History YMMV / MoonKnight

* ValuesResonance: The original Moench run has some surprisingly forward-looking elements given it was being serialized in the 80's. One of the more prominent examples is a story about a racist, xenophobic terrorist calling himself "Xenos" who attempts to kill a Japanese embassador due to his fear of America being invaded and polluted by foreign elements. He is revealed to be a cop who was a partner of one of Moon Knight's police contacts. In the wake of police brutality and racism undergoing more scrutiny, it's a very resonant story.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
** In the 2021 run, Moon Knight kills a pair of vampires who had been attacking people in the neighborhood, only to find the truck they were driving has four newly turned vampires in it. These vampires plead for mercy, explaining that they were kidnapped and turned against their will. Moon Knight... does just that. He even goes so far as to hire one of them to be his secretary, and then defends them against his counterpart, Hunter's Moon. This gets even more heartwarming in hindsight when we're told that vampires are actually a high priority target for elimination by Khonshu's agents.
** In the 2021 run, Moon Knight is asked to investigate an EldritchLocation that turns out to be the House of Shadows, a GeniusLoci and ''old''-school ComicBook/DoctorStrange villain (as in ''Silver Age'' old-school). After getting its attention by revealing he came armed with enough explosives to blow it to pieces, Moon Knight then gives it a speech about how he ''understands'' the House and isn't afraid of it. He offers to take the House as his own residence, if it will agree to stop preying on others. As all the House of Shadows really ever wanted was to be treated like an actual house, [[HeelFaceTurn it agrees and becomes Moon Knight's new Midnight Mission]].
** Again from the 2021 run, after Mr. Knight reveals he has [[SplitPersonality Dissociative Identity Disorder]] to his vampire secretary Reese, she sets out her support for him. It's particularly heartwarming given how he didn't think she liked him very much early on:
--->'''Reese:''' Look. I know you think you've got to prove something. To the world, to your people, to the mask-and-cape set. Maybe you do. I don't know. I'm not you. ''But you don't have to prove anything to me.'' I didn't know you before [[TheAtoner all the stuff you say you're making up for]]. I care about who you are '''now'''. ''And who you are now is '''enough'''''.\\
'''Mr. Knight:''' Thank you, Reese. ... So do we hug now or something?\\
'''Reese:''' What? Ew, no.\\
'''Mr. Knight:''' So.\\
''(Cue awkward but comforting hug)''

* MyRealDaddy: Depends on who you ask. The most commonly cited are Bill Sienkiewicz, Warren Ellis, and Charlie Huston. Chuck Dixon is probably fourth. Jeff Lemire is also a new contender, for bringing back Marc's mental illness after Ellis did away with it, and playing with it to a mind-bending genius level.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Marlene Alraune. Though Moon Knight doesn't exactly have a very big comics base ''to'' break, it's notable that if you look up her character on social media, the responses are very mixed, as few of them as they are. For some, she was a fun character in the early days compared to the female love interests of the time, especially due to her ActionGirl tendencies and willingness to defend herself; as the franchise evolved, Marlene did too and thus people enjoyed how she grew to complement Marc's increasing insanity with her own messier mental health. For others though, she was a vapid and selfish character in the early days who bore all the worst traits of women of that era in comics, particularly how she treated Marc/Steven's mental health; as the franchise evolved, her constant absence was seen as evidence that she held it back and the book would do better to do away with her completely. There doesn't appear to be much middle ground between the two extremes, with those that like her ''really'' liking her, while those who don't ''really'' not liking her. It's rather telling that when the IP was adapted into a show, and Marlene was AdaptedOut, '''no one complained.''' Interestingly, for a franchise whose main character has a gay best friend he has genuine chemistry with, Marlene ''isn't'' hated by Frenchie/Marc shippers, who instead seem fond of the idea of a OT3 situation (likely because Marlene and Frenchie are both close friends who both suffered heavily due to their relationship with Marc).

** In the 2021 run, Moon Knight is asked to investigate an EldritchLocation that turns out to be the House of Shadows, a GeniusLoci and ''old''-school ComicBook/DoctorStrange villain (as in ''Silver Age'' old-school). After getting its attention by revealing he came armed with enough explosives to blow it to pieces, Moon Knight then gives it a speech about how he ''understands'' the House and isn't afraid of it. He offers to take the House as his own residence, if it will agree to stop preying on others. As all the House of Shadows really ever wanted was to be treated like an actual house, it agrees and becomes Moon Knight's new Midnight Mission.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Marlene Alraune. Though Moon Knight doesn't exactly have a very big comics base ''to'' break, it's notable that if you look up her character on social media, the responses are very mixed, as few of them as they are. For some, she was a fun character in the early days compared to the female love interests of the time, especially due to her ActionGirl tendencies and willingness to defend herself; as the franchise evolved, Marlene did too and thus people enjoyed how she grew to complement Marc's increasing insanity with her own messier mental health. For others though, she was a vapid and selfish character in the early days who bore all the worst traits of women of that era in comics, particularly how she treated Marc/Steven's mental health; as the franchise evolved, her constant absence was seen as evidence that she held it back and the book would do better to do away with her completely. There doesn't appear to be much middle ground between the two extremes, with those that like her ''really'' liking her, while those who don't ''really'' not liking her. It's rather telling that when the IP was adapted into a show, and Marlene was AdaptedOut, ''no one complained.'' Interestingly, for a franchise whose main character has a gay best friend he has genuine chemistry with, Marlene ''isn't'' hated by Frenchie/Marc shippers, who instead seem fond of the idea of a OT3 situation (likely because Marlene and Frenchie are both close friends who both suffered heavily due to their relationship with Marc).

* FranchiseOriginalSin: One of the reasons for Max Bemis's run becoming as disliked as it was is attributed to Bemis's decision to {{Retcon}} Jake Lockley into the violent persona, with clashed heavily with Jake's previous portrayals as a gruff but otherwise sociable and nice alter that was arguably much more heroic than Marc. That said, implications of Jake being the most violent alter were already a seed that'd been planted before Bemis came on board. Creator/BrianWood's run introduced the mysterious "Lockley" persona that appeared in one issue who is heavily implied to be Jake, and he's a rather brutal KnightTemplar in his one appearance. Creator/JeffLemire's run has Marc face Jake and confront him for his tendency to resort to violence. It's likely these interpretations that inspired Bemis to go the direction he did in the first place.

** In the 2021 run, Moon Knight is asked to investigate an EldritchLocation that turns out to be the House of Shadows, a GeniusLoci and ''old''-school ComicBook/DoctorStrange villain (as in ''Silver Age'' old-school). After getting its attention by revealing he came armed with enough explosives to blow it to pieces, Moon Knight then gives it a speech about how he ''understands'' the House and isn't afraid of it. He offers to take the House as his own residence, if it will agree to stop preying on others. As all the House of Shadows really ever wanted was to be treated like an actual house, it agrees and becomes Moon Knight's new Midnight Mansion.

* AudienceAlienatingEra: Despite being a (relatively) obscure character, he's had a few.
** ''Marc Spector: Moon Knight'', despite being Moon Knight's longest running book to date at 60 issues, is also one of his most obscure and least referenced for this reason. The book was mired in the worst elements of UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicbooks and involved a plot about Marc, Frenchie, and Marc's [[ComicbookDeath not-quite-dead]] brother being descendants of the Knights Templar and involved in a conspiracy involving two warring groups of immortal demons fighting each other for [[VaguenessIsComing unclear reasons.]] Subsequent writers tended to ignore this story entirely. It did not help that this story was the final arc of the book and ended with an abrupt death of Moon Knight himself in #60 (March, 1994), just as he was trying to get some answers. When he was mysteriously resurrected in 1998, he was unaware of what had happened to him and had seemingly forgotten the events leading to his death.
** Creator/BrianMichaelBendis's short lived run on the book. [[SpiritAdvisor Khonshu]] is suddenly replaced by Marc having visions of Comicbook/CaptainAmerica, Comicbook/SpiderMan and Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}, Marc trying to mimic other superheroes, and a nonsensical plot involving Ultron's disembodied head that went [[AbortedArc nowhere]][[note]]The plot line involving the head was intended to serve as a tie in to Comicbook/AgeOfUltron, a Bendis helmed crossover event, but due to the event being postponed to make room for Comicbook/AvengersVsXMen any sort of connection the two books might have had would be lost on the reader, so the tie-in material was hastily written out, leaving readers scratching their heads as to the plots inclusion.[[/note]]. Ironically, the run was actually the first to fully canonize the idea of Marc having DID, which would become a foundational part of the character under later writers.
** Max Bemis's run was already off to a rocky start by merit of following the beloved Ellis and Lemire takes on the character, but the controversial choices that the author made quickly soured his run to members of the fanbase, with decisions including ignoring Marc's increasingly popular Mr. Knight persona, inexplicably reviving Khonshu despite his defeat being a driving force in the latter half of the previous volume, and providing a SoftReboot by way of bringing Marlene and Frenchie back into Marc's life despite previous authors making it very clear that they had washed their hands of him because of his dangerous lifestyle and self-destructive behavior. [[spoiler:The matter of Marlene and his Jake Lockley identity having a daughter, kept secret from Marc and his other personalities, is something most fans would like to ignore.]]

*** But even Deadpool has plenty of nuance to his character in the comics that, ironically ''like Moon Knight'', are arguably glossed over and generalized in his adaptation.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Marlene Alraune. Though Moon Knight doesn't exactly have a very big comics base ''to'' break, it's notable that if you look up her character on social media, the responses are very mixed, as few of them as they are. For some, she was a fun character in the early days compared to the female love interests of the time, especially due to her ActionGirl tendencies and willingness to defend herself; as the franchise evolved, Marlene did too and thus people enjoyed how she grew to complement Marc's increasing insanity with her own messier mental health. For others though, she was a vapid and selfish character in the early days who bore all the worst traits of women of that era in comics, particularly how she treated Marc/Steven's mental health; as the franchise evolved, her constant absence was seen as evidence that she held it back and the book would do better to do away with her completely. There doesn't appear to be much middle ground between the two extremes, with those that like her ''really'' liking her, while those who don't ''really'' not liking her. Interestingly, for a franchise whose main character has a gay best friend he has genuine chemistry with, Marlene ''isn't'' hated by Frenchie/Marc shippers, who instead seem fond of the idea of a OT3 situation (likely because Marlene and Frenchie are both close friends who both suffered heavily due to their relationship with Marc).

** ''Marc Spector: Moon Knight'', despite being Moon Knight's longest running book to date at 60 issues, is also one of his most obscure and least referenced for this reason. The book was mired in the worst elements of UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicbooks and involved a plot about Marc, Frenchie, and Marc's [[ComicbookDeath not-quite-dead]] brother being descedants of the Knight's Templar and involved in a conspiracy involving two warring groups of immortal demons fighting each other for [[VaguenessIsComing unclear reasons.]] Subsequent writers tended to ignore this story entirely. It did not help that this story was the final arc of the book and ended with an abrupt death of Moon Knight himself in #60 (March, 1994), just as he was trying to get some answers. When he was mysteriously resurrected in 1998, he was unaware of what had happened to him and had seemingly forgotten the events leading to his death.
** Creator/BrianMichaelBendis's short lived run on the book. [[SpiritAdvisor Khonshu]] is suddenly replaced by Marc having visions of Comicbook/CaptainAmerica, Comicbook/SpiderMan and Comicbook/{{Wolverine}}, Marc trying to mimic other superheroes, and a nonsensical plot involving Ultron's disembodied head that went [[AbortedArc nowhere]][[note]]The plot line involving the head was intended to serve as a tie in to Comicbook/AgeOfUltron, a Bendis helmed crossover event, but due to the event being postponed to make room for Comicbook/AvengersVsXmen any sort of connection the two books might have had would be lost on the reader, so the tie-in material was hastily written out, leaving readers scratching their heads as to the plots inclusion.[[/note]]. Ironically, the run was actually the first to fully canonize the idea of Marc having DID, which would become a foundational part of the character under later writers.
** Max Bemis's run was already off to a rocky start by merit of following the beloved Ellis and Lemire takes on the character, but the controversial choices that the author made quickly soured his run to members of the fanbase. Decisions including ignoring Marc's increasingly popular Mr. Knight persona, inexplicably reviving Khonshu despite his defeat being a driving force in the latter half of the previous volume, and providing a SoftReboot by way of bringing Marlene and Frenchie back into Marc's life despite previous authors making it very clear that they had washed their hands of him because of his dangerous lifestyle and self-destructive behavior. [[spoiler:The matter of Marlene and his Jake Lockley identity having a daughter, kept secret from Marc and his other personalities, is something most fans would like to ignore.]]
* BaseBreakingCharacter: Marlene Alraune. Though Moon Knight doesn't exactly have a very big base ''to'' break, its notable that if you look up her character on social media, the responses are very mixed, as few of them as they are. For some, she was a fun character in the early days compared to the female love interests of the time, especially due to her ActionGirl tendencies and willingness to defend herself; as the franchise evolved, Marlene did too and thus people enjoyed how she grew to compliment Marc's increasing insanity with her own messier mental health. For others though, she was a vapid and selfish character in the early days who bore all the worst traits of women of that era in comics, particularly how she treated Marc/Steven's mental health; as the franchise evolved, her constant absence was seen as evidence that she held it back and the book would do better to do away with her completely. There doesn't appear to be much middle ground between the two extremes, with those that like her ''really'' liking her, while those who don't ''really'' not liking her. Interestingly, for a franchise who's main character has a gay best friend he has genuine chemistry with, Marlene ''isn't'' hated by Frenchie/Marc shippers, who instead seem fond of the idea of a OT3 situation (likely because Marlene and Frenchie are both close friends who both suffered heavily due to their relationship with Marc).

** The MaybeMagicMaybeMundane aspect of Moon Knight's characterisation. For some fans, he's more interesting if you think he's just a normal man who's got serious Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Khonshu is just a hallucination. Others however prefer the idea that he's really possessed by Khonshu and is acting as his avatar. Some writers play up the ambiguous nature while other (such as Creator/WarrenEllis and the writers following) instead go with things being explicitly the latter. For some, the former idea makes him a somewhat-positive example of mental illness in comics since while he struggles with it and is quite violent he's still a heroic figure, while others find the 'he's crazy' explanation to be somewhat overplayed by certain writers and see it as essentially ComicBook/{{Deadpool}} without the fun.

* CrazyIsCool: Moon Knight, a lunatic with split personalities who flies around in a ''moon-shaped helicopter'' and regularly battles supernatural creatures.

* FranchiseOriginalSin: One of the reasons for Max Bemis's run becoming as disliked as it was is attributed to Bemis's decision to {{Retcon}} Jake Lockley into the violent persona, with clashed heavily with Jake's previous portrayals as a gruff but otherwise sociable and nice alter that was arguably much more heroic than Marc. That said, implications of Jake being the most violent alter was already a seed that's been planted before Bemis came on board. Creator/BrianWood's run introduced the mysterious "Lockley" persona that appeared in one issue who is heavily implied to be Jake, and he's a rather brutal KnightTemplar in his one appearance. Creator/JeffLemire's run has Marc face Jake and confront him for his tendency to resort to violence. It's likely these interpretations that inspired Bemis to go the direction he did in the first place.

** In the 2021 arc, Moon Knight is asked to investigate an EldritchLocation that turns out to be the House of Shadows, a GeniusLoci and ''old''-school ComicBook/DoctorStrange villain. After getting its attention by revealing he came armed with enough explosives to blow it to pieces, Moon Knight then gives it a speech about how he ''understands'' the House and isn't afraid of it. He offers to take the House as his own residence, if it will agree to stop preying on others. As all the House of Shadows really ever wanted was to be treated like an actual house, it agrees and becomes Moon Knight's new Midnight Mansion.
* JerkassWoobie: Both Black Spectres. The first one had his life and reputation ruined by his stint as a supervillain than lost his son, driving him insane and sending him on another rampage. The second one is so desperate to be unique and special like Moon Knight he becomes a supervillain.

** There exists a popular edited image of Moon Knight walking down some stairs, saying: [[https://i.imgur.com/LoZOSta.jpg "I know you're here, Dracula, you big fucking nerd. Where's my goddamn money?"]] Frequently used by fans of works involving vampires, such as ''VideoGame/{{Castlevania}}''. This eventually ballooned to [[https://i.imgur.com/7uSM5RZ.jpg memetically]] making Dracula Moon Knight's ArchEnemy in spite of the two never, if not barely, interacting.

** A big reason for why the Max Bemis and Jacen Burrows run didn't succeed the way the last two runs did was in large part this. Even while they were RevisitingTheRoots and ignoring the popular SoftReboot runs Ellis and Lemire had written, there was a ''lot'' of changes from the older content. Notably, they changed Marc's split personalities' ''personalities''; beforehand, Marc Spector was explicitly the violent and self-destructive one, which made things difficult for Marc since that was his ''primary'' alter, while Jake Lockley was a working class rough-around-the-edges NiceGuy who, during a time where he was the primary alter, was depicted as a much more typical hero and TheAtoner for Marc's violence. Now for some reason, Jake was explicitly the AntiHero personality who had [[spoiler:forced Marlene into a loveless relationship after getting her pregnant and never telling Marc]], while Marc is written more like TheGenericGuy in comparison. It didn't help that the run also gave Marlene serious Chickification, retconning her into a DamselInDistress who Marc supposedly always had to save, rather than how she had previously been written as an ActionSurvivor CombatPragmatist who regularly pulled off DamselOutOfDistress, who was InLoveWithYourCarnage but aware of how self-destructive it was.
* ToughActToFollow: Max Bemis and Jacen Burrows have quite the challenge due to coming off the heels of Warren Ellis and Jeff Lemire's runs, a difficulty Burrows acknowledges. This is not helped by the fact that they've quietly ignored those previous stories in favor of RevisitingTheRoots, even [[spoiler:reviving Khonshu, whose death was a major event in Lemire's run.]]

** His speech to the second Black Specter sums it up best:
-->''Let me tell you a thing about me. People who love me suffer and die. I never want to be loved. [[HeartbrokenBadass That's why I always win.]]''

* ValuesResonance: The original Moench run has some surprisingly forward-looking elements given it was being serialized in the 80's. One of the more prominent examples is a story about a racist, xenophobic terrorist calling himself "Xenos" who attempts to kill a a japanese embassador due to his fear of America being invaded and polluted by foreign elements. He is revealed to be a cop who was a partner of one of Moon Knight's police contacts. In the wake of police brutality and racism undergoing more scrutiny, it's a very resonant story.