Moon rises to reign over MCU knight of supernatural vengeance

The newest Marvel Disney+ TV series, and first of 2022, Moon Knight brings the supernatural side of the MCU to life as the series follows mercenary Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker) after he is chosen to be the avatar of the Egyptian moon god, Khonshu. At first glance, the show just appears to be a superhero mash-up of Fight Club and Indiana Jones, but diving deeper into the lore, fans can find what truly makes this character stand out from the rest of the MCU. 

Traditionally, Moon Knight has always been one of the grittier characters in the Marvel canon (his  first appearance coming in Werewolf by Night #32). The story for this white-caped warrior is that while on a job in Sudan, a fellow mercenary named Raoul Bushman nearly kills Spector and places him in front of a statue of the Egyptian god of the moon, Khonshu. Khonshu revives Spector, requiring him to be his fist of vengeance, and Spector becomes Moon Knight. It is later revealed that Marc (along with his alter ego) is just one part of a system, with Marc Spector as the “host,” or prominent alter, in someone who has dissociative identity disorder (DID). In the comics, Marc has multiple alters, with the most notable being Steven Grant (originally depicted as a billionaire. This part of his character was most likely changed to avoid comparison to Batman and Bruce Wayne), Jake Lockley (a taxi driver), and Mr. Knight (introduced in 2011’s Secret Avengers #19 by Warren Ellis and Michael Lark). 

For the show itself, the MCU’s take on this hooded vigilante seems to be taking a different route to the Moon Knight, changing up the character to conform with the standard studio format. One of these changes is that instead of Mr. Knight being a dapper detective who collaborates with the police often, he is just Steven Grant’s vision of what he would be as Moon Knight. It seems that this alteration of the character is only temporary as in episode 2 of the series, Steven seems to have taken a more active role within Khonshu’s (F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus) mission, and dons the Mr. Knight suit for the first time. Steven’s distaste in Harrow’s methods (who has been speculated to be a variation of the Sun King, a villain in the comics who is the apparent manifestation of Amon Ra, the Egyptian god of the sun) hints at a future transformation for Steven to become less cowardly and more of the hero that Mr. Knight is portrayed to be. 

One of the minor issues with the show is its TV-14 rating, holding back on some horror elements to maintain this rating in order to fit in with the rest of the MCU. This may not have been the case a year ago, but Disney+ has since then put all of the Netflix MCU titles (including Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, The Defenders, The Punisher, and most notably being Daredevil with Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio, both of whom have popped up in other MCU titles recently). In an interview with Variety, Moon Knight head writer Jeremy Slater (known for his work on the infamous Fantastic Four (2015)) stated “Let's get as PG-13 as we possibly can, let's give people some goosebumps, let's have some violence in there that you may have never seen before in an MCU thing. And Marvel was so supportive of that.” 

 Even without the TV-MA-rating, Moon Knight has most certainly lived up to these words thus far, even having multiple scenes already rivaling the darkest scene in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, that being John Walker/U.S. Agent (Wyatt Russell, Overlord) brutally murdering one of the Flag Smashers, then the camera panning up to show the bloodied shield. It seems like the chaos will only continue with Marc Spector and his moon deity overseer with the series foreshadowing the eventual team-up of the more mystical and mysterious characters with a potential Midnight Sons movie or series. All in all, Moon Knight brings a breath of fresh air to the current MCU and introduces the character to a new audience, while still feeling right at home in the current format. But it is not without its flaws, and even then, it does a good job of masking those with its fun visuals and fight scenes.

Grade: A

By Evan Parfitt

Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 7

April 25th, 2022