Review: Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness

 Ready to go reality diving? 

You know, it’s extremely weird to think we’re just getting Doctor Strange 2. Doctor Strange came out in 2016, and while Strange has been a staple of the franchise since, having multiple cameos, appearing in both Avengers 3 and 4, and being a key player in Spider-Man: No Way Home, it’s still been six years since his last solo project. Thankfully, Multiverse of Madness was worth the wait. Or at least I think so. Let’s get to it, shall we?

The white hair is a nice touch.

 

We open with a Variant of Dr. Strange and a teenage girl named America Chavez attempting to get to a magical artifact in a weird time bendy space. The artifact is the book of the Vishanti, the place is the Gap Junction; a space between universes, and the thing complicating this trip is a giant glowing tentacle monster. Strange does his best to hold off the creature, this version’s magic is white instead of main MCU orange, but it proves powerful for him to defeat. Realizing their options are running out, he grabs America and attempts to use a spell that will steal her powers and kill her. This Strang believing that keeping America’s power from whoever sent the monster is for the greater good, clearly breaking America’s heart as he does.  In a mentor-mentee fashion, to be clear. Before the process can be finished, Strange is killed by the monster and America accidentally triggers her power. She opens a portal through dimensions in the shape of a Star, it sucks her and Strange’s corpse through.

 

Our Dr. Strange wakes up with a jerk, having been dreaming this whole situation. That sure was weird, but I bet that’s the last we’ll hear about that. (Wink) He quickly dresses and heads out for a big wedding. Before the ceremony starts, he’s joined by Nic West, the doctor that couldn’t save Strange’s hands, couldn’t save the Ancient One and was kind of Strange’s professional whipping boy before the magic. West admits he’s had a hard time, as he was blipped like Strange and while he was gone his pet cats and brother died. He asked Strange if there was really, truly no other way, Strange insists there wasn’t and in a sort of vindicative knife twist, West shrugs and says at least he didn’t get the girl. Yep, this is the wedding of Stephen’s love interest from the first movie, Christine Palmer. That’s rough man.

I'm honestly shocked anyone lives in New York
any more.

 

At the reception, Stephen is having a drink when Christine comes to speak with him. He congratulates her and it’s super awkward because he obviously still has feelings for her. She asks him if he’s happy, but before he can answer there’s a commotion outside. Some sort of invisible monster is rampaging through New York. Taking the excuse to not talk to Christine’s husband, Stephen jumps out a widow, pulling out his pocket square which wraps around him and turns into his wizard gear as he flies to face it. He uses his powers to make the creature visible, it’s a giant tentacle monster and do battle with it. In the scuffle, he discovers America Chavez and realizes that monster is after her. The creature is a bit too tough for him to handle alone, it smacks him around quite a bit before Wong sling-ring’s in to give back up. They, with a little help from America, kill the creature, gouging out it’s eyeball when they do.

 

The two sorcerers take America to get some lunch and get filled in on a few things. She explains that she’s from another universe, her power allows her to create portals through realities, and that dreams are in fact psychic connections to parallel versions of yourself. Wong asks the obvious question, that if that’s true that means the recurring dream he has of being chased naked by a clone is happening to a version of him, somewhere. America confirms. The creatures are hunting her to steal her powers, as even in a place like the MCU reality jumping isn’t easy. The power itself is so rare that it seems to have only manifested in this one girl. Not in multiple versions of her, either she doesn’t dream and thus is reasonably certain she is the only America Chavez. They’re still a bit skeptical, so America shows them her Strange’s corpse. Damn.

 

Wanda has been studying the No-No chapters.

After looking the corpse over and discovering more examples of what he and Wong believe to be Witchcraft runes (there were some on the initial ribbon monster and tentacle monster as well) Stephen goes for a consultation. He finds Wanda Maximoff living on an apple orchard in the middle of nowhere, claiming to have given up magic. Wanda assumes he’s there initially to punish/chastise her for what happened during the events of WandaVision, but Stephen obviously isn’t. He says he wants help to protect the girl and figured he could use the expertise of the Avenger’s resident magic user. Yeah, fun fact, the MCU big wigs and Benedict Cumberbatch himself don’t consider Stephen a full time Avenger, he’s more of a consultant in their minds. Wanda is receptive to helping, even suggesting that Stephen bring America to her farm to look after. After Stephen stops walking, Wanda realizes her slip about using America’s name without having been told it first and drops the charade. Her orchard was a chaos magic construct, and she’s truly fully embraced magic and been studying the Darkhold. Turns out, that book had shown her how to peek into other dimensions and she’s seen realities where her boys Billy and Tommy are still alive. She wants to steal America’s power to get to them. As professional curtesy, Wanda gives him until sundown tomorrow to turn America over or she’ll come for her, and then Strange and the wizards of Kamar-Taj will be dealing with the Scarlet Witch.

 

Side note, it’s also weird to me that I guess Wanda is just now starting to use that codename when she’s been a professional hero since Age of Ultron.

 

The Masters of the Mystic Arts form a barrier to keep Wanda out, but using her telepathy she forces a wizard to freak out and run, breaking the shield, and allowing her in. She starts ripping through wizards, using her own immense mystic power to overwhelm them. Stephen is able to trap her in the Mirror dimension, but that proves to only delay her slightly as she is able to break through into reality through reflective surfaces. Wanda almost gets America, but she opens another portal sucking herself and Steven through. They dip through multiple possible realities, one of which where they were made of paint, before arriving in a futuristic New York City, in what is later dubbed Earth reality 838.

 

Stephen and America wander the future city for a bit, pissing off a street vender played by Bruce Campbell when America takes food without paying as they do. In her defense, she assumed this reality didn’t use money anymore as a lot of them don’t. Stephen puts a spell on him to hit himself for a while and they keep walking. They also come across a device that plays memories as video, for America it show when her powers firsts manifested and her moms (yes, she’s the daughter of a lesbian couple) were lost between dimensions, and for Stephen an early date with Christine when she gave him the watch he still wears. They finally make it to the Sanctum Sanctorum and discover that 838’s Stephen Strange died killing Thanos. They’re greeted by the current Sorcerer Supreme, Baron Mordo. Oy, this guy. Shockingly, this Mordo greets Stephen warmly and invites them in for tea.

 

Council of the Tight Asses.

They explain the situation with Wanda to Mordo, who listens to them attentively. While Stephen and America think they might be safe for now, Mordo reveals to them the Darkhold can show Wanda how to do a forbidden spell called Dream Walking. It lets the user to possess an alternate universe’s version of themselves and use their power through them.  It’s at about this points that America and Stephen pass out from poisoned tea. They wake up in a holding cell in a facility that turns out to be run by 383’s Christine Palmer and staffed with Ultron drones. They’ve got Stephen and America in handcuffs that suppress their powers thanks to one of 838’s magical relics. She also informs them of this universe’s numerical designation and that Stephen’s reality is 616. Some folks were upset by this as that is the number for the comic universe, but I honestly can’t bring myself to care. Stephen is taken and brought before the Illuminati, a judiciary body on 383. It consists of Baron Mordo, Captain Peggy Carter, Blackagar Boltagon (Black Bolt), Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Mr. Fantastic, and Charles Xavier. Xavier is actually in his yellow hover chair from the Animated series and his background music is a remix of that theme. Yes, I squeed. This group informs him that while Strange is hailed as a hero in this universe, being the one to kill Thanos, but he crossed serious ethical lines to do so. He used his realities’ version of the Darkhold to peak into other realities to find ways to fight Thanos. This allowed him to fin the Book of the Vishanti and use its power to kill Thanos, but it’s revealed that in his searching he caused an Incursion. Incursions are when two or more universes are pulled into each other and one or both are destroyed. 838’s Stephen triggered one while looking for the Book and destroyed realities. As punishment for his crimes, he asked that his friends form the Illuminati to protect their reality and to execute him. Black Bolt uses his impossibly powerful voice to obliterate him.

 

While all of that is going on, sorry it was easier to break it into chunks than do both plot lines at once, Wanda attempts to use Dream Walking to find Stephen and America. She possesses her 838 counterpart and intends to go find them but is distracted by her boys. They do the cringiest song asking for ice cream. While Wanda is distracted, a wizard named Sara Wolfe (no, her name isn’t said in the movie I had to look it up) grabs a knife and destroys the Darkhold, being burned alive in the process. Without the book as a focal point, Wanda is unable to Dream Walk further. She holds several wizards hostage and threatens to kill them unless Wong tells her how to Dream Walk without the Darkhold. Wong tries to hold out but the threat to his students causes the Sorcerer Supreme to break. He tells her that the book was a copy of runes and spells etched into a temple at the top of Mount Wundagore, a forbidden mountain. Wanda forces Wong to sling-ring them to the mountain and she flies them to the top. There she’s met by several hulking monsters and statues depicting herself and her sons. She uses the power of the place to Dream Walk into 838 Wanda again and she goes on the offensive.

 

Just as the Illuminati begin to vote on whether to kill Stephen or not, she burst in and starts wrecking shop. The Illuminati except Mordo and Xavier go to face her. Reed Richards tries to talk Wanda down, but she’s done talking. He threatens her by moronically saying that Black Bolt can destroy her with a word, to which she uses her power to remove his mouth. Bolt tries to talk, causing his voice to ricochet back and blow out his skull. She then rips Reed apart, chops Carter in half with the Shield and drops a statue on Monica Marvel and blows it to kingdom come. Ooo, of all those, Reed’s death will probably have the most… serious consequences. While that was happening, Xavier speaks with Stephen mind to mind and realizes that this Stephen is different from theirs. He rolls off to try to help. Mordo elects to kill Stephen himself, but Stephen tricks him into breaking his cuffs and escapes. Mordo has a great line where he shouts to Stephen as he runs off “I’m starting to get why your Mordo hates you!” Wanda finds the cell holding America but is held off by Xavier. He uses his powers to enter her mind, represented by a blank white void. He finds 838’s Wanda inside, buried under debris like from her home in Sokovia. He tries to free her, believing that would break 616 Wanda’s hold, but 616 Wanda breaks his neck. Thankfully, he bought enough time for America to get free and run.

 

Book of the McGuffin.

Stephen, America, and Christine meet up and Christine leads them to an underground bunker where their Stephen hid a quick entrance to the Gap Junction and the book of the Vishanti. Wanda continues to chase them, though they delay her long enough with the bunkers defenses to get to the gate. Wong also briefly distracts her in 616, but gets thrown off the mountain after. Don’t worry, he’s fine. Using his watch from Christine to break 838’s Stephen’s lock, they get to the book, but Wanda arrives, destroying it, grabbing America and channeling enough of her power to cast Stephen and Christine into another dimension. Wanda throws America through another gate to her waiting monsters in Reality 616, and once freed, 838 Wanda runs back to her family.

 

Stephen and Christine awaken in a reality where an Incursion has occurred. Stephen finds the Sanctum and another Stephen inside. Well call him, I don’t know, 999 Stephen. To prove to 999 that Stephen is who he says, 616 Stephen tells his other self about their sister that died when they were children and how that death probably led to his obsession with fixing things himself despite it not always being the right call. 999 Stephen is willing to help 616, offering him his copy of the Darkhold to let him Dream Walk, but in exchange he wants Christine. He also shows off a third eye in the middle of his forehead, a side effect of using dark magic. Stephen refuses and the two have a battle using magically infused musical notes. Stephen defenestrates his evil twin, killing him on a spike. Using the Darkhold, Stephen Dream Walks into his corpse back on 616, Christine defending him from the spirits of the damned that try to attack him in the corrupted dimension. Stephen is able to force the spirits to obey him in 616 and fashions a cloak of them to help him save America.

 

And for the finale, you must see the movie.

A very cool poster.

 

So, the good first. Sam Raimi really flexed his horror muscles here for this movie, giving it a unique tone from most other MCU films. Hell, there’s a bit when Wanda is chasing Stephen and co where she has an exaggerated limp, is covered in blood and screaming like the living dead from Night of the Living Dead. It’s spooky. Stephen I think is amazingly portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch once again. This version still seems to be wrestling with the “it’s not about you,” idea from the first film, on top of this idea if he’s happy or not. The two do make for an interesting internal conflict for Stephen to be processing. Honestly, having seen his What If…? episode I thinks puts some of his Christine angsts into better context. In that episode, and reality, Stephen literally destroys the universe and figuratively destroys himself, attempting to bring a dead Christine back to life. Someone you’re that devoted to getting married to someone other than yourself? Yeah, no I in no way believe he’s okay for most of this film’s runtime. But props to him for doing his best to keep it under wraps to not ruin the wedding. Benedict Wong is great as Wong once again. I like that the MCU seems to be sticking with him as the Sorcerer Supreme for the foreseeable. Don’t get me wrong, I think Stephen is stronger magically speaking and may reclaim the title one day, but Wong I think is more interested in being the wise mentor to the other wizards than Stephen would be. Stephen’s stronger but Wong is the better teacher, to put it succinctly. Stephen is still a bit miffed at this for most of the movie’s run, but he does end up bowing to his friend and mentor by the end, so I think they’re in a good place. Elizabeth Olsen was great as this corrupted version of Wanda Maximoff. I’ll admit, I was hoping at the end of WandaVision she might be on the mend but looking back that was incredibly naïve. A powerful witch, left alone with a book that taught her forbidden magic, lonely and desperate to get her kids back, there was no way this ended well. I liked how her story here ended, as its open ended enough that it could be the end of Wanda Maximoff, but they could also still totally bring her back if they wanted to. The Illuminati were a great concept to see explored a little too. Some of the most powerful MCU characters together on a single team is just such a unique concept. Sure, they really were just there too give Wanda fun and powerful targets to blow up, but such memorable blow ups. Though, I should mention that the reason I said Reed Richard’s death would have the most ramifications, his son Franklin, confirmed to exist in this universe, has almost godlike powers and I could totally see him ripping realities to sunders trying to find the woman that killed his dad. Just sayin’. I liked Xochitl Gomez as America Chavez. She’s the right mix of wary of others, nervous due to being constantly on the run, and self-doubting because her powers don’t seem to work right. I have to admit, jumping realities intermittently since you were like ten has to lead to an unusual mindset. I like how Stephen and her bonded over the movies run, but think it could have been better if we fleshed something out here a little.

 

And that brings us into the bad. The sister reveal was poorly done and that sticks in my craw a little. Why? Because it was done so much better in the Dr. Strange (2007) animated film. April Strange (Donna in most continuities) in that film suffered from a brain tumor. Stephen dedicated his life to becoming a surgeon as quickly as he could to be the one to remove the tumor and save her life. He failed to do so, and her death led to him to his selfish, egotistical mindset. Now, tell me, is that more interesting than Stephen Strange is a dick… because? like it’s presented in the MCU and his dead sister is brought up as a footnote in movie 2? Yeah, I thought so too. Add that to the first film and then you get the subtext here, and in his other appearances, that Stephen doesn’t play well with others because of this death. All I’m saying. There were several characters in this that felt like I was supposed to care about, but they only had one or two scenes, like Rintrah the minotaur and Sara Wolfe. Maybe they’ll get some prequel explanation later but here it just felt odd. But those are really the two points bringing it down for me, characters I’m supposed to care about but don’t and really rammed in there dead sibling background.

 

This isn’t really a bad point, I just find it funny that Mordo’s end credit scene from Dr. Strange 1, where he seemed to be announcing he’s going to start killing Sorcerers is still the longest running dangling plot point of the MCU. I wonder if we’ll ever see it tied off at this point. Who knows?

 

So, yeah, I liked Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. It was a visually and stylistically unique entry into the MCU. It brought in America Chavez, one of the most popular characters of the last decade or so, introduced some new concepts about the Multiverse like Incursions and dreams being connections to alternate realities, and let us see how horrifying a hero can be if they don’t have a support structure and are just bombarded with trauma. Lot of deaths could have been avoided if someone brought Wanda to therapy is all I’m saying. The effects were stunning, the magic amazing, and it has me jazzed to see Dr. Strange 3. Hopefully it won’t be another six years in the making. See you later. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67171231

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Moon Knight ep 6

Gods collide. 

Last time on Moon Knight, the boys died. They woke up on a ship sailing across the desert that is the Egyptian afterlife, the Duat. They meet Taweret, the hippo headed goddess of women and children, who tells them they have until the reach the end of their voyage to get their hearts to balance or they’ll be dragged into the Duat. Steven learns about Marc’s history, that his brother drowned when he was young, and that Steven was created to protect Marc’s mind from his abusive mother. He also learns how Marc met Khonshu, the god manipulating Marc to agree to serve. While this information helped their hearts, they were still unbalanced. Steven ultimately sacrificed himself to save Marc, getting dragged into the Duat. Their hearts balance and Steven is allowed into the Field of Reeds as the credits roll. Enough recap let’s get to it.

 

Episode 6: Gods and Monsters

 

Evil Upgrade.

We open on marc’s corpse floating in the little fountain after he was shot. Harrow’s men pull him out of the water and reclaim Ammit’s statue. Harrow leaves the Scarab on his chest, saying that he’s sorry to all the men in Marc’s head. Layla, still watching, takes out one of the guards and continues to observe for the moment. Harrow transforms his staff into an axe with the new infusion of power and he and his people walk off. Layla goes to check on Marc, finds he’s still dead. She grabs the scarab and uses it to lock onto Harrow. The chase begins.  

 

Harrow and his men return to civilization, slipping through an Egyptian military checkpoint by using Ammit’s power to judge all the people at a distance. All but one of the guards drop and I guess he’s recruited into the cause? Kay. They clear out the checkpoint as a disguised Layla pulls a knife and prepares to kill Harrow. The corpses starts talking to her, revealed to be Taweret speaking through it. They give her the general idea of the situation, that Harrow is too powerful to stop, that she’ll need Marc, and to get him, Marc and Steven need her to break Khonshu’s statue so they can get their powers back. She also offers to make Layla her avatar, but Layla isn’t interested. The cult moves out, Layla hiding amongst them again as they drive. I guess no one did a head count and realized they have an extra person. Huh.

 

How have they not noticed her yet?

We skip to Harrow and his cult using Ammit’s power to open the secret entrance to the Ennead’s secret lair. These *Avatars of gods* are so out of it that one actually asks “why” someone would try to free Ammit. Dumb Avatars. They try to hold them off, but in the end, they’re judges against a warrior. With the Avatars dead, Harrow breaks the statue, freeing Ammit. Meanwhile, Layla finds Khonshu’s statue. Ammit upon her freedom points out to Harrow that his own scales lack balance, and he explains that’s okay, that he had hoped freeing her would give him balance, but he’s fine with judgement if that’s not the case. Ammit likes his attitude and gives him a reprieve so he can work for her. I guess that, while Alexander the Great’s scale’s balanced perfectly, that balance led him to imprisoning her for millennia. I feel like that should tell Ammit something about the morality of her plans moving forward, but what ya going to do? As he’s officially made her avatar, Layla frees Khonshu. He immediately tries to recruit her, but she’s not into it. She sees his gaslighting for what it is, and tells him they’ll work together but she won’t enslave herself to him. He tells her that they need to bind Ammit again, and only an Avatar can do it. She tells him no again and he teleports away. Ammit leads her cult to try to begin cleansing Cairo. Khonshu swoops in to block their path. Ammit says time hasn’t been kind to him, to which he agrees but says he can’t let her pass. Harrow orders his people to find who released Khonshu.

 

In the Field of Reeds, Marc stands and basks as Taweret tells him his journey is over. It’s the piece he wanted but never had. He asks about Steven, Taweret telling him that the Duat has him and he should just enjoy his peace. He must go back for Steven, but Taweret tells him you don’t get to just go back. Marc can’t accept leaving his other side to the sad forever, so he leaves the Field and finds Steven’s body among the sand.

 

Ammit and Khonshu argue, the bird head obviously buying time.

 

Marc finds Steven, who is now basically a sandcastle. He thanks Steven for saving him, for protecting him when he needed it. He starts to turn to sand as well. He thanks Steven for not abandoning him and he’s not going to abandon Steven for paradise either. He says Steven was his only real superpower. He hands Steven his heart as he begins to solidify. The doors to Osiris’ gate open and the two are restored, absorbing their hearts. They hug.

 

And he's back, baby.

Ammit and Khonshu begin to battle, Ammit clearly being stronger but Khonshu being faster. Marc and Steven run for the gate as a sandstorm starts rolling in. They almost get hit, but Taweret blocks it with her boat, telling them to get through the gate. She also implies the thing only opened because Osiris is a big softie. How sweet. They sprint through and come back to life, sensing their return, Khonshu teleports to them. Marc remembers all he has done as Moon Knight and his last revival before throwing up the bullets and donning his armor. He returns to the surface to find Khonshu waiting. Khonshu tries to get them to agree to be his Avatar again, with the two personalities swapping as they play hardball with the God of the Moon. Khonshu agrees to release them when this is over. When Steven asks how they’re going to get there, Khonshu answers that they forget that he is the God of the knight sky. The sun sets and Steven swaps back to Marc and they fly up.

 

Osiris Avatar is still alive, Layla grabs him and pulls him into a back tunnel. He asks hot to stop Ammit. He tells her they need to imprison Ammit in a mortal form. He tells her they need more Avatars than they have left to do it, and promptly dies. Layla calls out to Taweret, willing to make a deal. Taweret, who is just so jazzed at the thought of having an Avatar again shouts Layla’s name in glee, saying they’ll have so much fun together, and unfortunately revealing her location. Harrow uses the cane to blast the wall and try to crush her in the collapsing cave. Layla agrees to be Taweret’s temporary Avatar, Taweret telling her that her father will be so proud. She’d met him when she took him to the Field of Reeds. She says she has a fabulous costume for Layla.

 

We must giant Kaiju Kung Fu fight.

Harrow climbs to the top of the Pyramid and calls out in ancient Egyptian, causing the area to pulse with purple light. This impowers Ammit’s followers with Harrow’s judgment power and they start judging everyone they can grab, killing those foud wanting. The souls are devoured by Ammit who grows to colossal size.

 

Nice to meet you Scarlet Scarab!

Layla frees herself, now in a gold and white costume with collapsible red wings. This is her new Avatar/Hero persona, the Scarlet Scarab. Neat. Moon Knight flies in as Ammit gets Kaiju sized. He and Harrow fight as Khonshu manifests to fight Ammit. The giant gods battle as their Avatars do. Marc throws Harrow to the ground, causing massive damage to the street but they both survive. Ammit does the whole “we’re not so different” line, Khonshu says they are because he waits to punish until the choice has been made, and she wrestles him to the ground. On the ground, Harrow knocks Moon Knight to the ground, but Scarlet Scarab flies in to save him. She reflects a blasts from Harrow knocking him back. Marc and then Steven congratulates her on the new look as the fighting begins again. Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab take out cultists left and right as the gods battle above. Marc and Steven occasionally swapping to use their different tools and skills. Layla keeps him from using his staff and they crack it to disrupt his powers. Harrow blasts a van and Layla dives around it to save a kid from being crushed. The girl asks if Layla is an Egyptian superhero, to which she confirms. She takes out more guards as Marc battles Harrow. Harrow throws Marc off and starts blasting him, claiming that in Ammit’s world, Randall would have lived, and his family would have been happy, as she would have removed the one weed from the garden, Marc. He blasts Marc hard, Layla gets pinned by her wing, and we see Ammit stab Khonshu with his staff. Harrow slams his staff on Harrow, causing him to be hit with energy as Layla gets attacked. Marc seizes up and suddenly Harrow is on the ground, cane to his head. The boys confirm neither of them did that, but can’t discuss it long. Ammit has Khonshu down. Layla tells him to grab Harrow. They go to the chamber and together use their Avatar power to bind Ammit into Harrow’s body. She’s disintegrated and forced into his body. Ammit claims that she’ll never be contained.

 

Khonshu tells Marc to finish Harrow. He pulls his blade to kill Harrow, but Layla tells him he’s free and can make a choice. Marc chooses to not kill Harrow and gets released. Khonshu flies off and their suit vanishes.

 

Steven wakes up in Dr. Harrow’s office. He asks if Harrow believes the Gods are real, and he says no. The boys begin shifting back and forth with each other, asking Harrow what happens if they disagree. Harrow says they’ll keep working. Marc notices Harrow leaving a trail of bloody footprints as he walks to his chair. They get up and they say they’d rather save the world than accept Harrow’s easy answer. They wake up in their flat. Marc asks if Steven if he’s there and he is. He gets up to start his day but wipes out when he forgets he’s bungeed to the bed.

 

He's like more violent Marc. Which is saying something.

In a post credit scene, we’re shown Harrow being checked out of the mental hospital he’d been ditched in. He’s brought out to a limo by a man in a flat hat. As they walk out, we see several knocked out or dead orderlies, implying this isn’t an official release. Inside, he sees Khonshu there. Harrow scoffs at seeing his old boss, thinking he’s safe as Khonshu is without an Avatar. Khonshu then drops some knowledge on Harrow. Namely, that Marc was operating on a faulty assumption when he thought Khonshu wanted Layla when their deal ended. He says, “Why would I ever need anybody else when he has no idea how troubled he truly is.” He reveals his new Avatar, Jake Lockley. He’s a Spanish speaking alt of Marc wearing a flat hat. He says that todays is the day Harrow loses and shoots him twice in the chest. Damn!

 

This finale was kind of mixed for me. Some moments were great. Layla as the Scarlet Scarab, Marc and Steven hitting a symbiosis that they can now freely and willingly shift between the two of them, Marc choosing to not kill Harrow, all of that is good. But there are some bad. Jake Lockley was a twist that probably should have come a bit earlier. Sure, he was in most episodes, but because they wanted to save him for that reveal at the end, we really didn’t get to process this third persona before the credits rolled. He was the alt in the mirror when Steven first heard Marc telling him to stop looking, he was everyone of their most violent outbursts, and there’s even some speculation he was briefly in control in Dr. Harrow’s office, being the one that tried to stab him with the paperweight. Saving him for the end seemed silly. And also robbed us of what looked like a kick ass finale since we weren’t show Jake in control of the body beating Harrow. Just odd. Once she was out, Ammit was a generic villainous with a plan for global conquest, a much less interesting villain than Harrow, and the Kaiju fight was pretty much just a shoving match. So yeah, those elements bring it down a little. I did like how we did end on Marc and Steven just faceplanting in the apartment. I can extrapolate that they found Layla and started to work things out, the face plant is just good comedy. So yeah, I liked this series a lot, I  hope we get to see more of Moon Knight in the future, be it a season 2 or as a Wong style “I’m in every movie now, bro!” thing. Have a good night everyone1

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67113251

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Moon Knight ep 5

Pasts are... complicated.

Last time on Moon Knight, Steven and Layla teamed up to try and get Ammit’s statue before Harrow’s people did. They cave dived into the tomb, met some The Mummy rip off guardians and were separated. Layla met Harrow who told her that he saw Marc’s memories when he judged him/Steven and implies that Marc killed her father. Steven, meanwhile, found the tomb and discovered the last Avatar of Ammit was Alexander the Great. He gets the statue, but Layla arrives and demands to know the truth. Marc takes over and tells her he didn’t kill her father but was there. His partner got greedy and killed the archeologist team, and tried to kill Marc, but he survived thanks to Khonshu. Harrow arrives, Layla hides, and Marc tries to fend them off. Marc is shot and killed. He wakes up in a mental hospital and has moment where he wonders if everything that happened to him was a delusion. But he quickly escapes “Dr.” Harrow and finds a pair of sarcophagi. He opens a white one and finds Steven, but they leave the red one alone. As they try to escape, a giant hippo lady comes in and says hi. They screamed together as the credits rolled. Enough recap let’s get to it.

 

Episode 5: Asylum

 

Its saying something when the hippo goddess is 
only like 5th on weird things in Disney+ Marvel shows.

We open with a memory of a cave and rushing water, a woman shouting, “this is all your fault!” and then seeing the hippo lady’s giant hippo teeth as she screams back at the boys. Marc screams alone and is in Harrow’s office. Harrow tells him that his mind is shifting between sense and nonsense. He describes Marc’ brain is a pendulum shifting between the reality that he’s in a psychiatric hospital in Chicago and a reassuring fantasy of his own making. That’s how you know it’s a lie, nothing about the last few days has been “reassuring” to Marc. Though nice nod that he’s a midwestern boy. Marc accuses Harrow of not being a real doctor, but Harrow treats that statement like a joke. Harrow presents Marc’s memory of the last few minutes as “nonsense,” and Marc seems to go along with it. Harrow starts pressing Marc about a little boy he’d been talking about before he got upset. Marc stands up and picks up a glass object, seemingly without realizing it. Harrow calls in security that arrive just as Marc lunges at him with it. Marc gets injected and returns to the hallway with Steven and the hippo.

 

Just boating with my Alternate persona.

She pulls out an intro speech, stating that she hasn’t had to usher people through the afterlife in a while, and welcomes them to the Duat. Steven recognizes this as the ancient Egyptian afterlife, and that she is Taweret, goddess of women and children and the one who will show them through the afterlife. She explains that this is *An* afterlife, not *The* Afterlife. The MCU and most comics these days run on this kind of idea, that there are multiple places to go when you die, your deeds, beliefs and actions just point your soul in the right direction. Obviously, the servants of an Egyptian god get sent through Egyptian afterlife. Taweret takes a minute to gush about how pretty the Ancestral Plane of Wakanda is before continuing. She explains that because the Duat is impossible for the human mind to process, their mind shapes it into something they can handle. Taweret does say a psych ward is a first for her. Marc has a bit of freak out and starts to believe that it’s an “organizing principle” of their insanity and opens a door… only to find them on a boat sailing through a desert. Steven explains that they’re on the way to A’aru, the field of reeds. Taweret tells them they’ll be in paradise if their hearts balance. She uses her power to pull out their hearts and puts them on the Scale of Justice against the Feather of Truth. If they’re hearts balance, they get to heaven, if not, they’re thrown over the side to hell. Marc proposes that they kill Taweret and steal the boat, but the plan is interrupted by their hearts not balancing at all. They just shift endlessly. Taweret tells them with ‘incomplete’ hearts, the Duat will eventually claim them. She tells them to go back into the boat and show each other what they’re hiding or else risk destruction.

 

The boys return to the hospital. Marc tries to convince Steven to steal the boat, but Steven just wants to do what she said. They see the Bad, Marc killing the Jackal in the bathroom, the Good, Steven turning back the night sky, and the confusing, one of them drinking out in the street in front of a house. It’s revealed to be Marc, but he plays the obviously important situation as unimportant. A child cries for help and Steven runs to see who. Marc follows. It’s a room full of dead bodies, revealed to be the victims Marc claimed as the Fist of Khonshu. As Marc talks about how much the killings, albeit justified by Khonshu, weighed on his soul and how he sometimes wishes he’d just died, the Scales (which just appear in the room) begin to slow down. They see a small boy. Marc tells Steven not to go near hm, but they both follow. Steven enters a room and locks Marc out. Marc is frantic to get him out but he won’t listen. We’re shown a lovely afternoon with the Spector family, Marc, his parents, and his little brother Randall. Marc and Randall go off to explore a cave they like to play in. Steven follows the boys, the two Specters playing out the movie from the last episode, Marc being Dr. Grant and Randall being Rosser. It starts to rain, and Randall says they shouldn’t go into the cave when it’s raining per their mother. Marc wants to go forward. They go in, Steven stepping on a dead bird as he tries to follow. Outside, Marc tries to find a way to them, but can’t find a door. Steven tries to call the Specters back but they can’t hear him since, ya know, memory. The cave floods, Randall drowning. Outside, Marc sees his mother’s judging gaze. He forces his way through them memory and to Randall’s funeral. No, the Rabbi and Kippahs aren’t a random detail, the show doesn’t say it out loud, but Marc is Jewish. His mother, Wendy, is in shock, saying she wants her Roro back and screaming at young Marc when he comes down. A wet Steven appears. Steven follows young Marc and into a new memory. Marc and his father Elias have a small birthday party for him since Wendy is still not doing well. Steven climbs higher, another birthday and his mom is still unstable. She still blames Marc for Randall’s death, because she’s depressed. Steven goes higher and opens a door, but Marc grabs him and pulls him away and into the street.

 

The fist of Khonshu reborn.

Steven tries to go back but Marc pulls him back. Steven asks Marc why he’s remembered their mom like that, saying she wasn’t like that. As they try to walk, they see a now teenage Marc walking out with a bag, their father following. Elias tells him that they’ll fix this, but Marc isn’t having it. Modern Marc and Steven wrestle, waking up in the desert in the dead of night. When Steven accuses Marc of being a killer mercenary, Marc explains a bit of his background. Namely, he joined the army after that scene with their dad, but he went AWOL in a fugue (meaning he swapped to Steven) and was discharged from the military. Needing work, he signed up as a mercenary with his old CO Bushman. Their job was to raid a tomb, Bushman changed the plan to have no witnesses and killed them all. Marc tried to lead them away, was caught and shot too for his trouble. They watch as an injured and bloody Marc drags himself into a temple of Khonshu. Marc prepares to kill himself when the lunar God asks (demands) Marc become his avatar. Steven almost immediately gets that Khonshu was manipulating Marc to agree to be the Avatar, but Marc still thinks that he was just taking the opportunity to keep being a killer. Their scales have slow significantly but are still shifting.

 

They get pulled out to the deck of the boat again. Taweret explains that unbalanced souls are being judged and sent to the Duat before their time. Oh, okay, so Taweret just admitted that Ammit’s judgement of pre-dead souls is a biased system and is damning people that might not do the deeds they’re being judged for, got it. Steven asks her to take them back, but she points out that if they go back to their body now, they’ll just die again due to the bullet wound. They ask if she can contact Layla and get her to free Khonshu. While Marc is happy to be free, he does admit that it’s their only option. Taweret agrees to help and steers the boat toward Osiris’ gate, the only path out of the Duat. Taweret tells them to get back inside and get the scales balanced.

 

Inside, Steven demands to see the bedroom. Marc wants to talk it out, not wanting to go through it all again. Steven insists that they do, as if they don’t get the balanced scale, Layla, and everyone else is going to die. Marc has an intense freakout at being pushed, screaming that Steven can’t make him go through that again.

 

Marc wakes up in Harrow’s office again. Harrow saying that Marc had a freak out, as the involuntary sedation of a patient is illegal. Harrow tells him that he’s proud of him for revealing so many of his traumatic memories. He gives Marc a glass of water. He asks Marc if he made Steven to hide from his bad memories, or if Steven made him to punish the world for what his mother did to him. Harrow encourages him to open up to Steven and figure it out.

 

It must be hard to look at a parent and see a monster.

We enter the memory. Steven knocks aside his toys and sits on the ground crying. Wendy beats on the door, demanding he opens the door. Marc keeps chanting Wendy isn’t his mom, clearly scared, until he has his first swap, and in his fake British accent decides to clean things up before “mum” sees. Wendy busts the door open, grabs a belt and is implied to start beating him. Marc pulls hm out, saying Steven isn’t meant to see that, that’s not the point of him. Steven hits Marc, angry at finally discovering that he wasn’t the original, that he’s someone Marc “made up.” Marc counters by pointing out that Steven got to live in a world where he believed he lived a happy, simple, normal life. He drops the bombshell that their mother died. Steven doesn’t believe him, but Marc says that their father called them about his mother’s “shiva.” I googled that, it’s the weeklong mourning period in the Jewish funeral rites. Okay, so there’s one out loud reference to Marc being Jewish.

 

Steven demands to be “let out” and wakes up in Harrow’s office. He threw water in his face by accident. He’s just as freaked out as Marc was initially. He says that Harrow is very “Ned Flanders” which made me giggle. He claims that Marc lied to him about things. Harrow reveals that Steven brought them to the hospital after their mother passed, which causes Steven to scream at him. Harrow offers to call Steven’s mother, which he does despite Steven’s objections. Steven takes the phone, and says his mum is dead.

Oscars Oscar moment. Seriously, the pain in him is
palpable.

 

He remembers the day that Marc tried to go to the shiva. He stood outside, drinking. His father sees him and tries to get him to come in, but he refuses.  Like many a child at the death of an abusive parent, Marc has tumultuous feelings about his mother. He storms off, breaking his father’s heart most assuredly as he does so. He drops to the street, cries, and beats his Kippah into the ground. He says he’s sorry, and then suddenly shifts to Steven. Steven gets up, puts his probably dead phone to his head and starts talking to his mom, telling her he got lost again. The current Steven arrives. Marc gets up and tells him this is the point where they started shifting more randomly. Funny, his mom caused his DID in the first place, and then ultimately made it worse. It was two months ago, by the way. Steven tells marc that it wasn’t his fault. Marc doesn’t believe him, but Steven insists it wasn’t his fault. They feel a shift and realize that the boat stopped.

 

Marc gets his rewards
Nooooooooo Steven!

    They come up to the surface. They learn they made it to the gate but they’re hearts still aren’t balanced. She apologizes but leaves them to their fate. Marc starts fighting the sand zombies that rise up and grab them. Marc is almost thrown over, but Steven grabs the helm and turns the boat to the other side, knocking them over. Marc tries to get up but is knocked out. Steven, realizing that if Marc has got this, and he is also Marc, then he has it too. He saves Marc and relieves a lot of anger all in one go. Another sand guy grabs Marc, but Steven sacrifices himself to save Marc. He turns to Sand, as Marc shouts his name. Steven’s death, or sacrifice, balances their scales and Marc finds himself in the field of reeds. Oh damn!

 

This is probably the best episode of the series. Which feels weird for me to say because I usually prefer more action, but this was such an interesting character study. We got to see how in this version of events, Marc’s mind fractured to protect itself. Frenanda Andrade did an amazing job portraying Wendy in her few scenes, showing us an at first loving parent, but how grief and anger broke her so completely that it was easier to punish her living son for an accident than to just live with her younger son’s death. It’s a terrible thing to do but extremely well-acted. The bit in the street during the shiva was brilliant. In one moment, Marc Spector is there, sobbing, and angry, and in pain, and in an upwards eye roll he’s Steven, befuddled and happy go lucky, trying to figure out where the bloody hell he is. Brilliant. The bit with Arthur Harrow psychoanalyzing them was fine. Again, I’m not a huge fan of the “is the hero living out a delusional fantasy?” trope, but they used it just enough to help drive home the fact that the mind of Marc Spector is a chaotic place. Even has he’s coming to grips with things, he’s not quite processing it right. Taweret is great, by the way. Hippos are not to be treated lightly, but she’s delightful as this bubbly goddess that’s playing tour guide. I liked the bit where she’s not even that upset that their afterlife isn’t visited that often and instead takes a moment to talk about how pretty the Ancestral Plane is. Top notch stuff right there. So yeah, that’s the penultimate episode. Next time, the finale. See you there. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67068118

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Moon Knight ep 4

 I'd be way more concerned about my powers being gone than these guys are, just saying.

Last time on Moon Knight, Marc got in the driver’s seat of the body and set about finding Harrow. This was complicated slightly by Steven trying to force them to give up and go home. Marc tracked a trio of Harrow’s goons, but after getting his bell rung by a pipe to the head, he blacked out and when he came back he killed two of the three and the third killed themself to escape. Marc has Khonshu summon the Egyptian Gods to try to stop Harrow, but somehow, the former Moon Knight tricked the gods into thinking Khonshu is the one in the wrong. A friendly Avatar, Yatzil, tells him to try to use the black market to find the sarcophagus of Senfu, a former acolyte of Ammit. He was one of the few people to know where the tomb was. Layla joins him and brings Marc to Mogart, the current owner of the Sarcophagus. They get there and find fragments of a star chart, but Harrow interrupts them, destroys the sarcophagus and Mogart sends his men to take care of the two. Marc suits up and takes out the guards. Layla swipes the star chart fragments. They drive out to the desert, and Marc swaps with Steven who figures out the star chart. Then, he and Khonshu combine their power to turn back the night sky to 2000 years ago. They get the coordinates as Khonshu is sealed in stone by his fellow gods. So, they know where to go, but now Marc and Steven don’t have access to their powers anymore. Whoops. Let’s get to it.

 

Episode 4: The Tomb

 

To be fair, Khonshu hasn't looked better.

We open on Osiris’ Avatar taking Khonshu’s statue and placing it in storage with other imprisoned gods. Guess that explains why you don’t hear about some of those guys anymore.

 

Meanwhile, Layla tries to wake up a comatose Steven/Marc, just as some guys show up and start shooting them. She pulls the body down a sand dune and evades the truck for a few moments. She gets to their car and hides in the back. The goons find Marc/Steven, but assume he’s dead. Layla draws their fire by lighting a flare. When they drive around to find her, she runs up and throws a second flare on their ammo stockpile, destroying it and killing them. Steven, I believe, gets up and gives her a look.

 

Falling in love with my husband's Alt face.

They drive toward the tomb. Layla tries to get Steven to swap to his more combat orientated self, but Steven is hesitant to do it. He convinces Layla that Marc would be more liability than help, and she agrees, thinking he’d go lone wolf on them. So it’s her and the aspiring Egyptologist. … They’re definitely going to die. They get out of the truck and hoof it to the tomb. They find Harrow’s people already there, digging. The camp outside is empty when they arrive. They search around for supplies, while alone, Marc tries to convince Steven that it’s a suicide mission. He warns Steven that without the power, suit, or weapons, they’re screwed. Marc realizes that Steven has a thing for Layla and threatens to throw them off a cliff next time he’s in control. Layla preps Steven for the dig, notes he smells like Marc (weird) and goes in for a kiss, but Steven stops her, telling her that Marc pushed her away to protect her from Khonshu. He drops the “you might be in line to be the Avatar” truth bomb on her, which shocks her. She still wanted to be in the loop about things. The two do kiss before Layla dives. When alone, Steven suddenly punches himself in the face. A minute after Layla drops, Steven falls after. He geeks out about the site as they go. Layla tells Steven about her dad, the archeologist on a mission who died for it. Steven tells her that he’d be proud of her. They head deeper.

 

Imhotep. Imhotep. Wait, sorry wrong franchise.

They find maze deeper inside. Layla finds bullet casings, wondering what they’d be shooting at. Steven realizes that the maze is in the shape of the Eye of Horus. He analyzes the image, and they figure the tomb would be in the long line in the Eye symbol, as that represents the tongue and an Avatar is the God’s voice. They find a chamber where the guardians of the tomb are depicted. They also find a sacrificial alter with fresh blood and flesh on it, which isn’t the best sign. Steven spies a possible opening higher up and goes to check it up. Steven tells her that Ammit will be bound in a stone statue like Khonshu is. He finds an exit, after geeking out over some of the equipment, just as they hear a bunch of gun shots. They hide. One of the guardians drags one of Harrow’s men to the alter and kills him and begins to prepare the body. The Heka priest, as it’s credited, hears Layla shifting around and almost catches her, until Steven makes a noise and draws its attention. Layla throws a jar to distract it and they run in two different directions. Steven shoves over a table, squishing the priest. Layla finds a bottomless pit, confirmed after throwing a torch in it. She hears another priest’s clicking decides to risk falling in to escape it. She rock-climbs over, almost falls, and then gets grabbed by the priest. She wrestles with it, taking it apart as it’s ancient, before stabbing it with a flare. She rolls it off the side of the edge of the pit, almost falls with it but saves herself. After stress screaming, she gets up and sees Harrow watching.

 

Artur Paendrag Tanreall in another turning of the
Wheel of Time. Yes, I want you to watch that show. 

Steven goes in deeper on his own, geeking out about who might be buried here. He wonders if the last Avatar of Ammit was Nefertiti or Thutmose II. Marc cuts in to grill his other self about kissing Layla. Steven forgets it when he sees Macedonian writing on the sarcaphogus. Realizing there was only one Macedonian that was also a pharaoh, he concludes this is the lost tomb of Alexander the Great. Neat!

 

Harrow tells Layla that he handled that situation beautifully, and she tries to storm off, but he mentions her dad. He draws her back by talking to her, saying that her dad would be proud that she was one of the first to prove the Gods walk among us. He explains that his power, the scales, let him see moments of sin and weakness and he saw a lot of that in Marc. He hints there’s something Marc isn’t telling her and Layla demands he just talk.

 

Steven takes a minute, but then pushes the sarcophagus open. Inside is Alexander’s mummy. Realizing Alexander would stick with the theme and want to hide the statue from looters and guess he had it put in his mouth. Steven rips open the wrapping, and breaks open his jaw, finding the statue.

 

Harrow tells Layla that her father was murdered by mercenaries and she guesses that Marc was there. He describes what her father was wearing, saying that the image of him wearing a scarf that Layla made him sticks in his mind. She storms off.

 

We know he's not dead, not with 2 episodes left
but still, this was shocking.

Layla joins Steven, who is jazzed about finding the statue, but she’s on edge after learning from Harrow. She wants to know what happened to her father. Her demands let Marc swap in. He wants them to leave but she needs to know. He says he didn’t kill her dad but confirms he was there. She asks how he died and Marc said his partner got greedy and killed everyone at the site. He tried to save her dad but failed. He reveals that he was shot and supposed to die that night, but Khonshu saved him. He said he tried to tell her from the moment they met, and she realizes that they only met due to his guilty conscience. Harrow’s men begin arriving, Marc tells Layla to find them a way out while he holds of Harrow’s people. Harrow talks about the day he realized Khonshu was gone and how freeing that was. He tells Marc he has choice now, and has an important decision to make. He says ‘okay’ and a goon goes to grab him. Marc kills three of the goons before Harrow pulls a gun and shoots him twice, a terrified Layla watching. He falls back into the fountain alter and dies.

 

How is Harrow evilier now?

Marc wakes up in a psychiatric hospital. He’s watching an old, really low budget movie about gentleman adventure Dr. Steven Grant and his sidekick Rosser investigating an Aztec ruin. We’re shown around the hospital floor, lot of mentally unstable people doing activities like bingo, drawing, and such. Marc is pushed into a corner where Layla, acting unstable, joins him and explains her conspiracy idea them changing the movie. She runs off when she realizes they got a bingo. Marc, staring at his reflection, calls out to Steven but he doesn’t answer. He tries to get up, falls because he’s bound to the chair and drops a Moon Knight toy. He has a session with Dr. Arthur Harrow. He talks about Marc’s favorite movie, Tomb Buster, and points out how the movie is like Marc’s whole backstory. Servant of a lunar god, a megalomaniac villain and so on. He gives a speech about how we live in a psychic world not a material world and how context matters. Marc is distracted by a fly for a second. Marc says everything reminds him of… something. He asks about Steven. The question causes Marc to look around the room, seeing a bunch of things like Harrow’s cane, a painting of a town in the alps, Egyptian artifacts and so on. Marc tries to run from Harrow, breaking the door and then fighting the orderlies that try to stop him. He runs down the halls, which start swaying. He ducks into a room where he finds a white sarcophagus that is thumping and the man inside is screaming. Marc opens it, releasing Steven. They hug. Steven asks how this is possible, but neither knows. They just remember being shot. They head out. They pass a red sarcophagus that is thumping but keep walking. At the end of the hall, the doors oepen and a huge hippo lady walks in. She says hi, they scream and the credits roll.

 

Hi Taweret!

… That is honestly the best reaction to any hippo encounter. Look it up, they’re the deadliest land animal in the world.

 

This was a fine episode. It was interesting to se Layla and Steven working together. They’re dynamic is obviously different than her and Marc, as she’s the badass and he’s the academic. Probably says something about them that two such different guys are attracted to the same type of woman. I totally get it, spit fires are hot. The exploration of the tomb is okay. The bits about exploring the tomb seem interesting in principle but are kind of rushed over. The Priests didn’t seem to be of much use. I know others have said it, but they feel like a watered-down version of the priests from The Mummy. Just’ saying. The bit in the hospital had me worried. It’s a pretty standard trope that “hero from a fantasy/sci-fi world wakes up in a mental hospital and wonders if they’re adventures are a hallucination.” Superman, Batman, I think Spider-Man has done it a couple time, the list goes. The bit where Marc looks around and sees a bunch of things that were in his hallucination was very similar to what happened to young Clark in Smallville. Thankfully, they don’t try to convince us of the impossibility that everything we’ve seen is a lie. Marc isn’t crazy as proven by finding Steven. Fun fact, the body double to stand opposite Oscar Isaac in the scenes where Marc and Steven are together is none other than Mike Hernandez, Oscar’s brother. So when Marc gives Steven a huge bearhug, that was Oscar bear hugging Mike, which is just sweet. Things are about to get real weird, as the Hippo goddess telegraphed, see you then. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/67029013

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Moon Knight ep 3

 They're wrestling for control.

Last time on Moon Knight, Steven Grant dealt with the ramifications of fighting a monster in your place of work. The Jackal demon was invisible to the camera, so it looked like he was having psychotic episode and then wrecked the toilet. He was obviously fired. Steven started looking into the key he found hidden in his apartment and found his “alt” Marc Specter’s secret storage unit of weapons and money. Marc manifested to Steven and explained that he is (maybe they are?) the Avatar of Khonshu, and Marc just needs to take control of their body for a bit to finish this last job and then he’ll disappear forever. Steven doesn’t believe him and threatens to turn himself in and be put into a medicated coma. Khonshu doesn’t love this idea and chases Steven. Steven runs out into the street and into Layla El-Faouly, Marc’s estranged wife who had been looking for him. After catching her up to what’s going on, despite Marc’s objections, Steven is kidnapped by cops working for Harrow. Harrow explains his whole deal, that he’s trying to free Ammit and create a utopia that doesn’t have the option to be evil. By having Ammit pre-judge people for any evil they *might* do and kill them. Steven isn’t super jazzed by this, and Harrow summons another Jackal to kill him. He escapes thanks to Layla’s arrival but gets knocked out a window. He is able to summon his own Moon Knight suit, a literal 3-piece suit with a mask. Steven does okay against the Jackal, but it’s too powerful for him to beat. He tags Marc in, who leads the monster on a chase before impaling it on an art piece. He learns that Harrow got the Scarab, he lost it in the struggle, and vows to beat Harrow to the tomb. He also refuses to let Steven back out, revealing that he is now strong enough to hold it. They travel to Cairo and the closing shot is on Marc drinking heavily while Steven looks on via a mirror dejectedly. Let’s get to it.

 

Episode 3: The Friendly Type

 

We open on Layla at a forger to get herself a fake passport. She’s certain that Marc has gone onto Cairo, and she is going to follow. We get some insight on her pass with the forger, Lagaro. She grew up going along with her father to dig sites. More recently, she’s been stealing antiquities and returning them to their rightful owners. Reverse Indiana Jonesing, I guess.

 

Yeah, I'd be shocked too.

We cut to Harrow leading his expedition to Ammit’s tomb with the scarab. He’s got a huge crowd following him. The Scarab leads him to a specific point, and he announces to his followers that they found it. One of his people reports that Marc has been seen in Cairo and they assume he’s tracking them. But that can’t dampen Harrow’s spirit.

 

We jump to Marc chasing down Harrow’s men on rooftops. The guy he was following was shanked and killed by three others. They show off some fancy knife skills, but Marc is the fist of vengeance. He beats the three up with only taking a few hits for his trouble… before he looks into a knife and sees Steven pleading with him to not kill anyone. Marc seizes up and then wakes up a few minutes later in a taxi. Steven took over, let the goons go and got in a taxi for the airport in the short time he was in control. Dude is efficient. Marc sees the goons walking out of the building, gts out and chases them again. He has a harder time at street level, but does lock onto them. He grabs one of them and punches him a few times before asking where Harrow is. Steven distracts him for a moment, saying that’s enough and he gets beamed on the head. Marc has another seizure, but this time when he wakes up he’s outside of town, covered in blood, and two of the three goons are dead. He asks Steven “what did you do?” but Steven is just as confused. He confronts the one living goon. Khonshu tells him to take the kid to the ledge. Marc does so despite his reservations and holds the kid over the ledge by his scarf. Rather than answer, he says “praise Ammit” and slices himself free. Khonshu, rather nonplussed, says he thought the kid would talk. Marc and Steven fight for a bit, not sure who killed those people, before Marc asks if they couldn’t get the other God’s involved. I bet Thor would love to throw down with Ammit! Oh, wait, no, Ennead only. Khonshu tells him they could, but unless they have solid evidence, they run the risk of having him imprisoned in stone. Marc isn’t against the idea, which makes Khonshu miffed but he agrees to get things rolling. Khonshu causes an eclipse, saying that he’s giving the god’s a sign they can’t ignore. In town, Marc finds a portal to the meeting place, Khonshu warning at the last meeting he had been banished. Khonshu walks off, telling Marc he’ll be there.

 

It's a cool clubhouse.

The portal leads to the inside of the Great Pyramid of Giza. Steven geeks out pretty hard in the reflection when he realizes it. The God’s Avatars arrive. He meets Yatzil, Avatar of Hathor, who is quite friendly to him, saying that no god matches Khonshu’s theatrics. Hathor and Khonshu are old friend, apparently, but the old buzzard never mentioned her to Marc. Before they can talk more, they’re called to order. The trail begins, with Hathor obviously taking the reigns from Yatzil, and introducing Horus, Isis, Tefnut, Osiris, and herself. Osiris begins, I think, telling Khonshu that he was banished before because of his theatrics and other garish behavior, and warning that if he messes with the sky again, it’s stone time. Khonshu takes over for Marc, saying that he was banished for being the only one to not abandon humanity. The gods claim that they leave their will up to their avatars and try not to meddle so openly as Khonshu. He tells them to shut up and start meddling or risk losing the world. I’m paraphrasing, but not by much. Khonshu is apparently also the god of bluntness. Khonshu asks for judgement against Arthur Harrow for trying to free Ammit. They summon the accused.

 

Harrow's whole defense is that they need to ignore
evidence and focus on the fact Khonshu is
unstable and so is Marc and Steven.

Harrow arrives and immediately gaslighting Marc. Harrow basically says “Nuh-hu” to everything Khonshu says to him, and then throws the fact that Marc suffers from DID as evidence that Khonshu is unhinged. Guys, you’re gods, a dude with more than one person in his head is no where near the weirdest thing you’ve dealt with. Marc tries to take a swing at Harrow but is stopped by Osiris. They free him and ask him if he is “unwell.” Marc admits he is, but that they need to focus on Harrow. Osiris says that Harrow has committed no offense and lets him go. I guess the Gods didn’t notice the several people pre-judged and sent to the Egyptian afterlife huh?

 

Yatzil stays behind and informs Marc there is another way to stop Harrow and get to Ammit’s tomb. She explains that while the tomb was hidden from the gods, Ammit had followers and one of them, a medjay named Senfu had a map. He kept it as a “just in case” situation, if the gods decided to show mercy. She tells him to start searching the black market, as Senfu’s sarcophagus was stole and sold on it. 

 

Later Marc, explores an actual market, gets a drink and asks the vender where to find Senfu’s sarcophagus. The man is visibly freaked out and walks away, just as Layla walks up and informs her hubby that he had the right guy at the right place, but the fact he’s not-Egyptian made the conversation dodgy at best. She offers to help him and not having other options, he agrees. That night, they take a boat to wherever Layla’s plan leads. They air out some of their relationship stuff, we’ll work together to save the world type stuff. They’re heading to Mogarts, a collector of rare antiquities. They enjoy watching a few locals celebrating, before the personal stuff rears up again and Layla asks why he didn’t tell her about Steven and his condition. Marc says that he had it under control until recently, but *something* changed and he and Steven started swapping more randomly. He doesn’t want to talk about it. Layla says they could have handled it together, but Marc says that he doesn’t handle things that way. The moment breaks and they get in mission mode.

 

Moon Knight has awesome entrances.

Their boat lands and they get off. Marc sees someone following them. Layla asks if he’s one of Harrow’s men, but they aren’t sure. They go inside, and find some kind of jousting tournament going on. They meet with Bek, Mogart’s top guy who brings them to an area to wait for him. Mogart greets them, and Layla introduces Marc under an alias. He leads them to his collection, him pontificating on how what he does is so good. He seems suspicious of Marc but lets him have a look at Senfu’s sarcophagus. They examine the sarcophagus but don’t find any map or anything unique to lead them to a map. Marc, realizing he knows nothing about hieroglyphics, but has someone who does, tells Layla to watch the guards and asks Steven for help. Steven plays hardball for the body, but Marc’s not budging. He eventually agrees. Marc starts folding the pieces of fabric on the sarcophagus as Steven directs, making a star chart. He’s interrupted by the guard, but Marc grabs the gun and holds it on him. When he realizes Layla’s at gunpoint, he surrenders. Mogart has him get on his knees. He brings Layla over to execute them both. Marc tells him to check the sarcophagus. They’re interrupted by Harrow’s arrival, him offering the scarab and Ammit in exchange for the sarcophagus. Harrow start poking at psychological scars, Layla’s dead dad issues, Marc’s trust issues, etc. Khonshu tells Marc to summon the suit. Harrow, at Mogart’s request, chants his magic chant and destroys the sarcophagus. He walks off and then everyone notices that Marc is gone. He got on top of the display pyramid and into the Moon Knight suit.

 

Marc holds the guards off while Layla gathers the pieces of the chart. Marc kicks a lot of ass while Layla fights Bek. Steven keeps whispering in Marc’s head, telling him to have restraint. Steven finally forces a change, swapping to the suit-suit. Steven tries to get everyone to calm down but gets stabbed for it. He tags Marc back in. He keeps getting lanced, Layla, seeing it, stabs and kills Bek before running to Marc’s rescue. Mogart rides up and slaps her down. This infuriates Marc who kills the guards and then Morgat, rolling Layla out of his path as he does. Khonshu tells him Tick tock as they walk off.

 

Iffff I could turn back tiiiiimmmme, Iff I could 
fiiiinnndd a waayyyy.

 As Marc and Layla drive, he deflects Layla’s questions about what secrets he’s keeping from her. She doesn’t buy it and is visibly upset by it. But they have a mission. Eventually, Harrow’s men find them and start tailing them as they drive into the desert. The fragments are too broken for them to work with. At Layla’s insistence, they swap, and Steven gets to work with some tape. He explains when she joins him, that the Egyptians invented modern navigation, and gets the pieces together into a star pattern. They can’t do much with it, though, as while they can see the constellations, the problem is the star chart is 2000 years out of date. If they can’t see the stars on that date, they don’t have much to work with. Khonshu informs him that he remembers that, and every other night. He offers to turn back the night sky but warns them it’ll come at a cost. He tells Steven to tell Marc to fee Khonshu after the gods imprison him for this. Steven and Khonshu raise their hands and literally turn the sky backwards, the stars and moon flashing by at blurring speed as they do. While that is happening, The Gods gather and begin a ritual to imprison Khonshu. Khonshu and Steven hold the sky in place long enough for Layla to get a picture of the sky, just as the gods seal Khonshu in stone. They get the coordinates as Khonshu is sealed. Steven’s suit melts and he passes out from the strain. The Gods let Harrow into their sanctum again, and show him the sealed Khonshu. When he’s left alone with the statue, he gloats. He promises to do what Khonshu did not, and that his torment forged Harrow. He owes his victory to Khonshu. Creepy.

 

It was interesting to see how this episode flipped the script of the first. Rather than seeing Steven do something mundane before blacking out and doing violence, we see Marc doing something violent before blacking out and doing something mundane. A nice twist. The hints about Marc and Steven having another side even more violent than Marc is interesting. They telegraph that reveal pretty hard, what with the “I didn’t do it, did you?” thing. Getting more of Marc and Layla is nice, even though they seriously need a marriage counselor at this point. You sense the tension between them, that they both want to break it but aren’t sure how. I think my one gripe is how much Harrow is able to get away with here. Dude just says “nope” to the accusations and then throws Marc’s mental health under the bus and suddenly everyone trusts him implicitly. Never mind he has Ammit’s tattoo, Ammit’s staff, a vendetta against his old master, and was in the desert where they buried Ammit. Like… yeah, there’s evidence that Khonshu is off his rocker but to act like there’s none against Harrow is insane. And him just walking up to further complicate the plan at Mograt’s was just weird. Dude walks far for a guy with glass in his shoe. Oh, and that final bit with Khonshu and Steven turning back the sky was brilliant. Beautifully done, and yet I can’t help but wonder how freaked out the Egyptian people are. Last time something like this happened, half the world died for five years. Bet it’s giving some folks some flashbacks. So, yeah, a good episode. Next time, we’ll see how Marc and Steven handle the loss of their powers. See you then. 

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/66993706

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero