Alright, I guess there's no putting this one off anymore. I wanted to wait to the end of the series to talk about Moon Knight, because... honestly, I have no idea what to make of it. This is the story of Steven Grant... or is it Marc Specter? It's an interesting tale, if nothing else, and one that's only just in the last week really started to pick up.
If you find the Moon Knight show bizarre, then let me welcome you to the Moon Knight character. Moon Knight is bizarre, full stop. If someone has described him to you as Marvel's Batman, that is oversimplification to a wild degree. Moon Knight is an agent of vengeance, but that is pretty much where the common qualities with Batman stop. Marc Specter is an agent of the Egyptian god Khonshu. He acts as his avatar and delivers vengeance. On the one hand, it's hard to imagine centering a show around this idea, especially given the contemporary ideas that Marvel Studios has put out there.
For the most part, this has been true. The first few Moon Knight episodes are odd ducks, to say the least. The show follows Steven Grant, played by Oscar Isaac. He speaks with a horrendous British accent. As it turns out, that might be by design. See, the thing about this character is that he has multiple personalities and there's no telling which is the real one. Steven believes he is having sleepwalking episodes, but the truth is that he's patrolling the streets as an alternate personality named Marc Spector, who acts as Khonshu's avatar.
When Moon Knight dives into the core of the character, the show gets weird and that's arguably when it's at its best. To the show's credit, Khonshu (voiced by F. Murray Abraham) is a delight, showing up as a weird anthropomorphic being with a giant bird's head. The back-and-forth between Steven, Mark, and Khonshu is one of the show's biggest highlights and the deeper story between them all is a fascinating one.
Unfortunately, the actual plot is what gets in the way of everything. Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) is on a journey to free the Egyptian god Ammit, who will deliver pre-emptive vengeance to all. This is where the show starts to grind to a generic halt and also proves to be one of the sources of its cringiest moments. Picture Steven fighting against a jackal that only he can see or Oscar Isaac trying to channel Khonshu, only to sound like "Broken" Matt Hardy.
There's rarely a moment when the plot and the backstory intersect, leading to inconsistent quality. That is until the last episode, which saw viewers travel into the mind of Marc Spector, where he meets Steven in person, and also runs into (without spoiling the ending of last week's show) some really bonkers stuff.
Is Moon Knight a great show? Not really. Is it fun? When it's embracing the far out elements of the source material, it certainly is. The funny thing about Moon Knight is that while I don't love the show, it's made me want to hunt down the source material in a way I never have before. Marvel Comics has been trying to sell me the Moon Knight character for decades. I never bit. The show has actually sold me. I want more of this character. Even if the TV show isn't the best, I can go hunting down some of the higher-quality comics and enjoy myself. If nothing else, it's a success in that area.
