There are a million different puns with Moon or Knight to play with.
If Moon Knight is going to follow in the footsteps of WandaVision in the sense that a mystery will unfold little by little with each episode, then sign me up, because Wednesday's premiere episode hooked me right away. The newest Marvel Disney+ show oozes with suspense and feels darker than anything else in the MCU.
There's something exhilarating about that feeling of not knowing what's going on at all, yet slowly coming to a realization after the subtle trail of breadcrumbs comes to a climax (in this case, the final shot of the episode gives us the literal full picture of what we need to know right now). Perhaps Marvel has earned the right to demand patience from its audience, or perhaps it's because the pacing of this episode was quick enough to keep the audience uncomfortable while simultaneously allowing them to settle in once the plot points reveal themselves. While Steven seemingly jumps around multiple locations and loses days at a time, the shroud of that mystery wouldn't have lasted very long; if they kept playing the same card trick over and over, it would've gotten old really quick and stunted the show's enjoyability; smartly, the writers let us wrap our heads around the basics of this character's situation enough to have some sense of direction by the end of the first episode.
Steven is clearly two people. It's not schizophrenia, though. It's more like an identity crisis. When Steven becomes Moon Knight, he loses control, memory, everything. When Moon Knight is done doing whatever it is he needs to do (so far, that's just mean beating up immediate threats to get out of jams), Steven awakens randomly wherever Moon Knight leaves him. One minute, Steven is running from a weird cult, the next moment, he awakens on a bus having no idea where he is headed. The way Steven has his apartment set up suggests he's only recently figuring out he has this identity problem. He has a latch on his bed where he can lock his foot into place to prevent sleepwalking. During one particular moment of this episode, Steven appeared to finally discover there is something other-worldly going on as opposed to something simple like blackouts. He tried to have a date with a co-worker, but she chews him out for standing her up, which he wasn't aware he did. Clearly he doesn't know the full scope of what's going on yet.
Early on, Steven accidentally stumbles upon a weird cult-like group that refers to Ahmed and incorporates a scales balancing system to exercise judgment on these followers. The leader is named Arthur. It's hard to get a beat ln Arthur (played by Ethan Hawke). As first impressions go, it's easy to think he's after power by trying to take the scarab from Steven, but the scene in the museum later on, when Arthur grabs Steven's wrists, suggests he is more concerned for Steven's well-being, as if he knows what's about to happen to him. Maybe he wants to protect Steven, who may just be an innocent bystander in this crusade of Egyptian gods who seem bent on justice of some kind. What's interesting is Arthur says he knows Steven as he appears normally, so maybe there's some plot point there to come back to later.
The Egyptian theme is pretty strong, and even horrifying, at times. We come across some wild animal-like creatures whose nature is not fully understood yet (it seems like they are a part of this other dimension/time portal/whatever it is that's causing the reality shifts we see). They definitely keep Steven in their crosshairs, though, perhaps because he's carrying this scarab. Maybe that's how Moon Knight gets his powers in this story.
Oscar Isaac has the potential to turn in the best acting performance of anyone lead in the Marvel shows so far, and after one episode, he's well on his way to that. He conveyed paranoia, fear, and confusion quite well, yet he also nails his role as a simpleton working at a museum gift shop.
It's interesting to me that he works at a museum that features so much Egyptian lore. Sure, it could mean that Steven is simply the unlucky innocent bystander who happened to tap into some crazy Egyptian mythos and power unwittingly. But I also wonder if the character knows what he's getting into, which would explain why he was reluctant to give up the scarab. Heck, at one point in a storage room, Steven was pointing out some flaw in one of the artworks to his boss - the marketing poster of the group of nine Egyptian gods called Ennead was missing two of them - suggesting he knows quite a bit about Egyptian history. An argument could be made that any person who views himself as a "nobody" would be drawn to anything that gives him a feeling of power for the first time. Or maybe Moon Knight is controlling him enough to ensure they keep this scarab around. Lots of possibilities here, though I'm curious if people who know Moon Knight's story from the comics feel this show is compelling enough after one episode. Next week needs to cover a lot of ground to get a worthwhile story arc going other than just what's happening to Steven.
What's great about the story so far is it feels self-contained. It doesn't come with the extra baggage most Marvel shows or movies bring with it, though that's arguably what gave the MCU such transcendency. Moon Knight feels far more like an origin story, and I'm sure a small end-credit type scene in the finale will show how the character will be onboarded into the larger MCU.
Notes:
-The voiceover for the Moon Knight character while we're watching Steven sounds kind of goofy, much in the same way that Venom's voice sounds in the Sony movies.
-At one point, it seems like Steven willingly gives into Moon Knight, while at other times, he was not ready for a takeover at all. Curious about how that develops. Maybe Moon Knight is the true persona at play here? The other plot point here is that the voice inside his head keeps calling him Mark (the comic-book character is Mark Spector), so I'm curious to find out why he goes by the name Steven.
-The Moon Knight costume looks amazing!