- Moon Knight is awesome!
Here's a character who kicks people's so hard they vomit,
punches ghosts so hard they explode,
has once fought criminals in his underwear,
crashed a plane into a building to stop Taskmaster,
and even talked a child abductor into surrendering,
then immediately smashed his face in with a baseball bat.
He's essentially a much more brutal Batman,
but dresses in all white because he wants
the criminals to see him coming.
He is amazing!
On the surface his adventures might seem
like simple action stories,
but there's much more to Moon Knight
than his beautiful fight scenes.
You see, Moon Knight struggles with mental illness.
And by reading his comics,
we may very well be able to reveal a few flaws
in the U.S. Criminal Justice System.
(metal music)
Marc Spector was a boxer/Marine/mercenary,
who was working under this other mercenary,
Rauol Bushman, in Egypt.
They were on the search
for an active archaeological dig site
that uncovered a temple dedicated to Khonshu, the moon god.
Naturally Bushman wanted to loot all of these goodies,
'cause that's what bad guys do,
so he goes and kills a member of the dig crew,
then open fires on civilians.
But our buddy Marc is like, "Come on, man, don't do that."
Bushman shoots Marc and leaves him
to the harsh elements of the Egyptian desert.
He stumbles towards the feet of a statue of Khonshu.
Then, he dies.
But that's not the end.
Oh, no, dying is easy young man.
Living is harder.
Spector comes back to life and believes
he is to become the Moon's knight of vengeance.
Get it?
Moon Knight.
And if all that sounds familiar,
it's because it's almost verbatim
what I said in my first Moon Knight video
from about three years ago.
That was just kind of a brief overview of the character.
I didn't feel like rewriting it.
But let's dive in a little deeper into Moon Knight.
One of his defining characteristics is his mental state.
To overstate things for the sake of a lame pun,
he's a lunatic.
(booing)
Yep!
You see, when Marc Spector came back to New York
after his origins story,
he established a few different personalities.
Millionaire Steven Grant for making high-profile contacts,
cab driver Jake Lockley for making connections
on the streets, his regular Marc Spector identity,
the Moon Knight identity,
and even Khonshu himself.
Juggling these personalities
deteriorated Marc's mental health.
It's because of this that some writers
will clearly state that Marc Spector has
dissociative identity disorder, or DID,
formerly known as multiple personality disorder.
Heck, there was even a short run
where he would talk to hallucinations
of Captain America, Spiderman, and Wolverine
in order to solve crimes.
Going so far as to manufacture versions
of their iconic weapons and equipment for his own uses,
Captain America's shield, Wolverine's claws,
and Spidey's web shooters.
He even raided a strip club dressed
in full Spiderman costume over his own Moon Knight costume.
In that series from 2010, he constantly had to ask
if what he was seeing was real,
or if it was a hallucination
because his mind wasn't all there.
Even his newest series brings into question
whether any of Marc Spector's adventures as Moon Knight
were real in the first place,
or if he imagined the whole thing
while he's been locked away in an asylum.
Jury's still out on that one.
But here's the kicker,
when Marc finally sought help
in the first issue of the Marvel NOW! run,
it was revealed that he didn't have DID at all.
In fact, the diagnosis was a little
more supernatural than that.
Spector's brain has been quote, colonalized
by an ancient consciousness
from beyond space-time, end quote.
That consciousness of course being Khonshu the moon god.
Khonshu has four aspects:
the pathfinder, the embracer,
the defender, and the watcher of overnight travelers,
and a secret fifth aspect, the one who lives on hearts.
When Marc was brought back to life by Khonshu,
these aspects colonized his brain.
He cycles through all of them
while his mind desperately tries to make sense
of them by applying identities to each one.
Moon Knight's struggle with mental health
is particularly interesting because it brings
up an important discussion in regards
to our criminal justice system.
There are times in the comics
when Marc is oblivious to what his other personalities do.
Like when Marc finds out that Khonshu
bought a bunch of ancient artifacts,
he remarks, "I don't remember buying most of this."
To which Khonshu replies,
"Perhaps you weren't supposed to remember."
Now what happens if instead of buying antiques,
the personality currently inhabiting
Marc Spector's mind and body commits a crime
that he isn't even aware of?
Is he responsible for those actions?
Our current justice system has a few problems
when it comes to mental health.
It seems pretty simple and intuitive, though, right?
Prove beyond a reasonable doubt
that someone committed a crime
and then punish that person for that crime.
But within the past decade,
there's been a steady increase
in cases involving the defense
blaming the criminal actions
on diseases and disorders in the defendant's brain.
Remember how the trial of Punisher
in Daredevil season two included Nelson and Murdock
trying to pin Frank Castle's actions
on a previously sustained brain injury?
Cases like that have been on the incline.
Cases with somebody saying,
"Yeah, I committed a crime, but it's not really my fault.
"My brain made me do it, here's the proof.
"So, could you go a little easier on me?"
And actually that's become
a rather compelling argument in court.
Especially if you have visible evidence,
like a brain scan, or like in Punisher's case,
an X-ray of his skull.
One can point out to the judge and jury
that there's clearly something abnormal
going on in one's brain,
and that does tend to make sentences lighter.
But that's the problem.
You need to be able to see the spot
that's causing the criminal behavior.
As far as we know with Moon Knight,
his mental problems aren't physical.
They're supernatural.
It's possible that they wouldn't show up at all
on any sort of brain scan.
He'd look completely normal,
yet still act abnormally.
Now assuming that you don't believe
in supernatural phenomenon,
you may be wondering how this applies
to real world criminal law.
As neuroscientist David Eagleman
outlines in his book, Incognito,
the technologies we have today
for examining the brain are incredibly crude.
He likens it to asking an astronaut in space
to look down on Earth and judge how America is doing.
The astronaut may be able to see
large forest fires and storms,
but he will be unable to see
the details of a viral outbreak,
or the stock market crashing.
Similarly, current tools allow
for us to see the big stuff in brains,
like tumors and physical trauma,
but we can't yet make out all the little things.
If there's a neurological disease
that's causing abnormal behavior but we can't see it,
much like Moon Knight's supernatural disorder,
then that argument isn't going to fly in court.
Simply because there's no visual proof.
But there's a flip side to this.
As technology advances and we're able
to see the tiniest details of the human brain,
there's a very real risk that
everyone could claim this defense.
Every criminal could get these
new high-resolution brain scans
and scientists could pick it apart neuron by neuron
to find 100% of the time
that there will always be a neurological reason
for abnormal behavior.
If we give lighter sentences to those
whose brains have diseases and disorders that we can see,
then we'll have to do the same thing
as we keep finding smaller and smaller malfunctions.
It's not just Punisher or Deadpool or Hank Pym
who likely have injuries and disorders
that you could clearly see on a modern brain scan.
It'll be every single character
who exhibits abnormal behavior, even in the slightest.
As Moon Knight explains,
even without his DID or Khonshu inhabiting his mind,
he already has mental issues.
Simply because he chooses to be a superhero.
Quote, I dress up like a little-known moon god
and strike fear in the hearts of men.
Did you really think I was normal?
Do you think that any of us,
any of the costumes are normal?
We're all crazy.
This is a sentiment that Tony Stark backs up as well,
explaining that every superhero has to be nuts
to do what they do.
While it's delivered like a joke,
it's not entirely inaccurate.
As another neuroscientist Wolf Singer suggested,
quote, we should grant that for everybody.
There's a neurobiological reason for being abnormal.
Eagleman argues that it cannot be a just legal system
if we give someone a harsher punishment
simply because we can't see what's wrong,
even though there is something wrong.
But importantly, he's not at all arguing
that we need to exonerate every criminal
once we have the tools to find out precisely
what's happening in their brains.
Instead, he explains, asking if something
is a person's fault or the fault
of some mangled wiring in their brain,
is the wrong question to ask.
In fact, it doesn't even make sense as a question.
We shouldn't be trying to figure out
if a crime you commit is your fault or your brain's fault
because you are inseparable from your brain.
Eagleman asserts that everything from your genetics
to your history and experiences are all silently steering
every single decision that you make.
Even if that decision seems to be spontaneous,
like landing your moon-shaped plane on a fleeing thug.
Free will might exist but if it does, then quote
it's only a small factor riding on top
of enormous automated machinery, end quote.
And if free will definitively proven to exist,
doesn't really matter since a large majority
of our behavior isn't controlled by us consciously.
So blame worthiness is the wrong question to ask
in the legal system.
So, what is the right question to ask?
Eagleman proposes this, how is a person
likely to behave in the future?
What is the probability of future recidivism,
i.e. are they likely to go out and commit more crimes?
If they're less likely to repeat criminal behavior,
judges can afford to be more lenient.
If they're more likely, a longer sentence is called for.
Okay, sounds pretty straightforward.
But how are we supposed to figure this out?
Well, parole officers who use their gut
tend to get it right about 50% of the time,
and that's not an ideal system.
You may as well flip a coin.
Luckily researchers are developing algorithms
that are much more reliable ways
to find out how likely someone is
to commit more crimes once released.
And it's already more accurate than human judgment.
I assume the algorithm was created by Dr. Zola.
- [Voiceover] So, I wrote an algorithm.
- And that's actually one of the biggest criticisms
with this method.
Suppose you're arrested for some simple crime,
like damage to someone else's property.
Then when you get your brain scanned,
scientists find that you're very likely
to commit a much more dangerous crime,
like crashing a plane into a building.
Obviously they won't be able to detect
crimes that specific, but you get my point.
They might predict that you have a higher chance
of being a threat to society.
You could be punished for that potential future crime,
a crime you have yet to commit,
simply because they found a little spot
in your brain that suggests you might
someday partake in more serious criminal activities.
This is something we'll take more in depth about
in a future video, but let's wrap this episode up first.
Moon Knight's mental problems are a staple of who he is.
Whether the writers blame it on a currently known disorder,
a supernatural force, or perhaps a combination of the two,
he is an amazing character who can spark
an interesting conversation about the human brain.
Unless you guys don't really exist
and this whole thing a figment of my imagination.
What do you think?
Should criminals be punished based off
of blame worthiness or the probability
they'll commit more crimes in the future?
On a somewhat lighter note,
do you think that all superheroes have
something abnormal in their brains?
Let me know what you think in the comments.
If you like this video, here's another great one
on the science of memory and whether or not
Batman can even remember the death of his parents.
Spoilers, probably not.
And you know what, here's that super old
Moon Knight video I did three years ago.
Don't watch it!
It's terrible.
And make sure you hit that big, sexy subscribe button
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we make for you every week that explore
the history, science, art, and philosophy
behind your favorite comic book superheroes.
My name is Scott, reminding you to read
between the panels and grow smarter through comics.
See ya.