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Marvel is dipping once again into its deep well of comic book characters that (currently) exist outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and may or may not be as well-known as some of the studio’s other characters who have received big and small screen treatments already. Moon Knight was introduced to the comic book world in a 1975 appearance in Werewolf by Night #32, and made several solo appearances throughout the Marvel Comics universe until finally receiving his own title in 1980. That series ran for just 38 issues, but the character has been revived and rebooted several times right up to the present, so the new Disney Plus TV series seems to have pulled from the various comics instead of hewing closely to the origin series. In this case, the names are the same but the characters and stories may have changed (full disclosure — I did read the original run of Moon Knight but have not kept up with the various iterations, so I am coming into the series with fresh eyes for the most part).
In the first episode we meet Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac), a mild-mannered employee at a British museum gift shop. He has a background in Egyptian antiquities and freely shares his knowledge much to the chagrin of his boss who would prefer he just stay put and sell the newest — and culturally inaccurate — trinkets and toys to the paying customers. But Steven has some issues, the least of which is his apparent need to sleepwalk which has him shackle his foot to the bed so he can’t walk about, and he always tries to keep himself awake through various methods. During one such attempt, he finds himself in a Bavarian town surrounded by people who exhibit cult-like behavior with a man named Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) as their leader. Harrow has a walking stick and a tattoo of scales on his arm which he uses to determine a person’s character. If the scales become unbalanced and turn red, the person is deemed to be very bad and they die on the spot. No change in the scales and they live. One of Harrow’s henchmen warn him that someone is getting in the way of an exchange, and Arthur spots Steven in the crowd, calling him out because he seems to know Steven has something he wants, a jeweled scarab. Steven has no idea what it is or how he got it so he tries to hand it over but his body won’t allow him to do it. Steven also hears a voice telling him to not give Harrow the scarab and suddenly Harrow’s men are about to attack.
With a pretty cook audio/visual effect to signify Steven blacking out, he comes to and finds Harrow’s men dead and he’s covered in blood. More men come and Steven steals a cupcake truck, and as they pursue him, he blacks out several more times, waking again to find more death and destruction behind him. Just as it looks like he’s about to meet his own end, Steven wakes up back in his bed, thinking it was all a crazy dream. But things have changed, like his goldfish that had one fin and now has two. He also realizes he’s missing a few days when his Friday dinner date never shows up because it’s Sunday. He begins looking around his flat for clues to what’s happening and finds a cell phone hidden in the ceiling with several missed called from someone named Layla, and one from someone named Duchamps. The phone rings and it’s Layla again, so he picks up and she calls him Marc … and she wants to know why he’s doing a weird British accent (Oscar Isaac’s British accent has been the focus of online chatter and even Marvel execs were puzzled, according to the actor). Steven has no idea who Marc is and wants to know why she’s calling him that name but she hangs up.
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Heading to work, he spots Arthur Harrow on a bus and panics, knowing now that his dream was real. But he can’t get away from Harrow who confronts Steven to see what kind of person he is. While he’s awaiting the verdict of the scales, Arthur seems surprised by what he sees and lets Steven go, but he still insists on having that scarab and sends a terrifying beast, a jackal, after Steven in the museum. Steven manages to dodge the beast, nearly knocking over a priceless artifact, and makes his way to the rest room, locking the door behind him. As the beast pounds dents into the door, Steven’s reflection starts talking to him (in an American accent). The reflection is begging Steven to let him save them as the door gets closer to breaking down. Steven nods just as the door bursts open, and in the unseen scuffle it sounds like the jackal, instead of attacking Steven and tearing him apart, is desperately trying to get away. Then we get the reveal of a figure in a white hood and cape, sort of a mummy-like appearance, beating the jackal to death. Moon Knight.
It’s certainly a great tease for what is to come over the next five weeks. I don’t remember much, if any, of this particular storyline in the original comics, and I have seen the next three episodes and am completely unsure if this is a completely new story or something from somewhere in the comic series. But it really doesn’t matter because the set up and subsequent episodes are intriguing enough and I’m already feeling like six episodes just isn’t going to be enough (hopefully they will continue). Oscar Isaac is terrific as the bumbling Steven, and we only get a brief taste of his alter ego right at the end but he switches between the character of Steven and Marc with ease (we’ll learn a bit more about Marc in Episode 2). Ethan Hawke’s Arthur Harrow is also going to be a complicated villain as the story moves along because his motives are unclear and he easily manipulates people (and gods), so that makes him a quite dangerous opponent. We’ll also meet Layla in the next episode, as well as find out more about that disembodied voice in Steven’s head, and what happens when he blacks out. And there are some humorous bits with the Moon Knight suit.
I’ve always been interested in the history and culture of ancient Egypt and the people behind Moon Knight are striving to get things right as opposed to just a Hollywood version. I found the first episode entertaining, with an engaging performance by Isaac and an enigmatic one from Hawke, and I can say it is well-worth sticking with over the next month-and-a-half.
New episodes of Moon Knight stream Wednesdays on Disney+.
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