As a caped and costumed vigilante famed for his darker approach to superheroism, Marvel’s Moon Knight has been fending off comparisons to DC’s Batman almost since the character first debuted in August 1975.
Outside of several superficial similarities, though, the two brutal crimefighters couldn’t be more different. For one thing, Marc Spector’s dissociative identity disorder yields a number of different personalities that each possess their own unique foibles and characteristics, whereas Bruce Wayne’s life is strictly split in two.
Moon Knight’s live-action debut is on the way to Disney Plus next month, and it would be an understatement to say that fans are getting increasingly excited over seeing what Oscar Isaac brings to the table in a project described by no less an authority than Kevin Feige as a major tonal shift for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
However, lead writer and executive producer Jeremy Slater was quick to shut down any mention of Batman during an interview with Empire, outlining that Moon Knight is an altogether different animal.
“It was never a comparison I was interested in making. Batman has an 80-year head start on us: you’re not going to beat Batman at his own game. We’ve seen that side of Moon Knight [in some comics] as a playboy philanthropist, throwing moon-shaped boomerangs, flying around in a moon-shaped plane, but I don’t think that’s the coolest possible version of the character.”
It’s a touch ironic that Moon Knight hits our screens just a few weeks after The Batman comes to theaters, which means that the two projects are almost certainly going to be pitted against each other in certain circles, even if Slater is keen to keep the Dark Knight at arm’s length.
