Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Moon Knight and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.After a compact season of six episodes, Marvel’sMoon Knightconcluded on a much more hopeful and optimistic note than initially expected—Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) and his alter Steven Grant are alive, and they save the world from the evils of the Goddess Ammit (voiced bySaba Mubarak) and her avatar Harrow (Ethan Hawke), plus they successfully negotiate their release from the hold of the Moon God Khonshu (voiced byF. Murray Abraham). While all is not right with the world, as evidenced from the mid-credits scene, the biggest triumph for Marc is the strides he makes towards healing himself.
Marc Spector struggles with dissociative identity disorder (DID), which he developed as a coping mechanism during histraumatic childhood. Marc appears to be somewhat of a loner, and he’s an enigma even to his own wife Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy). At the start ofMoon Knight, Marc and his other personality Steven are at odds with one another since Marc views Steven’s presence as an intrusion into his life and a hindrance to his mission as Khonshu’s avatar. Their relationship only begins to thaw partway through the series once Marc realizes just how helpful and useful Steven is. But it isn’t till the two of them are face to face in the Duat that they form a bond that’s akin to a brotherly one. The bond is similar to one that Marc may have formed with his real younger brother, Randall (Claudio Fabian Contreras) had he lived to adulthood. Marc literally bares his deepest, darkest secrets to Steven, something he’s obviously been unable to do in the past, and it’s no wonder that he’s distraught when Steven is trapped in the Duat. While his life finds balance once he’s lost the baggage of his other personality, Marc doesn’t feel whole without Steven.
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In the finale ofMoon Knight, Marc gives up eternal peace in the field of reeds to save his alter Steven in one of the most touching moments of the show. Despite the two characters being separate personalities in one body, the show is able to sell the relationship because of Marc’s past and trauma over losing his real brother. The MCU writers have a habit of creating pithy sayings for their characters, and it’s Marc’s turn to twist that emotional knife when he tries to sacrifice his life for Steven by saying, “you were the only superpower I ever had”. Steven was based on Marc’s childhood hero and he protected Marc in his time of need; Marc just returns the favor. The two of them then proceed to work like a well-oiled machine—Steven negotiating with Khonshu because Marc hasn’t been able to, while Marc takes over most of the Moon Knight duties. By the end of the season, Marc and Steven are best pals, glad to be together and looking happier than ever. The bond forged between Steven and Marc also alludes to how the character is working through his mental illness since he’s no longer fighting it by the end of the series. Marc isn’t magically cured of his mental illness, but he is at peace and he’s only able to do so by accepting his other personality Steven.
Marc’s journey to self-healing follows a long tradition of MCU properties with characters who have found a similar kind of happiness thanks to the relationships they form with friends and found families. Like Marc, another character who struggles with his mental health is Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan). We don’t know much about his family, but he certainly looked on Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) like a brother, protecting him and taking care of him ‘till the end of the line’. After Bucky’s near-death experience and his brainwashing at the hands of Hydra, he is a completely changed man, unable to trust his own mind since it’s been at the mercy of others for literal decades. The only person who’s able to make a dent is Steve, a man who sees Bucky for the person he used to be, not the one that he’s been moulded into. Throughout the Captain America trilogy of films, the one underlying thread is Steve’s fondness for Bucky overriding his sense of duty and how both characters anchor each other in their new lives.
It’s noticeable that Steve is only able to live his life once he knows that Bucky is on the mend and that he can lean on his other good friend Sam Wilson/Falcon/Captain America (Anthony Mackie). Sam and Bucky struggle to find common ground, but by the end ofThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they bond over their shared grief over losing Steve and the belief that he had in them.
The positive impact of finding one’s people is obvious with another established Avenger, Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson). Natasha’s journey to self-love and self-healing is directly tied to the Avengers, the group she calls her family inAvengers: Endgame. She was little more than a walking weapon till Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) showed her kindness and saved her—from the Red Room and from herself. Despite that initial interaction going unseen, we feel the after-effects on Natasha. She and Clint have a special bond that goes beyond gratitude and duty. They always save each other and that’s what shapes these two, often underwritten, characters into memorable entries in the MCU.
Natasha never had a real family, only the fake one cobbled together by the KGB as seen inBlack Widow. One of the most successful aspects of the long-awaited solo venture was Natasha reuniting with the family she grew up with. They all had such varied experiences and their initial reunion is fraught, but the bond that they shared during their brief years as a family comes to the surface and we see a completely different side to Natasha once she has her family back. It’s still a shame that Natasha’s happiness was cut short, but for a little while, hope returned to her in the form of not one but two families. It’s no wonder that inAvengers: Endgame, she is so devastated by her losses—she hasn’t just lost the majority of the Avengers, she’s seemingly lost the family who only just returned to her.
Another OG Avenger Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) had a fraught relationship with his parents, and he can best be described as self-destructive till he got together with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). One woman couldn’t rectify all of Tony’s flaws, and it wasn’t until he knew his best friend James Rhodes/War Machine (Don Cheadle) had his back inIron Man 2and that he had an entire team to fight for inThe Avengersthat Tony believed himself to be a better person and a hero.
Bucky, Natasha, and Tony, to name a few, found happiness within and without through their found families, and friendships and eventually healed through these bonds. The power of connection is so strong in the MCU that we see how the lack of it can negatively impact characters. This is particularly prevalent in the case of Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) who separated herself from the Avengers when she was at her lowest and loneliest leading to a complete breakdown and, inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, a corruption of her moral core. One conversation with Clint Barton would probably have steered her clear of such terror.
As Thor says inAvengers: Infinity War, “families can be tough”. The MCU doesn’t have a lot of examples of solid biological families—the Wakandan royal family is the best that they have; Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) has a loving family but there’s a lot of strife given his Avengers duties, so the characters seeking out other connections, finding them and growing from them is a poignant thread that resonates with many viewers.
MoonKnightis a stronger show because the central love story is about Marc and Steven realizing that they’re two sides of the same coin and have to work together to heal themselves. Black Widow, for all her ups and downs throughout the MCU, left fans with a powerful legacy because she managed to reconnect with her lost loved ones. Tony Stark’s demise, as painful as it was, felt like a fitting end because he died for the family that welcomed him and the one that he’d made with Pepper. Bucky now has a future because Steve helped him come back to himself, and Sam Wilson continued to believe in him. If someone in the MCU could just step in and have a talk with Wanda, maybe she too could find her way back to hope.
