Welcome back class. After a short break in between series, Comic Book 101 is back, this time with the low-down on Moon Knight as the masked vigilante gets closer to his debut series of the same name. Moon Knight has already promised to be something new on a variety of fronts in the MCM. Heroes, or really even villains, with dissociative identity disorders haven’t really been explored, and at its core, the material involving the Moon Knight character relies heavily on this influence. Another aspect that will be different in the upcoming series has been touted by Oscar Isaac. That aspect is the series will not have many in-world (MCU) references. Right now, the titular character will be a part of the multiverse while also remaining separate, or perhaps a better term may be, keeping his distance.

So, who exactly is Moon Knight? He debuted in August 1975’s Werewolf by Night #32. Marc Spector, the ‘secret identity’ of Moon Knight was a very violent mercenary who took his fair share of lives, some of them innocent. He was betrayed by a fellow mercenary, Bushman (who is in the series) who killed a man in front of that mans wife and daughter. Specter confronts his ‘fellow’ mercenary and is beaten and left for dead. Many heroes and villains in Marvel, DC, and other outlets get their powers from lab accidents, cosmic explosions, spider bites, genetic traits, and so on. Spector is one of the first , and certainly not the only, to be given his powers through a sort of divine intervention from the Egyptian god Khonshu. As one may interpret from the hero’s name, Moon Knight, Khonshu is the Egyptian god of the moon.

While Marc Spector is the main personality enlisted by the entity, the material for the upcoming show is being changed so that the main personality is that of Stephen Grant, a mild-mannered gift shop employee. This change is categorically incorrect. Stephen Grant is one of Moon Knight’s personalities, but in the source material, Grant portrays a billionaire businessman. The other personalities that aide him are Jake Lockley, a cab driver and a consultant simply named “Mr Knight.”

Related: Comic Book 101: Demystifying the Riddler

Moon Knight Has Been Compared to Batman

The big question, or elephant in the room is obviously: does Moon Knight have any cool powers, and if so, what are they? The answer is kind of two-pronged. He does, and doesn’t. Spector’s ‘powers’ are similar to Batman’s, and have drawn comparisons to the vigilante over the years, but power’s is where the comparison should stop. He fights crime with gadgets and a costume. His intense strength training allows him to be stronger than the average human, and he fights through immense pain through willpower.


Sounds like the Dark Knight right? While these comparisons do fall in with Bruce Wayne’s Batman, there are extreme differences. Bruce fights crime for vengeance due to a tragedy that befell him with the death of his parents, while Marc Spector fights to atone for his life as a mercenary. Moon Knight ,in the beginning at least, was granted the ability from Khonshu to see visions and to have superhuman strength that would be greater or almost non-existent depending on the phase of the moon.

Disney has made some creative decisions that are quite different that the source material, so it will be fun to see that play out. Regardless, we know Moon Knight will be a limited series, and we also know he will be in the MCM for the foreseeable future at least. One particularly interesting aspect is being touted that Marc Spector, like in the comics, will be Jewish, while other personalities that Moon Knight employees may not identify the same. The creative decisions, good or bad, as well as its exact place in the MCM will start to be unraveled when the six episode story starring Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke starts streaming on March 30th. Class dismissed.

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