Moon Knight Proves How Weak Almost Every MCU Villain Is

Warning: SPOILERS for Moon Knight episode 1!

Moon Knight subtly proves how weak almost every Marvel Cinematic Universe villain is by not mentioning any of them in a list of Earth's biggest threats. The Phase 4 Disney+ show introduces another major threat to humanity through Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow, a cultish leader for the Egyptian goddess Ammit. Moon Knight episode 1 only provides a few teases of their villainous plans, which include eradicating humanity of anyone who has or will do anything evil in the eyes of Ammit. While this requires killing millions (if not billions) of people, the justification is that the world will be a safer place without these evil people.

Ammit and Arthur Harrow's quest to rid Earth of all evil comes after the MCU has seen dozens of villains rise up. Moon Knight's place in the MCU timeline even comes sometime after Avengers: Endgame and the Avengers reversing Thanos' devastating elimination of half of all life. While Thanos' snap wiped out people randomly, Ammit wants to take out just those that she views are evil or could potentially do something evil. Arthur Harrow attempts to explain the benefit of Ammit's plan during Moon Knight episode 1, too, as he mentions that the Egyptian goddess could've stopped some of Earth's greatest travesties before they even happened. In doing so, Moon Knight insulted the rest of the MCU's villains.

When talking about the greatest threats that Ammit could've stopped, Arthur lists Hitler, Nero, the Armenian genocide, and Pol Pot. There's no question that the man responsible for the Holocaust and World War II, the great Roman emperor, a move to eliminate the Armenian people, and the leader of Cambodia's communist party were major threats, as these men and events combined to kill tens of millions of people. It is also a great reminder of how weak most of the MCU villains are in comparison. Most of them have not even come close to having the same type of impact on the world that these four examples did.

Moon knight villain arthur makes thanos endgame plan worse

Looking at the MCU's villains, they are incredibly weak in comparison to the threats Arthur mentions in Moon Knight episode 1. This is due to several factors, ranging from their end goals being much smaller than global domination or mass genocide to just how unsuccessful they are in achieving their goals. The MCU heroes have always managed to stop the villains before they would become powerful enough to even be considered in the same breath as Hitler, Nero, Pol Pot, and the Armenian genocide. Avengers: Infinity War's Thanos is truly the only one who has an argument to be on that list, as he did win and made billions of people vanish for five years.

This isn't necessarily a huge knock on the MCU for not having villains on par with Hitler or Nero. Most MCU projects can't support a villain with such ambitions and actually let them get to a place where they're that big of a threat. That's why Marvel Studios traditionally goes with smaller threats like Iron Monger or Vulture, or that they ensure those with grand ambitions - like Ultron and Hydra - are defeated before anything too bad happens. Moon Knight just serves as a friendly reminder that no matter how menacing, dangerous, or powerful the MCU villains are, they still will always pale in comparison to the real-life tragedies in human history - unless Marvel Studios eventually takes a big swing in the opposite direction.

More: When Moon Knight Takes Place In The MCU Timeline

Moon Knight releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.