For Uno

[Buster's Uncle]

I 'spose you didn't like what they did with him in West Coast Avengers?  I think it ended up it was Konshu having a week out in his body...

[Unorthodox]

That was indeed a crappy time for Moon Knight.  The whole Mark Spector:Moon Knight era is him trying to be plugged into the wider Marvel universe.  As said, he works better as stand alone.  West Coast Avengers all together were crappy, but it did lead to a fairly iconic moment. 

[Unorthodox]

Episode 2 impressions:   

Episode 1 hit a fairly good tone overall with plenty of horror elements mixing with Steven's bumbling around.   Episode 2, the horror elements are largely gone, and the bumbling continues. 

That said, the best part of this whole series so far is the fact that Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke are acting their asses off.  Surrounding characters are ok, but these two are really just putting on acting classes here.  As much as I don't care for Steven Grant's bumbling, it is well done and he DOES feel like a different person than Mark. 

And Harrow is right in line with Fisk from the daredevil episodes where I'm enjoying his time on screen just as much as the hero's .   

Khonshu translates to screen fairly well. 

I've never been a fan of the Mr Knight persona

Congrats Disney, you found a way to make me like him less.  Comedic relief.  Really? 

hEt liked it, and episode 2 did a lot of the heavy lifting for filling in the blanks on what's going on. 

We end the episode with Mark in full control, here's hoping we roll with that for a few episodes. 

Layla = Marlene until I get any kind of evidence to the contrary. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Everything  Steve Engleheart touched when he came back to mainstream comics was bad -babytalk, endless babytalk- it made me wonder why his early 70s Avengers run is so admired.  West Coast Avengers altogether was indeed crappy.

[Unorthodox]

That whole thing around Moon Knight quitting the WCA was so WEIRD.

Mockingbird being criticized (hardly covers it, like holy crap!) for letting her rapist DIE (yes, that rapist was a rewrite/weird swing/different soul bs [poop] of the Night Rider restyled as phantom rider posted above), so she quits, and Moon Knight is the only male on the team to take her side and quits with her.  The whole Mockingbird needs to forgive her rapist thing is SOOOOO weird. 

Edit:  On the topic of rape, there was a one-shot in the early 2000's that helped bring Moon Knight back to more regular production.  I recall it was told from the perspective of a support group meeting with these women recounting their rape encounters, all meeting up with Moon Knight showing up too late and promising to find the man.  One of them is a nurse, she finds the guy on life support in the hospital, implying MK put him there, and proceeds to unplug him. 

[Buster's Uncle]

BTW, you praised Bill Sienkiewicz earlier?  I've never heard anything but praise for his early faux-Neal Adams stuff on Moon Knight --- but I was following New Mutants with pleasure until he turned it into an acid trip, a bad one.  It was completely wrong for that book, and brought out Chris Claremont's worst tendencies as a writer, to boot, also very wrong for that book.  I cannot forgive that.

[Unorthodox]

Had to google that stuff, and wow, that is some WTF crap there.  Doesn't look like most his other work.  I stand by his horror work. 

[Buster's Uncle]

I've heard almost nothing but praise for his New Mutants toilet paper, ironically.

[Unorthodox]

hEt liked it, and episode 2 did a lot of the heavy lifting for filling in the blanks on what's going on. 

We end the episode with Mark in full control, here's hoping we roll with that for a few episodes. 

Layla = Marlene until I get any kind of evidence to the contrary. 

Episode 3. 

Best recommendation I can make is hEt is fully on board now. 

Episode told largely from Marc's perspective throughout. 

We have extreme hints of Jake/a third personality now.  Practically beating your head with it. 

Layla is Marlene, full stop.   

There is some BAD CGI now on full display.  Episodes 1-2 tried to hide it a bit, kept it in the shadows and it worked well, but now it's just in the open, and it's PRETTY BAD.  I'm speaking as something of a connoisseur on the topic.  I can see that being a turn off for some people, and it's really perplexing when it's back to back with some fairly good CGI scenes.  D+ REALLY needs to up their budgets or switch to less effects driven storytelling.  There were also a couple of really good fight scenes sans-suit that showed we could really avoid a lot of the CGI nonsense if we really wanted. 

The series has really settled into the 2016 run and the origin story as inspiration....which makes Bushmaster conspicuous with his absence. 

[Buster's Uncle]

Layla Miller, perchance?

[Unorthodox]

That was a speculation early, but her full name is Layla Abdallah El-Faouly, created for the series.  She has Marlene's full backstory with a bit of a Marion Ravenwood twist.  I mean Marlene was never a total damsel in distress to begin with but Layla can clearly handle herself quite well, is used to needing to, and has some nefarious contacts. 

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The series has revealed the egyptian gods are real, and work through avatars on earth.  Harrow is becoming/is Ammut's avatar, Moon Knight is Khonshu's.  Another 5 showed up in episdoe 3 for the big names, Isis, Horus, Osiris, Tefnut, and Hathor.  There's supposed to be 9 on the council, though, and 4 were a no-show.  I'm not ruling out her having/getting powers in the series, and give it a 50-50 she is/becomes an avatar of one of the Egyptian gods.  My money would be on Maat or something happening to Hathor's present avatar.

   

[Buster's Uncle]

...The Layla name suggests a hot sophisticated lady sort...

[Unorthodox]

uh...Hot is eye of the beholder.  She's a divergence from the blonde bombshell of Marlene, and they've really had her avoiding any kind of eye candy outfits or scenes.  She wears actual sensible clothing and kicks some ass without all the flippy twirls or tight outfits of MCU contemporary females.  Probably one of the most grounded MCU females to date actually. 

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They're really selling "Moon Knight" as a mantel bestowed by Khonshu, and he's outright told Marc Layla is his next candidate as a means of holding Marc's service...which I'm completely on board with seeing her in the suit going forward if Oscar Isaac doesn't want to...but I foresee backlash if they go that route.

[Unorthodox]

Betting on 1-2 episodes taking place in a mental institute where Steven is questioning/someone is trying to convince him this is all in his head.  I'd guess at episode 4/5 with 6 realizing it's real and stopping the baddies.   

Guess where we end episode 4....

Anyway, before that we have a really beautiful episode.  Layla kicks some major ass in what very much feels like an Indiana Jones movie vibe. 

That said, I want to talk about THE sequence. 

Really, 3 scenes steal this episode for me.  Back to back.  But the FIRST is, quite possibly, PERFECT. 

THAT, my friends, is how to do PG 13 HORROR. 

1: No real solid look at the creature.  Ok, yeah, it's a makeup job on a guy, all the better, but you only ever get GLIMPSES. 
2: Creature threat established.  In this case it's disemboweling a live victim in preparation for mummification.  Yes.  Live, in front of us.     
3: This would obviously be too much for PG13, so the camera focuses on our hiding/sneaking hero(s) while the creature does it's thing in the background, which brings us to...
4: ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE sound design.  I mean, this series has been pretty damn spot on in this department from the get go, but this was SUBLIME.  The sound lets you feel the guts being torn from the poor victim...
5: Following that sound with glimpses of the gore, even if 'hidden' out of focus and in the background.  :chef's kiss: 

Favorite scene in all of marvel thus far....but then the parallels to the Mola Ram heart ripping out were not lost on me, and it's among my favorite scenes of all time.

Lesser scene to follow is some jump scares running from creature, but well done for what it is. 

Sub scene later as we fight the creature...And THAT is where this series should have kept things, makeup/appliance plus light use of CGI made this much more satisfying than certain other fights. 


There was a really stupid thing in here that I want more of. 

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As we transition to the mental institution, we flip to a really LOW BUDGET obvious Indiana Jones ripoff that is TERRIBLY cheesy that the inmates are watching.  I would watch the HELL out of that if it became an actual movie.

[Unorthodox]

Episode 5: 

Best ~hour of acting in the MCU, period. This is best actor award level acting going on here. 

There are stretches of CGI in here, and a CGI character, and it's all FAR better than what we saw in Episodes 1-3. 

I'll have some broader comments on the series as a whole after seeing how they finish it, but the series has LARGELY focused on the internal conflict between Steven and Marc, which has been for the strength of the show as Oscar Isaac has CARRIED this thing on his back, with the action sequences being sub par in comparison.  I enjoy the changes to Steven from the comic version quite well.  It's been a fairly slow burn to get here, and is probably not for anyone wanting big loud stupid marvel.   

Bushman name drop but still conspicuously absent in the flesh.

~80% sure we saw a slip of Jake in here, but it wasn't addressed.  Still betting on Jake's first official appearance being in the post credits scene after episode 6. 

No idea how they can wrap this all up with only one more episode.  PLEASE don't just do the Marvel standard CGI fight sequence...