Moon Knight is finally here on Disney+ and we’re breaking down the big moments in the premiere episode, “The Goldfish Problem”. Steven Grant is a regular gift shop worker, but the god Khonshu has some other ideas. From Ethan Hawke’s villain Arthur Harrow, to the comic book origins, to Easter eggs and more, let’s discuss.
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Full Episode Transcript
Alex: Welcome to Marvel Vision, a podcast about Marvel, the MCU. And right now Moon Knight, Episode One.
Justin: Yes! We’re back baby.
Alex: We’re back, baby. I’m Alex.
Justin: I’m Justin.
Pete: I’m Pete.
Alex: And yes, as [crosstalk 00:00:30] teaser.
Justin: I’m also Alex too.
Alex: Oh, I am Pete. Don’t don’t be a mirror, Pete.
Justin: Yeah. I’m Mirror Pete.
Pete: I can’t tell the difference between me waking life and me dreams. How’s that? Is that a good-
Justin: What?
Pete: …Stephen Grant voice?
Justin: Oh, Mrs. Doubtfire? What just happened?
Pete: We’re doing a podcast. I’m doing a podcast.
Justin: Are you the Queen?
Alex: Please stop.
Pete: I don’t know, man. Euphegenia Doubtfire.
Alex: I mean, that’s basically what Oscar Isaac goes doing. Now, if you haven’t watched the first episode of Moon Knight on Disney Plus, please go do that because we’re going to jump into spoilers. Probably go wildly out of control here. As we talk about this out of control, crazy first episode of Moon Knight. But before we get into that-
Pete: Out of control.
Alex: It is out of control. That’s my own alternate personality, is the radio DJ who talks like this. So before we get into it though, I was curious, Pete and I, before we got on, were talking a little bit about Moon Knight fandom or anything like that. I feel like Pete, just based on knowing you like Punisher, you like Wolverine, you like these more extreme Marvel characters. You got to be a big Moon Knight fan, right?
Pete: I’m a Moon Knight head. I do like Moon Knight. I’ve read a ton of Moon Knight. It’s one of char-
Alex: A Moonie.
Pete: Yeah. It’s one of those characters people can take in different directions and do different things with. Excuse me while I die real quick. You know, Lemire did a famous run with Moon Knight that was kind of like, is he insane? Is this whole thing his dream?
Alex: Well, just to interrupt, the Jeff Lemire, Greg Smallwood run, which is excellent and everybody should read if you haven’t read it, is kind of what they’re pulling on here. In typical Marvel fashion, they’re going far afield, but as opposed to other runs, like we don’t talk about Warren Ellis anymore. They’re certainly pulling on a lot of stuff from Warren Ellis. But specifically they have called out the Lemire-Smallwood stuff as inspiration, partially for the series. Justin, what about you? Are you a Moonie-
Pete: Just what about you?
Alex: …Or a Knighty?
Justin: A night-night moon. Goodnight moon is what I say. No, I like Moon Knight. I liked the series that you just mentioned, both the Jeff Lemire and the Warren Ellis, though he shall not now be named anymore. And a lot of people criticize Moon Knight as, well, it’s just like Batman. It’s just like Batman but very slightly different.
Pete: That’s why some people-
Justin: And I will say that’s a fair criticism.
Pete: No, don’t be that guy.
Justin: Just wait a second. Sort of the origins of the character. And back before we have these-
Pete: Boo. Boo. Boo.
Justin: …New takes of identity shifting and right.
Alex: Should we do that when you’re talking as well, Pete? Would you like that?
Pete: No, I’m sorry. It’s just, I didn’t know you were going to have some haterade and just kind of regurgitate some-
Justin: It’s not hate.
Pete: Some BS that people say.
Justin: Here, but I didn’t regurgitate.
Alex: No, no, they are two totally different characters, okay? One of them is a billionaire who at night goes out in a all same color suit and fights crime. And the other one is Batman.
Pete: Okay. So listen, no, Moon Knight is somebody who’s questionably out of his mind, is not-
Alex: So hold on-
Pete: Wait. No, don’t, please let me-
Alex: No, no. I’m going to interrupt you because the thing is that Justin was getting at is, Moon Knight’s origins do start with that. There’s a little bit of the Egypt stuff in there, but for the most part, he is white-colored Batman, but there are a lot of writers and a lot of artists who have done a ton of work, particularly over the past decade or two, to really redefine him the way that you’re talking about.
Pete: Why is he Batman? Because he’s-
Alex: Because he’s a billionaire who dresses up as a knightly Avenger and fights crime. Adding in the dissociative identity disorder, which they’re clearly playing on a lot here in this TV series, does separate him-
Justin: Also-
Alex: Not having it be a billionaire playboy.
Pete: He has a different fighting style. He has a different power skillset. There’s a completely different person underneath that mask.
Justin: You are right, it’s a different person. I’d like you to point out some of the differences in their fighting styles if you could, real quick, Moon Knight and Batman.
Pete: Moon Knight has somewhat magical powers, can disappear, reappear, do all sorts of things-
Justin: No, he doesn’t.
Pete: …That he can do. And some things-
Alex: Are you thinking about a different character? I mean, to be fair, here’s a big difference in terms of the fighting style. So one of them has the sharp fighting implements that they’re able to toss that are shaped like they’re insignia. And the other one is Batman.
Justin: This is a fun bit.
Alex: This is a fun bit.
Justin: Well, because it’s important to establish this, because what I love about this show, and I think Marvel has come pretty straight on with a lot of their series or movies where it’s just, here’s the hero we’re watching them do stuff. And this, because of the personality disorder and the split that Moon Knight has, we’re coming at this from his perspective, which I think is such a cool choice. And we get to see him
Pete: You love getting in the characters’ heads. You love it.
Justin: I do. And we get to see. It’s so smart to see him switch the jumps in this first episode where he doesn’t know what’s happening. And then he wakes up in a different place because another personality, the Marc Spector personality, has taken over.
Pete: And I’m glad you talk about that. Because that was hysterical when he woke up and he was like, oh, that was fun. We’re having fun.
Justin: Yeah. Joe was broken.
Pete: Batman isn’t fun like that. You know what I mean? You don’t have this Hulk thing where you wake up afterwards, what did I do? How did I hurt these people? It’s a different thing.
Justin: But I think the understanding-
Alex: It’s like my favorite movie, The Hangover 2.
Justin: That’s right.
Pete: Clearly different.
Justin: This is what this is modeled on.
Alex: Yeah. What did we do last night? Right, Pete?
Justin: I think the understanding that Alex and I just dragging you, kicking and screaming toward, is that this character was created to be a Batman clone. And then writers later changed it to this much more interesting take that now this Marvel TV series has adopted, and is making what I think is going to be maybe their best show.
Alex: Wow.
Pete: Wow.
Alex: That is pretty bold based on the first episode. I was going to get into overall what we thought. Obviously, Justin, you seem real positive about this, Pete, what do you think? Were you upset that he wasn’t more like Batman?
Pete: First off, I’m feeling a little off kilter because I thought Justin was going to be coming for me. And he was starting off with the haterade and then hits me with the, this is the best show ever. And now I’m dazed and confused like, oh man, you’re actually on my side the whole time.
Alex: He started with the haterade, Justin, and he went over to the later Gators aid.
Pete: Gators. What? Yeah. What does he say, later, gators? Later Gators.
Justin: Yeah. It’s very cute.
Pete: Yeah. His mom voice is adorable and I can see why they keep defaulting to that guy because you got to call your mom and you got to leave a voice mail.
Alex: Well, just to get back to what Justin was saying for a second and talk about the overall plot, I do think the smartest choice they make here, which seemed real annoying in the trailers. And even when it was starting off, I was like, boy, this voice is weird that Oscar Isaac is doing here, giving us the side… The way we know him from the comic books, and presumably based on the first episode, Marc Spector is the main personality. We don’t know that’s true by any means-
Pete: Yeah. Quote, unquote.
Alex: But that’s certainly what it seems like versus Steven Grant. having the character, Steven Grant, who is guileless, who is thrown into these situations that he doesn’t understand, exactly like you’re saying, Justin, gives us a really nice window as the audience into this world that feels organic. Particularly when it gets to Ethan Hawk’s character, Harrow, who is essentially feeding him the information that also we need to know because he doesn’t know it. So overall I think they turned something that was a very strange choice to begin with into a very smart choice by the end of the episode.
Pete: Wow. Everybody loves it. This is very exciting. I just assumed because I liked it that you guys would just shit on him and call him Batman the whole time. I’m just pleasantly surprised that we’re on board with what’s happening.
Alex: No, I mean, listen, this takes some great stuff and mixes it together into something that feels fresh. Just to pitch it out at you, do a little bit of a pitch line, what this struck me as is, it’s like The Mummy meets Bourne Identity with a dash of Legion sprinkled into it.
Justin: Nice. I like it. The Mummy is, there’s sort of an easy comparison to make because there’s mummies in it.
Alex: Well, they kept comparing it to Indiana Jones, which I feel like is not exactly right. Mummy is closer, also in terms of the humor that they use throughout the thing.
Pete: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. There’s humor. There’s a little bit of What About Bob in there, where he’s just this guy you’ve got to duct tape to the steering wheel and just point him down the road.
Justin: Yeah, yeah. You know what I was getting was-
Pete: Ladybugs. It’s a little bit of Ladybugs.
Justin: Nice. Yeah. Well, Mrs. Doubtfire, which is what I thought you were making the reference to earlier, meets an omelet that I had for breakfast. No, I think just because something has mummies and museums and it doesn’t mean it’s like that. I actually think totally the comedy is a bit like Indiana Jones.
Alex: I think totally The Mummy is a lot like Indiana Jones.
Pete: Oh my God.
Justin: Are we talking about the same thing?
Alex: Maybe. I will say in one of those movies, there are characters who are investigating tombs and going through old treasures and they end up at some weird maybe supernatural things that ultimately end up being sort of supernatural. And the other one is Batman.
Justin: I like this joke construction you’ve landed on here. But I will say, Alex, you’ve done it the magic rule of threes.
Alex: I know. I’m done now.
Pete: Walk away. Walk away.
Alex: I’m out.
Pete: He won’t be able to. He’s not going to walk away, I know it.
Justin: Of course not.
Pete: I wish he would though. It’d be baller if he did.
Justin: But is this the same museum from Eternals?
Alex: No, it’s not. So there’s a couple of weird things here. The first weird thing is that yes, Kit Harrington’s character, Dane Whitman, works at a museum in turtles, but that’s across town. Actually, when I saw the trailer for Moon Knight, one of the dirtiest things I’d ever done was mapped it out. And I was like, no, those are two different places. They’re not next door to each other. We’re not going to see Dane Whitman looking through the window or anything like that.
Pete: Oh, that would be so cool.
Alex: Just not going to happen.
Justin: Surely there’s some inter-museum hang sessions between-
Alex: You think the people who teach and curate at one museum, hang out with the gift shop workers at another museum.
Justin: Well, he can talk shop a little bit.
Alex: Not talk shop, gift shop.
Justin: He’s like mummy… Exactly. That’s what I mean when I’m saying talking shop. Gift shop.
Alex: No, the key chains you got over there-
Pete: What are you charging for waters over there?
Justin: Five pounds.
Pete: Five pounds.
Alex: The thing that I was going to say is a little weird is apparently they made the decision at least partially because they felt like there were too many heroes in New York, which is a perennial problem with the Marvel universe in general and the comics as well. But here, it’s strange because they just said a movie in London with the Turtles, and they also had Thor, The Dark World in London. There was Spiderman 2, Spiderman Far From Home was also in London, and they destroyed London. So they’re like, well, we can’t do it in New York. Let’s do it in the other city that we do everything in. But it is what it is.
Justin: But I mean, we don’t know. They might end up back in New York Moon Knight’s home, which is very different from Batman because we are revealed that Marc has an American accent. There’s a nice little moment there in the episode.
Alex: So overall let’s broadly talk about the plot of the episode just to lay it in for folks. So we do meet Steven Grant, who works in the gift shop at this museum, has a pretty unassuming life. He’s a vegan. He just kind of hangs out and bumbles through everything. His best friend is a guy who is one of those gold statues who hangs out in the park.
Justin: Love that.
Alex: And he starts to realize that things are a little weird in terms of, he asked a girl out on a date, but he doesn’t know how. We also discover that he ties himself into his bed at night and puts sand around it, which is definitely not a normal thing to do.
Pete: Well, you got to-
Justin: He’s pretty chill about it.
Pete: You know, sometimes it’s hard to get sleep. You know what I mean? If you put a bunch of sand around your bed, oh, you just float right away.
Justin: Yeah. That’s how you get sand lure in a Sandman.
Alex: And-
Justin: Sandman loves sand.
Alex: It’s like a tooth fairy.
Justin: For sleep.
Alex: Yeah. For sleep. They steal your sand.
Pete: Yeah.
Alex: The-
Pete: Get your best sleep.
Alex: He has a incident that he initially thinks is a dream, where he wakes up in the middle of a firefight, meets a guy named Arthur Harrow, who seems to lead some sort of cult that praises to some sort of deity that judges people on whether they will ever do any evil or not in their lives. And if they will ever do evil or ever have done evil, they immediately die. So he’s set up immediately as the antagonist. There’s also a Macguffin here, which is a scarab that Harrow is trying to track down, that Stephen Grant has. And by the end of the episode, he is being attacked by a jackal monster in the museum. And Marc Spector reveals himself, says, let me take over. They activate his suit, which we should probably talk about that bit in a moment. And he beats up the jackal and we get the full reveal of the Moon Knight suit. And that’s where the episode ends. Pete, you raised your hand. What’s going on?
Pete: Well, it was just so fast and furious. I thought we would stop and talk about some things, but then I realized I’ll wait till the end there. But first off, let’s talk about the Macguffin use that you threw out there. It can’t just be a scarab, you know what I mean? It’s got to be some kind of figure thing. You can’t just want a scarab.
Alex: That’s literally what a Macguffin is.
Justin: That’s what a Macguffin is.
Alex: That is the definition of a Macguffin.
Pete: All right. Fine.
Justin: Or is it McMuffin?
Alex: Yeah. Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking about an egg McMuffin. I apologize.
Justin: Why you got to make it a scarab when it could just be a McMuffin? I’m tired of being fooled by these McMuffins.
Alex: Yeah. I keep going to McDonalds and be like, Hey, let me get one of them scarab meals.
Justin: Yeah. I grab the clerk and I say, where’s the scarab? Give me the scarab. But they’re terrified of me.
Alex: What was your second question, Pete?
Pete: I feel like I shouldn’t follow up after-
Justin: The moon is the one that comes out at night. That’s moon.
Pete: Oh, right, right, right.
Justin: It’s easier to remember that.
Alex: There was a lot of stuff that I really liked in here. I thought Harrow is a really interesting villain. Of course he is, because Ethan Hawk is great. But setting him-
Justin: I see Ethan Hawk walking around New York in that same outfit, same hair, every day. Nothing different there, just Ethan Hawk being himself.
Alex: Does he walk on broken glass? Like the song?
Pete: Well that wasn’t Steve doing that, though, right?
Alex: No, that was-
Justin: No, that was Ethan Hawk. I love that as an opening, we get, I think that was Bob Dylan.
Pete: Seriously? That was him walking on the glass?
Alex: Yeah. Walking on, walking on, broken glass. Well, we have practice later. So we just tried to-
Justin: Just warming up for acapella rehearsal.
Pete: I didn’t realize that’s who it was.
Justin: Who sings the high parts, Pete?
Pete: Not me.
Justin: We could do it again. Ready? Walking on, walking on broken glass.
Alex: That was better. That was good.
Pete: You know, when Steve walked into the gift shop and started immediately talking to a kid about some creepy facts, I thought for sure it wasn’t going to be like, Hey Steve, get to work. I thought it was going to be like, Hey Steve, remember, get away from kids. You scare them.
Alex: Mmm. Yeah, no, I guess normally people don’t say that to each other. I did want to mention the thing about, just to get back to that opening scene, since you were starting to talk about it, Justin, a little bit, it is a very weird way of starting the episode. And we have two, not musical montages, but two montages set to specific pieces of music [crosstalk 00:17:18]
Pete: Also the Marvel flip. That was real. [crosstalk 00:17:21]
Alex: Yes. We also had the Marvel flip. [crosstalk 00:17:24] So it was a lot of wind up at the beginning there that definitely made me feel like, all right. What are we getting into? When are we going to get to the episode? But then when we did get into it and did get rolling, I was super into it. But the Harrow thing as a set up for later on-
Pete: Wait, are you saying that when you start your day, you don’t drink a glass and then immediately break it?
Alex: Well, no, I put it in my shoes whole.
Pete: Oh, okay. All right.
Justin: Wants to be taller.
Alex: I love that detail. And I love that we discover that guy later on, and he is just walking around with his Cade glassed shoes, presumably. It’s a fascinating, weird setup for a character, I think.
Justin: Well, and what I like about it, I feel like they put that scene there to be… Because that was very much a superhero movie TV show scene, I thought. Because when we get into the Oscar Isaac stuff, it’s like, what is this show? But we have that lingering in the air as a cold open I thought was very cool. And then we get into like super mild mannered shit, like Oscar Isaac, fresh off Scenes From A Marriage, is here playing Moon Knight. He’s like Peter Parker if he didn’t get bit by a radioactive spider. He’s extremely chill.
Alex: Now this is actually the second superhero movie though, where Oscar Isaac has played a part that is related back to Egypt in some way. Do you think he is better in this or was better in X-Men Apocalypse?
Justin: Hmm. Great question. Thank you.
Alex: As Apocalypse. He played Apocalypse.
Pete: X-Men Apocalypse is never the answer to the question.
Alex: Oh, but what about the part where he is interested in learning for a TV and he touches the TV and he says learning?
Justin: A lot of local schools in the area show that movie as a real deep dive into Egyptian culture.
Alex: Oh.
Pete: And also, maybe that is the way he learns, you know what I mean? You shouldn’t make fun of somebody for trying to learn.
Alex: You’re right. I’m really sorry about that. I hope he does the same thing in here. That would be like a Fudd Easter egg, a Fudd callback now that Fox is owned by Disney. I bet they’ll do it.
Justin: Yeah. Maybe Moon Knight is Apocalypse. What a great reveal that would be.
Pete: A question I had for you guys: if we were all hanging out and then suddenly a creepy kind of person walked by, and then one of us turned and had a creepy tattoo and just been like a fake being a person, and it wasn’t a part of a cult, how mad would you be? Because I feel like when the security guard did that, I felt like there should have been a little bit of like, oh, not you! Come on. We were friends, we went to lunch that one time. I can’t believe you’re secretly in this cult against me.
Alex: Well, I think his big friend guard is the guard who is not Dax Shepard, but looks exactly like Dax Shepard. And it was weirding me out the entire time. So I was glad he didn’t show up with that tattoo. The other one, it’s fine. There were so many details that I really in Oscar Isaac’s performance. And we talked about the humor before, but I think there’s little things. The way how sniveling he played Steven Grant, like when he is ordering the steak, it was just… It’s sad.
Justin: Yeah. But I like it though, because it’s such a fun contrast. And the action sequence when he’s driving out of… He wakes up in the Harrow village or wherever that is and jumps into… I love that, despite the fact he runs a sort of evil judgment cult, the still have cupcakes delivered on a perhaps daily basis.
Alex: Yep.
Pete: Well, I mean cupcakes, regardless of if you’re in an evil cult, you’re still going to get cupcakes.
Alex: There was a moment there where I thought your whole point was going to be cupcakes.
Pete: Cupcakes.
Justin: The defense rests.
Alex: What more could you say? Yeah, I don’t know what’s going on with that village. I did like the look of it. It felt very weird and interesting. And there were a couple of great shots here, just the way that they moved, more than anything. Pete mentioned this before, but when he wakes up, when he falls into what he initially thinks is the dream, but when he throws the Rubik’s cube up, it comes back down and immediately cuts to him falling on the ground. And the camera bumps a little bit, which I thought was neat. And then when he looks out at the mountain village, it’s behind him, but the camera turns in his perspective back and forth very quickly, which again was just a very neat shot. And you were mentioning the whole car chase. I think it was the same thing. The way that it kept switching angles almost every time when it switched back and forth between the different perspectives, was really cool.
Justin: Yeah. Look, it’s disorienting. It makes you feel more like Steven in the moment. I thought it was really well done, and I love that we are withheld the action in all these scenes early on. I feel like is something that someone along the chain is probably like, should we maybe see some action here? And they’re like, no, this is the whole point. And then we reveal Moon Knight at the very end. So cool. It just shows a lot of confidence, which I think is the big thing that this show has a lot of. And it’s a great start.
Alex: Well, to that point, when they do have action moments, it’s so big and shocking, like at the end of that car chase scene when the, I don’t even know what you call it, but the log truck that he knocks over, when the logs finally come down and knock the bad guys out of the way, it’s stunning and shocking. You didn’t see it coming, but just in terms of the geography of the scene, the way they set it up, going down that winding road, you could have figured it out, but you wouldn’t have seen it coming. So it’s neat. Or let’s talk about Concho, just jump over there. Just because him yelling at Steven the entire time is alarming and terrifying and kind of funny at the same time. Really love that [crosstalk 00:23:36]
Justin: Well, I love it, because he’s like big brother and he’s like, Hey. No, not you. Bring the other one. It’s very fun.
Pete: I like how frustrated he is. The part where he’s maybe not supposed to be saying stuff or whatever, then he just can’t take anymore. Like, did he just throw the gun? He just threw the gun.
Justin: Yeah.
Pete: Yeah. It’s fun. It is. It’s an interesting choice. It’s a positive choice instead of having it be like immediately this horrible thing that is controlling him. The fact that it’s almost relating to us a little bit.
Alex: There’s been a lot of backlash, I think, against Marvel humor lately, probably for the past decade, honestly, but it’s felt like a lot more recently where people point out, and we’ve certainly talked about it here on the podcast, the idea of the, whoa, did that just happen? Type joke. And I guess I was hyper aware going into this, because I was curious to see whether they’re going to go for it. And I think they did it. The humor is actually much more off kilter. Another shot that was great is when he is driving along in that sequence, and the lady drives by him and is just giving the finger like this crazed look on her face. Again, very funny, but just a weird, alarming, off-putting moment at the same time, that gives it a different flavor than other shows.
Pete: I’m upset that you talked about that lady first.
Alex: Oh, I’m sorry, buddy.
Justin: Oh, yeah. That was Pete’s-
Alex: Do you want to… We can pretend I didn’t say it.
Pete: That was one of my things to talk about.
Justin: Pete. Is there anything from the episode here… We’ll edit that out. Pete, is there anything from the episode you really liked?
Pete: I tell you what, even the weird stuff was enjoyable. The fact of he freaks out his fish with the whole two fins thing, this thing of, what happened to that fish? You know what I mean? Because unfortunately, some fish die, and it’s that old parenting thing of get the new fish, see if the kid notices or not. Did one of his personalities have to do that to him?
Justin: Yeah. I think it did. I mean, when I used to go to the St. Lawrence county fair and win a gold fish every summer and it died a week later, that’s how I learned that the life is an unending series of shock and disappointment.
Pete: I’m sorry, man.
Alex: Pete, were there any other moments, before I jump ahead of you, from the episode that you wanted to call out in particular?
Pete: Now that I’m put on the spot here-
Justin: I really loved when that old lady gave him the middle finger in that car chase. That was really fun. We’re cutting the earlier one out. Okay. We can cut it out when I just said it. Pete, is there any moment that you really liked that you wanted to highlight?
Pete: I liked when they-
Alex: Oh, before Pete goes, I just want to mention there was the lady who gave the finger as she was driving.
Justin: Oh, wait. When was that?
Alex: During the car chase.
Justin: Car chase, that’s right. That’s so funny you mentioned that.
Alex: Oh my God. I thought that was what Pete was going to… Okay. We’ll cut that out.
Pete: I did like when they caught him and he was driving backwards and it was like, oh my God.
Justin: I thought for sure you were going to say, oh, I really liked when that old lady gave him the finger.
Alex: Can I mention one thing that I didn’t love? It’s not a deal breaker for me by any means-
Pete: Razor phone, the razor flip phone. You’re like, where did that come from?
Alex: I love a razor phone. Oh my God, I had one of those back in the day.
Justin: They were so thin. I was like, I wish I could have one.
Alex: Where did he get that? How did he get that?
Justin: Antique. He’s a hero.
Alex: Oh, it’s a classic. I loved my flip phone. Every time I see somebody with it-
Justin: They had those in Egypt.
Alex: They were buried with them. Smart.
Justin: Exactly. Smart.
Alex: That’s why they aren’t around anymore. Everybody was buried with their flip phone.
Pete: You can throw them through a wall, those razors.
Justin: I’m going to be buried with my phone, full charge, lay it on a charging pad so it can keep going in case I wake up.
Alex: You know, you could put the electrodes at you like a potato, like a potato clock.
Justin: Oh, I could just fuel… My decomposing corpse can keep my phone charged?
Alex: Yep.
Justin: The dream.
Alex: The one thing that kind of bugged me a little bit, Pete’s going to flip out at me here.
Pete: Oh boy.
Alex: As much as I loved the last shot, the reveal of Moon Knight, I thought it was very cool. Maybe I’m wrong about this? The cape was weird. The cape was CGI and there was something about it that was just-
Pete: Take it easy with that tone.
Justin: Let me do you one better, or worse.
Alex: Made me furious beyond belief, is that what you-
Pete: You wanted a real cape?
Alex: Yeah.
Justin: Wow. Yes. Because I agree with you, Alex. I don’t like the costume. I feel like it’s-
Pete: Whoa, whoa. Back up. Come on.
Justin: We’re going to get full white suit, I think at some point in this season. But I feel-
Pete: You mean like when he was wearing an actual white suit and not the costume?
Alex: They’ve already revealed a look at this. We don’t know how it’s going to show up, but there’s going to be the Mr. Knight suit from the Warren Ellis run, I believe.
Justin: But I feel like this suit is a little too fakey fake, too CG, like you’re saying. And I wish it was more tactile.
Alex: Well, I think that’s the thing, is that they actually went too tactile with the look of it. They tried to make it look like mummy wrapping so you get those shadows and everything on it, and probably-
Pete: Oh, sorry. They tried to make it look a little bit like ancient Egypt, that kind of style, a little bit.
Justin: I just wish they did it and had it as real and not something that they did in post.
Alex: Yes. I agree. There’s something fakey about it. You like it, Pete? You’re saying.
Pete: Well, I say we saw it for five seconds.
Justin: It’s enough for me. I’m a fashionista.
Pete: I mean, I don’t know if it came out of him or how it all of a sudden just mummified him a little bit, or if it came from the scarab or however it worked. But I thought it was great that we finally got to see it in action.
Alex: It’s also a little weird to me though, and this is something I’m going to have to get over for the series, that Moon Knight has powers, because he doesn’t really have powers. He’s just a guy who kicks people’s asses, and that’s pretty much it.
Pete: Well, that’s the thing. Sometimes he is granted power. Sometimes he is powered up, right? Am I imagining that?
Justin: That’s only in recent comic book runs has he had any sort of mystical stuff.
Alex: No, it doesn’t count if it was recent. Yeah, it’s only been a recent thing. I think Jason Aaron’s Avengers run did it a little bit. I don’t really think that I’ve seen it anywhere else. Again, this is something that I will totally get over because it’s the MC way of doing things, and ultimately-
Pete: There’s been stuff where he’s been powered up.
Alex: Maybe, yes. I have not read absolutely everything Moon Knight, but anyway, that threw me a little bit at the end, but I still thought it was a well shot shot. It was exciting. And like you were saying, Justin, it was the right place to put it in the episode, to withhold that until there, then give us that release of like, oh yeah, we’re watching Moon Knight, not the Steven Grant show. So that’s good stuff. Other moments from the episode that you want to call out in particular, or that you thought were cool or terrible or whatever?
Justin: The thing with that statue is, he didn’t talk. He held. He could’ve easily given us, when you talked about the Marvel sense of humor, he could have given us the “it’s a living” moment from the Flintstones with an eye roll or something. He held. He’s a good fucking statue. Tippin.
Alex: Yes. There’s also something in that scene where Steven Grant’s eating a sandwich and he throws out half the sandwich or something like that.
Justin: You know, I think that happens a lot in movies and TV. And I agree with you.
Alex: It’s weird.
Justin: I’ve never thrown away a sandwich. You know what you’re getting with a sandwich. It’s one half, and then another half.
Alex: Right.
Justin: Very strange.
Pete: I did feel very seen when the guy was like, wait, it’s Sunday? No!
Justin: Because you hate Sunday.
Pete: Well, it’s that thing when you think, maybe, wait a second. Is it? And then you find out it’s Sunday. You thought you had more weekend than you… But nope.
Justin: You’re like an early Garfield.
Pete: Yeah, exactly.
Alex: I had half a joke there, but I wasn’t-
Justin: That’s enough.
Alex: I’ll come up with it later.
Justin: Half a joke is enough in the podcast world.
Alex: And it’s okay for me to just say I had half a joke and… You guys get it.
Justin: What? Oh, here, let’s take it back. Edit that part out. Okay, Alex, did you have anything about early Garfield you wanted to mention?
Alex: Oh, you mean The Amazing Spiderman 2?
Pete: Wow. Wow. Yeah.
Alex: This is why it’s half a joke is, I don’t know my filmography enough, so I couldn’t do a younger role than that. Social Network [crosstalk 00:32:29]
Pete: But the part where the old lady flips him off in the truck. Oh, that was great.
Alex: There we go. Before we wrap up here, let’s go to our vision board and talk about what we want to see happen in the second episode of Moon Knight. Justin, why don’t you go first? What is on your vision board?
Justin: More of the same. I feel like there’s a temptation, especially in Marvel shows, to have some sort of redefining moment halfway through a series. And I think, keep this pace, keep this style, the point of view. And let’s keep jumping perspectives in that way. And we’ll just get more of Mark Spector and Moon Knight as we go on. That’s what I want. Keep it up.
Alex: That reminded me of something that I really liked about the series that is, I think totally different than every other Marvel series so far, is they already revealed the villain, which I think is great. Like in Harrow, we’ve always had this, who’s the villain? Who’s the power broker? Is it Wanda? What’s going on? And not playing with that mystery element, but having other mystery elements, is great. I hope there isn’t a twist like that necessarily where it’s like, Nope, Harrow is actually a good guy and there’s somebody else.
Justin: Well, I smell that a little bit.
Alex: Oh, really? With whom?
Justin: With Harrow. He maybe is a good guy, and I think Concho might end up being the villain.
Pete: Oh, interesting.
Alex: Okay. Well, but I think that’s okay because they’re still establishing.
Justin: Been there. Yes. Agreed.
Alex: They’re there. It’s not a mystery, but just to talk about the vision board of it all, yeah. I agree with you. I want it to get really dark and weird and twisty and keep piling on the personalities and everything else. I love that shit. I loved it in Legion, I love it in other shows like that. I am a complete sucker for it. So the further down the rabbit hole they want to go, the better for me.
Pete: I want a whole episode just from the perspective of Gus, you know what I mean? Just 40 minutes of it, just to really see-
Alex: The fish?
Pete: Yeah, yeah. The fish.
Alex: So you want a fisheye view.
Pete: Yeah, exactly.
Justin: I mean, it’s going to be the same perspective.
Pete: It’s going to be a fish out of water story. I think that the thing-
Alex: Would you say you’re in the tank?
Justin: In the tank for Gus.
Pete: Yeah. I’m jumping the shark. So the thing is, I’m hoping that we get less of picking up calls that… You don’t know who Layla is. You know what I mean? Why are you going to pick up that phone call? That’s just, as far as I know, you don’t pick up a call you don’t recognize. So I hope that-
Justin: But he does know Layla.
Pete: Yeah. But he doesn’t know Layla. Marc knows Layla.
Justin: Interesting.
Pete: I mean, come on, man. Don’t pick up the call if you don’t… you can get Marc in trouble.
Justin: I’m going to call Layla if I find that phone. She called 50 times just to make sure everything’s all right. I’m not going to call Duchamp.
Alex: I’m going to dig you up just to get your flip phone and call Layla. That’s my plan.
Justin: Permission granted.
Pete: [inaudible 00:35:32] The star tech, bro. You raise up the antenna.
Justin: We agreed that we were going to be buried together. Three separate chambers.
Alex: Oh, I forgot about, oh, it’s three separate chambers? Because I signed up for sandwich style.
Justin: Grant’s half a sandwich [crosstalk 00:35:48]
Pete: Dibs on the bread piece.
Justin: I’m the salami. I’ve always known.
Alex: You get a discount for being the salami at the funeral home.
Justin: A discount on my burial? Now keep in mind, though, that means I can’t die first. One of you breads has to go first so I can lay down next.
Pete: I got it. Don’t worry about it.
Justin: Thanks, Pete.
Alex: Oh, you’re the bottom bread?
Justin: Of course he’s the bottom bread.
Pete: First to die. Yeah. Yeah.
Justin: Pete’s always been the bottom bread.
Alex: If you’d like to support this podcast or our burial fund patreon.com/comicbookclub.
Justin: It’s not going to be cheap.
Alex: Also we do a live show every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM to Crowdcast the new team. Come hang out, we would love to chat with you about Moon Knight. iTunes, Android, Spotify, Stature or the app of your choice to subscribe, listen and follow the show. @MarvelVisionPod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Comicbookclublive.com for this podcast and many more. Until next time, stay marvelous.
