Marvel has been on a roll with the MCU-related television shows streaming Disney+ starting with Wandavision in early 2021 and continuing with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, What If…?, Loki, and Hawkeye. All have been enjoyable (some a bit confusing), and all have done their part to expand on the Marvel Universe. But you can’t hit it out of the park every time, and the latest MCU show Moon Knight is a bit of a stumble if you ask me, even though it does introduce a potentially important character.
Originally created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin back in 1975, Moon Knight is the Earthly avatar of the Egyptian god Konshu whose duty it is to avenge the innocent. The character first appeared in Werewolf by Night in the ’70s and would go on to have multiple appearances in other titles as well as his own over the decades that followed. He never made it to the A-List superheroes, but Marvel Studios has to dig deeper now as the MCU continues to crank out new movies and shows at a pretty quick pace, and Moon Knight was considered important enough to headline his own TV series. The show combines aspects of the character that have been developed and retconned over his Marvel tenure, and there is a lot happening even though the pacing can be slow at times. Following is a quick rundown of the story, so buckle in. (Spoilers ahead and all that.)
Mild-mannered Steven Grant works at the gift show for the British Museum, but he suspiciously has much more knowledge about the exhibits than you would expect from your average cashier. He also has a slight problem in that he sometimes wakes up in a place he does not recognize (nor does he know how he got there), so he ties himself to the bed every night. All the good that does, though, because after one night of planned slumber he finds himself in a town he does not recognize (nor does he know how he got there) trying to keep the Golden Scarab (which he knows little about) from some guy named Arthur Harrow who wants to release the punishments of the Egyptian goddess Ammit on people who have committed evil deeds or will at some point in the future. Talk about your night sweats! When things start to get really hairy, Stephen blacks out then wakes up to find lots of people around him dead.
Stephen then finds that he has an alter ego named Marc Grant who is an American mercenary and not quite as mild-mannered. They both are the avatar of the Egyptian god Konshu and they can summon the powerful being Moon Knight who looks different depending on which one calls him. Steven also discovers that he (or actually Marc) was once married to the Egyptian archaeologist Layla El-Faouly who shows up and gets involved with their attempts to stop Harrow from unleashing Ammit (and Harrow actually used to be Konshu’s avatar before deciding to change teams). Harrow manages to get the Golden Scarab so Konshu calls a council of the gods to warn them of the threat this poses to the world. Of course they don’t believe him, and they eventually imprison him in an ushabti (some sort of magical clay figurine). But Konshu had revealed the location of Ammit’s tomb to Steven and Layla before this happened (by turning back time), so they go there to discover that the previous avatar of Ammit was none other than Alexander the Great. Steven recover’s Ammit’s ushabti (from the gullet of Mr. Great’s mummy), but then Harrow kills him and Steven wakes up in the afterlife to find himself in a psychiatric hospital with Harrow as his counselor. Steven also finds Marc there and they try to escape only to be met by a walking, talking hippopotamus . . .
Confused? Yeah, me too.
This series definitely takes lots of twists and turns–most of which cause brain matter to start spinning–and does not deliver too many characters you can root for. Steven and Layla are almost certainly supposed to be the ones the audience relates to, but both of them seem so confused about what is exactly going on through the whole thing (do you blame them?) that it is hard to really get attached to either. Moon Knight, in his various incarnations, seems like a cool, vengeful hero and all, but we see very little of him. On the other hand, Konshu just seems like a big, godly jerk. And Marc comes and goes so quickly, while often acting rather jerky himself, so it is hard to relate to him. Ethan Hawke does a great job as Harrow, though, and you almost find yourself rooting for him at times. Oscar Isaac also does a good job with Steven Grant/Marc Spector, but the story is so confusing that the two personalities seem to get lost in its intricacies more often than not. Taweret (the hippo goddess) is a ton of fun, though.
I have not read many of the Moon Knight comics, but I am going to guess that this draws heavily from those and that fans of the character are doing a better job of keeping score throughout the six-episode series than I am. The casual viewer will definitely have trouble following this one beyond the basic introduction of the character and may lose interest quickly. Moon Knight has been pegged as a mini-series, so there are apparently no plans to continue with a second season anytime soon. Personally, I would rather see a second season of Hawkeye (also given the mini-series designation), though I probably would tune in for another season of the Steven Grant/Marc Spector show just to see if it starts making sense. For now, expect to see Moon Knight show up in some of the future MCU movies as a potentially powerful ally (apparently a crossover with The Eternals was planned at one point). And maybe down the road he will return for a second year of his own show to explain just what the heck happened in the first season!
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