WARNING: SPOILERS FROM EPISODES 1-3

Marvel’s newest Disney+ series proves to be perhaps their best.

“Moon Knight” hit the streaming service on March 24. It focuses on the lives of Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac), a man suffering with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Because of this, he has numerous personalities.

We start with Steven Grant, a soft-spoken man working at a gift shop in London, who is later revealed to be one of Marc Spector’s alters. Starting the series through the eyes of one of Marc’s alters is an interesting choice.

We, along with Steven, learn about Marc and his mercenary/vigilante life as the Avatar of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon.

Through Grant’s eyes, we see things start to get weird for him– for starters, he sleep-walks (or so he thinks) and wakes up in strange places. During one of these incidents, he discovers a mysterious cult ran by Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke). Harrow is the Avatar of Ammit, the “devourer of the dead”– the Goddess who would judge the dead of their sins.

From here, Steven slowly learns the truth about Marc and his servitude to Khonshu, and the two personalities begin to work together, switching control to help save the world as Harrow gets ever closer to releasing Ammit from her tomb to wreak havoc.

In the comics, Moon Knight is known to be a brutal character, to the point where one of the identities is known to cut enemies’ faces off. However, the series seems to be toning down on the more grotesque details, with a TV-14 rating.

The series takes many of the comic elements and improves on others. For example, the usage of the Mr. Knight suit in the series does make sense and makes it a bit more distinctive. In the comics, Mr. Knight is just a different tone of Moon Knight, but in the series, when Steven has to summon the suit, he winds up making a three-piece white suit, not knowing exactly what Moon Knight’s suit is.

Speaking of suits, the series designs are incredible. Moon Knight’s traditional suit has a sense of ancient-ness that the comics lacked, with the series being able to show every fine detail while the comics had most of him concealed in darkness or simple white tones. The series, however, has Moon Knight’s armor consisting of wrappings and golden accents. Mr. Knight is sharp as well, with an entirely comic-accurate design.

Oscar Isaac shows a lot of range switching from Marc to Steven on a whim. He truly makes them seem and act like different people, something that’s essential to actors portraying DID.

Ethan Hawke plays a deranged cult leader surprisingly well, showing a level of manipulation and easily getting into the heads of anyone he speaks to, including Steven and Marc.

The two actors have brought their A-game and are great additions to the MCU. I’m looking forward to seeing where their characters’ story goes.

Despite the show’s perks, there are some downsides. For some reason, there has been no mention of Marc Spector’s Jewish descent. Should that change in the remaining episodes is one thing, but mysteriously, any shots of Marc’s Star of David necklace have been removed, save for a very quick look at it at the end of the second episode. Is it just a coincidence or is it something else?

Marvel has received some backlash for cutting down on Jewish representation in the MCU, such as Scarlet Witch, who was Jewish in the comics, being the daughter of Magneto– a Holocaust survivor. Currently in the MCU, the character of Wanda is from the country of Sokovia, a fictional location, and as a result has a different ethnic background.

That aside, “Moon Knight” is proving to be a unique series, easy for new audiences to sit and watch without worrying about catching up on any previous MCU films. In fact, there hasn’t been any references to previous MCU projects, save for a sign on a bus and a city namedrop.

Because of this, I believe that “Moon Knight” is a good starter for those interested in the MCU, but intimidated by the sheer number of movies and various interconnected media.

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