The Dark Knight And The Moon Knight
By JonesDeini 35 Comments
It baffles me that people still write Moon Knight off as nothing more than a Batman clone. The only similarities they have are that they both have had access to large sums of cash and they fight crime using tech because they have no super powers. That's it, nothing more, nothing less. Let's take a look at Bruce Wayne, shall we? In essence Bruce is a rich kid with problems, he's fighting crime to avenge the traumatic murder of his family. Now let's look at Marc Spector, Spector is a mentally unstable (has dissociative disorder) ex-mercenary, whom fights crime because he believes he's been chosen as the avatar of an Egyptian god of vengeance. Now it's fair to say that both men are driven by an insane obsession, but let's look at the origins and methods of sating this obsession. Moon Knight punishes criminals as a religious duty, it's as integral to him to hunt criminals as it is for a devout Muslim to pray five times a day or a catholic to go to weekly confession. Spector is like an animal that must hunt, a predator that must prey. Batman is a man motivated by vengeance for his fallen loved ones, which develops into his obsessive war on crime. Spector is a man who's entire being is vengeance itself. No matter who it may be, he must punish however he sees fit. Now in recent years writers have fleshed out his character and made him into a man looking for a higher purpose, for peace and redemption. and I think that's a good turn for the character. He's gone as far as to downgrade to nonlethal weaponry and do his best to avoid killing his foes. He's even joined the Secret Avengers in his hopes to keep steering in the right direction. Spector's identities aren't just a tool for infiltration and gathering information like Bruce's are (though they've served that function too). Spector is genuinely living other lives, he literally becomes an entirely new person. This both helps him to confront/escape from the challenges both internal and external that he faces in his life. Batman doesn't kill, you know accept for in a few Golden Age tales and that one time during The Cult (yeah we ALL know that he shot that guy, so save it). Knight has and does and will continue to do so when he feels he should. Batman deals with the Joker by roughing him up a bit before send him to Arkham for a weekend. Moon Knight skins the Bushman's face off and snaps his neck. In conclusion I think Moon Knight's an underrated and unappreciated character with lot's of depth and potential for writers to tap. So yeah, Go Moon Knight, he's got more in common with The Punisher/Dare Devil than he does with Bats. And Bats is my favorite character by the way, and easily the more compelling of these two. But that's no reason to write Moon Knight off.
35 Comments