*Warning: The following contains spoilers for the first episode of Moon Knight as well as spoilers for various important parts of the Marvel Cinematic Universe* 

I, to put it mildly, am a huge fan of Marvel movies and the stories that they tell. In the last year or so, Marvel has branched off into their own television shows as well on Disney+. Back in January of 2021 when the show WandaVision hit Disney+ I was unsure if I was going to enjoy the TV series as much as I do the various movies that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I didn’t begin to watch it until several weeks after it had started when there were multiple episodes up on Disney+ that I could watch. Finally, I decided to sit down and watch it and was completely blown away by what Marvel had done. Since then, I have watched every MCU-based show and been an incredibly huge fan of them for the most part (I had slightly mixed feelings for What If?). Upon viewing the trailer for Moon Knight, I thought that it was going to be an incredibly interesting take on a character that I, honestly, didn’t know anything about. After viewing the first episode, here are my initial thoughts: 

The Story 

I think that Marvel does an amazing job in writing their movies. Sure, some movies aren’t always received as well as they had hoped (I’m looking at you Thor: The Dark World), but overall, every movie, show, and the post-credit scene has something to contribute to the main overall storyline of each Phase of the MCU. I remember watching the original Iron Man in theatres with my family when it first came out when I was much younger. Since then, I have seen every single Marvel movie in theatres except for one, which was Eternals. Moon Knight, however, is obviously not a movie that I think presents an entirely different challenge to the Marvel writers when it comes to continuing to tell their story. 

Obviously with a character such as Steven and the Moon Knight, we aren’t going to know much about it from the get-go. One thing that had surprised me about this first episode of this show is that they don’t mention anything else about the MCU throughout the entire episode. No background items (that I could see) that had something to do with The Blip, nothing about the Avengers, nothing about Aliens, absolutely nothing. If this wasn’t on Disney+ and you told me that it was an entirely separate thing, I would have believed you. I don’t think this is a bad thing necessarily, the last thing that I would want is for Marvel to be using these things as crutch throughout the rest of their stories that we get in the years to come, but it doesn’t change the fact that it still surprised me. 

As the episode goes on, you slowly start to get more and more of an idea of what is going on, and this episode pulls one of my favorite tricks in storytelling to get people to keep wanting more. That tactic is leaving the viewers with more questions than answers. I absolutely love it when movies, shows, short stories, or anything does this. A downside to it, of course, is that if a viewer isn’t initially interested in the story, then they aren’t going to stay with the story.  

Overall, the story keeps you focused on Steven and how he has absolutely no idea what is happening to him. From not remembering small details of his life, to missing several days at a time, to waking up in the Alps and blacking out, followed by waking up after killing people. Personally, I think the story has been outstanding so far, and I can’t wait to watch more of it. 

The MA Rating 

Upon some research, I learned that Moon Knight was given a TV-MA rating, which definitely was shown throughout this starting episode. When comparing the fight scenes (or aftermath thereof that you see) of Moon Knight to a movie such as the first Iron Man back in 2008, it is definitely more intense. Recently, it seems, Marvel has been starting to take their characters in a more mature direction. An instance of this comes from Falcon and the Winter Soldier when the new Captain America beats a man to death with his shield in public, or in the case of Moon Knight, when Steven comes to and finds that he has several dead people around him, with hands covered in blood. On top of this, there is a moment where to men are crushed to death and thrown off a hillside road by falling longs, and you can see them getting crushed and thrown off of the road, which, compared to other Marvel movies, is a little bit more graphic than the norm (Excluding movies such as Venom and Deadpool, but do keep in mind that Sony has played a hand in these as well). 

If you are a parent and are wondering if this is a show that you should watch with your Marvel-loving youngsters, I would currently recommend on watching episodes yourself first to see if you are comfortable with them watching it, or keeping them from watching it for the time being.  

To Conclude 

Overall, this seems to be a very promising start for the beginning of this new show and what it will mean for the MCU as time goes on. Will there be more references to various Marvel heroes, villains, or plot lines later on in the show? This, I do not know, but certainly intend to find out. From the various camera angles, dialogue between actors, and the superb acting job done by lead actor Oscar Isaac, Moon Knight definitely seems to be a promising direction of storytelling from the fantastic writing team of Marvel.