Moon Knight Is Officially the MCUs First Jewish Superhero. There Could Be More Soon.

The following story contains some spoilers for Moon Knight Episode 5, “Asylum.”

For anyone familiar with the Marvel Comics origin and history of Moon Knight—and that of Marc Spector, the superhero’s primary identity—the reveal in Episode 5, “Asylum,” of the Disney+ Moon Knight series that Marc (Oscar Isaac) was raised Jewish and comes from a Jewish family should come as no surprise. For most of the character’s long history (he was first introduced back in 1975), this has been his story. This has been his background. In fact, in flashback scenes featured in Jeff Lemire’s 2016 comic run on the character—scenes that largely influenced specific moments in “Asylum”—Marc’s father is depicted as a Rabbi. In other runs—depending on when, specifically, the story has been set—his father has been depicted as someone who escaped Nazi persecution.

The Disney+ series didn’t get into all that, but just seeing a character clearly and canonically being depicted as being from a background that the ever-expanding Marvel Cinematic Universe somehow had, to this point, ignored, goes a long way. “He’s this Jewish Chicago guy who is enslaved to an Egyptian god,” Isaac told USA Today in an interview released before Moon Knight began airing. Isaac, like the show, doesn’t make a big deal of it—and that’s the best kind of depiction. It’s not self congratulatory, or overly attention-drawing; it just is how it is.

I was raised in a Jewish family, and while I don’t have the powers of the Moon God Khonshu at my disposal, I have sat through multiple Shivas in my day after friends and family members have died, and I’ve had the sorts of dinners and family interactions that we see a young Marc have. It’s not something that’s finds attention overly drawn to it—it’s just the way things are. And to see that in the formative days of a major heroic character goes a long way.

Is Marc Spector/Moon Knight Jewish?

Marc’s comic history has always found him with a Jewish background and a Rabbi father. In one 2019 Moon Knight storyline, he finds out that someone who he believes to be another Rabbi and a close friend of his family is actually an active Nazi, going by a different deceptive name, still hunting and targeting Jewish people. Marc disovers this and fights him before the villain escapes; his Jewish background finding ways into his storylines is not uncommon.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Moon Knight changes things up ever so slightly. Marc’s dad does not seem to be a Rabbi, but Marc and his family are still absolutely Jewish; when we see a flashback to the time when Marc’s younger brother drowned, devastating his entire family, we see the Shiva—a formalized Jewish mourning ceremony that lasts seven days—for his brother, and, later, see a crushed Marc, wearing his yarmulke, outside his family’s house. Marc has arrived for the funeral of his late abusive mother, but cannot bring himself to go inside.

What is a Shiva?

“Shiva” is a Hebrew word that means “seven.” If you ever hear about Jewish people “sitting Shiva,” that is a seven-day period of formalized mourning held by the immediate family of the person who has died. It officially begins just after the burial, and lasts for a week from there. The idea of sitting Shiva isn’t always necessarily an occasion of sadness; it can be seen as an opportunity for people to come see those grieving and remember the late friend or family member, eat good food, and tell fun stories to celebrate the life of the person who has been lost.

One quick pop culture reference for you: the 2021 movie Shiva Baby—an underrated film that felt like a mixing of Uncut Gems and Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man and was one of our favorite movies of last year—takes place almost entirely at a Shiva.

The MCU has had the chance to feature Jewish characters before, and will have the chance again.

The fact that Marc Spector/Moon Knight is the MCU’s first Jewish superhero is a bit surprising, considering Wanda and Pietro Maximoff—a pair of characters who in their own comic origin stories are almost always Jewish—were introduced back in Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 2014 and expanded upon in the following year’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. But these characters were never explicitly made to be Jewish, instead just being from the vaguely Eastern European fictional nation of Sokovia.

Part of this choice could be chalked up to the fact that these two characters are typically depicted as the the children of Marvel’s most famous Jewish character: Magneto. Just like his depiction in the Fox X-Men movies (played by both Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender), Magneto/Erik Lensherr is a Jewish man who survived the Holocaust as a boy. This experience shapes him into the villain/anti-hero/hero (?) that we all know—he knows about persecution, and when parties of power begin to persecute against the Mutants, he knows how he now wants to react.

Because until recently the MCU did not have the rights to use Magneto (or any of the X-Men) this could be a reason why Wanda and Pietro’s connection to his background was downplayed.

Now that the Marvel Cinematic Universe has gained the rights to use these X-Men characters, there’s a good chance that we could see these roots touched on again. Any X-Men story will almost certainly feature a Magneto, and it’s possible that Wanda could learn her relation to Magneto in some way, shape or form. Another popular X-Men character, Kitty Pryde, and the Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm/The Thing, both figures who will likely be in future MCU projects, are historically depicted as Jewish.

We will see how they play it from here—but Marvel is not skirting around it right now.

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