Is Moon Knight an Anti-Hero, Villain, or Vigilante? Explained

Despite the fact that he was never part of the main Marvel Comics storylines, Moon Knight has become one of the best Marvel characters, especially with his masterful debut in the ‘Moon Knight’ MCU series. Of course, while we know that Moon Knight has always been portrayed as a person willing to go up against bad guys, not a lot of fans are aware of his background or the nature of his character, especially with how he goes about his business when fighting crime. So, is Moon Knight a hero or an anti-hero?

Is Moon Knight a hero or an anti-hero?

There are a lot of popular Marvel Comics characters right now due to the MCU, but we know that Moon Knight has been making waves as a popular character due to the fact that he has his own Disney+ show that has helped increase his overall engagement with fans all over the world. Oscar Isaac’s masterful performance was one of the things that made this series so popular, and fans are now more interested in Moon Knight in both the comics and the TV series.

We know that the character still has a long way to go in the live-action series but Moon Knight has been one of the characters who fans can’t get enough of in the comics. Some are wondering what his status is and what his nature as a character is, especially when compared to the more heroic personalities in the form of Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Captain America. There are even those who wonder whether or not he is actually a true hero.

In the comics, Moon Knight was always portrayed as a hero because of the fact that he fights crimes and is basically the hand of justice of the Egyptian god Khonshu, who gave Moon Knight the task of protecting people under the moon from evildoers and criminals. This is the reason why Moon Knight is a hero, as he works to protect people from criminals and those who look to do harm to innocent people.

However, while it may be true that he is a hero as far as his motives are concerned, the way that Moon Knight operates makes him an anti-hero instead. Of course, when you look at the way that he goes about his business, it makes complete sense why Moon Knight is an anti-hero.

An anti-hero is still a hero as far as their motives and goals are concerned. However, anti-heroes tend to do things differently due to the fact that they do things that villains often do. That means that anti-heroes aren’t shy about doing bad or brutal things to defeat a villain or to achieve their good goal. Anti-heroes also don’t have the friendly demeanor that usual heroes come with.

In Moon Knight’s case, he is an anti-hero because he does things that may be heroic but is able to achieve them using tactics and actions that may seem questionable. For example, he has always been a bit too brutal when it comes to his way of fighting crime, opting to take more violent routes when fighting villains instead of simply defeating them in the most humane way possible.

We’ve seen the MCU version of Moon Knight showing glimpses of how brutal he can be, as he doesn’t have a moral compass when it comes to achieving goals that tend to be heroic. Some would say that this is due to Marc Spector’s background as a mercenary, but there are those who say that Moon Knight’s brutal and violent way of doing things can be attributed to his mental problems.

All of the versions of Moon Knight in the comics suffer from a mental disorder that forces him to have multiple personalities that are independent of one another. As such, it can be difficult to be a stable hero when you have different personalities that you have to juggle things with. This could have caused Moon Knight’s brutal and violent behavior when it comes to villains because he does have personalities that tends to be more brutal than others. As such, it can be quite understandable why Moon Knight may seem like a villain at times, especially when it comes to approaching villains.

Moon Knight is clearly a vigilante

Of course, we know that Moon Knight has always been more of an anti-hero than a hero. But he is also a vigilante due to the fact that he is a lot like other superheroes in the sense that he operates well outside of the law. He is like Spider-Man in the sense that he fights crime beyond what the law allows him to do. The difference here is that Spider-Man doesn’t brutalize people, whereas Moon Knight tends to relish the opportunity to become violent toward criminals.

The reason why Moon Knight is a vigilante can be attributed to the fact that he is the avatar of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. Khonshu is also the god of justice, and that means that he wants to exact his own brand of justice toward the different evildoers of the world. He is unlike other Egyptian gods due to the fact that he chooses avatars that act as his “hands of justice” on Earth. As such, he dispenses extra-judicial justice through Moon Knight, who acts as a vigilante.

Khonshu wants justice as quickly as possible, and that’s why Moon Knight has to operate outside of the law to be able to dispense Khonshu’s brand of justice efficiently and effectively. This explains why he is a vigilante in the comics and the MCU series.

Still, in the comics, he has a public liaison known as Mr. Knight, who acts as one of his alter egos. Mr. Knight’s main role is to deal with issues that are related to the police and the media, and that means that he is Moon Knight’s “public” image so that the character won’t always look dirty in the eyes of the public whenever he goes about his business as a vigilante anti-hero.

There’s also the fact that Doug Moench, the creator of Moon Knight, was also known for his work on Batman in DC. This explains why there are a lot of similarities in the anti-hero vigilante actions that Moon Knight and Batman are known for. The only difference here is that Batman doesn’t have Moon Knight’s mental instability.

Is Moon Knight good or bad?

Of course, we know that Moon Knight has always been portrayed as a hero or an anti-hero who operates outside of the law as a vigilante. But some fans are wondering whether or not Moon Knight is actually good or bad.

The thing about Moon Knight is that he was introduced as a villain in the ‘Werewolf by Night’ comic book, wherein he was hunting down the main character of that storyline. Since his debut in that comic, Moon Knight has become so popular that he became a true protagonist in his own storyline instead of acting as a villain. But the way that he was portrayed in his storyline was that of an anti-hero.

This can be quite subjective because some people believe that even goodhearted vigilantes have no right to brutalize and violently beat down villains. Morality is still one of the biggest questions in relation to Moon Knight’s character, and that’s why we can’t really say anything about whether or not he is a truly good guy or if he’s actually a bad guy doing things that good guys are supposed to do. Whatever the case may be, his methods make him a popular comic book character due to how intriguing his story is.

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