Anyone else worried about how they'll handle Moon Knight on Disney+?
Moon Knight is a famously kid-unfriendly superhero, being full of psychological issues, a penchant for violence, and a backstory involving being victimized as a Jewish son of a Rabbi, before going in to mercenary, then left for dead by Bushman, before getting saved by an Egyptian moon god who he now fights crime in his name. That's just for starters. The mythology has tons of examples of trauma, murder, abuse, torture and just all sorts of adult themes. Not to mention that religion plays a big part, something the MCU treads lightly with.
So naturally I get a little nervous about Moon Knight being adapted on Disney's touted family-friendly service, Disney+.
I wasn't so worried at first, as I thought Disney+ would still allow PG-13 stuff to fully be PG-13, but really hearing news like them offloading Love, Victor to Hulu just for having a gay main character, and the Lizzie McGuire revival getting halted for being "too adult" despite being PG-13, doesn't exactly give me confidence. If a Love, Simon spin-off and the original Hilary Duff vehicle is enough for Disney to panic, they're definitely going to have a bad day when it comes to Moon Knight.
Characters rumored, besides Moon Knight himself, are Dracula, Ripper the Hellbent, Bushman, Stained Glass Scarlet, and Werewolf by Night. These are not kid-friendly characters by any stretch.
Anyways, is it right to be worried? Don't get me wrong, I'm excited, and I would prefer this over Netflix where "It's all connected" and they take away all the superhero aspects in favor of being "realistic", but I just fear they'll do it wrong and water everything down.
What do you guys think?
Not worried.
That is, everything you say is pretty much true. This will surely not be as hardcore and adult as the comics.
However, that doesn't mean that it can't be cool in its own right and, honestly, I'm just jazzed that we're getting a live action MK at all.
That is such a wildly improbable thing to happen to this character that, whatever form the show eventually takes, I'll just be happy it exists.
This problem is not really with Ellis's run, but what people decided to take from it after the fact, which is very little. "Mr. Knight" is just the base form, it's not Ellis's fault at all if other writers/creators prefer it to the others. Also, I understand having a preference for Superhero Moon Knight, but that's not really how I perceive Moon Knight at his core. The original Moench stuff focuses far more on pulp inspired investigation and adventure than modern superhero fair. More Shadow than Batman. In earnest, Moon Knight can do both. Moon Knight can do it all. I think one of the goals of Ellis's run was to put Moon Knight in a place where he could do it all. Again, it's on other people if they pick and choose what aspects of the character to shine a spotlight on instead of taking advantage of the totality of him.
My priority is enjoying and supporting stories of timeless heroism and conflict.
Everything else is irrelevant.
The Pattinson Batman reveal would have been great timing to announce an actor for MK or Instagram something. Missed opportunity and a nice jab at DC. I say this as a fan of both characters
Some versions of Moon Knight actually do play well with others. He was an Avenger a couple times. It really depends on whether they want a more Punisher version of the character or not. If this were Net Flicks as opposed to Disney, we'd probably be leaning in that direction.
But yeah... he's a dark messed up character any way you slice it, so that does need to be factored in. And I think they will. There aren't that many characters competing for that role in the MCU at the moment, so he can actually stand out a bit by being different.
so how far is this "age of khonshu" going to last, and how many people are going to die in the process? Is Marc being set up as a Phoenix-style temp-villain now? that's going to be super problematic going forward, if the character is going to be used again as any kind of hero in the future.
Don't you think Aaron and co. have thought of that, especially knowing that the character will have a much higher profile soon with the Disney+ show? Don't you think that they clearly would not do anything, nor would Marvel even approve of it, to make the character difficult to use in the future?
So, no, there will not be anything "super-problematic" about this arc. Whether it will be good or please MK fans remains to be seen but there is absolutely no need to have any concern about it hurting MK long term.
goofier things can and will happen. I don't have high hopes for this.