Our thoughts on the first 4 episodes of Moon Knight!
Hey All!
I had the immense pleasure to see the first four episodes of the new Disney Plus show Marvel Studios Moon Knight. Much like the previously released Disney Plus Marvel Cinematic Universe shows, Moon Knight not a straight super hero story. It’s a wild ride! WandaVision was about grief, Loki was about becoming your best self, Falcon and The Winter Soldier was about National Identity, and Hawkeye was about family.
Starring Oscar Isaac (Star Wars The Force Awakens, Ex Machina) as Steven Grant/Marc Spector/Moon Knight, Moon Knight is based on the marvel comics hero of the same names who is the avatar of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. The voice of Khonshu is provided by Academy Award winner F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, Homeland). The antagonist of the series, Arthur Farrow, is played by academy award winner Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Before Sunrise). May Calamawy (Hulu’s Ramy) is Layla El-Faouly, Marc/Steven’s partner in crime on this adventure who has a very complicated history with Marc.
Having seen only four of the six episodes, I can say that Moon Knight appears to have no ties to previous MCU films or shows. There is no mention of any other heroes or events. There is one very, very, very brief throwaway line which only hardcore Marvel fans would recognize, but that is not anything that really impacts the story or its place in the MCU.
In addition to being very much a stand-alone story, Moon Knight is exploring untouched territory for the MCU. The main character seems to have a sort of dissociative identity disorder, which is an important tool used in the storytelling and actually the focal point of the first two episodes. While a character like The Hulk has the issue of sharing the same body as alter ego Bruce Banner, that dual identity association is very different from the internal conflicts and actual conversations that Marc/Steven has within himself.
Not being an expert in dissociative identity disorder, I cannot speak as to the accuracy of the portrayal, but I can say that it is done in an engaging way which actually provides some of the most riveting moments in the series. There was a comic run of Moon Knight released by Marvel Comics in 2016, written by Jeff Lemire, which this show seems to have drawn inspiration from with regards to handling of this aspect of the character.
Additionally, the MCU is exploring Egyptian culture with traveling to Cairo as part of the adventure and including the Egyptian Pantheon of gods into the story. The look of the Egyptian gods and their involvement in the story is nothing like the portrayal of Norse gods like in Thor.
Visually they do not resemble humans and the way they navigate “our world” is not by having an actual physical presence, so much as having an influence on the physical world. It is definitely a more complicated and interesting way of introducing a completely new set of “deities” to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And after a massive twist in episode four, it is entirely possible that their involvement may actually contradict the aforementioned portrayal.
WandaVision executed some very “out there” concepts with having eras of television represented, which people may have considered bananas. In that same vein, Moon Knight’s visual exploration of the being inside the mind of Marc Spector/Steven Grant is equally “out there” and equally fun. The end of each episode will definitely leave the audience wanting to know what will happen next!
I can’t wait for those last two episodes!
Moon Knight premieres March 30th, 2022 on Disney Plus with new episodes being released every Wednesday! Or stay up late and watch it Midnight Tonight!
Welcome!
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