Remember Zodiac? welp, we are back for someone that worked with him, let's just start with this, this would be pretty interesting.
What's The Work?[]
well... you people know what is Marvel Comics, I don't think I need to explain this again, let's go with the specific.
Moon Knight, is a series of comics of Marvel Comics, about the anti-hero Moon Knight, who after being resurrected by the god Khonshu, he became his fist, now having to fight against a lot of people. Although his reasons may vary, as Moon Knight has three personalities, and sometimes he had to do what Khonshu wanted, like in the Era of Khonshu, where Moon Knight helped the moon god into taking over Earth.
This time, we are focusing in the vol 9 of Moon Knight, again, that happens after all of that stuff about the Era of Khonshu, with Marc being pretty much alone and not being trusted by the other heroes, and Khonshu being locked up in Asgard, now Moon Knight has to continue protecting people that go under the light of the moon, helping a lot of people and defeating a lot of villains, like Zodiac, vampires and another fist of Khonshu. But after defeating Zodiac and killing the a leader of the vampires in that place, he has to fight a new super villain, with a name that he knows a lot, this one being... the Black Spectre, the third one in specific...who ends up being...Robert Plesko.
Who is him? What Has He Done?[]
The Third Black Spectre (which I like to call Black Spectre III), revealed later on to be Robert Plesko, is one of the main antagonists of this volume, being a fanatic of atrocities who ends up becoming one of the guys that do those...and he was also Marc's friend in the past.
So let's see, Robert Plesko had some appearences before this volume, being a former teammate of Marc Spector, when he was a mercenary, who ended up joining Marc's group of network informants, the Shadow Cabinet, while also being a psychotherapists, he helped Marc into giving psychological profiles of targets and helped Marc with psychotherapy.
Later on, when he has more importance, he goes to interview Zodiac, by request of Marc. In this interview, Zodiac noticed something about Plesko, that being, that he didn't seem to feel any type of remorse for what he had done as a mercenary, something that he found interesting, as Marc had that remorse on him, which Plesko tries to brush off as he just ended with that guilt after time of helping himself, showing a little of what Plesko really is in reality. Later on, two random villains, go in their way to attack nearly all of the group of the Shadow Cabinet, killing a lot of them, and even killing Plesko...okay, spoiler, he didn't died, he just faked his own death, to finally assume his new identity as the Black Spectre. After Marc got to defeat those two villains, everything was clear, someone sent them to do this, and for this, that person destroyed their minds until their original personalities didn't existed, now only wanting to do what the "Ghost in the telephone" told them to do, a very fucked up way of brainwashing.
Then, this mysterious person, would use another super villain to make sounds, that would get into the mind of people, causing them a lot of pain in their ears, before making them attack others until killing each other, as a test, he sent Sarnak to a nightclub, to test the soundtrack on all the people there, causing them to attack each other to death, thankfully, Reese, Soldier and eventually Moon Knight were there to stop all of that, although people still got hurt and some killed by all of this.
Later on, he would try to get Morpheous, a friend of Marc, into all of this, but when he refused, he injured him fatally, leaving him to die, as he tried to use his powers one last time to at least make Marc happy in his last moments...which he succeced, by telling him that the name of the person behind all of this, was Black Spectre.
That is when we finally see this villain in the flesh, being pretty much similar as to how Moon Knight helps people, even having a similar place, but instead of helping selfishingly, this Black Spectre always asks for something in change, a favour, and if they do not agree, he will kill them. So, using 8-Ball by threatening to kill him, he lures Moon Knight to Hart Island, where he got multiples villains that Moon Knight faced in this volume, such as Clarke, Manslaugter Mandale, Mountain Marko and Waxman (The serial killer), to kill Moon Knight, a plan that only got to fail thanks to 8-Ball, who redeems himself and ends up saving the hero. As this happens, he uses that person that asked him for help, to get in the prison where Zodiac was, so he will get the soundtrack made by Sarnak to get everyone, who didn't got the earplugs that he sent for them, killed by each others in a brutal fashion, and after that, he freed all of them, including Zodiac, you know, that complete psychopath that had killed a lot of people just for the lulz, all for his final plan.
So, later on, it is revealed that he was the one behind the slavery of a species that lives underground, using them to create to create tunnels undeground, so his final plan would finally be archieved, that being to get the soundtrack of Sarnak all over the city so that all the citizens would tear each other until all of them die (while also letting Zodiac do whathever he wants as this happens). That is when he is revealed, after Moon Knight got to beat him up...it is revealed that the one behind the mask is the second Black Spectre, as the third one got him to do that as he finished the preparations, and after fatally shooting Moon Knight, he reveals his true face...that being Robert Plesko, his supposed friend and teammate.
In that moment, it is revealed, that Plesko was always a very weird and sadistic person, enjoying all the atrocities and crimes he commited as a mercenary with Marc, and after his death, he went to Raoul Bushman, and started working for him, knowing that he was the one who killed Marc, just to continue with those war crimes. At the end, he got bored of not being the main one doing all of this, so he became the new Black Spectre, knowing that this will get Moon Knight's attention, but not caring at all for it, he then leaves Moon Knight to die as everything is ready, but sadly for him, his plan ends up being foiled...but....with a cost, as Moon Knight ended up sacrificing himself to stop all of this, knowing that Khonshu wouldn't be able to resurrect him. At the end, not knowing how did his plan failed, Plesko finds Zodiac waiting for him, pretty angry for the death of Moon Knight, and ready to torture him to death.
Mitigating Factors[]
None, he pretty much subverts or is revealed that he didn't cared for Marc, and just liked to be around him to see the atrocities he commits, even getting with Raoul Bushman, the one who killed Marc, for those reasons. He uses everyone around him, not caring for anyone besides his own plans, using the desires of other people to get favours from others. And of course, even if his fate was getting tortured to death by Zodiac, it is completely deserved, and is not seen at all as sympathetic, while being played pretty much as karmic for all the atrocities he commited, which is seen by the line that Zodiac said: "You wanted atrocity? I'm going to give you the full experience, up-close".
Heinous Standard[]
This is the more tricky part...but I think he is fine, even compared to other villains of Moon Knight, such as Raoul Bushman, Zodiac or Simon (who tries something similar), Plesko goes out of his way of being one of the most evil villains of the fist of Khonshu, by going pretty personal towards Moon Knight, faking his own death and killing multiples allies and friends of the hero, while at the same time, breaking the minds of two villains, until their original personalities were fully gone, and only would do what he says. He also enslaved a lot of members of a species just to do his master plan, forcing them to dig a lot under the city and treating them pretty bad. And of course, his worst actions would be what he did with help of Sarnak, that being, the creation of that soundtrack that would get people to kill each other, who he tested in a prison and a nightclub, while planning to get all the city of New York affected by it, and although Simon planned something similar (that being infecting the city's water suply with a hate plague that turns people into homicidal people), Plesko stands out to him thanks to his brutality, as it not only makes the people homicidal, but it provokes them an inmense pain in the head, causing them to attack anyone, also, Plesko is trying to get everyone killed, while Simon was to affect a lot of people, but it would let the effect wore off if he received the money he was asking to, giving Plesko more to stand out to him. Besides all of this, we can't forget that he also freed a serial killer such as Waxman, and the psychopath that I proposed last time, Zodiac, just to cause more atrocities in the world. And at last, we have that all his plan to kill everyone in New York was only stopped, thanks to Moon Knight's sacrifice, so yeah, Black Spectre is responsible of the death of the hero of the story. With all in mind, I think he stands out enough to count.
Final Verdict[]
An average or even an easy yes for the third Black Spectre, for commiting multiples atrocities as a mercenary, working with Raoul Bushman just to commit more crimes, freeing Zodiac and Waxman, destroying the mind of two people and getting them to kill a lot of Moon Knight's former allies and friends to spite him, enslaving an species that lived underground by threating them with death, using Sarnak's soundtrack in a nightclub, prison and eventually wanting to do it in all of the New York city, which would cause them inmense pain and would get them to kill each other until no one survives, and of course, getting Moon Knight killed. All of this just because he loves commiting atrocities and watch it all for his own twisted pleasure.