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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 2 years

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SUMMON THE SUIT!

After all, the suit is its own character, isn’t it?

Let’s look at the suit. I want to talk about the suit and by god I’m going to talk about the SUIT.

Now the suit has undergone SO. MANY. CHANGES. Over the years. In fact, just about every new artist to the comic has taken their own stab at the suit. Hardly any of them seem to keep the same ideas behind it.

The original run from back in OG days was basic superhero simple. Except for the cape. They always brought back the moon motif. Which while it looked cool sometimes was just comic book crazy. I think what really brought moon knight out in those early days, design wise, was the stark white. Despite him being someone that was active at night, he was so radiant.

Originally I’ve heard that they wanted him to have a silver outfit, but silver does not translate well in comic print. Especially back in the day of difficult to print pages.

I could be wrong, it’s been a while since I’ve read through the original comics, but they never really feel the need to explain his choice in costume. White was just naturally the color of the moon and they wanted every chance they could get to remind you of the moon. The cape was originally the shroud that was on Khonshu’s statue.

Let’s explore that a little. Marc is dying alone in the desert. Up until that moment he has lived a life of poor choices. He’s probably questioned his choices more than a few times, but never really taken the time to let them dwell. He was a bad man who wanted to try to be good but didn’t know how.

He takes one step in defending someone and trying to be a good person and do what is right and not only is he left to die by his teammates, but everyone he tried to save ended up dying anyway. This isn’t a good start for him. His mental health is taking a bit of a hit on this one.

So he’s laying there dying and he hears the voice of Khonshu. He’s revived and he takes the shroud. A shroud that is potentially ancient. Wrapped around a statue of a god that was built to be worshiped. This is his link to Khonshu. His way to wrap himself up and believe. To trust that it all wasn’t just in his head. He can touch it. It’s real. It will catch him when he falls and protect him.

He keeps this cape for a very long time. The mask is off and on in the early days. The mask does not yet define him, but even though it isn’t spoken, the mask coming down was always the line between his alters.

Jake was the information gatherer and face of the people. Steven was the way to make the money and be what he should have been. Marc was the know how to fight and do what he needed to do as Moon Knight.

Many have argued that Moon Knight himself can be considered an Alter. He’s not just one of them under the mask. There is some thought that can be given to that. After all, Moon Knight is not Marc, Steven, or Jake. Either one of them could put on the mask and become the Moon Knight. It doesn’t matter who is wearing it, his fighting is the same. The job is the same. He serves his god, he takes down the bad guy, he messes up and has doubts about his abilities.

At first, it seems Marc wears the mask. Marc is usually the one to put it on and fight. He has less reason to feel bad about the things he does. He’s the one that comes back time and time again to needing something to justify his existence. Yet he only feels validation when he puts on the mask. It is the only way he can face himself. The only way that he can give himself reason to keep going. The mask starts to have importance. The mask is what starts to define Moon Knight. The mask becomes their grip on the world around them and who they are.

The outfit itself starts to change over the years. Simple white with a crescent moon on the chest. Sometimes heavily armored and lined with weapons. The darker periods in the comics came when Moon Knight’s outfit was battle hardened armor with spikes on the knuckles. A time that can also be defined as when Marc was the main one in control. When the three of them fought the most and Marc himself was suffering the most in depression and self hatred.

When Jake is most in control, the outfit tends to take on a darker tone. More black. More sleek. More basic gadgets and less high tech, but still very spike oriented.

Sadly, we don’t really have a time where we can point to that is mostly a Steven controlled suit. Steven tended to get lost a lot in the earlier days. Perhaps he was the one behind the more tech heavy suits. The ones that let him fight in style and keep more of a distance. Less…bloody.

What’s interesting is that the mask has always been the same. Formless. Shapeless. Often blending into the background to take away any hint of a face. Of a person. He is not a man under the mask, he becomes the mask. He is Moon Knight. He is not the person underneath.

This is what the other heroes don’t understand. This is where he is different from them. Spiderman is Peter Parker. Even Captain America is Steve Rogers under the mask. But who is Moon Knight? Marc, Steven, or Jake? All three of them? They are so different in personality and have different goals and ideals. Yet they can somehow all agree on how Moon Knight functions as a hero?

Later we do get into discourse when Moon Knight becomes more violent and they have the inner turmoil on how much murder they should be allowed to do. How much do they listen to Khonshu? How far is too far?

The mask becomes an identity. The number of times Marc has poked two eye holes in a formless sack and pulled it on as his mask is…actually a little embarrassing. I’m sure there were a lot of “What are we wearing?” moments from Steven and Jake.

The thing is, Marc can’t deal with himself. He can’t deal with who he is. He’d give it all to Jake and Steven, but he can’t give up control either. As long as he wears the mask he doesn’t have to acknowledge that he is Marc Spector. He is only Moon Knight. He wants Moon Knight to be a separate person. To be this person. To be the protector and good person he wishes he had always been.

We see this the most as Mr. Knight comes into play. But we’ll come back to that in a moment.

Let’s look at Shalvey/Ellis. They brought back the paranormal aspect. They wanted Moon Knight to look like a spector (ha). His cape billowed behind him like a flowing mist from another world. This was a time when the people behind the mask were most in flux.

We didn’t see the inner struggle. There was no primary driver behind the wheel. There was no Marc/Jake/Steven. Honestly, it felt the most like a period of great dissociation. They didn’t know who to be. Who they were. The only thing they knew was that they had to be Moon Knight because that was the only time when they could agree on anything, even if it was not in full.

But then you have Mr. Knight. Suave, cool, detective-esque….and absolutely full of rage and ready to beat someone brutally upside the head with a baseball bat. This is his walking around suit. This is his “I’m not Moon Knight right now” suit. This is his refusal to take off the mask, but not wanting to be that nothingness. He is a person, but not THAT person.

Mr. Knight is the desire to be something more than the ghost. He wants to walk among the people. To connect. To give himself purpose that isn’t otherworldly. Khonshu has the most say in Moon Knight, after all. Khonshu is in the shroud. Khonshu is in the shadow of the Moon Knight. Hell, Khonshu even has his own special Moon Knight costume with the bird skull and Egyptian artifacts to help kick ghost and other worldly ass. But is he in the mask?

See, I don’t think he is. I think the mask has become Marc’s. He refuses to take it off in the MacKay run. He fights to keep it on. It isn’t until Steven takes over that the mask is forced off.

As much as Marc doesn’t want to be Marc Spector, the mask is how he sees himself now. It is more his face than his real face. Steven can take it off and become Steven. Jake can take it off (and put on his mustache) and become Jake. So Marc can put it on and become who he wants to be, which is not Marc.

NOW FOR THE SHOW.

I have so much love and admiration for the team behind the costume design. How much they wanted it to be real and not just some green suit CGI. They made sure each glyph in that outfit MEANT something. Even the placement of each and every glyph. The inside of the cape is LINED with them for crying out loud. It isn’t just white, either. It’s white and silver and gray and has the same shading as the moon’s craters. COME ON.

So what does the costume mean to Marc and Steven? On first look, you think, “Oh, Khonshu gave Marc a ‘traditional’ armor to represent him”. I mean, Khonshu is also in wrappings and looks like a mummy, right? And then of course Steven is in a suit because he was told he needed a suit and he ‘doesn’t know how all this works’.

But wait! There are layers. And I mean LAYERS.

When Steven puts on the suit, he puts on a suit. This is not only what he understands is being asked of him, but what he wants to be. You see him earlier when he’s getting dressed for his date how much he wants to look good. He wants to be suave and handsome. He wants to look like a fancy desirable man.

So he builds something that will make him look and feel good. Boost his ego. He isn’t there to fight. He’s there to assess the situation first and talk it out, negotiate if needed. Then if that goes down hill, he’ll roll up his sleeves and start beating all your weak points with his fancy little poles.

It’s beautiful really. The absolutely white with the patterns to keep the form moving and not be dull. How it almost seems to sparkle and reflect the light like the actual moon. This is the moon when it is beautiful and clear. It isn’t emblazoned all over with Khonshu’s name. It’s hidden gently in the buttons holding it all together.

His mask is also so interesting. Smooth but clearly a shape underneath. It’s open and wide eyed. You can tell the face is gentle and friendly. It sees the world around it and takes it all in. Yet there is a jagged line sewing it all together down the center of his face and cutting off to the right. It isn’t in the back, either. It just starts at the top and slashes down the middle. They could have made it a smooth mask, but it’s almost given the effect of being hand sewn. Even the moon in the center of the forehead. It’s bulky and obvious. It’s as if the mask was pulled together in the front to cover his face as an afterthought.

And it would have been an afterthought for Steven. Why hide his handsome face? Steven is proud of who he is.

So why is this all important for Marc?

Marc went to the temple of Khonshu to kill himself. He was already dying and he planned to go on his own terms. In his mind, he was already dead. He was revived by Khonshu and owned by Khonshu. Khonshu is an egyptian god so obviously what ever Khonshu gave him would be themed.

Moon Knight is wrapped up like a mummy. Dead, embalmed, and prepped to go into the afterlife and encounter the field of reeds if he should balance his scales. Marc doesn’t own his body, it is Khonshu’s to own, so his name is on just about every surface of the suit. The colors are like the moon in shadow. White but mostly grays and marked with craters. He is dressed similar to Khonshu, who also appears dead and mummified.

He has the moon symbol all over and there are hints of gold wrapped in the fabric where his armor is. He is there to fight. He is there to take the hit and keep going. You cannot kill a dead man.

The mask is formless. You cannot see the man underneath. It’s wrapped and sealed fully. The wrappings go over his mouth, and the moon symbol is on his cowl in a much more gentle manner. This is the mask the mummy wears. No one will look at it and think “there is a man under that”. They will only see the dead body being forced to move by what’s left of his spirit.

We aren’t going to speculate about Jake’s costume here. I’m not sure that he has a Moon Knight version at this point. Once Steven and Marc were free, Jake may have been worried that Marc would somehow sense the suit was still there and a part of him. Marc certainly felt the suit each time it came on, after all. It crawled out of him and wrapped him up. He always looked so drained when it came off him. Forcing him to let go of the healing wrappings and make him feel the pain of being alive again.

Maybe Jake had a suit when he fought in Cairo, possibly a hint of the suit was seen in the end credits of the last episode where you catch a glimpse of the masks changing from Marc to Steven. It looked a little ragged and darker. A new moon or one waning off and about to enter into a new phase. Marc’s is the only one, after all, with a full moon symbol hidden on his chest behind the crescent.

But again, I’m not going to speculate on the costume. Let’s talk about his other outfit.

First we see the gloves. Leather and thick with crescent moons on the knuckles. He is the fist of Khonshu, after all, right? Not going to lie, those gloves will provide some padding but mostly they seem to be there for his own comfort. Marc wore gloves that were wrapped like the rest of him. Steven’s gloves were small and tight and didn’t add much except to look damn good and maybe help with some gripping.

Then we see his pants and shirt, a working man’s outfit. Skinny tie, simple jacket. Really nothing fancy at this point. His hat is a traditional flat cap. The flat cap first came about when English Parliament ordered that all people of non noble blood wear a head covering on Sundays and holidays. In more modern times it became the hat of the working-class man.

In America, New York and Chicago has it listed as still very common in working-class society. A taste of home, perhaps. It also acts as a way to hide his pretty signature curls. It pushes them back and tucks them away. You don’t have Marc’s mess or Steven’s side swoop. This is Jake’s identity. This is Jake’s style.

His jacket is pretty casual until you get to that wonderfully popped and embroidered collar. A way for him to almost hunch down into himself. To feel the collar on the back of his neck as a sort of protection. To sink down and hide in plain sight.

The embroidery is Mayan. Here, best said by the people that made the jacket (not important to this analysis but fucking cool as hell so it must be said):

“It’s all in the details! I knew the reveal of Jake Lockley needed to catch the audience eye and i wanted Jake to have a silhouette similar to the comic, with details to discuss. Here is the explanation of the collar. It was discussed that Jake would give his lines in Spanish. Being that Oscar is Guatemalan, and had given a performance like no other, I wanted to add a detail from his heritage to honor Oscar. I took the Mayan calendar symbols and throughout the collar there are Mayan symbols mixed with ancient Egyptian symbols to create a design to showcase the hold Khonshu has on these characters. I wanted to incorporate important dates to the MCU and to Oscar into the design, hence using the Mayan calendar symbols (similar to if I used astrological signs) to add a little Easter egg in the end."

But in the context of the show? Let’s dig a little. Egyptian symbols of Khonshu to show his hold, mixed with Hispanic heritage that seems to define Jake further. Either a blend of acceptance to Khonshu and this way of life, or a rebellion of Jake seeking his own identity and way of life.

There is so much individuality in these three outfits. So much inner mind on display. So much beauty. I get so excited when I just think about the complexities of his suit and mask in the comics and show.

Moon Knight is more than the man underneath. Moon Knight is the mask.

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