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Tricked by a former supervillain and ally of The Punisher, one of Moon Knight’s identities loses his wealth in a bout with the crook.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Moon Knight #4, on sale now from Marvel.
For the longest while, Marvel’s Moon Knight has been compared, many times unfavorably, to DC’s iconic Caped Crusader. Their similarities are more than superficial, with both of them being street-level vigilantes with cool gadgets and varying levels of vast wealth. Batman’s recently lost much of said wealth, and Moon Knight’s now joined him in that fate, too.
Tricked by a former supervillain and ally of The Punisher, one of Moon Knight’s identities loses his wealth in a battle with the crook. This showcases how important the Steve Grant persona was for Moon Knight’s crusade, and it also makes him even closer to Batman given current events. Here’s a look at how one part of Moon Knight has now almost lost it all.
Moon Knight’s Money Problems
In Moon Knight issue #4 (by Jed Mackay, Alessandro Cappuccio, Rachel Rosenberg, and VC’s Cory Petit), the hero is blackmailed by Stuart Clarke, a former supervillain who went by the name Rampage. Clarke had at one point reformed and began to work alongside The Punisher, taking the place of his former ally Microchip. This didn’t last, however, with the crook recently returning to villainy, albeit in a more plainclothes, street-level fashion. This includes trying to wrap Moon Knight around his finger and use him in his revenge against Jigsaw.
To get Moon Knight to go along with this, Clarke tells him that he’s hacked into the bank account of his Steven Grant persona. Steven Grant was one of several identities that Marc Spector developed over the years, and he used this persona to turn Spector’s mercenary career into a lucrative fortune through smart investing. This money in turn funded Moon Knight’s superhero activities and gadgetry, making Grant vital to what Moon Knight does. Clarke removes a few million from Grant’s account, but eventually, Moon Knight shuts him down, telling him that money means little to a priest of Khonshu.
Moon Knight and Batman
As mentioned, Moon Knight and Batman are constantly being compared, so this recent storyline with Moon Knight is quite a coincidence. In the conclusion of the recent Joker War storyline, vast amounts of Bruce Wayne’s wealth were stolen by the Clown Prince of Crime. Though he isn’t flat broke, Wayne is no longer the multibillionaire, removing the street-level hero’s greatest power: wealth. Now, he fights crime in a more constrained way, lacking much of the glitz and glam that he had become known for in recent years.
Moon Knight, while wealthy himself, is no Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark. Thus, even the loss of a few million would put a cramp on his style and keep his crime-fighting from being as well funded as before. This is made worse by his lack of real connection to major Avengers heroes, so having them spot him a lump sum of cash would be difficult. As mentioned, his current responsibilities have him operating as Khonshu’s priest, but even this requires money, especially for such an esoteric religion.
The goal of Clarke siphoning away Moon Knight’s money was to weaken him and bring him to his knees, as directed by another villain targeting the Fist of Khonshu. Whether this will truly affect the hero remains to be seen. But, if he truly is anything like Batman, Moon Knight will have to scale back in his heroics to be able to stretch a dollar.
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