WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Moon Knight #6, available now from Marvel.
Moon Knight has been a lot of things in regard to his turbulent relationship with Khonshu, but recently, he's taken on the role of a sort of missionary for the moon god. Protecting all those who travel and act at night, Moon Knight has found himself attacked on all fronts from people who want to break him. This has not broken his dedication, however, and it may see him follow a similar path to another of Marvel's street level superheroes.
Moon Knight's ruling of the night is analogous to Daredevil's attempts to rout out crime from Hell's Kitchen, though it could have similarly disastrous results. There are some differences between those situations, though, which could bode well for Moon Knight's mission. Here's how Marc Spector is treading firmly along the devil's path.
Moon Knight's Dedication to the Patrons of the Midnight Mission Just Became Personal
In Moon Knight #6, the title vigilante is attacked by the villainous Zodiac, who's been the one behind all of the attempts to thwart his heroic neighborhood efforts. Blowing up the Midnight Mission headquarters and brutally beating Moon Knight, Zodiac claims to want to free the hero from his hypocritical, mystical responsibilities. In the end, it takes the efforts of Badr, a fellow follower of Khonshu who feels that Spector is unworthy of his role, to save him.
Even in the aftermath of the night's events, a battered and bruised Moon Knight becomes more focused than ever to protect those in his vicinity, and thus, his care. As he informs Tigra and the vampiric Reese, he is greeted by several neighborhood citizens who are grateful for his protection and look to him for security. Even with the Midnight Mission's premises burned down, Moon Knight proudly sits on a remaining throne, stating that he's not going anywhere and that anyone who wants to get to him knows where to find him.
How Moon Knight's Midnight Mission Could Turn His Neighborhood into Shadowland
Moon Knight's essentially claiming a neighborhood and people as his own to protect isn't exactly new in the Marvel Universe or superhero comics in general. Black Panther is fiercely protective of the Wakandan people, and most superheroes feel a sense of paternalistic protectiveness over their particularly cities. One hero in particular, however, had some rather disturbing parallels to what Moon Knight is currently doing.
Daredevil, a resident of Hell's Kitchen in New York, has over the years done everything that he could to keep it safe and crime free. One of these methods was to try to control the city - twice. The first time was when, tired of dealing with crooks like the Kingpin that constantly bent Hell's Kitchen to their criminal will, Daredevil declares himself the new Kingpin. His rules were simple: all criminals should get out of the city or face a wrath from Daredevil worse than ever. Unfortunately, the plan fell apart when Daredevil realized that he was simply relocating crime for other street heroes to deal with.
The next situation like this was in the controversial storyline Shadowland. That story had Daredevil becoming the leader of the criminal organization, the Hand. His goals in creating the Shadowland prison in Hell's Kitchen were to use the Hand as a force for good, eradicating crime in the city wherever it stood. This saw Matt Murdock become more violent than ever, with these actions being the result of his being possessed by the Beast demon that the Hand worshiped.
Both of these situations ended in turmoil, with Hell's Kitchen and the people who lived there made no safer by Daredevil taking such extreme actions to protect them. The same may happen with those now protected by Moon Knight, and the parallels of the Beast and Khonshu are also similar. Other heroes have even questioned Moon Knight's current course of action, particularly how his sometimes violent role as Khonshu's clergy making him seek a degree of control over others that he had never sought before. In the case of Daredevil and Shadowland, characters like Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Daredevil's close friend Spider-Man, and even The Punisher expressed shock at Murdock's radical actions.
Moon Knight's followers could be compared to the Hand cult, as they're comprised of people on the fringes of society such as unwitting vampires and former HYDRA agents. Given how much the populace has already been shown to care for and worry about Moon Knight, they could be described as a sort of cult themselves. So far, it doesn't seem like things will go as poorly for Moon Knight as Daredevil's efforts did, but with a target on his back and those of his people, Moon Knight's ruling over the travelers of night might make them more endangered than safe.