Ryan Javate – Mustangs Ahead

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) – Marvel Studios’ new TV series, “Moon Knight” is the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), with lead actor Oscar Isaac playing the titular superhero in this surreal new series. This series will tell the story of Steven Grant, a museum gift-shop worker who lives an everyday life, who stumbles upon a cult focused on mass genocide.

The twist here is that Grant suffers from dissociative identity disorder and does not know whether his adventures in the series are real or not. When a character is seemingly established with a mental illness, it makes you wonder how many times this has happened in any super-hero related media.

However, mental health is always a tricky subject to cover in any form of media.

Some films and television series may depict people with mental health problems as insane and delusional people that want to cause nothing but harm to others, while others will depict people with mental health problems as those deserving all the love and support they get.

While DC and Marvel didn’t write explicit stories about heroes’ mental health situations when both companies began, topics such as death, addiction, and mental health have started to become frequent themes in major characters’ stories.

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One of the biggest turning points of this time was DC’s “A Death in the Family”, a story in which Batman is too late to rescue the second Robin from a deadly trap left by the Joker. The loss of Robin not only makes Batman angry, but more depressed than he usually is.

A big part of Batman’s story is his undying guilt and anger caused by the loss of his parents, Robin’s death, and the pain caused by the Joker or other villains.

Marvel has also explored the damaged mind of heroes not only with Moon Knight, but with Iron Man. Tony Stark is notoriously for being an alcoholic in the comic universe, with one of his biggest stories revolving around his battle with it.

The “Demon in a Bottle” storyline explores a guilt-ridden Tony Stark after he kills an innocent man while under control of Justin Hammer. Even though Stark clears up his name in the end, no-one can replace the damage caused by him and he copes by drinking, something that leads to a self-destructive episode resulting in him having to rebuild his life.

While the MCU has explored the mental health of our favorite superheroes, it won’t be as apparent as it is in Moon Knight. Grant’s experience dealing with dissociative identity disorder is set to be a thrilling journey into the dark side of being a superhero, and an engaging mystery over the real identity of Steven Grant.