Who are Jake Lockley and Scarlet Scarab in the Moon Knight finale?

Marvel’s newest Disney Plus sequence, Moon Knight, took its bows with its ultimate episode in basic Marvel trend: A stunning revelation delivered through credit scene. Additionally in basic Marvel trend, Moon Knight’s credit scene opens many extra questions than it solutions, and its ultimate episode is lengthy on hints and brief on concrete decision.

Has Khonshu recovered any of his standing among the many different gods after being proper about Ammit? What’s the standing of Marc and Layla’s strained relationship? And what’s in retailer for Layla’s future?

Right here’s all the things we had been left questioning on the finish of Moon Knight’s finale, and the way Marvel Comics might need the solutions.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for all of Moon Knight, in case you hadn’t figured that out.]

Picture: Marvel Studios

Who is that this Jake Lockley man within the credit scene?

Moon Knight’s credit scene reveals a secret the present has been retaining since its second episode: Marc and Steven aren’t the one individuals of their head. There’s a 3rd persona neither of them are conscious of, and his identify is Jake Lockley.

In the midst of Marvel Comics’ historical past, Marc Spector’s head has belonged to many individuals (together with, in 2011’s Moon Knight sequence from Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev, personalities based mostly on Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine). However within the character’s first comics, he had solely three elements: Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley.

The three personalities allowed the hero to have a life in each strata of superhero society: Moon Knight/Marc Spector because the educated mercenary turned vigilante/avatar; Steven Grant because the billionaire who funded all that; and salt-of-the-earth cab driver Jake Lockley because the eyes and ears of the felony underworld.

Picture: Doug Moench, Invoice Sienkiewicz/Marvel Comics

Moon Knight has been hinting on the existence of a 3rd persona since early within the sequence, sprinkling the story with moments when each Steven and Marc skilled the blackouts that normally indicated the opposite one was taking on. In Steven’s asylum-like mindscape, director and govt producer Mohamed Diab made positive to incorporate a number of photographs of a sinister black sarcophagus standing upright and shaking back and forth as if somebody was trapped in it.

Now we all know precisely who was in there: The Marvel Cinematic Universe’s tackle Jake Lockley. There’s not a lot we learn about him at this level. Jake’s distinguishing mannerism seems to be talking Spanish, the place Marc speaks English with an American accent, and Steven with a British accent. Driving a limousine round matches the character’s comedian origins as a cabbie, however he’s recognized for growing Moon Knight’s community of underworld informants, not for being the persona who’s most comfy with killing individuals.

Then once more, the Steven of the present is a far cry from the suave billionaire of the comics. In the meanwhile, Marvel has not introduced any future Moon Knight tasks, so it’s unclear once we’ll be taught extra about Jake.

What’s up with the gods and Khonshu?

Jake isn’t the one star of Moon Knight’s credit scene: Khonshu has picked up some trendy threads and trendy conveyance. A nattily-suited Khonshu is a staple of Moon Knight comics, and he seems to be simply pretty much as good in reside motion as on the web page. However whereas Jake kills Harrow (with Ammit inside him), resolving Khonshu’s quest to defeat his rival goddess, the finale doesn’t give rather more on his new godly standing.

Have the opposite gods acknowledged that Khonshu was proper about Ammit? Are they grateful for his intercession? Or mad that he broke out of confinement? The solutions are anybody’s guess. Although the truth that he’s tooling round in a crisp go well with and a limousine would appear to point a step up on the earth.

Is Layla a superhero now?

Picture: Marvel Studios

Moon Knight’s finale episode offers us no hints as to the way forward for Marc Spector and Layla El-Faouly’s marriage. And comics can’t assist us a lot right here, as a result of Layla is an nearly solely authentic character to the Moon Knight TV sequence. With the present’s ultimate episode, nonetheless, she additionally turns into a free adaptation and important replace of an obscure Egyptian Marvel superhero: the Scarlet Scarab.

First launched within the pages of the World Conflict II-set sequence Invaders in 1977 (created by Roy Thomas, Frank Robbins, and Frank Springer), the Scarlet Scarab’s powers of energy, flight, and vitality absorbing/blasting had been conferred by an artifact referred to as the Ruby Scarab. He guest-starred in a few points, combating towards European rule in Egypt, however wouldn’t seem once more till the early Nineteen Eighties, when his son took up the mantle of the Scarlet Scarab for … one challenge of Thor. And that’s just about it for the character’s historical past.

The place this all connects to Layla is in her identify. The unique Scarlet Scarab hit the pages of Marvel Comics with the identify Abdul Faoul — and the identify of Layla’s late father in Moon Knight was Abdallah El-Faouly. No person truly calls her the Scarlet Scarab within the present, however the of us behind Moon Knight have confirmed that the connection is deliberate.

Whereas Layla advised Tawaret that her new powers had been a short lived state of affairs, you possibly can guess that if Moon Knight returns in a future Marvel Cinematic Universe undertaking, the Scarlet Scarab will return as properly.