The MCU Secretly Did Moon Knight's Biggest Trick Years Earlier

Moon Knight explicitly deals with Marc Spector's Dissociative Identify Disorder, but it is a condition that the MCU has touched upon before.

The MCU Secretly Did Moon Knight's Biggest Trick Years Earlier

Moon Knight is the first MCU release to directly deal with Dissociative Identify Disorder (DID), but they have handled an original Avenger in a very similar way. Steven Grant is introduced in Moon Knight as a meek gift-shop worker, but it is soon revealed that he is an alter of Marc Spector, a brutal mercenary. The relationship between Steven and Marc is central to the Disney+ series as the two must learn to live with each other, all while serving the Egyptian god Khonshu.

The fifth episode of Moon Knight explains Marc Spector’s backstory and the childhood trauma that caused Steven to be manifested as part of a coping mechanism. Portrayals of DID have appeared before in film and TV, but it has regularly been done in a lazy way, with most productions reverting to the “Jekyll and Hyde” trope rather than developing a more representative take on the mental health condition. Although Marc Spector is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe character to explicitly live with the DID, one of the MCU’s most popular heroes has had to deal with the disorder since his debut.

Bruce Banner’s central storyline throughout his time in the MCU is how he and the Hulk co-exist. Like Spector, Banner has a traumatic origin story that caused the creation of his alter personality, in his case a failed experiment that exposed him to gamma radiation. Although Marc Spector and his alter identities don’t physically change during Moon Knight in the same way that Banner does when he morphs into the Hulk, the pairs still share many similarities. Hulk and Banner notably struggle to find balance between their alters and can feel like they don’t have any control over their situation, and ultimately the portrayal is DID for the MCU in all but name.

When he was introduced to the MCU in The Incredible Hulk, the dynamic between Banner and Hulk didn’t go much beyond Bruce trying to suppress the big green monster. But the characters have developed into two independent alters who have their own feelings and goals. That dynamic has become more similar to Marc and Steven who often argue over the control of their shared body during Moon Knight. The Hulk’s personality changed in Thor: Ragnorok as he apologetically admits that he is always angry, and in Avengers: Infinity War he was able to refuse Banner’s request to transform as the two openly disagree with one another.

In the Marvel comics, Banner’s DID is explored further as he has many additional alters other than just Hulk, including the gangster Joe Fixit and the tormented Devil Hulk. The closest that the MCU’s Banner has got to a third alter is Smart Hulk in Avengers: Endgame, who was a combination of Banner and Hulk’s strengths rather than an additional personality. Smart Hulk has seemingly been written out of future MCU releases, with Banner reverting back to his human self in the post-credit scene of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the She-Hulk trailers. While Hulk was the first hero to have DID, it is more likely that the MCU will delve further into the condition through Marc Spector and his alters in the follow-up to Moon Knight.