It has been 12 years since Moon Knight underwent a reinvention that created a perfect new version of his character. Moon Knight has been one of the deadliest Marvel Comics antiheroes for years because he has no problem with killing his villains. In the start, Moon Knight was an antihero who was a hired mercenary who decided over time to become an antihero who helped those in need. Early on, Moon Knight used unique identities to achieve his goals, but Marvel later changed that to be distinct personalities with a DID diagnosis. However, after a storyline that took his alters to the extreme, things changed 12 years ago.
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On March 5, 2014, Moon Knight (Vol. 7) #1 introduced the Mister Knight character. This followed up a very controversial Brian Michael Bendis storyline, and it helped make the character better than he has been for years.
Marvel Comics Introduced Mister Knight 12 Years Ago
In Moon Knight (Vol. 7) #1, there was a complete change for Moon Knight when Marvel Comics introduced Mister Knight. This was a brand-new alter who showed up as a man who set up shop to help the people on the streets unable to help themselves. With the new creative team of Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey, this series had Moon Knight helping the police with weird cases, and that was where the different reactions from the police to Mister Knight compared to Moon Knight.
In the past, Moon Knight’s identities included Jake Lockley (a cab driver who could get information on the streets), Marc Specter (the mercenary), Steven Grant (the millionaire who financed everything), and Moon Knight (the antihero). Marvel then turned these into alters with a DID diagnosis, where they didn’t know what the other alters did. Now, Mister Knight is also an alter for Moon Knight, and he might be the perfect version of the character.
That is because he is not the ultra-violent version of Moon Knight who follows Khonshu’s orders. Instead, he is someone whom Marvel introduced by working with the police on cases and then turned into something even more exciting. The first issue that came out 12 years ago, titled “Slasher,” had Mister Knight working to help the police find a serial killer, who ended up being a man who was previously connected to SHIELD. This was also the issue where a psychiatrist questioned his DID and claimed he had brain damage instead. This was later revealed to be personas he developed thanks to Khonshu, with the characteristics of the Pathfinder, Embracer, Defender, and the Watcher of Overnight Travelers.
What Mister Knight ended up turning into was perfection when he opened the Midnight Mission, which was a congregation whose doors remained open to anyone who needed his help. This was there for the citizens of Manhattan who needed help and knew that other superheroes were not interested in helping them, and the police were also mostly worthless in saving their lives. This put Mister Knight against vampires, as well as another disciple of Khonshu who wanted to take on the role for himself.
Mister Knight Resurrected Moon Knight After a Controversial Avengers Run
The new aspects of Moon Knight’s character, including the introduction of Mister Knight and the reasoning for his personas, were a huge improvement for the character, who had just finished a polarizing storyline where the DID was completely out of control. This was Moon Knight (Vol. 6), which saw the creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev give Moon Knight brand-new alters that made almost no sense considering the history of the character.
In this storyline, instead of Jake Lockley, Marc Specter, and Steven Grant, Moon Knight took on the personas of Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Captain America. When fighting villains in this storyline, he actually thought he was one of these three heroes, and took on their fighting styles and personalities, although nowhere near the level of those heroes. While he was still powerful and even helped take down Count Nefaria, this was a polarizing storyline that many Moon Knight fans outright rejected.
This followed a pair of incredible storylines, including what might be the best Moon Knight storyline of all time, with the Charlie Huston and David Finch 2006 comics that brought Moon Knight back from the dead and focused more on Khonshu. Having Bendis and Maleev go with the all-out hero storyline with the new personas just didn’t work as well. That made the idea of Mister Knight so attractive for fans, and also showed that pushing back a little on the DID storyline, and going more with the trauma of being Khonshu’s avatar, made Moon Knight more interesting than he had been since Huston and Finch’s stories.
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