Warning: Spoilers for Moon Knight episode 2

Moon Knight episode 2’s identity tease risks a repeat of the hero’s origin story problem from the classic comics. Moon Knight’s early stories were criticized for their handling of Marc Spector’s condition and how it came about. A reveal about the MCU character’s past raises the possibility that it’ll head in a similar direction.

Moon Knight is known for having Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Originally, the hero had three distinct personalities: Marc Spector (a mercenary), Jack Lockley (a taxi cab driver), and Steven Grant (millionaire). Later, the comics introduced other alters for the character. Thus far, the MCU has shown off two of Moon Knight’s comic personalities. The focus has primarily been on Steven Grant, who has come to discover that the personality he shares his body with is the avatar of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. During Moon Knight episode 2, some of the details regarding Moon Knight’s past became much clearer, but a lot was left unexplored.

Related: Marvel Hinted The MCU Already Had A Different Moon Knight Before Phase 4

One line in the episode seemingly hinted at the reason why Marc developed DID in the first place. Shortly after meeting Steven, Layla (May Calamawy) asked if Steven Grant is Marc’s “latest fake identity”, which reveals that like the comic book character, Marc created fake identities during his activities as a mercenary. In the comics, this tied into the explanation for his struggles with DID. It was established that he developed his Jake Lockley and Steven Grant personas to hide his true identity, but juggling three separate lives made him unable to tell what was real from what was fake. But this interpretation was considered unsympathetic, which is why it would be a problem if the MCU were to take the same route.

Moon Knight: Marc Spector/Steven Grant in Mirror

Eventually, Marvel's Moon Knight comics moved on from this take on his origin story and updated it to something that was much more sensitive to the real-life issue. A retcon explained that Marc’s condition actually started much earlier as a result of trauma that happened during his military years. This worked better than the idea that Moon Knight only has DID because he pretended too long at being someone he wasn’t.

So far, how the MCU has handled Moon Knight’s condition has been received rather favorably, but following the path of the classic comics could prove to be problematic for the future. Layla’s comment about Marc’s aliases in Moon Knight episode 2 does point toward this being the answer to Marc’s identity mystery, but due to the concerns this would undoubtedly raise, the show may avoid using it as the basis of his origin story. That being said, having fake identities could still turn out to be one way that Marc dealt with his condition in the past.

More: Marvel Hints Marc Spector’s Moon Knight Origin Is Deeper Than You Realize

Moon Knight releases new episodes on Wednesdays on Disney+.

Key Release Dates