Moon Knight’s Villain Recycles HYDRA’s Phase 2 Plan With A Twist
Warning: SPOILERS for Moon Knight episode 1
Marvel is recycling Hydra's Phase 2 plan with Moon Knight's villain but giving it a supernatural twist. The Marvel Cinematic Universe went in a new direction for Moon Knight, as Oscar Isaac's character allows Marvel Studios to dive further into the supernatural realm through Egyptian gods. Marc Spector's connection to Khonshu is a jumping-off point for the rest of the series, as the villain is Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), who wants to help fulfill Ammit's plans to make the world a better place - even if it comes with mass casualties.
Arthur Harrow serves Ammit in Moon Knight, and Ethan Hawke's villain is on a mission to help the Egyptian goddess judge humanity. He is doing this on a small scale at the moment, as Arthur's tattoos show the result of Ammit's judgment of an individual's life. The goddess assesses the entire lifespan of a person - the past, present, and future - to determine if they are good or evil. If Ammit deems them to be bad in the past or sees that they will do something evil in the future, she'll use Arthur to kill them. However, it seems that Ammit's plans are global in scale, which shows Moon Knight's villain is repeating Hydra's Phase 2 plan.
Hydra resurfaced in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as the organization had secretly taken over SHIELD. With Alexander Pierce leading the charge, SHIELD developed Project Insight, three advanced helicarriers that could help protect Earth. Hydra planned to connect the helicarriers to Zola's Algorithm, which looked at the present and future potential for someone to be a threat to the organization. These helicarriers gave Hydra an opportunity to eliminate its opponents swiftly, and in a case like Doctor Strange, before they would even be viewed as someone who could stop them. This was all meant to be done to transform the world into how Hydra wanted it to be, and now Moon Knight is repeating this plan but with a supernatural twist thanks to Ammit.
The similarities between Hydra's plans for Project Insight and Ammit's judgment are quite astounding. Both wanted to eliminate their opposition on a global scale, even if that meant killing innocent people for something they could do. Captain America: The Winter Soldier showed how Hydra failed to achieve these goals, but now Arthur Harrow and Ammit have surfaced in Phase 4 to potentially do what the evil organization could not. One could argue, though, that Ammit is even more dangerous, but that could depend on just how powerful Moon Knight makes the Egyptian goddess.
Despite the similarities between Hydra's Phase 2 plan and Moon Knight's villain, it is unlikely that the two are connected in any way. Agents of SHIELD did tie Hydra's origin to aliens, so the MCU reinventing Hydra's origin to have a connection to Ammit could happen. However, it is more likely that the similarities between them are an unavoidable result of the shared universe's longevity. As Marvel Studios continues to make new movies and TV shows, it will become more difficult to not have villains with similar motives and goals. In the case of Moon Knight, Ammit's supernatural twist on Hydra's Phase 2 plans should be one of the many reasons it stands apart.
Moon Knight releases new episodes every Wednesday on Disney+.