Moon Knight’s Arthur Harrow is a major departure for Marvel’s villain

The character is only considered C-list by even the most ardent Moon Knight fans. Sure, he’s had several solo ongoing series since his first appearance in 1975’s The Night Werewolf#37 and even stints with various Avengers teams. Oscar Isaac, an acclaimed actor and director of television shows was a surprise to everyone.

Ethan Hawke will play Arthur Harrow, the main antagonist of the series. This was even more shocking. Moon Knight has accrued a respectable rogue’s gallery over the years, but it’s hard to believe that anyone considers Arthur Harrow their favorite Moon Knight antagonist.

So why would a star of Hawke’s caliber agree to play the character? He and Moon KnightShowrunner Jeremy Slater has much to offer with their bizarrely sympathetic take on an evil cult leader.

Harrow is the first to put glass in his shoes

Opening scene Moon Knight’s first episode, we watch an obscured figure enjoy an evening of fine alcohol in his glass, Bob Dylan on his hi-fi, and shards of glass in his loafers. Harrow will later explain to Steven, that Moon Knight is serving the Egyptian god Khonshu and Ammit, the devourer of souls, much later on in the episode. Ammit, an Egyptian god of mythology, eats people who are considered immoral if their hearts surpass those of Osiris.

Harrow claims that Ammit was betrayed and taken prisoner by her gods, which enabled evil to flourish on the entire planet. Hitler and Pol Pot, among others, would not have been permitted to persecute her if she was free. Harrow, the avatar of Ammit and his followers are determined to liberate the goddess and restore justice to the Earth.

So Harrow must be Moon Knight’s archenemy, right?

Image: Marvel

Harrow and Moon Knight both serve Egyptian gods, and seek justice. But the hero’s greatest antagonist in the comics is Bushman, the leader of the mercenary group for which Moon Knight’s primary identity Marc Spector worked. Bushman murdered Spector and led to his resurrection by Khonshu. He then created Moon Knight and continues to terrorize him.

Harrow isn’t even the evil flipside to Moon Knight. That distinction belongs to either the thief Midnight Man — who will appear in the Disney Plus show in his civilian guise of Anton Mogart (played by Gaspard Ulliel) — or the Sun King, recently introduced in the run by writer Max Bemis and artist Jacen Burrows.

No, Harrow holds no special place in the Moon Knight’s life because he’s only appeared in one comic book, Moon KnightVolume 2, issue 2 from 1985. E.R. and Chris Warner provided strong illustrations. The second volume of Moon Knight was only six issues long despite strong illustrations by Chris Warner and E.R.

Contrary to his TV counterpart, Dr. Alan Harrow in comics is an evil scientist. This character is very much a James Bond villain. He has minions and a secret lair. And he also gets support from OMNIUM, a mysterious organization with an ostentatious title. More importantly, Harrow adopts the Bond franchise’s bad habit of making people with physical abnormalities into villains.

Harrow has nerve damage which leaves him paralysed with half his face in pain. Harrow’s search for an answer to pain is laudable and attracts the attention of Nobel committee members. However, this quest also leads him into unhumane territory. From his hidden base in Yucatan, Harrow experiments on poor locals captured by his minions, all while bellowing about how “They didn’t go far enough in Auschwitz.”

Moon Knight is sent to Yucatan to help Harrow by the priests of Khonshu. Moon Knight meets Dr. Victoria Grail who is a researcher searching for evidence that will prove Harrow’s guilt to the Nobel committee. Moon Knight, Grail end their flirtatious bickering just long enough for Harrow to be stopped by them and sent back to OMNIUM. Towards the end of the issue, Moon Knight tells Grail, “I don’t think we’ve heard the last of Harrow.” He was wrong.

The TV Harrow is not related to the comic-book version.

Photo: Marvel Studios

You can clearly see the similarities if you look closely. Harrow walks about with his feet covered in glass, which suggests that there is a relationship between him and pain. Harrow is accompanied by armed guards, who are known to harass Steven Grant.

Perhaps the most significant similarity is the shared perspectives of the Harrows. Both Harrows believe in their own righteousness. For the comic book Harrow, that comes out when he says, “Not a herd of [the Yucatan locals] is worth one Arthur Harrow.” For the live-action version, that comes out in his desire to create heaven on Earth by purging all the evildoers, even before they do any of that evil.

Hawke said that Hawke was able to create the character because of his perspective. Because the protagonist of the story is “crazy,” Hawke explained at a press conference for Moon KnightThe antagonist must not also be insane. “So I have to kind of find a sane lunatic or a sane malevolent force,” Hawke reasoned. “And in his mind, he’s Saint Harrow, you know? I mean, he thinks he’s gonna be part of the great solution.”

Harrow the comic character believes that this great solution is to rid the world of all suffering. It is the eradication of all evil in the TV version.

It’s too early to tell if this revision will be enough to make Harrow into one of Moon Knight’s greatest enemies. But, without question, Hawke’s take will make Arthur Harrow a much more prominent figure in the Fist of Khonshu’s life.