to the side. Keeping it directly on the back of his belt seems like it would be a little awkward to reach during a fight. Maybe I’m just not flexible enough myself.

This is a pretty cool costume but I’m not sure it works for our hero. I can get behind how the bracers and belt break up the costume’s color. But now we’ve got a guy called Moon Knight with not one single moon symbol? Doesn’t work. Add to this the fact that artists started making Marc’s face visible underneath the mask and this almost becomes a different character.

After Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu ended, Moon Knight appeared in West Coast Avengers (which was later retitled Avengers West Coast) and served as a member of the team for over a year. When he joined the team, he had already altered his costume slightly, switching the ankh for a crescent moon. During a time travel adventure, it was revealed the Avenger named Hawkeye had actually designed the golden weapons Moon Knight had received from the Khonshu priests. Aren’t paradoxes fun? Screw you, causality!

While still with the Avengers West Coast branch, Moon Knight learned that Khonshu had actually entered his mind during the Fist of Khonshu mini-series and had been influencing his behavior since then. With the help of the demonic sorcerer Damian Hellstrom, Marc exorcised Khonshu. He then decided to retire from superheroics, at least for a while. He left the Avengers and ditched the costume and charmed weapons he’d been using for a few years.

BACK TO BASICS

In 1989, the “jet black and silver Avenger” got his own series again. Marc Spector: Moon Knight #1 was initially written by Chuck Dixon (who later wrote a lot of Batman, Robin and Green Arrow comics), and originally had the art team of Sal Velluto, Mark Farmer and Mark Chiarello. The series opened with Marc resuming his crime-fighting life, donning the look he’d worn at the end of the first Moon Knight series. A minor change was the belt buckle was now a crescent moon too. Marc had Frenchie at his side again and Marlene returned quickly afterward. In this series, he didn’t run around as Steven Grant or Jake Lockely. He was simply Marc Spector, a guy with resources and a crescent shaped “Moon-Copter” who sometimes wore a costume and beat up bad people. Once again, his villains were more urban-based rather than cosmic.

After a few adventures, Marc’s costume changed slightly. Along with now being made of light-weight kevlar, the suit had the arm bracers Moon Knight had worn originally in the 70′s and added similar armor to the boots. I rather like this look, which has been considered his second “classic” costume. The boots and gloves matching gives a nice unity to the suit. The shirt and trousers were now often indicated to be black again, with silver highlights, while the cloak remained white/silver. It became standard to keep Moon Knight’s masked face in shadow, so you often couldn’t tell if it was black or white or something else.

During this series, Moon Knight met the young vigilante Jeff Wilde aka Midnight, son of the deceased criminal Midnight Man. Jeff had become a vigilante following Moon Knight’s disappearance from New York and now wanted to work with him, so Marc took on the teenager as a sidekick. But Jeff was too impulsive and wound up getting seemingly killed during a battle with the terrorist organization known as the Secret Empire. Not long afterward, we learned he had survived his injuries thanks to the Secret Empire rebuilding him as a cyborg. Jeff now served the terrorist group and wanted revenge on Moon Knight, whom he believed had deliberately abandoned him and caused Midnight Man’s death. It’s rather like the story of Captain America and the Winter Soldier over a decade later. Except we never liked Jeff much (he was a bit of a whiner), so we didn’t feel the tragedy that strongly.

Terry Kavanagh took over as writer and from then on the series got pretty weird. Marc set up his own company SpectorCorp, along with a think-tank he called Shadow Cabinet, all intelligent and skilled people he contacted via hologram. His lair, the ShadowKeep, was a high-tech place which came to include more vehicles such as the Angelwing and the Moon-Mobile. Yeah. “Moon-Mobile.” I guess it’s not that far out when you’ve already been using a Moon-Copter for years.

The Shadow Cabinet included a psychologist codenamed Sigmund who told Marc he still suffered from multiple personalities and had only been repressing the condition. Kavanagh also revealed that Marc was descended from a demon clan known as the Hellbent. It was a weird time for the lunar avenger, people. Thankfully, no one’s ever mentioned the Hellbent since this series.

An encounter with the Spider-Man villain Hobgoblin (demonically possessed, at the time) led to Moon Knight being infected by a demon force that ravaged his health. To compensate, he adopted a silver suit of armor. This design isn’t bad, but there are too many moons on the belt and it definitely takes away the feeling of agility the hero always had. He’s a “knight,” but he shouldn’t look like he raided Iron Man’s closet. It also makes it seem doubtful his glider cape could really hold him aloft.

In the final storyline of Marc Spector: Moon Knight, the silver-garbed hero regained his health and ditched the armor. He started wearing an all white/silver version of his second classic suit, except he added a new belt with a big honking moon buckle. Seriously, that is an enormous buckle. Is Marc hiding a roomba there in case he needs to do some vacuuming at a moment’s notice?

Anyway, sales had been down for a while and it was decided to retire the hero again, maybe for good. In the final issue of Marc Spector: Moon Knight, an enemy unleashed a computer virus to cause widespread destruction. After evacuating the SpectorCorp HQ, Marc confined the destruction to that building, sacrificing himself. Marlene found his body and the issue ended with a funeral.

Of course, this is superhero comics. So what’s a little resurrection between friends, especially with a hero who’s already pulled off that trick once? Doug Moench came back to write the mini-series Moon Knight: The Resurrection War, wherein Khonshu apparently returns Marc to life so he can fight some old enemies and the forces of the god Set. The mini-series mainly served to restore the hero to the status quo of Moench’s stories during the original solo series. Moon Knight again abandoned the Spector identity and resumed his covers as Grant and Lockley. Despite the fact that West Coast Avengers had confirmed Khonshu was real and connected to Marc, The Resurrection War went back to implying the hero might be delusional. Marlene and Frenchie had buried Marc and then saw him returned to life before their eyes months later, but they wondered if maybe this and the hero’s (second) death were just illusions cast by his dream-based enemy Morpheus (though why the villain would do that wasn’t clear).

Marc Spector’s second resurrection marked the beginning of a new era, during which no one seemed to know what to do with the character. Moon Knight showed up in Black Panther comics and a Great Lakes Avengers special. Then, in the short-lived series Marvel Knights, he joined forces with other heroes determined to stop the Punisher. In the end, things didn’t work out and the destruction of Marc Spector’s new HQ left him with a serious lack of resources. He figured, “Frak it, I’m retiring. AGAIN.”

Retirement didn’t last long. Moon Knight reappeared in 2005 in the pages of Marvel Team-Up #7, written by Robert Kirkman (The Walking Dead), with art by Scott Kollins and Studio F. Here, he wore an all-black suit with a white cloak. Basically, this the second classic costume (with the first classic costume’s belt buckle) but we’ve eliminated the use of white highlights to give it texture. Coloring techniques had changed enough that we could give it texture and keep it totally black. It’s a curious effect.

Another alternate look appeared in the Ultimate Marvel universe. Ultimate Marvel began in 2001, reimagining familiar Marvel characters in a new, slightly grittier reality. Ultimate Moon Knight had an interesting design done by Mark Bagley. The dark section that goes down the middle recalls the original 70′s suit. The crescent moon on the mask ain’t bad at all. But I miss the hood and that large collar just looks odd as a replacement.

MOON KNIGHT ACTUALLY GOES CRAZY

The hero got his own series again in 2006, around the time Marvel had its big Civil War crossover. The first issue of the new Moon Knight series, written by horror scribe Charlie Huston and with art by David Finch, revealed that since we’d last seen him in Marvel Knights, Marc had finally killed Bushman (I guess after his team-up with Spider-Man in 2005). Not only that, he’d actually sliced Bushman’s face off. It was, frankly, out of character for Moon Knight to be so vicious in his actions, but that was the story we were given. For the next few years, Moon Knight was emphasized as an unhinged and violent hero.

Marc had been injured by his final fight with Bushman and retired in depression, but circumstances led to him resuming his role as Moon Knight, now more violent and ruthless. He brought back the cesti he hadn’t worn since fighting Jack Russell in his first story. I’m not a fan of the spiked gloves since I don’t think Moon Knight should use them on just anyone, but the rest of the costume works. The crescent moon blades and belt buckle now being golden is a nice tweak. Along with the new wardrobe, Marc started having full on conversations with Khonshu, who appeared to him as Bushman’s faceless body. Khonshu’s aspects as a protector and healer were forgotten. He was interested in vengeance and insisted Marc be more lethal and vicious.

A fun thing Huston added to the Moon Knight mythos was an explanation for why the hero would wear a silver costume when he often operated at night. Marc recalled how Hawkeye had once asked him about this during his time on the West Coast branch of the Avengers. Moon Knight had explained, quite simply, he wanted his enemies to see him coming. He wanted them to be afraid, to focus on him and nothing else.

Although Huston stuck around as co-plotter for a while, he soon turned over writing duties to Mike Benson. Following the events of Civil War, Moon Knight registered with the government as a licensed hero and dropped the potentially lethal spiked gloves. The gold also went away, giving us an all-white look with new ribbed bracers and boots that had little crescent moons decorating them. In issue #19 (2008), he added shoulder pads to the suit.

That same issue involved a confrontation with Black Spectre which ended when Marc threw the villain off a rooftop to stop him from endangering lives. The fall was fatal and the act was witnessed by a crowd. Khonshu seemed pleased by this, but Marc decided that was the last time he would kill for the god of the moon. He wanted to be a hero, not a killer. To evade the authorities, he soon faked his death, then went to Mexico City and lived there for a while as Jake Lockley. The series then ended with Moon Knight #30 in 2009.

Later that year, the new series Vengeance of the Moon Knight began, written by Gregg Hurtwitz with art by Jerome Opeña and Dan Brown. The series had Moon Knight, now driven primarily by the Jake Lockley personality, return to New York in a new suit of armor. Jake Lockley was a different sort of hero, prone to alcohol abuse and perfectly fine with using guns rather than crescent blades. Though he wasn’t killing criminals like the Punisher, Moon Knight was still painted as a violent loose cannon.

Now this new armor suit here. I get Moon Knight likes his symbol but holy crap, those are LOTS of crescent moons decorating that armor. They are all over the place! Shoulder pads, thigh armor, boots, bracers. Now, it looks like Moony is seriously self-conscious you aren’t going to remember who he is. And once again, my own opinion, Moon Knight shouldn’t wear too much armor.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight lasted less than a year. Moon Knight ditched the Jake Lockley identity and went back to being Marc Spector. Calmer and less violent now, he joined the Secret Avengers team for a while, performing covert missions for Steve Rogers. A couple of teammates were suspicious of him, due to his known history with mental illness. While on the team, he wore a few specialty costumes. When Warren Ellis took over as writer, one of his issues involved Moon Knight wearing a capeless versions of a classic suit, with a small back-pack then Moon Knight revealed the backpack actually held his cape, which expanded on command. A very cool idea!

Another variation seen was an all-black version of his Vengeance of Moon Knight armor, worn for a night mission where stealth was more essential than Marc’s desire to scare baddies. It’s a cute alternate, but obviously it doesn’t work as a standard uniform for the lunar hero.

There was a plain clothes outfit introduced in Secret Avengers #19, written by Ellis, with art by Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, and Brian Thies. In that story, Moon Knight was on a spy mission and just wore a white suit. When he had to go into action, he switched his red tie for a silver one and donned a simple white/silver mask decorated by a crescent moon. It was a great look and has recently resurfaced. During this story, he also used a dart gun that fired nightmare-inducing toxins.

It’s probably not a coincidence that Moon Knight’s white suit resembles the wardrobe of Elijah Snow, the main protagonist of Warren Ellis’ science fiction saga Planetary.

A new Moon Knight series kicked off in 2011, written by Brian Michael Bendis, with art by Alex Maleev and Matthew Wilson. In this story, Marc moved back to Los Angeles and became executive producer of a new TV show Legends of Khonshu, based on his own life (wait, what?). He also resumed his Moon Knight operations, wearing the first classic 1980s suit. There was no personality difference between Marc Spector and Moon Knight, so this was just one identity who sometimes wore a mask.

But Moon Knight wasn’t stable. Bendis brought back the idea of Marc’s splintered mind and added a new twist. Instead of adopting cover identities such as Jake Lockley and Steven Grant, Marc now occasionally had full blown hallucinations that Spider-Man, Wolverine and Captain America were present and talking with him. At times, he dressed up as them, convinced he was actually them. He’d wear Spidey’s suit or use weapons resembling Wolverine’s claws. He even got his own version of Captain America’s shield. Once again, Moon Knight was actually four people in one.

This kind of behavior doesn’t jive with either schizophrenia or Dissociative Identity Disorder. But as with the 1980s series, real psychology wasn’t the focus. The point you were meant to accept was that Moony was a loonie (don’t hate me, readers, I like rhymes). This series lasted just a year, by which point Marc had also developed an Iron Man personality.

2014 REBOOT

“I’ve died before. It was boring, so I stood up.”

A Moon Knight series has begun in 2014, written by Ellis, with art by Declan Shelvey and Jordie Bellaire. Marc Spector has returned to New York and resumed his crime-fighting activities, once again using considerable financial resources to outfit himself with cool, sexy vehicles and equipment. Ellis has, thankfully, done away with the idea Moon Knight has DID or schizophrenia. In issue #1, Marc visits a therapist who directly acknowledges that his symptoms do not match these conditions and furthermore, it’s ridiculous he would develop it through the strain of maintaining different cover identities.

As Ellis explains it, the different aspects of Khonshu in mythology fit into four basic categories: pathfinder, embracer, defender and the watcher of overnight travelers. It’s no coincidence Moon Knight often engages in up to four different identities at a time. All of Marc’s splintered personalities were actually because he was shifting between Khonshu’s different aspects. The Moon Knight aspect represented the Khonsu of myth who primarily protects and avenges those who wish to travel about at night in peace. Marc’s most violent period, when he took off Bushman’s face, was him acting as Khonshu’s earliest and most vengeful aspect, “The One Who Lives On Hearts.”

Marc wasn’t crazy, Khonshu was real, an extra-dimensional consciousness who had been worshipped as a god long ago. Marc had died and been resurrected by Khonshu, but brain damage had still resulted from his death. The moon god bonded with Marc’s mind and altered it somewhat so the resurrected mercenary would be his avatar. In the new series, Khonshu once again appears to Marc from time to time, now as a dead anthropomorphic falcon. This jives with the fact that in myth, Khonshu was often depicted with a falcon’s head.

In the new series, Moon Knight actually uses two costumed aspects. One is the superhero who has a big cape and a black suit decorated by silver armor. The other is “Mr. Knight,” a consultant to the NYPD who wears a new version of the plainclothes look seen in Secret Avengers #19.

The Mr. Knight suit is awesome. I love this idea. In this three piece suit aspect, Moon Knight acts a little more like his old Steven Grant identity. Another thing I dig about this aspect is Mr. Knight’s buttons and cufflinks are all crescent moons. Unlike the Vengeance of the Moon Knight armor, they’re so small that they’re kind of adorable rather than overwhelming. In fact, I think I might have identical cufflinks and buttons made for me so I can add them to my own white suit. Yes, I own a white suit. What’s it to you?

Now, about the new Moon Knight armor. People, I am all about this armor. I liked the 1990s classic style suit, but this is a slick ultra-modern update. Like the Marvel Team-Up version, it’s clearly a black bodysuit rather than one with white highlights. But now there’s enough silver armor added into the mix to add contrast and keep the costume from looking like a long-sleeved unitard. Once again, he can accurately be described as the “jet black and silver avenger.”

This suit also has a bit of a ninja aspect to it, which I think very much fits how Moon Knight operates. The over-lapping, flexible plates attached to parts of his body maintains a sense of freedom and agility, as opposed to the heavier, full armor suits of the past. With this design, he’s definitely an armored “knight,” but he doesn’t look so weighted down we’d have difficulty imagining him somersaulting off a rooftop.

Ellis has also brought back the idea he used in Secret Avengers that Moon Knight’s glider cape can hide in his backpack and expand when necessary. This is a great idea. Along with the cape being a crescent moon, most of the armor plates are crescent shaped. But their placement on the armor prevent them from overwhelming the design with Moon Knight’s symbol. This is just one damn sharp suit, people.

Well, that wraps it up. This new Moon Knight series has only recently started, so you should have no problem catching up if you head to your local comic shop and ask for the previous issues. I highly recommend the series if you want to see urban crime-fighting tales with touches of high-concept science fiction and mysticism. Until next time, everyone, this is Alan Kistler, Agent of S.T.Y.L.E., signing off.

And hey, are you going to be at WonderCon? I’m speaking on a panel every day. Come say hi!

Alan Sizzler Kistler (@SizzlerKistler) is a freelance contributor and actor. He is the author of Doctor Who: A History.

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We’re betting there’s more than one deleted scene from Winter Soldier, five minutes of them, in fact. But according to the co-directors of the film, one Black Widow-heavy scene was cut on the suggestion of Scarlett Johansson herself.

Joe and Anthony Russo spoke to Collider, about Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and, among other things, brought up an scene that was left on the cutting room floor.

There’s a great scene that got cut, a scene that’s a masterclass in acting between Scarlett and Sam Jackson. It took place near the end of the second act, it’s when they find Fury in the bunker and Scarlett takes issue with the fact that Fury did not let her in on the fact that he was still alive, and she actually believed that he was dead. It’s a nice moment for her, it’s a reflective moment where she goes “My god, this is the world that I’ve sort of invited myself into.” And Fury says “I couldn’t, I had to keep the circle small,” so i think its a very reflective moment for her. A short scene but it’s a great scene.

It’s easy to see the scene as just one more reason, on top of her organization being full of secret Nazi science agents, why Natasha changes over the course of the film from someone easy and calm with having a secret goal for her portion of a clandestine mission and fabricating a new identity as she goes, to someone willing to blast her bloodstained past out to the whole world. But the film accomplished that arc anyway, and according to the Russos, it was Johansson herself who was first to raise that point.

Weirdly it was Scarlett who said after she saw the movie, she loved the film, but she goes “It just seemed there was a bit of a drag in that section,” and she goes “This is crazy for me to recommend this, but do we really need that scene between me and Sam? Is there really narrative content in that scene? You could still get the same arc out of my character without it,” she actually recommended cutting her own scene.

That’s a pretty cool move for any actor to take, and I look forward to seeing the scene when that DVD drops. What? Oh, you’d like some more Marvel news? How about Paul Bettany talking about playing the Vision (1:15)?

How about Chadwick Boseman not-outright-denying that he’s in the running for Black Panther (3:33)?

Are you not entertained?

(via MoviePilot, /Film, Blastr.)

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Captain America: The Winter Soldier star Anthony Mackie has said something wonderful about Wonder Woman. 

And it isn’t the first time. Or the second, for that matter.

It’s not always the easiest thing to go to bat for an underrepresented segment of society when you belong to another which also needs attention. It’s human nature for most of us to look at things squarely from our own personal world view. But not Mackie. Not only has he constantly discussed the need for more heroes of color on the big screen, he thinks we need more women too.

GeekDad.com posted an interview session they were a part of with Mackie in which the actor said he thought it was “cool” to be the first African-American superhero [on the big screen] (we’re assuming they weren’t counting characters like Blade or Spawn) [Edit: It seems the context may have just been, how does it feel to be Falcon in general, not on the big screen. That was our assumption.]. He said, “When I was a kid, I really didn’t have a person I could look at, other than my dad, and be like, ‘Hey, I want to be that guy and fly through the window.’ You couldn’t be like 7 years old and say, ‘Who do you want to be for Halloween?’ ‘Shaft!’”

He went on to say:

When I first got this role I just cried like a baby because I was like, “Wow, next Halloween, I’m gonna open the door and there’s gonna be a little kid dressed as the Falcon.” That’s the thing that always gets me. I feel like everybody deserves that. I feel like there should be a Latino superhero. Scarlett [Johansson] does great representation for all the other girls, but there should be a Wonder Woman movie. I don’t care if they make 20 bucks, if there’s a movie you’re gonna lose money on, make it Wonder Woman. You know what I mean, ’cause little girls deserve that. There’s so many of these little people out here doing awful things for money in the world of being famous. And little girls see that. They should have the opposite spectrum of that to look up to.

Slow clap for this guy.

[Edited to add: Of course we want a Wonder Woman film which is successful on all fronts but Mackie is completely right about the intent of the film beyond money making. The 1984 Supergirl film got terrible reviews and is always brought up when people want an example of why female superhero films don't work but you know what? I saw that movie as a young girl and was completely obsessed. It made me love superheroes more than the Christopher Reeve Superman films because I could imagine myself as one. Do not underestimate the power of that impact.]

The interview also includes some adorable things like Mackie talking about his costume. “The first time I put that costume on, I couldn’t stop smiling; I was running around the room. It’s one of those moments where you just have to allow yourself to enjoy it,” he said, “I really took every moment to enjoy being a superhero.” Also read the rest for a completely believable story about how he got into trouble for signing a bunch of Falcon posters at a craft store.

Previously in Superheroine Movies

• Scarlett Johannson Stars In A Not-Black Widow Black Widow Movie
• Director Of Bridesmaids Pitched Wonder Woman Action-Comedy
• Warner Bros. Exec Says We Need A Wonder Woman Movie
• Fox Wants A Mystique Solo Film With Jennifer Lawrence
• Kevin Feige Says Infuriating Things About Black Widow Solo Film

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We get a lot of emails about Kickstarter campaigns around these parts, but this one—”KitRex: the 3D paper velociraptor that you build yourself!“—caught our eye. Fun tip: Having a campaign that involves dinosaurs and googly eyes never hurts. (Thanks to tipster Amy)

• Canadian singer Christo Graham re-recorded all the songs from Jesus Christ Superstar as if they were sung by Muppets. It’s called Muppet Christ Superstar. Could you ask as much from any other frog? (A.V. Club)
• An article on The Hollywood Reporter about the theme song for the upcoming Studio Ghibli flick When Marnie Was There, directed by The Secret World of Arrietty‘s Hiromasa Yonebayashi, contains an interesting little tidbit that we didn’t notice before: It’s the first Ghibli film with two female leads.
• Via Neatorama, Google’s Street View software has gotten really good at reading captchas… you know, those things that are supposed to separate the humans from the computers. I sense Skynet.

The latest Frozen mashup to hit the Internet: Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Check out the rest on Tumblr.

• Like our own Jill Pantozzi earlier today, Andy Khouri of Comics Alliance addresses the epidemic of men threatening women with rape in the online geek community. Choice quote: “Sexual harassment isn’t an occupational hazard. It’s not a glitch in the complex matrix of modern life. It’s not something that just ‘happens.’ It’s something men do. It’s a choice men make. It’s a problem men enable. It’s sometimes a crime men commit. And it is not in the power nor the responsibility of women to wage war on this crime. It’s on us.”
• If you’re anything like me, this quote from Karen Gillan about filming Guardians of the Galaxy will give you a chuckle: “…I worked a lot with Lee Pace, because we’re the bad guys, and we went around antagonizing everybody.” A) Fun mental image, and B) Proof that Lee Pace is still in Guardians of the Galaxy, even though we’ve gotten nary a glimpse of his wonderful eyebrows in any of the teasers. It wasn’t just a collective dream! (io9)

io9 has a bunch of Maleficent promo pics, and if I have to lay eyes on the nightmare fuel above then so do you.

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Joss Whedon is pretty busy these days, filming The Avengers sequel and all, but he recently found time to speak with Empire Magazine about the upcoming feature film. Find out what he gave away plus what Marvel’s Kevin Feige told them about how Ant-Man will connect to the larger universe and tidbits about Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver’s place in Age of Ultron. 

“I fiercely dislike the idea of just throwing in more people for the sake of doing that,” Whedon told Empire. “But last time I had all of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes versus one British character actor, and I needed more conflict.”

Age of Ultron is getting crowded now that I think of it. You’ve got the returning heroes but also Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen), Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann), and Ultron himself (James Spader).

“He’s not a creature of logic – he’s a robot who’s genuinely disturbed,” Whedon said of Ultron. “We’re finding out what makes him menacing and at the same time endearing and funny and strange and unexpected, and everything a robot never is.”

Meanwhile, Feige also spoke with Empire about the upcoming Paul Rudd-starring Ant-Man.  He told them, “We changed, frankly some of the MCU to accommodate this version of Ant-Man. Knowing what we wanted to do with Edgar [Wright] and with Ant-Man, going years and years back, helped to dictate what we did with the roster for Avengers the first time. It was a bit of both in terms of his idea for the Ant-Man story influencing the birth of the MCU in the early films leading up to Avengers.”

And of Rudd’s version of the comic character he said, “Look at that origin of the petty crook who comes into contact with a suit and does his best to make good, and then look at someone like Paul Rudd, who can do slightly unsavoury things like break into people’s houses and still be charming and who you root for and whose redemption you will find satisfaction in.”

Back to Age of Ultron once more, Feige also talked to Empire about the stinger on Captain America: The Winter Soldier and what it means for Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

“I would say that the Age of Miracles, as Strucker says at the end of that tag, could be a part of that, but the key to their origin is in that tag,” he said. ”They’re not very happy with The Avengers. Their powers are not insignificant and they’re quite different from what the Avengers have faced before.”

(via Collider, image via Empire’s Mary McCartney)

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Look at this above the arm joint and it could totally just be a picture of Anthony Mackie. What’s your magic, Hot Toys? (Twitter)

• io9 asks Why Do We Care So Much About What Female Superheroes Wear, Anyway?
• WB is rebooting The Flintstones as a brand new new animated film. Get Rick Moranis out of retirement to voice Barney and we’ll talk. (Deadline)

Joel McHale‘s reaction to Community‘s cancellation is spot-on and a little heartbreaking.

• Rebel Wilson is starring in New Line’s Private Benjamin remake. I’m not sure what to think about this. (Collider)
• This is what happens when you correct J.K. Rowling‘s Twitter grammar. (The Daily Dot)

Funko’s giving its Marty McFly Pop figure a sweet ride. Hit Nerd Approved to see their new retro-style Back to the Future action figures as well. Plastic George McFly’s rocking a little bit of an Eleventh Doctor vibe.

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While the ongoing saga of who’s going to direct Ant-Man continues, the rest of the Marvel juggernaut (well, not Marvel’s Juggernaut… but you get the idea) rumbles along with Avengers: Age of Ultron, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the upcoming DVD release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Here’s what’s happening (and notably not happening, in the case of Winter Soldier) in the other parts of the Marvel universe.

Writer/director Joss Whedon tweeted this picture yesterday, reminding everybody that even though it might be more than a year away, Age of Ultron is moving right along. Moving right along so fast, in fact, that nobody has any time to film a short for the Winter Soldier DVD.

Well, not really. Marvel has stated before that their One Shot series is for when they have a good idea to put into production, not just for every DVD release, and they’re putting that maxim into place with Winter Soldier. It will, however, be the first Marvel movie to ship to home video without an accompanying Marvel short since Iron Man 2. We’ll have to wait until Guardians of the Galaxy reaches the small screen or longer for another.

And speaking of Guardians, when it hits theaters this summer we’ll be getting our first good understanding of Lee Pace‘s Ronan the Accuser, who by all accounts appears to cut quite the impressive figure (seen above lifting team heavy Drax the Destroyer by the neck), a bit more burly and nasty and hands on that Pace’s usual roles, even when they’re villains. The actor is quite interested in showcasing the character more than the couple of frames we’ve seen in the trailers. He told Hitfix:

I mean he’s nuts. I mean I’ve never played anything like it and I’ve had such a good, it’s one of those things where you don’t know how to approach something like this. This is not [Halt and Catch Fire's] Joe MacMillan. You can’t think, ‘Well, you know, this is my relationship with my father…’ It’s not that. There’s none of that, you now, kind of ‘This is how I would go about dealing with these problems.’ It’s a complete kind of act of imagination. But in the hands of James Gunn, I’m such a fan of his movies. So it’s very much a creation of his and I found my self being like, “Alright, let’s do it. You tell me what you’re into here.

Ronan is a servant of Thanos, whose voice actor (at least) was recently recast to put Josh Brolin in the role. Since the Mad Titan won’t be taking center stage as a villain until the third Avengers movie, it’s unlikely we’ll see much of him in Guardians, and Pace also complained that he hadn’t seen much of some of Guardians‘ central characters.

Yeah, I’m really excited to see [Groot] because we didn’t get to work with him on-set. Both Groot and Rocket were never there.

Those slackers.

(via Digital Spy,  Entertainment Weekly, Hitfix.)

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Just when we thought we couldn’t possible be any more excited about Hayley Atwell’s new Marvel/ABC show Agent Carter, she has to go and be all adorable at SDCC and say words and now we want the show immediately.

Atwell and the creative team discuss Carter’s story and the show at length here, talking especially about what it’s like for Carter as a woman, who has to find her own way within the intelligence community once the men start returning from World War II. Marvel’s Agent M, Ryan Penagos, also gave us some deets on who will be directing the first few episodes of Agent Carter – including Lou D’Esposito (who directed the original Agent Carter one-shot), and Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors, the Russo Brothers.

Lou D’Esposito is directing the #AgentCarter pilot. The Russo Bros (#WinterSoldier directors) are directing eps 2-3. #MarvelSDCC #MarvelTV

— Ryan Penagos (@AgentM) July 25, 2014

Joe Johnston, director of first #CaptainAmerica movie, wants to direct #AgentCarter episode 4. #MarvelTV #MarvelSDCC — Ryan Penagos (@AgentM) July 25, 2014

Will there be more awesome female characters in #AgentCarter? Michelle Fazekas hints to more female heroes…and villains! #MarvelSDCC

— Ryan Penagos (@AgentM) July 25, 2014

“We see the cost psychologically and emotionally” for Peggy in the #AgentCarter series. #MarvelSDCC #MarvelTV — Ryan Penagos (@AgentM) July 25, 2014

.@HayleyAtwell says it’s great to portray a strong female character & hopefully be a role model for many girls. #MarvelSDCC #AgentCarter

— Ryan Penagos (@AgentM) July 25, 2014

If you can’t get enough Atwell (and we don’t blame you), here’s a peek at the Agent Carter panel from yesterday at SDCC.  

(via Marvel, Flicks and the City)

Previously in Agent Carter

• Hayley’s also revealed how many eps we’re getting
• Meet her supporting characters
• The show got a shiny new poster for SDCC

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You might want to watch this Captain America: The Winter Soldier scene quickish, as it’s from an unofficial YouTube account and thus will probably not remain up for long. So put aside those TPS reports or whatever other boring thing you’re doing, and watch Agent Sitwell try to intimidate Maria Hill. You don’t know who you’re messing with, boy-o.

Update: Embed switched out with an official one, so watch at your leisure.

(via Collider)

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In a post-Avengers world, how is the solution to every problem not to call in the Hulk? I mean, unless that problem is, “We need to do something really delicately and with great care.” Then, sure, maybe keep most of the Avengers out of it. Oh, and hail HYDRA.

Previously in How Things Should Have Ended

• Superman wasn’t too happy about The LEGO Movie‘s ending
• Frozen could have ended a bit differently, too
• And, of course, here’s how Batman Begins should have ended

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In the past few months Amazon has very publicly made enemies with several of its business partners, but the online retailer isn’t done sullying its image–fans hoping to order titles such Maleficent, Muppets Most Wanted, or Captain America: The Winter Soldier from Amazon are out of luck, at least until Disney cries “uncle.”

Amazon U.K. will be selling copies of the Disney titles, but American fans will only be able to find Winter Soldier and the other recent releases on Amazon Instant. Deadline reports that “discussions are continuing between Amazon and Disney to resolve the pricing issue.” Yes, Amazon’s bullying tactics sound like business as usual when the company being targeted is a media property as large as Disney, but blocking titles to gain an upper hand in price disputes is a growing trend for Amazon, and one that ultimately hurts both artists and fans.

Earlier this year, Amazon blocked the sale of Warner Bros.’ The Lego Movie when the two companies couldn’t agree on a price–according to Deadline, this controversial move “marked the first time that Amazon halted orders as a negotiating tactic.” Again, if it’s hard to muster up sympathy for giant companies like Warner Bros. or Disney, Amazon’s refusal to sell the new Disney titles is the third time in recent months that their negotiation tactics have raised eyebrows.

This Sunday, 900 authors including Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen King, and Goldfinch author Donna Tartt published a two-page open letter in The New York Times lambasting Amazon for directly hurting writers in their attempts to manipulate Hachette Book Group. Colbert even spoke out in support of Hachette and its authors on his show by calling for a boycott, saying that Amazon “wants to control book selling, book buying, and even book publishing, and that is a national tragedy… if this is to be the new American way, then maybe it has to be changed, by law if necessary, immediately, if not sooner.”

On the bright side, I guess, Winter Soldier or Maleficent fans don’t even need to make a conscious decision to boycott–when it comes to our DVD or Blu-Ray needs, Amazon has already made that call for us.

Previously in more like Asshole Fire, am I right?

• What’s the hold-up on that Netflix original Star Trek series?
• Amazon patented taking pictures in front of a white background
• Meet the Amazon Fire Phone

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I hope Sideshow Collectibles doesn’t mind. My cats make cameo appearances.

Yes, it’s true, Sideshow Collectibles provided The Mary Sue with a Captain America: The Winter Soldier Black Widow Sixth Scale Figure for review. And since it arrived at my house, I can tell you TMS staff is very jealous. [Ed. note: DON'T TALK TO ME ABOUT IT. -Victoria] Understandably. This figure is high on our list (and maybe yours?) of awesome collectables because Scarlett Johansson is awesome, and moreso as Black Widow.

Here’s the official info:

Black Widow Sixth Scale Figure

Pre-Ordering: Currently available for pre-order
Product Link: http://www.sideshowtoy.com/collectibles/marvel-black-widow-hot-toys-902181/
Price: $189.99

“The world is a vulnerable place but we’re the best qualified to defend it”.

One of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s greatest female spies, Black Widow, will be back in action with Captain America in Captain America: The Winter Soldier!

Sideshow Collectibles and Hot Toys are proud to present the Black Widow Sixth Scale Collectible Figure. The movie-accurate collectible is specially crafted based on the image of Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow in the film. Featuring a newly developed head sculpt with straight brownish-red real fabric hair, newly designed costume made with multiple materials, detailed weapons and accessories, you won’t want to miss the chance to add this spy to your shelves!

See more details and find out how you can purchase this lovely figure right here.

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Earlier this year we asked you, our readers, which of this summer’s movies you were most looking forward to, from Guardians of the Galaxy to Transformers: Age of Extinction and everything in between. Well, now that we’ve all had a chance to see (or not) all those movies, we’re checking back and getting your opinions on which of them delivered.

There are two polls: One where you rank how much you liked each movie (from one to five, one being “spawn of Satan” and five being “I have seen God”), and one where you can get your language on; we’ll cobble our favorite responses into a Zagat-style blurb encapsulating exactly what our readership thinks of each movie. Movies that you haven’t seen you can leave blank. Check back this Friday to see the Official Mary Sue Reader Ranking of this summer’s movies from worst to best, plus the TMS crew’s opinions on what came out over the past few months. Now get voting!

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You dorks. You beautiful, beautiful dorks.

As a bonus, here’s Stan Lee’s Ice Bucket video, too:

Pretty good way to support the cause while accounting for the fact that Stan Lee is 90 years old and probably should not be pouring ice water on his head, if you ask me.

As always, remember to donate to ALS Research yourself!

Previously in Ice Buckets

• Olivia Wilde
• Chris Evans & More
• George R.R. Martin & More

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There were some good movies that came out this summer. Some bad ones. And a lot of in-between. But which were which? We asked you, our readers, to share your opinions, and now we have the results. 2014 summer movie season, you have been ranked. The TMS writers also share their views on the movies that came out, because bloggers are inherently a somewhat narcissistic breed we couldn’t let you have all the fun.

Do you agree with the ranking? Was anything rated too high for your tastes? Too low? Or does this look about right?

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“What’s so funny is that I’m an avid Honest Trailer watcher. I love it, it cracks me up. So I think we talked about it in the commentary we used to sit in the room and go, ‘this is not going to end up in an Honest Trailer. This logic isn’t sound enough yet.’ We literally tried to Honest Trailer proof the movie. Because what Honest Trailers really is, and I’ll say litmus test again, is ‘how sound is the logic in your film? How ridiculous are the buys that you’re asking the audience to make?’ So we would just comb through the script over and over again and go, ‘How do we shore up this logic? How do we shore up this logic?’ So it was a very helpful exercise for us.”—OK, this quote from Captain America: The Winter Soldier co-director Joe Russo is not the biggest news item ever to pass my metaphorical desk (my bed where I’m working in my PJs? Yeah, that’s better), but the fact that he and brother Anthony are big Honest Trailer fans and tried to make it so the HT folks wouldn’t have any smack to talk about their film (they did not, as it happens—the Winter Soldier Honest Trailer basically boiled down to “No, it’s actually just really good.”) put a smile on my face, so I’m sharing it with you. Who knew the guys who directed all those Community episodes, including the pilot, would be such nerds?

In case you missed it, here’s the Winter Soldier Honest Trailer:

The How It Should Have Ended guys found a bit more to work with. Yeah, why did Bucky throw back that shield?

(via Collider)

Previously in Honest Trailers

• Attack of the Clones
• Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man Trilogy
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2

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There’s a moment when watching Thor: The Dark World when the titular character comes on the screen shirtless for a wash. The camera follows Thor, panning up his biceps and his abs, lingering for a solid minute while you can imagine he contemplates the events that have occurred in the film thus far. I mean, this is a thought process you can infer, but in reality it’s just there for the view of audience members who would find that attractive. The same thing occurs in Captain America: The Winter Soldier with the existence of Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson’s increasingly tight shirts, along with the bromance between Steve and Bucky Barnes. It’s these details that make you wonder if the Marvel Cinematic Universe is purposefully making their heroes into sex objects.

Going through the MCU tags on Tumblr, one can see a trend towards what can be interpreted as the female gaze and a typically heterosexual female view of attractiveness. There are muscular, partially or fully exposed men on display, and each could be on a list of “hottest actors in Hollywood.” They’re paragons of male beauty. You’ll find fanart, fanfiction, and photographs of the actors in wet t-shirts taken from magazines, all there to pander to the fans of these films in different ways. While there is a genuine love of the superhero genre there, with people discussing characters’ actions and exploring the source material together, it is also a sexual space, complete with explicit and pornographic images. For a series of films marketed more towards the male audience, the MCU has a surprisingly large and vocal female fanbase.

When I see these shots of Chris Hemsworth, shirtless, with no context or reason for existing, I have to wonder if that was done on purpose. Is there female gaze in the Marvel films?

The “gaze” is a concept of film and psychoanalytic theory that, according to Wikipedia, “is the anxious state that comes with the awareness that one can be viewed.” In her 1975 essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Laura Mulvey suggests that the gaze could be used in cinema to create an unfair gender balance between characters. She suggests that because heterosexual men are in control of the camera, women are often depicted as sexual, passive objects. When the camera pans up a woman’s bare leg or focuses on her cleavage, this is an example of the male gaze.

She says: “The man controls the film phantasy and also emerges as the representative of power in a further sense: as the bearer of the look of the spectator, transferring it behind the screen to neutralise the extra-diegetic tendencies represented by woman as spectacle.” In other words, when the man is in control of the camera, he gets what he wants and the woman on the screen loses all control.

This is in contrast to the female gaze, which is much rarer in Hollywood films thanks to a lack of female directors and leads. Marvel is no exception to this trend, but at the same time you can make the argument that these films are as much for women as they are for men. There is a sense going through the fan pages and the blogs that Marvel films are tapping into this market in startling numbers, creating heroes that not only conform to usual forms of masculinity, but also manage to talk to the other side, a demographic perceived by the establishment as not wanting to watch superhero or action films at all.

There are many factors is to take into account as to why this is. In the aforementioned examples, there is a sense that in those moments, Thor and Captain America and others are objects, put on display in the same way that women become an object to be spectated upon. You watch Thor wash his muscles and it breaks up the action for little reason besides eye candy. It reminds me of watching, for example, the Transformers films when the camera decides to get close to Megan Fox’s butt and I feel like I’m invading somebody’s space.

Outside the literal “gaze,” there’s the breaking away from typical action-movie protagonist archetypes when it comes to, specifically, the romances. Steve Rogers in Winter Soldier saves the day, doesn’t get the girl, and instead has to go and save his best friend (both Tumblr and the viewer can view this as homoerotic, going against the typical male gaze).  In Thor: The Dark World, Thor does work to save his love interest Jane Foster, but she in turn helps Thor. In each of these instances, we get a male protagonist who’s more complex than your typical Hollywood hero archetype. Tumblr users attach themselves to these heroes because of that (although I’m sure them being attractive helps). In her essay, Mulvey describes the male gaze as including an active protagonist and a passive female object, while in the MCU that is somewhat subverted.

Existing separate from the romances is Black Widow, who goes from an object of desire before her reveal in Iron Man 2 to an agent of strength and power in Winter Soldier. She is a male power fantasy, but in female form.

However, one could still argue against the female gaze, saying that the purpose of these men in tight spandex is to appeal to the male power fantasy. This is also true. While heterosexual women or homosexual men can look at the characters as sexual objects, something to be desired, they can also be viewed as unattainable standards of what a man should be, a huge aspect of the superhero archetype (they wouldn’t be super if there wasn’t something “super” about them).

In the essay “A Female Gaze?” by Eva-Maria Jacobsson, she brings up the idea of the female gaze in contrast to Mulvey’s theories, but questions whether it can really exist. She brings up Fatal Attraction, where an initial female gaze is then subverted by making the gazer into the villain, turning the audience back towards the masculine view. “No woman is allowed to attain power over the men. No woman is allowed to be the definer and constructor of a female gaze.”

Take for example Marvel’s latest work. In Guardians of the Galaxy, we have Gamora and Nebula as our female representatives, but they are controlled by their father and the other men in their lives in terms of their motivations. Then there’s Peter Quill, who first shows up on screen as an adult pulling a Captain Kirk. The alien woman he is with doesn’t exist to further the plot or to help Quill in some fashion. She’s there as a sex object that Quill has disposed of by the time we get to the action. While the relationship between Quill and Gamora is forgotten by the third act, saving her halfway through the film allows Quill to discover a heroic quality.

So do Marvel films contain elements of the female gaze? Yes and no. It depends on your interpretation of the scenes in question. The growing fanbases for these films that pertain to the more “feminine” parts can’t be ignored in discussions, especially when there are scenes of shirtless, glistening superheroes that are obviously targeted towards the female fanbase. That being said, you can’t really argue for a female gaze in Marvel when there isn’t even a film that is lead by a woman or is directed by one. I would like to one day watch a superhero flick and see something defined by the female gaze. Maybe another close-up of Chris Evans’ ass might do the trick.

Carli Velocci is a freelance writer living in Boston. One time she found a notebook filled with old musings on videogames and it was really embarrassing. You can find her work at Paste Magazine, Kill Screen, or her blog carlivelocci.wordpress.com. You can follow her at @revierypone on Twitter. Don’t ask her what her handle means.

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