The MCU’s latest Phase hasn’t been its most popular.
The mega-franchise has been pumping out hits for years, but Phases Four and Five have seen a sharp downturn in quality. Certain offerings — including Spider-Man: No Way Home and several popular television shows — elevated Phase Four, but no fresh Marvel releases have quite reached the heights of Infinity War.
A few did manage to come close, however, and for some, Moon Knight was top of the list. The 2022 show was a breath of fresh air for many fans of the franchise, and its thrilling action scenes and wild story kept viewers guessing — up until the end, that is. The show’s finale remains one of the MCU’s more controversial moments, after the show made the baffling decision to skip entirely over the climactic final fight.
That’s not the only element of the show to receive criticism, either. A fresh wave of pushback is taking aim at the series, and embarrassingly comparing it to a lackluster DC release. Titans isn’t the worst thing DC has ever put out by any means, but the show certainly doesn’t pack the punch of most MCU favorites. Almost every element of Titans pales in comparison to shows like Moon Knight, so any link between Moon Knight‘s Marc Spector (or Steven Grant) and Titan‘s Nightwing is far from favorable.
Yet that’s exactly the claim one viewer made, questioning via tweet why Moon Knight’s fighting style so closely resembles Nightwing’s. The clip in question is a standout from the show, but there’s no denying its similarities to key fights featured across Titans.
The overall quality of Moon Knight is better than that of Titans — there’s no arguing that — but it’s also a bit hard to argue with Twitter user @NebsGoodTakes’ assessment. Good takes indeed.
The tweet set off a firestorm of responses from offended Moon Knight fans, who rushed to defend the show only to find themselves generally at a loss for arguments. Pushback from people wondering how else a baton fight might be filmed was quickly met by examples from actual Moon Knight comics, and we can’t deny the gap between the original and Disney’s take on the fighting style.
Quips claiming Moon Knight is just “Batman in white” and blasting the series for its “embarrassing” ending quickly flooded the comment section, but far more fans showed up to defend Moon Knight than to criticize it. Despite its flaws, it seems Marvel die-hards are more than willing to stand by one of Disney’s best MCU shows yet (even with its baffling ending) and they’re not welcoming of those comparisons to Titans. A reexamination of the scene against some popular Nightwing moments does display some parallels, but it’s not nearly enough to drag a series like Moon Knight down.
