Moon Knight: Hero or Menace!?

Moon Knight is about to change the way many of us look at the characters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the best possible way, and the show, which is releasing in March of this year, has plenty of questions that need answers already—like who are Moon Knight and Steven Grant and how is the story going to incorporate the different personalities of Moon Knight that we know exist?

In a new Super Bowl ad for the show, we got to see Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) come in contact with Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) as Harrow told him to “embrace” the chaos that exists within him.

Moon Knight/Marc Spector has Dissociative Identity Disorder, which causes him to have multiple personalities, one of them being Steven Grant. Within those personalities, we have a wide range of individuals, and it makes for an interesting look at DID, how we view our comic book characters, and more. So, I’m fascinated to see what Marvel does with a character like Moon Knight.

There are theories going around about who, exactly, Arthur Harrow is and whether he’s going to be a bigger villain throughout the series, but there is also a question about Moon Knight as a character and people want to know: Is he a hero or is he a villain? And the answer is a little more complicated than one or the other.

Is Moon Knight a Hero or a Villain?

Moon Knight is, for the most part, an antihero, meaning that he might lack some of the typical heroic attributes that we’re used to in “heroes,” but that he isn’t a villain, either. And frankly, antiheroes can be more fun, because they’re not beholden to clean-cut nature of a hero. Most of my favorite characters are antiheroes, especially in the world of Marvel, like Wanda Maximoff.

But the label of antihero makes it so that we can have the darker storylines that come with Moon Knight without having to have some upstanding resolution. Think about a character like Peter Parker. We love him because he constantly wants to do the right thing and have the world know he’s a hero. He wants to be the good guy. Moon Knight is not that type of character.

He tries to do the right thing, but his methods might not always be the right and heroic choice. And that, in a lot of ways, makes a character like him more exciting to watch because you know he’s not going to give the kind of justice that you’d see with one of our more straight-laced heroes. His less-than-perfect actions also mean that Moon Knight isn’t the kind of character to be the most relatable for other heroes, and with his introduction into the MCU, it’ll be interesting to see how he interacts with other characters.

(image: Marvel Entertainment)

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Rachel Leishman

Rachel Leishman (She/Her) is an Assistant Editor at the Mary Sue. She's been a writer professionally since 2016 but was always obsessed with movies and television and writing about them growing up. A lover of Spider-Man and Wanda Maximoff's biggest defender, she has interests in all things nerdy and a cat named Benjamin Wyatt the cat. If you want to talk classic rock music or all things Harrison Ford, she's your girl but her interests span far and wide. Yes, she knows she looks like Florence Pugh. She has multiple podcasts, normally has opinions on any bit of pop culture, and can tell you can actors entire filmography off the top of her head. Her current obsession is Glen Powell's dog, Brisket. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes Star Wars, Marvel, DC, movie reviews, and interviews.

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