This article contains Moon Knight episode 2 spoilers.
Moon Knight Episode 2
So far, Marvel’s Moon Knight hasn’t exactly been as heavy on the Marvel Comics and MCU references as some of the other Disney+ shows have been. The first episode was a pretty standalone affair, and one which made it clear that it was departing from the traditional comics vision of Moon Knight in some pretty substantial ways.
But Moon Knight episode 2 drops a couple of interesting ones if you know where to look. They aren’t Earth-shattering, and they aren’t the kind that are going to change the face of the MCU, but if you’re a Moon Knight fan, there are some really fun nods in here.
Crawley
OK, technically this happened in episode one, as well, but I didn’t catch it at the time. The gold statue performance artist? If you check the closing credits, he is credited as “Crawley.” As in Bertrand Crawley, a well-spoken but down-on-his-luck fella who likes a fair amount of booze and the occasional illicit substance. Crawley has been around since Moon Knight’s earliest solo adventure in Marvel Spotlight #28, and is actually one of Marc Spector’s trusted agents, often providing Moon Knight with key information about what’s going down on the street.
Come to think of it, is it possible that Marc planted Crawley here specifically to keep an eye on Steven Grant, and fill him in on what he gets up to when he isn’t being Marc? God, just typing that gave me a headache. With Crawley, the presence of the name DuChamp in Marc’s phone in episode 1, and the arrival of Layla, we now have two key characters from Moon Knight’s Marvel Comics adventures at least now existing in the MCU.
Storage Unit 43
While I’ve been unable to find any important Marvel significance related to Moon Knight for the #43 (nor the 502 of his apartment number), if you scan the QR code on the door of Marc’s storage unit, you’re taken to a digital version of Werewolf by Night #33, which was the second appearance of Moon Knight in the comics! While that comic doesn’t seem to have much to do with the story of this series (so far), it’s still fun that this is the second episode and they gave us the second appearance.
File Number 1975
When Steven is in custody with the bogus police officers sent by Arthur Harrow, he’s shown a digital file containing evidence of some of the bad stuff that Marc Spector has been involved in. The bodies at the archaeological site visible in that image are almost certainly related to Moon Knight’s origin story, which saw the mercenary indirectly involved in a slaughter of archaeologists. But the file number for his case begins with “1975” which is the year Moon Knight first appeared in Marvel Comics.
Also, if you look closely, it says “assigned agent: Nick Pepin.” While Nick isn’t a comic book character, he does work in production and development for Marvel Studios, and has worked on all of the Disney+ shows so far!
Marc’s Passport
It’s not a big deal, but it’s a cool detail. Marc’s passport does indeed list Chicago, Illinois as his birthplace, just as it is in the comics.
Khonshu
Khonshu appearing to tell Steven to just do random acts of violence to Arthur Harrow is pretty in keeping with how the character has been portrayed in the comics for about the last 15 years or so. Prior to 2005’s Moon Knight comic series by Charlie Huston and David Finch, Khonshu wasn’t much of a presence, but then he became a kind of dark conscience for Marc, encouraging violence and revenge at every opportunity.
The Moon Knight Legacy
This is another fairly recent development from the comics, but it makes sense that Khonshu would have had other avatars in the years (and centuries) before Marc Spector. We wrote about some of them here.
Mr. Knight
While it’s played for laughs here, “the suit” that Steven summons is the Mr. Knight aspect of Moon Knight, first created by Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey. Mr. Knight has been appearing in recent issues of Moon Knight, as well. That’s a cool look, ain’t it?
Bob Dylan
If you listen closely when Harrow is showing Steven around his cult headquarters, you can hear the Bob Dylan song that opened the first episode, “Every Grain of Sand” playing as diegetic music. This was from Dylan’s period where he was making spiritual music after he became a born again Christian, and this song’s themes of devotion to a higher power make a lot of sense for both Marc Spector and Arthur Harrow.