Moon Knight is Awesome
Best Disney+ Series so far
I never really understood why the Moon Knight series got so much hate. Sure, the Disney+ series are not at the quality of the Daredevil, Jessica Jones or Punisher Netflix series. I felt as though Moon Knight is an exception. Moon Knight isn’t perfect. My expectations were couched going into the series. There’s a lot going on in Moon Knight if you think about it. He’s a man who suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID) while being manipulated by a moon God named Konshu who gives him powers to fight evil.
I love the ambition! I just never thought the Moon Knight series would reach the simplicity of let’s say Spider-Man stories. Moon Knight is a complicated guy to understand. Thankfully the Moon Knight series is excellent despite its complexities. The series does an amazing job of making Moon Knight’s easy to understand. It also does an amazing job exploring the themes of identity and trauma that grounds the story very nicely.
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Here’s a quick rundown of Moon Knight for those of you who aren’t familiar.
SPOILERS FOR EVERYONE WHO HAS NOT COME ACROSS MOON KNIGHT!
Comics Rundown
In the comics, Marc Spector suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID). DID often manifests as a result of severe trauma. In Jeff Lemire’s run, Marc shows signs of DID as a child. He invites an imaginary friend by the name of Steven to hang out with. It’s unclear what trauma happened to make this manifest as a kid. It does however become clear that Marc uses this when things get rough. When his Father passes away, he slips into his Steven persona. Marc later enrols into the army in his adult life and serves as a marine. After being found wandering around naked at night, Marc has a chat with his superior. He finds out that Marc lied about his mental health history and gets dishonourably discharged as a result.
He later finds work as a mercenary. It turns out he’s a pretty good one! He works with this guy named Frenchie to help him secure upcoming jobs. One day, he comes across a dangerous man by the name of Bushman. Marc and Frenchie go on a mission with Bushman that they regret for the rest of their lives. Marc gets enraged when Bushman kills the archeologist Dr. Alraume in front of his daughter Marlene. After losing a fight to Bushman and being left for dead, the wounded Marc reaches an unearthed tomb for shelter. He rests in front of the statue of the Egyptian moon god Konshu. Marc dies then gets revived by Konshu! He new life purpose is to fight evil as the fist of Konshu and live the rest of his life as Moon Knight!
Marc’s Trauma
The Disney+ series makes some significant deviations from the comics. The series makes it very clear that Marc developed DID as a result of his traumatic childhood. When Marc was a child, Marc’s brother got into an accident that he couldn’t protect him from. As a consequence, Marc’s brother died. Marc’s Mother was so angry at him that she verbally and physically abused him for the rest of his childhood. It’s revealed that Marc took on another identity, Steven Grant, to cope with the abuse he suffered. When Marc shifts into the Steven Grant persona, he has no recollection of the abuse his Mom dished out on him. It’s like his mind is tricking itself to cope with the trauma.
It’s revealed later in the series that Marc’s Mother dies (probably from alcohol abuse) in his early adult years. This crushes Marc. He can no longer say the things he needs to say to get closure from his Mom. His Mother’s death proves to be too much for him as he slips into the Steven Grant persona again. When Steven appears, he has no recollection of his Mother’s death. In fact, he thinks that she’s still alive and on great terms with her.
Aside from the childhood trauma that Marc endures, the Disney+ series sticks closely to its comics roots. When Marc turns 18, he joins the army, gets left for dead on a mission and gets resurrected by Konshu.
Marc & Konshu
As the Disney+ series progresses, Marc’s story gets even more tragic. It’s revealed that Konshu is a very capricious God. He wants to use Marc as an avatar because he thinks that he’s very easy to manipulate. (After all, Marc has DID and doesn’t have much of an education outside of what he learned from his military training).
Konshu, and his diety of Gods, are locked away in a pocket dimension. The only way they can affect people on earth is by choosing a person as an avatar and getting that person to carry out their will.
Konshu has a very specific way of rolling out justice. He’s totally cool with Marc killing people. Hence, there’s some moral failures to his perceived sense of justice. He lies and has temper tantrums. At the end of the series, it’s revealed that when he doesn’t get his way with Marc or Steven, he’ll manipulate another one of his alternate identities, Jake Lockley. (By the way, BEST MARVEL POST CREDIT SCENE!)
But here’s the thing, despite all of Konshu’s flaws, he not the worst out there. There’s another Goddess named Ammit who want to eliminate people based on their future crimes. The silver lining to Konshu is that he believes punishment comes after the crime. Ammit uses the cult leader Arthur Harrow as her avatar to carry out her plans.
Arthur’s goal is to get a hold of a scarab that will release Ammit to the world. Once she’s released, everyone will be judged and will die if their future crimes are deemed heinous enough.
Arthur Harrow
As an MCU antagonist, Arthur Harrow isn’t as interesting as Loki or Thanos. There’s not that much we know about him. In his mind, what he thinks is doing is right. He thinks that carrying out Ammit’s will to kill people based on their future crimes is justified. I would’ve like to see more from his backstory. What happened in this guy’s life to make him think that Ammit’s logic is just?
Despite the ambiguity to Arthur Harrow, he’s interesting to watch nonetheless. He’s a complete nutcase. The first scene of the series is of him putting broken glass in his shoes. I can’t imagine how painful that must be to walk in! This makes it clear that Arthur Harrow, much like Marc, is a broken person living with much pain and trauma. Despite how we don’t know Arthur Harrow’s backstory, we know that it’s not a pretty one.
Criticism
My only criticism is that the story relies on Deus Ex-Machina at its climax. When Arthur Harrow is about to defeat Marc Spector and Steven Grant, they slip into another alter by the name of Jake Lockley (who’s been hinted at in the series but not revealed). Jake Lockley defeats everybody and stops Marc & Steven from rising up to the occasion to beat Arthur Harrow. Jake Lockley steps in and does the job for them.
Moon Knight is Brilliant!
Criticisms aside, Moon Knight is amazing! It brilliantly explores the themes of trauma and identity in a way that hasn’t been done before. Marc is a deeply damaged person who can’t seem to catch a break. It’s not enough that his brother died and his Mother made his childhood miserable, Konshu keeps pushing his boundaries.
What’s interesting about the show is that it shows how this trauma impacts has relationships. Marc has an on-&-off again relationship with Leila. His relationship is always rocky because Marc always feels scared to be open with people. I guess you can’t blame him considering his childhood experiences. He couldn’t exactly be open and honest with his Mom, so why would he think anyone would want to listen to his needs?
You even get a sense of how much hate and anger is in Marc’s system. He killed a lot of people in the army and while working as a mercenary. It’s suggested in the series that Marc Spector created Steven Grant to hide from all of the awful things he’s done.
Marc’s the ugly truth while Steven is the beautiful lie.
Over the course of the series, it’s hinted that Jake Lockley (another identity), exists in Marc’s mind. His condition is ever evolving and needs constant attention. Marc wasn’t even aware that Jake existed until the end of the series! It must be a scary experience to not be in control of your own mind.
Moon Knight is an amazing story as it explores a life of hardship with constant pain and lack of love.
I really hope it gets a season 2!
What do you think? Do you think Moon Knight is the best Disney+ series? Why do you think its been getting so much hate? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Stay groovy!