This year, Marvel is teaming up with Disney Plus to introduce us to Khonshu, a new cinematic character. On the 30th of March, they will introduce Khonshu in a new series called Moon Knight. In this video, we will get a greater idea of who Khonshu is by delving deeper into his character. Those who are not familiar with the comics may not recognize him right now, but do not fear, we have got you covered.
Marvel’s Asgardians fans are well aware that the MCU’s gods are not exactly kind. This is particularly evident in the case of Khonshu, who is both a complex figure and a divinity. His character, like the Asgardians’, is based on the ancient Egyptian God Khonshu, and his character is extremely dubious.
The narrative revolves around Mercenary Marc Spector, who is left for dead in an Egyptian tomb before being resurrected by Khonshu and transformed into Moon Knight.
Moon Knight’s resurrection comes at a high price, since Khonshu is consumed with his own cosmic might, and Moon Knight is ultimately subject to God’s whims (according to the deity, anyway). As seen in the original Moon Knight comics, Marc is progressively struggling with Khonshu’s own plots and demands, which is aggravated by his own struggle with Dissociative Identity Disorder.
The Moon Knight is also recognized as the Marvel Comics’ Batman, as they are both vigilantes who beat up criminals on their own initiative. The inclusion of Khonshu, however, is a significant distinction between the two, making it even more pleasurable.
Who Is Khonshu?
Khonshu’s origins are as complicated as his personality. Khonshu was born among the Ennead, the gods of the Celestial Heliopolis, whom the ancient Egyptians adored. While the Nile River Valley’s inhabitants began to worship the Heliopolitans circa 10,000 BC, however, Khonshu had been revered since prehistoric times. In ancient times, Khonshu pretended to be a human pharaoh in Thebes, the home of Ammon-Ra worship, apparently at the same time as Osiris pretended to be a mortal monarch.
Khonshu was also described as Horus, the Younger’s mentor, and it’s possible that he was the sun god’s teacher and protector after Seth deposed Osiris as king. As a result of the power change in Heaven and on Earth, Osiris was elevated to God of the dead, and Khonshu was promoted to the deity of the moon, displacing Thoth. Thoth was elevated to the position of the deity of wisdom and Osiris’ magical vizier after that. Khonshu is said to have communicated his will to Imhotep, a mythical Egyptian philosopher.
It’s uncertain whether Khonshu was always a part of the pantheon or just discovered it afterward (he implies the latter in the comics). Khonshu would summon a Moon Knight to do his bidding across millennia, up to and including Marc Spector himself, because the Egyptian gods couldn’t exactly present themselves on Earth.
As per the comics, Khonshu is also known as Chons, and he comes from the same pocket universe as the other Egyptian gods in the Marvel Universe. He is a defender of those who travels at night and represents the moon, yet he is thought to be perpetually at odds with his father, Ammon Ra, the Sun god.
Chons, also known as Khonshu, was thought to be the son of Atum (also known as Ammon Ra to the Egyptian gods) and Amaunet, the Ogdoad pantheon’s air goddess. According to another legend, Khonshu was Amon Ra’s adopted son. He was the brother of Montu, and maybe Bes and Ptah, as well as Bast and Sekhmet’s brother or half-brother. Khonshu, on the other hand, is an old Elder God who predates the Earth and was only absorbed into the myths of its human people after residing there at least one million years ago, according to Knull.
Khonshu and Ra have been at odds for millennia, having been reborn through earthly incarnations over and over again, with Khonshu always triumphing. Khonshu’s Moon Knights and Ammon Ra’s mortal avatars, known as the Sun Kings, clash multiple times throughout history as part of the two gods’ eternal battle. Khonshu is also the God of Time and Vengeance, it was later revealed. Due to reasons that remain unexplained but not unexplored, Mut became Khonshu’s stepmother. People believe that this is possibly due to the Ogdoad’s age and death under mysterious circumstances.
He was not invited to be a part of the Stone Age Avengers, so he created a mortal avatar to impose his will on Earth and cause havoc for the heroic team. The avatar became Khonshu’s first Moon Knight, a line of warriors that carry out Khonshu’s will on Earth. This would eventually lead to the Cult of Khonshu and a succession of Moon Knights.
Khonshu pretended to be a human pharaoh in the Egyptian city of Thebes, the seat of Ammon Ra’s worship. At the same time, Osiris pretended to be a mortal monarch at Heliopolis, Egypt. Meanwhile, Kang, the Conqueror is in search of the God of Time and has landed in Ancient Egypt. His plan is to gain dominion over time by combining the three artifacts in staff from Khonshu.
This plan, however, is thwarted when the staff is broken, scattering the three components he requires. Khonshu, in need of assistance, summons his Moon Knight from the twenty-first century to help him out. Ravonna served as the Moon Knight during Rama Tut’s reign in 2960 B.C. His influence spanned time, bringing warriors from the past to fight Rama tut in the future. When the West Coast Avengers were stuck in ancient Egypt in 2,490 B.C., Khonshu sought their assistance in disposing of Rama-Tut.
Doctor Strange and the Fantastic Four were both there at the same time, though they were from different eras. In the end, Rama-Tut vanished into the time-stream, but Khonshu contacted Marc in the present day for help, who was able to bring the Avengers back into their timeline with the help of Hank Pym and the current Fantastic Four. Khonshu dictated his will on Earth to the great Egyptian philosopher Imhotep during this time. Another Moon Knight operated in Egypt during 2620 B.C. During Brood’s attempted invasion of Earth, he formed an alliance with Imhotep and En Sabah Nur.
In 300 B.C., he enlisted the help of a Moon Knight who had previously served as a Gladiator in Ancient Rome, as well as a time-traveling Marc Spector, to fight Kang’s army. Later, as Rome burned around them, he killed a Sun King. During the Middle Ages, he hired a Moon Knight and sent him against a Sun King, slaughtering him in combat. At some point during the American Revolutionary War, Khonshu recruited a Viking Moon Knight, a Pirate Moon Knight, and a Patriot Moon Knight and deployed them in the struggle against Kang.
A Moon Knight was discovered in the American Wild West, where he used revolvers filled with silver bullets. He engaged in a shootout with a Sun King and murdered him. Marc Spector, a time traveler who came in 1874 and linked up with Kang, failed to prevent Kang from obtaining one of the mystical objects lost in the time stream. The next Moon Knight fought Kang in London, collaborating with the time-traveling Marc Spector.
Over the years, we see that Khonshu and his Moon Knights have clashed with Kang the Conqueror on several occasions. They’ve frequently thwarted the time-traveling villain’s attempts to acquire magical artifacts.
There was a prominent Moon Knight who lived in Mesopotamia in 4000 B.C. as well. The army of the time-traveling Kang attacked her, and she slaughtered them all. As Kang arrives to claim the final item for himself, the battle begins, not just for Moon Knight’s legacy throughout history but also for the fate of the entire Universe.
The Moon Knight, on the other hand, used some quick thinking and allowed him to snatch the final artifact, which summoned all of Khonshu’s past incarnations. Kang is outmanned and frozen in time, and Spector allowed the Mesopotamian Moon Knight to use the combined artifacts to undo the damage Kang had previously caused before dislocating herself in the time-stream to maintain a constant vigil defending the artifacts.
How Khonshu met Marc
When Marc Spector was a young boy, he met Khonshu for the first time. Despite the boy’s mental health issues, Khonshu chose Marc to be his new avatar at their initial meeting, and in the years that followed, Khonshu attempted to communicate with Marc on a regular basis.
On the other hand, the deity was only able to form a genuine bond with Marc after he was slaughtered as an adult. Khonshu restored the fallen man and bestowed superhuman abilities upon him. From then on, he guided Marc through a variety of missions, including some that required him to travel into hostile territories of the past.
This connection formed through a sequence of events involving archaeologists Peter Alraune Sr. and his daughter Marlene. They discovered a statue of Khonshu within Pharaoh Seti’s tomb in the contemporary era when a mercenary named Raoul Bushman stormed the dig and killed Marlene’s father. Marc Spector was Bushman’s ally, but he turned on him after this incident. So, Bushman left Spector to die in the desert.
Spector made his way to the tomb but was presumed dead by Marlene and her men. They laid him in front of Khonshu’s statue, but Spector remerged and reassured them that Khonshu had resurrected him to serve the cause of vengeance. Spector fought back against Bushman by donning the statue’s cape and eventually turned into the crime-fighter Moon Knight. Spector kept Khonshu’s statue in his house, and it had such a strong effect on him that when Bushman smashed it, Spector went insane. He was only able to recover after Marlene offered a replacement statue.
What Makes Khonshu So Powerful?
Khonshu is an Egyptian God. People interested in Egyptian mythology must be familiar with the extent of the powers of the gods. Not only do they have super strength and immortality like other Gods, but they also have access to alternate time streams that they can manipulate and use.
Khonshu has the conventional powers that all Heliopolitan gods have. He has Superhuman strength, superhuman durability, regenerative healing factor, immortality, magic manipulation, lunakinesis, and power absorption.
Moon Knight was able to tap into Khonshu’s abilities, which manifested as superhuman strength. The physical strength of the Fist of Khonshu rises under the light of the moon, peaking during nights with a full moon, according to the “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Marvel Knights 2005.”
Moon Knight’s strength, speed, and agility are all influenced by the moon’s phase: full moon, half-moon, waning or waxing crescent, or new moon. Because of Spector’s direct ties to both the moon and the Egyptian God, these changing power levels are supposed to be in place. Other sources, such as the “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition” #9, claim that Spector can bench-press 450 pounds on a regular basis but can lift up to 4,000 pounds when working under a full moon.
Moon Knight, on the other hand, has had to cope with the loss of this valuable talent in recent years, causing him to push himself to his physical limitations in order to continue his superhero activities. Spector’s super-strength was taken away from him by a vengeful Khonshu when he disobeyed God’s demands, as he stated in “Moon Knight” Vol. 5 #9.
We see that Spector has functional immortality unless Khonshu decides to recruit a new servant and dispose of him. In “Moon Knight” Vol. 9 #1, Spector confronts the rather uncomfortable topic of whether he can die with a degree of uncertainty in a conversation with his Avengers-recommended psychiatrist Dr. Andrea Sterman. He reveals that Khonshu has resurrected him not once but three times, including when they met in an Egyptian tomb. As a result, Moon Knight has been in situations where he should have perished but didn’t. However, despite all that, Khonshu doesn’t seem to mind reminding Spector that he is replaceable.
While Moon Knight’s body is technically eternal, it is not impenetrable to damage, unlike Luke Cage’s. Moon Knight’s battles are notoriously vicious, gory, and violent, almost invariably resulting in shattered bones, smashed limbs, major bleeding, and other forms of physical pain for both him and his opponents. Spector is able to tolerate the excruciating pain that his injuries cause, demonstrating a near-superhuman level of endurance even in the face of torture from his most ruthless foes.
Moon Knight’s exceptional pain tolerance has been attributed to a number of factors, including his mental state, Khonshu’s empowerment, and the sheer quantity of physical punishment he endured throughout his military service. This has resulted in Spector being able to endure a lot of pain, unlike any other superhero. There is also a level of regenerative healing due to this high pain tolerance.
Moon Knight is depicted in “Avengers” Vol. 8 #33 in one of his most powerful phases. Khonshu thinks that it’s time for his earthly avatar to usher in the Age of Khonshu in order to counter the intrigues of the demonic king Mephisto. He endows Spector with a variety of talents that the superhero has never had before, yet they are only a fraction of what Khonshu can achieve.
The ability to literally control moons and anything manufactured from moon-based materials is one of the powers Spector acquires (though momentarily) from the moon god. This implied Moon Knight’s ability to influence numerous other celestial bodies, as they are primarily made up of components of similar cosmic origin. We see that he is able to control Thor’s hammer despite his worthiness. This is because Mjolnir is made from a material known as Uru, which comes from a primordial moon.
Moon Knight gained the ability to absorb the powers of his opponents using mystical artifacts after being granted access to Khonshu’s immense stockpiles of power. In the mythical underground city of K’un-Lun, Moon Knight initially puts this talent to the test in a battle with Danny Rand, the Iron Fist.
Spector whips out a heavenly ankh after subduing Iron Fist with a barrage of Khonshu-powered blows, which he uses to take the power of the immortal dragon resting within Rand. Moon Knight effortlessly overcomes Doctor Strange with the ankhs and takes command of Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes’ Spirit of Vengeance. Moon Knight’s power boosts also helped him become Mjolnir’s sole wielder, with the exception of Captain America, of course.
One of Moon Knight’s particular skills, according to the “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Marvel Knights 2005,” is the ability to have prophetic visions on occasion. It’s easy to see how people may view Moon Knight’s visions as reflections of Spector’s worsening mental state. Some speculated that the former mercenary was simply a victim of self-hypnotic suggestion. Moon Knight’s visions, on the other hand, are authentically supernatural in nature – mainly, they come from Khonshu himself.
The Egyptian Gods And The MCU
Marvel has a long history of recreating tales in their comics. The Heliopolitans or Ennead are a set of comic characters based on Ancient Egyptian deities. While the name Heliopolitans is a made-up phrase for Marvel’s Egyptian gods, the term ennead has historical roots. Enneads were usually made up of nine gods in Egyptian mythology, but this was not always the case. The Great Ennead of Heliopolis was the major Ennead. “Shu and Tefnut, goddesses of air and moisture; Geb and Nut, who represented earth and sky; and Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys,” said Ra, the Sun-god, who led this group of gods.
Ra also commanded the Heliopolitans/Ennead in Marvel comics, which had recreated similar gods. However, these gods did not initially engage with Earth. Instead, they reigned and resided in “Celestial Heliopolis, a little pocket-dimension close to Earth.” However, they eventually did come into contact with humans and were adorned in Egypt.
These Egyptian gods interacted with Celestials and Asgardians throughout Marvel’s books, and now both of them have roles in the MCU cinematic universe. Some of the Heliopolitans/Ennead are still revered as Wakanda’s Orisha or guardians. Bast is the nation’s patron god, while Orishas Thoth and Ptah also serve as Orishas. Wakanda, of course, is a Marvel Comics Universe tie-in. Given these ties, Marvel may want to include more of Egypt’s pantheon of gods into the MCU, with Moon Knight serving as an ideal starting point.
Though the majority of the Ennead is absent from Marvel’s Moon Knight comics, Khonshu, Moon Knight’s ally, is the central god-like figure who is not only part of the Ennead but one who also ties all of them together.
Khonshu Shows Up In The Moon Knight Trailer
One of the most essential things in a trailer is the first look, and MCU does not disappoint when it comes to creating hype. Khonshu is a challenging character for Spector and his other personalities to deal with, as seen in the comics, as he is both a friend and a foe. Given Khonshu’s prominent position in the Moon Knight comics, the God of the moon will undoubtedly appear in the MCU’s Moon Knight series. And we get a sneak glance at what he’ll look like.
There is a roughly one-minute-long clip titled “Contact Lens,” which gives us our best glimpse yet at the MCU’s newest God. The Egyptian God of the Moon is known as “The Greatest Good of the Great Gods” in comic books. Khonshu, in the series, is expected to play a significant role, and he is seen wearing a bird-skeleton face. Because Khonshu is unable to reach the Earthly plane, he chooses a hero to serve as the Moon Knight, his Earthly champion. The same emblem that the Moon Knight wears on his breast appears atop Khonshu’s staff, indicating the connection between the two.
This connection, however, is of little consolation to Marc Spector/Steven Grant at this moment because he has no idea what’s going on or if it’s real. Standing in an elevator and staring out into a dark alleyway, Steven Grant notices Khonshu’s form—staff, bird head, and all—in the distance.
Khonshu approaches him, threatening to enter the elevator unless he is replaced by an older woman. Grant, understandably, is terrified by the whole thing, and he hides his worry by pretending to be looking for lost contact. However, the Egyptian God reappears behind him when she departs. It’s not a pleasant reunion when you’re utterly unaware that you’re a secret super-powered hero and that this monster is the one who bestowed those talents on you.
Disney Plus has ensured that we know that Khonshu will not arrive in fleeting glimpses: the moon god is anticipated to speak. On the 15th of February, Disney released a sequence of high-resolution pictures from the January Moon Knight trailer, suggesting F. Murray Abraham would play Khonshu. Abraham is a great actor who is best known for his roles in Amadeus as Mozart’s antagonist Antonio Sallieri, Scarface’s Omar Suárez, and Homeland’s Dar Adal. This is Abraham’s first MCU appearance, and it’s guaranteed to be a memorable one. Abraham is known for his dramatic performances as both a main and supporting cast member.
We don’t know much about Isaac’s characters’ relationships with Khonshu or how often he’ll appear in the series beyond a brief glimpse of Spector standing in front of an Egyptian tomb (theoretically one dedicated to him). But like in the comics, it’s clear that Khonshu will play a crucial role in Spector and Grant’s journey.
From the looks of the trailer, this might be one hell of a ride in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that might leave us not only deeply confused but also in absolute awe.