*Spoilers aplenty.*
Okay, so now that we’ve laid the groundwork discussing the heroes of Moon Knight, it’s high time we start talking about them together. And at the top of the list is absolutely Marc and Steven. These two are so interesting to watch together that I sometimes get distracted from how great other things about the show are because I’m just focused on these two.
Quick note before we get started: while I have some thoughts about Jake that I’ll discuss later, this post is just going to be about Steven and Marc, for the simple reason that they don’t appear to have a relationship with Jake yet. It seems neither of them know about him, and from what little we’ve seen of him, we don’t have much context about his feelings towards either of them.
Steven’s introduction to the Moon Knight activities of his headmate, along with the fact that he even has headmates, is rough. He wakes up in a foreign country with his jaw dislocated, soon finds himself knee-deep in a crowd of cultists, and proceeds to black out several times, continuing to wake up in increasingly-frantic situations. And all the while, he has Khonshu in his head, grumbling that Steven is “an idiot” and ordering him to “surrender the body.”
It’s notable then, that when he officially meets Marc (in the middle of another incredibly-dangerous situation,) Marc is actually really gentle and patient with Steven. There’s a jackal beast trying to bust the door down and the only way for them to survive is for Marc to front and don the Moon Knight suit, so time is decidedly of the essence. But Marc doesn’t insult Steven or yell at him. He explains, as calmly and succinctly as he can, that he can protect them both.
That’s because, between the two of them, Steven’s always been the innocent one, the naïve one. While it seems Marc took their mother’s abuse when they were children, Steven got to have a happy, unfearful childhood. Many of Marc’s actions are to shield Steven, both physically and emotionally, and he doesn’t realize that that’s actually kind of patronizing.
Once Steven starts to learn about Marc, however, he’s not content to go back to ignorance. He wants to be involved. He and Marc jockey over control of the body, with Marc arguing that he has the skills and the temperament to get them through the fight with Harrow and Steven protesting that he doesn’t want Marc using the body to hurt people. They bicker and snipe at each other, and whenever one is in control of the body, he doesn’t relinquish it easily. Even though Layla is an invaluable ally in Egypt, her presence also complicates things between them further, because Steven is immediately taken with Layla and Marc doesn’t want him having anything to do with his ex-wife (shout-out to the moment in episode 4 where Marc takes control of their hand while Steven is fronting and sucker punches them, hee!)
Ultimately, though, they’re clearly better together. Marc is handier in a fight and a better strategist, but Steven’s knowledge of ancient Egypt is critical, as is his knack for solving puzzles. The both learn, albeit with Layla’s urging, that neither of them can accomplish their mission without the other, and they need to take turns with the body as the ever-evolving situation demands.
Their relationship makes its biggest leap forward when they’re shot by Harrow and wind up in the afterlife. Through their perspective, it looks like an asylum, and they’re forced to relive/witness a number of traumatic memories to get through it. I love that both of them have a body in the asylum and that the first thing they do when they find each other is hug. As painful as it is, I understand why Marc doesn’t want Steven to see all the horrors he’s suffered, and it’s beautiful when Steven gently insists to Marc that his little brother’s death wasn’t Marc’s fault. I like how they try to protect each other sailing across the Duat, and when Steven is knocked overboard and taken by the sands, I love that Marc goes back for him, saying, “You’re the only real superpower I ever had.” When they make it back to Earth and the body, they’re so much more at peace with themselves and in-sync with each other. Whereas before, Marc would walk a little apart from Layla before ceding the front to Steven, not wanting her to see, they now switch with abandon, helping each other out and having each other’s back in the final fight.
The overall plot of the show can get a little jumbled at times, but when it comes to the throughline of Marc and Steven’s relationship with each other, the series consistently knocks it right out of the park.
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