Moon Knight: who is Arthur Harrow?
Moon Knight
The serial sector of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is about to be enriched with a dark figure far from the typical canons of Marvel's heroism: Moon Knight. The series starring Oscar Isaac will debut on Disney + starting March 30, and following the example of previous productions (WandaVision, Loki, The Falcon & The Winter Soldier and Hawkeye) will keep us company with one episode a week. In the trailer released a few days ago, we saw not only Marc Spector in action, but also what potentially will be the villain of the series: Arthur Harrow.Played by Ethan Hawke, Arthur Harrow appears to be an almost mystical figure, a holy man, a role that is subtly inserted within a narrative context in which cultism has a particular root. What is surprising about the choice of opponent for Moon Knight is the fact that, in the character's editorial history, Arthur Harrow is probably one of the least incisive opponents of the Fist of Khonshu.
Who is Arthur Harrow?
Subscribe now to Disney + for € 8.99 per month or € 89.90 per year
From comics to Marvel Cinematic Universe: Arthur Harrow
if (jQuery ("# crm_srl-th_culturapop_d_mh2_1"). is (": visible")) {console.log ("Edinet ADV adding zone: tag crm_srl-th_culturapop_d_mh2_1 slot id: th_culturapop_d_mh2"); } Arthur Harrow's first appearance takes place in Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu # 2, in 1985. This six-issue miniseries is central to the character's editorial life, redefining his supernatural powers, introducing synergy with the phases of the moon, but above all it is the first time that attempts have been made to make sense of Marc Spector's fragmented psyche. Not a small aspect, if we consider that what we saw in the trailer for the Disney + series seems to focus a lot on this trait of the character.Durate Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu, Marc Spector is in a complex parenthesis of his existence. Spector has decided to give up his life as a vigilante, recreating his life as a billionaire, however his dreams are haunted by the visions of Khonshu, who does not intend to give up his herald. It is during one of these manifestations that the divinity pushes him to go to Central America to hunt down the mysterious Professor Arthur Harrow.
Arthur Harrow is a famous geneticist, specialized in research on the origin and management of ache. His studies of him have made him a celebrity, so much so that he is nominated for Nobel Prizes. A candidacy that is questioned by a colleague of hers, Victoria Grail, who discovers how Harrow's studies are based on research carried out by Nazis in concentration camps, using Jewish prisoners as guinea pigs. This thesis is confirmed by the discovery of a copious documentation of Nazi experiments, miraculously escaped from the Nuremberg Trials, which had sanctioned the destruction of these data.
if (jQuery ("# crm_srl-th_culturapop_d_mh3_1") .is (": visible")) {console.log ("Edinet ADV adding zone: tag crm_srl-th_culturapop_d_mh3_1 slot id: th_culturapop_d_mh3"); } Having learned of these suspicions, the Nobel Committee sends the Grail to investigate the laboratories of Arthur Harrow, located in the Yucatan. Here the woman is kidnapped by Omnium, a company that secretly hired Harrow and provided him with the results of Nazi research for his studies, only to then blackmail him to push him to create a serum to create soldiers gifted immune to pain and endowed with superhuman strength and violence. . A distorted version of the Super Soldier Serum that turned Steve Rogers into Captain America, a detail we should keep in mind.
Moon Knight's arrival forces Arthur Harrow to blow up his lab, killing all of his own soldiers just to cover their tracks. Harrow is welcomed back by OMNIUM, which promises him new laboratories to work in, but curiously, neither the scientist nor the mysterious organization appear anymore within the Moon Knight stories. Curiously, Moon Knight: The Fist of Khonshu, despite being a fundamental chapter in the definition of the character, is one of the most unobtainable runs, with no subsequent reprints, which has contributed to further making Arthur Harrow one of the least incisive villains in the history of Moon. Knight.
Moon Knight and Harrow: how will they clash?
Reason why, seeing him as Moon Knight's opponent in the upcoming Disney + series is perplexing. A presence that also allows some speculation about the inclusion of the series in the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.if (jQuery ("# crm_srl-th_culturapop_d_mh4_1"). Is (": visible")) { console.log ("Edinet ADV adding zone: tag crm_srl-th_culturapop_d_mh4_1 slot id: th_culturapop_d_mh4"); } We know that Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu is the narrative base that the series will draw on most. The run by Alan Zenetez and Chris Warner, in fact, is the moment in which the dissociative identity disorder of Marc Spector is addressed with particular attention, the result of his difficulty in managing his various aliases, combined with Khonshu's invasive presence in the mind. of him. In Fist of Khnoshu, this disorder is mistakenly associated with schizophrenia, but in the trailer for Moon Kinght it can be seen how certain attitudes of Oscar Isaacs seem to refer to this pathology.
The presence of Arthur Harrow in Moon Knight and his previous comics may also bring Sharon Carter back into action, in her new role as Power Broker. In The Falcon & the Winter Soldier we saw how the search for a new formula of the Supersoldier Serum was in Carter's aims, and the entry on the scene of a character who has carried out research in the field could be a link between these two aspects. Still in reference to comics, Harrow's Nazi-origin research could see an echo in the Marvel Cineamtic Universe, where we have already seen how, in a sort of parallel with the Paperclip Program, Nazi forbidden science was secretly saved, as in the case of Armin Zola (Captain America: The Winter Soldier), even going so far as to undermine the solidity of institutions such as the SHIELD, compromised by Hydra.
Yet, the trailer for Moon Knight does not value the role of scientist of Arthur Harrow, but he paints him more as a guru.
The suspicion is that a crasis has taken place between Arthur Harrow and another villain of the Moon Knight, who appeared in the recent stories of the character: Sun King. A former patient of Ravencroft Asylum, Sun King is an adept of Ra, the Egyptian sun god, Khonshu's nemesis. This devotion allowed Sun King to acquire the power to dominate the flames, as well as prompting him to create a true cult of Ra. A figure that, at least from what we saw in the few scenes in the trailer, seems to have more relevance to Ethan Hawke's Arthur Harrow.
