Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Moon Knight - The Goldfish Problem

Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin in 1975, Moon Knight has offered several variations on the character of a mercenary with multiple lives turned into the avatar of the Egyptian Khonshu. The first episode of the new Marvel series plays up the character's dissociative identity disorder by introducing us to one of his personalities who is only dimly aware other events are happening during his blackouts which leave him with vivid waking dreams and large gaps of missing time.

Rather than being a billionaire (as in the comics), Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) works at a gift shop inside a London museum. One of the interesting choices is to only give us Steven in this first episode, at least until the final scene. That follows a bit of the Marvel TV formula which is rather predictable at this point building to big last-minute reveals and cliffhangers. Thankfully, Moon Knight is different in other ways as it explores the man (or at least one of his personalities) underneath the suit allowing us to come to an understanding of this version of the character as he becomes aware of his larger role as well.

One of the show's running gags will be Steven (or later Marc) waking up in unusual locations with no idea how he got there, what his purpose for being there might be, and with the very likely possibility that someone wants him dead. In one of these moments he meets Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) who will be the antagonist for the series. Harrow is in search of something Grant has (but doesn't remember taking) leading to an awfully fun fragmented action scene before Steven wakes up in bed believing everything to be a dream. However, as he finds clues that those events actually took place he becomes more aware that the other voices in his head aren't imagination and to save himself at the end of the episode he will need to give in and become Moon Knight.

  • Title: Moon Knight - The Goldfish Problem
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