Who Is Moon Knight? I Did The Research So You Don't Have To
I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Marvel fan, but I had no idea who Moon Knight was.
I'd heard the odd whisper here and there about a white-clad Batman-like character, but I couldn't tell you more than that — and it seems I'm not the only one in the dark on this guy! So before the show lands on March 30, I did the research so you don't have to.
Every hero or villain needs an origin story.
So who exactly is Moon Knight? The man behind the mask is Marc Spector, who was born to a respectable family but chose to carve his own path in life, working as a boxer, a Marine, and a CIA operative. Disillusioned by what he saw in these lines of work, he eschewed his morals and fell into violent mercenary work for hire around the globe.
While on a mission in Sudan, he witnessed the murder of archaeologist Peter Alraune at the hands of the infamous terrorist Raoul Bushman. He confronted Bushman after saving Alraune’s daughter Marlene, but it didn’t go so well for Marc, and he was left for dead in the desert. Marlene took him to a nearby tomb, that of Pharoah Seti III, where he lay mortally wounded in front of a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. He died, then came back to life fully healed, claiming Khonshu wanted him to be the moon’s knight or the “Fist of Khonshu,” reviving his life of violence to protect and avenge the innocent.
He’s not squeaky clean.
Think Deadpool, Punisher, and Wolverine more than Captain America. Moon Knight isn’t your squeaky clean poster boy for what’s right; he’s more of an anti-hero or morally gray kinda character. He works for the greater good, but his methods are a little more unconventional and would probably not ever be used by the likes of golden boys Spider-Man or Cap.
Marvel is pretty good at nuanced portrayals of characters who straddle the lines of good and bad — for example, take Wanda in WandaVision; she holds a whole town hostage, which needless to say is wrong on many levels, but she keeps them in no danger. Her motive is an innocent desire to live in a safe little bubble and lead a normal life with her loved ones without the pressure and torment of saving the world and watching her friends and family die in front of her over and over. Marvel heavyweight Kevin Feige told Empire that Moon Knight will be “brutal,” so let’s sit back and see how he appears onscreen, because he’s no clean-cut cookie-cutter hero in the comics.
You said he’s called Marc — why is he named Steven in the trailer then?
A valid question. After the events of Sudan, he moved back to the US and created two alter egos to aid him on his newfound mission; Steven Grant, a billionaire financier who moves in wealthy upper-class circles, and cab driver Jake Lockley, a violent man who aids him with on-the-ground street-level info from the criminal underground. He also has his Moon Knight alter ego, meaning there are four personalities of Marc at this point. So judging by the fact he’s called Steven for most of the trailer, it suggests we’re jumping in after the events that took him from mercenary Marc to being in Moon Knight’s crosshairs. That, however, brings me to my next piece of information…
Why doesn’t he know who Marc is when someone calls him that at the end of the trailer?
In the comics, Marc creates Steven and Jake to aid with his missions, has the Moon Knight alter ego, and also sometimes another persona known as Mr. Knight, who helps the Secret Avengers. The pressure of maintaining all these identities ends up having a deeper psychological toll, which causes something akin to dissociative identity disorder. The comics also refer to it as something like schizophrenia.
What’s all this I’m hearing about mental health portrayal in the show?
Many readers have pointed out that the comics from the '80s have an unrealistic basis for the mental health aspect of the character, as it is highly unlikely for someone to acquire dissociative identity disorder (DID) or schizophrenia simply through using cover identities. Marvel rectified this in Moon Knight volume 7 in the 2014–15 story arc, where Marc meets with a psychologist who tells him he does not have DID, and it turns out the four personalities (Marc, Steven, Jake, and Moon Knight) are a coping mechanism for the mental damage caused by being physically altered by Khonshu in order to act as a conduit between our world and the dimension Khonshu exists in.
The different personalities are a result of his mind adjusting to the four different aspects of Khonshu’s nature: Pathfinder, Embracer, Defender, and the Watcher of Overnight Travelers. There are also variations where Marc has DID from childhood, so he has different personalities before he meets Moon Knight.
Marvel themselves have said that this onscreen iteration of the character does in fact have dissociative identity disorder, and that the portrayal of mental health will be taken very seriously. They hired a board-certified psychiatrist, Dr. Paul Puri, to work with the actors and directors to ensure a proper portrayal of DID, and leading man Oscar Isaac has talked about the show’s purposeful efforts to take mental health seriously and produce a nuanced superhero story that breaks the stigmas surrounding mental health.
Speaking to USA Today, Moon Knight writer Jeremy Slater said: “Whatever we're putting out there in the universe has to be ultimately good and uplifting and have a positive message about mental health."
Why does Steven seem scared of himself in the trailer?
In the trailer, we see reference to two personalities: Steven for the most part, and then a nod to Marc at the end. Steven is an alter ego of Marc’s as we know, and he is shown sealing up his home, tying himself to his bed, and calling a helpline because he believes he has a sleeping disorder where he can’t differentiate between his waking life and dreams.
He sees flashes of Moon Knight, a figure that seems to scare him, in the mirror and even walking toward him at one point. In the comics, Khonshu sometimes gets impatient with Marc and essentially harasses him, jerking him from sleep and tormenting him to manipulate him into doing his bidding. Show writer Jeremy Slater describes Khonshu as “this incredibly powerful and immortal God (with) his own insecurities” who “throws temper tantrums sometimes.”
All of this suggests that Steven isn’t fully aware of all of his personalities, but Khonshu is definitely on board. This could also tie in with the way he’s presenting as Steven, an alter ego, instead of Marc, his original self — maybe Marc has retreated into himself and is letting Steven run the ship for a bit after being mentally and physically exhausted by Khonshu?
Steven seems to appear in places with no knowledge of how he got there or what he’s doing (take 1:28 in the trailer, for example, where he seems to come to in the driver’s seat holding a gun, which he drops in horror), suggesting his alter egos are taking over without him understanding what’s going on, and the crazy places he ends up in without any explanation lead him to believe he must be having realistic dreams that he can’t tell apart from reality.
We do know that Steven will become aware of Marc though, as another trailer reveals him seeing Marc in a reflection, and asking if he’s “some kind of secret agent,” to which Marc responds, “It’s a little more complicated than that.” He also tells Steven he wasn’t supposed to see the secret agent paraphernalia he finds, suggesting perhaps Steven is the more innocent alter ego that maybe Marc is trying to keep out of the Moon Knight mayhem.
Ethan Hawke’s character says, “There’s chaos in you.” Does Moon Knight have chaos magic like Wanda?
As far as we know, no. The line about chaos is likely referring to the inner turmoil of Isaac’s character and his multiple personalities, and how they try to dominate one another instead of working in tandem toward the same goal. Similarly, when Hawke’s character says, “Embrace the chaos,” he may be telling Steven to acknowledge all parts of himself and the personalities within so that he may be more in control of himself and use the personalities at will to fit his purpose at any given time. Maybe that’s what we see starting when he begins talking to Marc.
What is with Steven’s dodgy English accent??
In the trailer, Oscar Isaac sports a somewhat dodgy English accent. And I’d know — I’m English. However, speaking to Empire, he hinted that there were reasons behind the unconvincing accent.
He kept pretty schtum on the exact story behind it, but hinted that each alter ego has a different accent (e.g., Marc Spector is American), and that the English accent is not supposed to actually sound like an authentic Brit, as it’s more of a nod toward the fact that it is believed the Steven alter ego is British. In other words, it seems intentional that his accent is pretty ropey, and is explained by the fact that Steven is a character created by a real person who did not grow up in Britain, i.e., American Marc.
You said he has four personalities, so who’s Mr. Knight?
Marc has four personalities: Marc, Jake, Steven, and Moon Knight. However, you might have seen the Disney marketing around a "Mr. Knight" too. Mr. Knight is the most recent personality addition, a detective kind of character who wears a white business suit with his Moon Knight headgear, materializing to help with investigations, meet with a psychiatrist, and help civilians.
He’s kind of like the professional representative of Marc, Jake, Steven, and Moon Knight, and appears as a masked hero to keep their identities a secret while going about their everyday lives and getting stuff done.
He’s often called Marvel’s equivalent to DC’s Batman...
…but he’s not really that similar. People have cited the nature of the characters’ grittier storylines, plus the fact that both are not superpowered and have cover identities, high-tech weapons and gadgets, personalized aircrafts, bespoke throwing items, and even a teenage sidekick (albeit briefly in Moon Knight’s case). There’s also the whole nod to night: moon, “the Dark Knight,” bats, fighting crime nocturnally, etc.
But aside from that (which is pretty similar for any rich, non-superpowered hero — I mean, look at Tony Stark’s Iron Man), their motivations are completely different. Bruce Wayne’s Batman fights crime because his parents were murdered by criminals, whereas Moon Knight is the embodiment of the Egyptian god of vengeance. He’s vengeance for vengeance’s sake, without a grand personal motive behind it. And as for his Marc personality, there have been hints that after years of killing innocents as a mercenary, he’s trying to wipe some of the red off his ledger, much like Black Widow.
Another difference is this: Batman wears black to blend in, preferring stealth and potentially avoiding violence if possible, though he doesn’t hesitate to dish it out when it can’t be avoided. In contrast, Moon Knight wears white, and when told in the comics that his attire means people can easily see him coming, he replies: “That’s the part I like.” He also says: “I don’t wear white to hide myself; I wear it so they’ll see me coming. So they know who it is, ’cause when they see white it doesn’t matter how good a target I am. Their hands shake so bad they couldn’t hit the moon,” suggesting he’s a notoriously feared figure, and violence is pretty much at the top of his list.
He’s up there on the Marvel Universe list of top 10 richest characters.
He comes in at number 10, so he’s not on the same playing field as the likes of T’Challa and Tony Stark (number one and number four on the list, if you were wondering), but he’s got an estimated $2.3 billion to his name, made through investing money he earned during his time as a boxer and mercenary. Other sources say he earned the money through gambling.
Either way, he uses this money to fund the gadgets, weapons, and vehicles he uses on his Moon Knight missions, and to keep his Steven persona moving in rich circles and gathering intel at the other end of society to his criminal cabbie alter ego Jake. (Side note: I wonder if the onscreen Steven will end up a rich financier like his comic counterpart, as he seems to be a gift shop employee in what we’ve seen so far.)
He’s not technically a superhero, but he’s certainly not to be messed with.
Unlike heroes such as Bruce Banner, who turned into the superpowered Hulk due to exposure to gamma radiation, or Spider-Man, whose powers come from a bite from a radioactive spider, Moon Knight has no true superpowers.
That said, you wouldn’t want to get on his bad side — thanks to Marc’s past as a mercenary and boxer, he is:
- An expert in hand-to-hand combat and various martial arts, including boxing, judo, krav maga, silat, dambe, savate, escrima, karate, muay Thai, and kung fu. He’s beaten the Punisher in a fight before.
- An Olympic-level athlete and skilled acrobat and gymnast
- An excellent combat strategist
- An expert pilot
- An interrogation expert
- A master marksman
- A weapons master
Plus, he’s multilingual, has a super-high pain threshold, and is a seasoned detective through his alter ego Jake Lockley’s underground sleuthing in disguise as a cab driver. He also seems to have a resistance to telepathic attacks due to Khonshu’s presence, and he’s immortal. On top of this, it’s not uncommon in the comics for Khonshu to suddenly imbue him with abilities, from necromancy to moon material manipulation, visions of the future, and more.
Another thing to note is that in the comics, he has taken control of Thor’s Mjolnir, the Iron Fist mantle, Doctor Strange’s magic, Ghost Rider’s Spirit of Vengeance, and even the Phoenix Force most commonly associated with Jean Grey.
So he doesn’t have powers in his own right, but he’s certainly not your average Joe and definitely has a layer of supernatural enhancement to power him up. (Source: Marvel Fandom)
What kind of weapons does he have?
He has a certain affinity for moon-themed weapons (gotta build a brand, you know?), including throwing darts, and a nifty truncheon that acts as a club, nunchaku, and a grappling hook. He also uses crescent darts, which are symmetrical throwing blades, crescent launcher pistols, an energy shield, web-shooters and metal claws akin to Spider-Man and Wolverine’s, ankhs, and silver cesti, which are spiked battle gloves.
What about his outfit?
Much like Marvel anti-hero Wolverine, he is in possession of adamantium, though Moon Knight’s is in his armor. At first, he had a Carbonadium armor, before upgrading some of his gear. He also has a few nods to the character’s Egyptian heritage, such as the mummy-like wraps around his arms. The ethereal floatiness of the cloak coupled with the power of the adamantium armor is pretty apt for this hero — crazy tough and in touch with the supernatural.
Who is Layla, the voice on the phone in the trailer?
Layla El-Faouly appears to be an original character, played by May Calamawy. The actor teased that her character knows Marc Spector from the past, and they appear to be pretty close on an archaeological dig in released images. Many suspect Layla is a replacement for Marlene, the daughter of the archaeologist whose murder ultimately started the domino run that led to Marc becoming Moon Knight.
Where does Moon Knight fit into the MCU?
Is the series post-Blip, pre-Blip? A clue comes in the 30-second teaser Disney released called Secret Agent. If you look carefully, the big red London bus that passes Moon Knight has advertising for the GRC on it.
The GRC, or the Global Repatriation Council, was formed after half the world’s population reappeared after the Blip, aiming to help people displaced from their former lives, homes, and professions. Tension between the GRC and the refugees of the Blip were what led to the formation of the Flag Smashers, the main antagonists in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
Going by that, we know it’s post-Blip, but it seems like this series could go two ways. Possibility one: It’ll be pretty self-contained and use Moon Knight as a character to build a whole new small-screen universe for Marvel, an idea which is strengthened by the fact that Kamala Khan is seen with an Ancient History book with an Egyptian pharoah on the cover in the trailer for Ms. Marvel, Disney's next TV show after Moon Knight. Or we've got possibility two: It could draw in other Marvel characters like the grittier street heroes Daredevil and the Punisher, which Disney recently bought the rights to from Netflix. Moon Knight has worked with Daredevil and the Punisher in the comics, so it’s not too much of a stretch. There are also rumors of a Daredevil reboot in the works. But, with all that said, Oscar Isaac himself said what’s exciting about the show is that it’s totally unpredictable, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
Is Moon Knight an Avenger?
Check out the new poster for Marvel Studios’ #MoonKnight 🌙, an Original series streaming March 30, only on @DisneyPlus.
He's been in the comics since 1975, but Moon Knight is a brand-new addition to the onscreen Marvel universe.
Oscar Isaac told Empire that often on big movies, it can feel like “you’re building the plane on the runway,” and said: “Getting back to “handmade” films, character studies…I was desperate for that feeling.” He talked about how the upcoming show will be the “first legitimate character study” since 2008’s Iron Man, which kicked off the whole MCU as we know it. Ethan Hawke, who will play the series’ antagonist, said in a new featurette that the fun of Moon Knight is that it’s a brand-new superhero in a new world, so don’t go looking for Moon Knight Easter eggs in previous works.
Will the show be more comedic or dark?
We know Marvel can do humor well, but also deliver dark and gritty storylines. Moon Knight is set to be a darker show than the likes of WandaVision and Hawkeye, and Marvel’s next onscreen escapade after Moon Knight, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is said to contain horror elements. Maybe this is a new, darker era for Marvel; now clean-cut heroic leaders like Captain America are no more.
How can it be dark if it’s on Disney+?!
The House of Mouse doesn’t exactly go hand in hand with blood and gore. Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, told Empire: “It’s been fun to work with Disney+ and see the boundaries shifting on what we’re able to do. There are moments [in the series] when Moon Knight is wailing on another character, and it is loud and brutal, and the knee-jerk reaction is, ‘We’re gonna pull back on this, right?’ No. We’re not pulling back. There’s a tonal shift. This is a different thing. This is Moon Knight.”
All in all, Moon Knight looks set to be a much darker and more psychological show than the previous Disney+ Marvel shows.
It could introduce an interesting new hero who may lean toward being more morally gray than previous leading characters. May Calamawy described the show’s tone as “Fight Club meets Indiana Jones.”
It also looks likely that the show will stay true to the Egyptian mythological origins seen in the comics (there are even small clues like the museum Steven works at in the trailer advertising an Ancient Egypt exhibition clearly on the front of the building), so we won’t have seen anything like it before from Marvel. The show will also be led by Egyptian director Mohamed Diab, who said: "I think it was very important for Moon Knight to be overseen by an Egyptian director. It portrays both a modern Egypt and an ancient one, and usually the two of them are portrayed in an orientalist way, as something exotic and ‘other,’ which to me is dehumanizing. I think Marvel did everything they can to do this right, and I think people that watch the show have never seen Egypt portrayed as authentically as it is here, in the past or in the present.”
A recent teaser called "Choice" showed Moon Knight fighting a creature that looked similar to the Deviants in The Eternals, so it'll be interesting to see if this supernaturally charged vigilante will be fighting both man and monster.
It looks set to really push the boundaries of Marvel’s small-screen storytelling, and I know I’ll be eagerly watching to see where it goes!
