Fans of comic books and superhero films are busy with new trailers dropping every other week and new poster reveals on social media every now and then as Phase IV of the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets underway. Despite the fact that shows like WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If…?, Ms. Marvel, and Hawkeye have already been announced for this year, the fourth phase has a lot more to offer.
Moon Knight is one of the most anticipated of the new Disney+ shows, which will most likely premiere next year. Jeremy Slater who previously worked on Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, will serve as the show’s head writer, and it is expected to take place after the events of the upcoming films Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings.
We don’t know much about the film right now, and we don’t know when it will be released, but we do know that actor Keanu Reeves has signed on to play a part. That being said, let us take a deeper dive into this mysterious Marvel character and why he makes the perfect anti-hero, because of his unpredictability.
The Punisher + Batman = Moon Knight?
We apologise to fans who dislike seeing DC and Marvel combined, however many argue that Marc Spector’s character, a.k.a. Moon Knight is a hybrid between Batman and the Punisher. Assuming that everyone is familiar with Batman’s basic character and origin, we’ll concentrate on the Punisher.
He is an anti-hero who uses crime against criminals, first appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man #129. The Punisher is a vigilante who developed his reputation after his innocent wife and son were murdered by a gang of thugs that used lethal weapons, illegal compulsion, violence, kidnapping, and even murder.
Moon Knight echoes the Punisher in many ways, using pretty much the same methods as the vigilante, with added martial arts. Just like Punisher, Moon Knight is driven by the fire of vengeance burning within him, but not for a lost wife or child, ratherjust because of general emotional baggage.
And that is where the Batman influence comes in. Spector, like Bruce Wayne, has more money than he can count and has a passion for justice, well, a passion that develops over time at least. If you thought Tony Stark’s and Wakanda’s weapons technology was impressive, you should see what Moon Knight can do with the oodles of money at his disposal.
Using cutting-edge gadgets and high-tech weapons, Moon Knight makes crime fighting look 10x cooler. He is dangerously skilled and has a passion for fighting crime, only he fights it by committing crime himself.
Moon Knight’s Several Nervous Breakdowns are Proof that his Mental Illness is A Danger to All
Marc Spector joined an organisation called Soldiers-of-Fortune after being dishonourably discharged from the CIA, and went through several life-changing events in a short period of time. His intentions were good: he believed he could accomplish more with his specialised ability and knowledge than just sit around when the CIA released him, but he didn’t have many options.
As a result, he joined the team lead by Raoul Bushman, who would later become Spector’s arch-enemy. However, when his conscience did not permit him to go through with a mercenary mission in Egypt, he ended up battling Bushman and almost died.
It is here that the Egyptian God of Moon and Vengeance, Khonshu, visited Spector and granted him his life and powers in exchange for Spector’s allegiance as the God’s avatar on Earth. This is how Marc Spector became Moon Knight, but his worries were far from over.
Having suffered his fair share of trauma, and struggling with mental illness, Moon Knight’s condition slowly deteriorated. When he tried to use his Dissociative Identity Disorder to manifest various personalities, each with a unique trait helpful for crime fighting, the strain was too much for his mind to endure.
It actually “damaged his head,” and while this could be a terrific method to address mental illness in the next Moon Knight series, it does raise some concerns about how trustworthy his character is. Readers have frequently questioned if all or most of what is going on is real or only a fabrication of the “unreliable narrator’s” imagination.
Because of his numerous mental breakdowns over the years, Moon Knight poses a persistent threat to the general public.
Spector is not secured in an institution,he is not getting the help a patient suffering from mental illness requires. In addition, he is armed with some of the deadliest weapons you can imagine at all times, and he is not even any less dangerous without them. Nobody knows for sure when and at who he will lash out.
Nevertheless, Moon Knight deserves credit for killing and punishing those who deserve it. His character arc is something that can be explored in a lot of different ways and here’s hoping Marvel and Disney give a well balanced perspective.
Moon Knight’s Chronic Dissociative Identity Disorder Shaped Most of His Character Arc
Now that we’ve talked about Moon Knight’s sanity for a while, it’s time to get into the specifics of his Dissociative Identity Disorder. Marc Spector, Moon Knight, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley co-existed for the longest time, and before they began to take a toll on him, people thought these were just aliases Spector used to Marc Spector is the first identity, or what psychologists refer to as a “host personality” among DID sufferers..
This is considered to be the real personality of the patient and the others, even if they might dominate over the host personality at times, are created by the patient to use as a shield against trauma. As discussed earlier, Spector was a CIA agent turned mercenary who was almost killed by Raoul Bushman.
This gave birth to personality #2, Moon Knight, who was an avatar of the Egyptian God Khonshu. Although as a human, Marc Spector was well-trained in hand-to-hand combat and had technology that could give Batman a run for his money, as Moon Knight, those aspects became merely an added advantage.
Given that Moon Knight is an avatar of the God of Moon, he derives his powers from the celestial body and is the strongest when it is full. Many would argue that other “street superheroes” of Marvel such as Daredevil are stronger as they never needed any supernatural powers to fight the way they did, but in Moon Knight’s defence, he was almost as good a fighter even when he was human.
Steven Grant is the character’s third ego, which he developed to distance himself from Marc Spector and his past of slaughter and violence. People often relate Grant’s personality to Bruce Wayne’s, because Grant is a wealthy who invests in technology to help fight crime.
Jake Lockley, the fourth personality, works as a cab driver. Lockley took advantage of his status as someone who is always on the streets and goes unnoticed by others to monitor the streets for crooks. Marvel was quick to realise Moon Knight’s potential as a hero rather than a villain, and in a 2011 issue we see the character make a shift to Los Angeles to right his wrongs and learn the ways of a “hero”.
While in LA, he was advised by Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, Wolverine and Echo. The catch was that these superheroes were never actually there helping Moon Knight – he had manifested the personalities of these Avengers to help himself. If you can look beyond how messed up that is, you might actually admire the plan’s intelligence.
Not to mention, he was quite dedicated to this little adventure of his, and he even used duplicate versions of each of their weapons in battle. The final personality that he exhibits is called Mr Knight, which he created consciously and not as a result of his illness. But, given his state, straying from reality in any way was probably not the best decision.
Mr.Knight, like Khonshu’s avatar, was dressed entirely in white and sported a mask with a crescent moon on his forehead. Moon Knight’s wardrobe selections, on the other hand, were a little more unusual in style. Mr Knight’s services were briefly utilised by the NYPD to solve crimes, while Moon Knight resumed his vigilantism at night.
It would be really interesting to see how Moon Knight’s Disney+ series decides to tackle the issue of such a serious mental illness. Previously, MCU has given us a glimpse of the PTSD that Tony Stark a.k.a Iron Man suffered after the battle of New York, and also how depression took a toll on the God of Thunder, Thor, in Avengers: Endgame.
More recently, in Phase IV itself, we saw Wanda Maximoffa.k.a Scarlet Witch struggling with depression, and Bucky Barnes a.k.a The Winter Soldier actively seeking the help of a therapist. While Moon Knight’s various personalities couldmake for a great storyline in the show, Marvel could make use of this aspect of the character to cast light on the perils of Dissociative Identity Disorder too.
Moon Knight’s Brutal Punishment for the Vermin of Society
Moon Knight has already proven that he is not someone who should be allowed to roam the streets, hunting down and punishing people. In fact, the safest and most sensible course of action would be to find him a doctor and confine him to a facility until he recovers. Several comic book plots wonderfully exemplify this point.
For example, in Moon Knight Vol 1: The Bottom, the anti-hero is in a particularly dark psychological place, even by his own standards. He chose to take on the bad guys, and it was clear that he had become sick and weary of criminals, as he no longer had the patience to wait for justice to be served. Instead, he took it upon himself to punish those who had broken the law.
Moon Knight would use a knife to carve out a crescent shape on the forehead of criminals he came across, and if they happened to be those that had repeatedly committed a crime, MK would not stop at just one carving.
This once again brings to mind Ben Affleck’s incarnation of Batman, who branded criminals with a burning hot bat symbol in Batman vs Superman. Sometimes, the criminals MK branded had the audacity to report their treatment by the vigilante to the police, but to their horror, they would only find photographs of more criminals that had up to three or even four carvings on their foreheads.
Sure, it is out of line for Moon Knight to assume the role of judge and jury himself, and the method of retribution he chose is extreme. In fact, had he not been on a path of redemption and his mental instability led him astray, anyone could have been at risk – not just criminals.
However, the truth is that he saved the worst of his sanctions for the very worst of society’s polluters. Moon Knight’s activities become less heinous when you realise the people he targeted were child abusers, rapists, killers, and human traffickers.
If Disney+ decides to explore this portion of the character’s story, the villains they chose might represent real-world concerns that people confront on a daily basis. Perhaps Marvel can even assist some people experience out their revenge fantasies vicariously through MK’s punishments.
Moon Knight’s Unique Fighting Style Makes Him Almost Unbeatable in Battle
Marc Spector did an excellent job of embodying the vengeance that this Egyptian God represents after becoming Khonshu’s Earth avatar. MK proved lethal in battle with his fiery vengeance, spiral into madness, and unequalled fighting prowess.
Marc Spector possessed great interrogation and hand-to-hand combat skills as a human, but he hardly used them as Moon Knight. He used a crescent-shaped disc with razor-sharp edges as his weapon of choice, and he drew his abilities from the moon.
However, Khonshu, who bestowed these talents on MK, has the final word on how much power he can utilise and when and how he uses it. Moon Knight’s insanity means he is resistant to psionic and telepathic attacks, as his brain’s wires are all mixed up.
The character’s love-hate relationship with Khonshu is clear. One would think that if someone is resurrected by Khonshu and even asked to serve as his avatar, it is only natural that that being would have Him at their side at all times, even if only in spirit. But Khonshu seems just as twisted as Moon Knight as he uses the latter’s vulnerable state of mind to manipulate him psychologically, damaging his mental ability further, and making him lose his sanity overtime.
Moon Knight’s lack of empathy, which stems from his mental illness, serves as a weapon for him when going up against criminals, allowing him to be merciless, unafraid to die and practically impossible to beat.
That being said, Khonshu is afterall the one to thank for Moon Knight’s unique style of fighting as it is MK’s belief thatKhonshuwill continue to resurrect him that makes him absolutely fearless in the face of death.
Aside from the regular superhero powers, such as durability increased strength, Moon Knight’s signature trait is that he never fights on the defensive. When he is not in attack mode, he merely takes beatings, stabbings, shootings and whatever else comes at him.
This is also the main reason why Moon Knight is possibly the only hero the Taskmaster has lost to. Taskmaster is a super villain whose main skill is his ability to quickly and efficiently replicate his opponents’ muscle motions, which he uses to produce a stronger retaliation.
The Taskmaster, however, was left begging for his life after only two rounds of combat against Moon Knight, as he was unable to match MK’s ability to withstand strikes and suffering.
Moon Knight’s Romantic Rendezvous with the Avengers
It may come as a surprise that Moon Knight has ever had a romantic life, given how much of a lone wolf he is. He managed to get around, as it turned out. With his hectic schedule, it’s reasonable that MK rarely sees anyone who isn’t a coworker, therefore the only individuals he’s spent time with are his fellow Avengers, with the exception of Marlene Alraune
. On the mercenary expedition in Egypt that secured his fate as Moon Knight, Spector had rescued Marlene. They had an on-again, off-again relationship for a long time, and it was possibly his sole long-term love relationship.
After joining the West Coast Avengers, MK dated Tigra, the human and tiger hybrid superhero. The two were passionate about each other, perhaps a bit too much, which made their relationship toxic. Both MK and Tigra valued their individuality and privacy, but this constantly conflicted with their desire for one another.
They finally parted ways andcontinued with their own missions separately. Khonshu was disapproving of Tigra for some reason and given this God’s close connection to Moon Knight, it caused a rift not only between MK and Tigra but between him and Khonshu as well.
Later, Spector went on to date Echo a.k.aMaya Lopez. She, like Moon Knight,was a vigilante with excellent combat skills, often appearing in the Daredevil comics. Echo’s powers were similar to that of Taskmaster, and she had some cosmic powers similar to those of Dark Phoenix too.
While on a mission, she encountered Moon Knight and the two decided to go on a date. Maya was killed in battle in front of Moon Knight by supervillainCountNefaria, adding to the trauma of his life.
Let’s hope the Disney+ series takes use of this opportunity to present some interesting love interests for our protagonist.
Moon Knight Has Tech that Would Give Batman a Run for His Money
After spending so much time teasing Moon Knight’s Batman-like technology and gear, it’s time to learn more about what these devices are and what they can do. MK began with simple reinforced armour, a cloak, and a mask, but quickly progressed to high-tech gadgets to play with and fight with.
Marc Spector was able to pay his entire heroic lifestyle on his own, unlike most Marvel heroes who tend to acquire most of their gear from either Tony Stark or Wakanda, thanks to his vast wealth.
The first weapon in Moon Knight’s arsenal is histruncheon. This is a nun-chuck like weapon he uses to beat the living daylights out of people and when he desires, he can separate it to create two shafts, one for each hand.
As separate shafts, they can be up to eight feet long and fire grappling hooks at opponents. This truncheon is made of adamantium, the same stuff as Wolverine’s, so it is practically indestructible.
We already know all about the crescent shaped discs MK carries around – the most common weapon the hero is seen with. For someone who is such an integral part of Marvel, we sure have not been able to shut up about the similarities he bears to Batman, but does he even Batmobile bro?
He sure does, and it is a vehicle called a Mooncopter. It looks nothing like an actual chopper, as it has a huge crescent shaped behind and a slick overall exterior. This aircraft not only flies, but it possesses a stealth mode that makes it invisible, as well as a large arsenal of weapons. If you’re curious about the hero’s mode of transportation, he purchased a moon-themed limousine and a motorcycle.
We know Marvel isn’t afraid of comic costumes based on what we’ve seen in WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but seeing MK’s weaponry and car on screen would be even better. This is made all the more possible by today’s CGI capabilities, so let’s hope the Disney+ series provides us with lots of gadgets to admire.
Moon Knight’s Fashion Sense Has Amazing Rationality Behind It
Finally, Moon Knight has a trait that sets him apart from Batman: stealth. Most vigilante-style superheroes choose darker-colored clothing, prefer covert weapons, and plan attacks in the dead of night.
They use this to keep their true identities disguised and to surprise their opponents when they least expect it. Moon Knight is different from the others in that he chooses to have his opponents see him coming.
It does not matter to him if he is a vigilante of the night, he chooses to wear a striking, all-white costume at all times. This does not have much to do with his connection to the moon, rather hedesire to make sure his enemies know exactly who is arriving.
This is the only one of the only positive things that sets him apart from other superheroes, as having DID is not exactly something to celebrate. Moon Knight’s reasons for wearing this bright costume make him even more menacing than we thought. It goes to show just how fearless he is, and the confidencehe has in his own abilities.
There have been very minor additions and changes made to his costume over time, such as when he was fighting the Civil War, his costume had yellow accents to it. But no matter what happens, the one thing that remains constant is the presence of the crescent moon on the forehead of his mask.
What Happened to Moon Knight’s Lunar Powers?
A change of writers is the most prevalent challenge that many superheroes with dubious powers have faced over the years. As new writers join the team and try to provide their own spin on particular heroes, a lot changes, leaving readers perplexed as to what actually defines the hero.
Moon Knight was the victim of this. Although this was a successful addition, the fact that he carves crescents on criminals’ foreheads is a classic example of this. As a result, Moon Knight’s abilities are in dispute, with newer incarnations changing significantly from prior ones.
Anyone reading the recent issues of Moon Knight comics would think he is just another streethero like daredevil, with amazing martial arts skills and a lot of money to fund his gadgets. But in the previous issues there were times when the hero actually derived his powers from the moon.
When he was briefly possessed by Khonshu after his transformation to Moon Knight, the characterpossessed superhuman strength, durability, speed and a healing factor, all of which increased and decreased in intensity based on the phases of the moon. He even developed a super cool ability- night vision- which was especially helpful as he mostly hunts criminals in the night.
The major catch with these powers was that whenever there was a full moon, his abilities were at their peak, but with the waning of the moon, his powers decreased as well. This power cycle resembled that of a werewolf, the mortal nemesis of Moon Knight.
An Immortal Who Can Die Over and Over Again
We all know how Moon Knight came to be, thanks to the resurrection of a dying Marc Spector, but did you realise that this character has been brought back to life multiple times? Moon Knight has been resurrected at least three times as far as we know, and he is capable of even more.
MK is well aware that no matter how serious his wounds are or how many times he is killed in battle, Khonshu will resurrect him time and time again as long as MK serves as his avatar on Earth.
This knowledge also makes him deadly in a fight because when the enemies know they are going up against a man who has nothing to lose, not even his life, there is only so much they can do.
After the very first resurrection, Moon Knight was killed once as he was stabbed in battle, but Khonshu revived him and healed him to full health. The third resurrection happened after MK lost his life in an explosion, while trying to save the world from a deadly computer virus.
As he quarantined with the virus himself, hoping to contain it, the blast killed the hero, but as always Khonshu came through. This often makes us wonder why Khonshu takes such sadistic pleasure in knocking MK’s mental health, if he likes (or respects) the man enough to never let him die.
That being said, in the more recent comic issues, Moon Knight is seen as a regular mortal hero, so there is no way to tell if he would still be resurrected if he died.
It is not hard to guess that a near-death experience would shake up a regular person. Many find it hard to recover from such trauma without any help, so we can only imagine how actually dying and coming back to life more than once would affect Moon Knight’s already troubled mental health.
Moon Knight’s craziness, while hazardous, has aided in his transformation into a hero. It takes a toll on his mind as he continues to display numerous identities, but it is also a key catalyst in his transformation from villain to anti-hero. Moon Knight is a hero who must battle not just the world’s evil, but also his own dark demons.
Disney and Marvel have chosen a character with enormous potential, and if they play their cards correctly, they will be able to examine the nuances of mental illness and the impact it has on individuals as well as society.
The show is slated to release in the first quarter of 2022 and not much information is available on it, but we do know that actor Oscar Isaac is all set to play the lead role. Before then, Isaac will appear in upcoming Denis Villeneuve film Dune.