The MCU's Phase 4 missed a perfect opportunity to explain Thanos' Avengers: Infinity War plan to snap away half of all life in the universe. Since recent Marvel movies and Disney+ series have worked hard to build upon and connect back to the Infinity Saga, it's surprising that the franchise never explained how Thanos developed his obsession with balance. While Infinity War shows The Mad Titan's desolate homeworld and what inspired him to seek a solution to resource scarcity, what caused him to embrace blindly enforced balance as a solution has been left a mystery.
While each Moon Knight seemed to set up an obvious exploration of Thanos' obsession with balance at all costs. While the series had little in common with the Avengers or their villains, it's through Moon Knight villains Arthur Harrow and Ammit that the connection became clear. Like Thanos, Harrow and Ammit were both dedicated to balanced judgment that they enforced with their versions of complete and impartial commitment (however misguided). It's possible that Thanos could have been inspired by similar gods of just balance, but the opportunity wasn't acted upon in the MCU.
Moon Knight Was The Perfect Answer To Thanos' Obsession With Balance
There were obvious problems with Thanos' plan to eradicate resource scarcity by taking out half of all life in the universe. He ignored other options that the complete set of Infinity Stones granted him. Similarly, Ammit could use her divine powers to help humanity grow and change for the better instead of killing those who have "unbalanced scales" before they do anything wrong. Though their motivations of punishment vs. peace were different, it could have been an interesting cross-franchise connection to see Thanos hearing stories of gods from across the universe employing balance as a fair display of power, especially if their results are better than Ammit's.
This connection would have also presented an opportunity to add cohesion to gods across MCU properties. Moon Knight, Black Panther, and the gods weren't in Love and Thunder's Omnipotence City, and Thanos seeing different gods of balance and justice achieve results would have both explained his obsession and helped the MCU gods seem more intertwined.
Moon Knight Avoiding Thanos Wasn't A Bad Idea
Between a failure to connect two powerful beings enforcing their will through twisted versions of balance and Love and Thunder not showing gods like Khonshu or Ammit, it's clear that the MCU is intentionally keeping Moon Knight fairly separate from the rest of the shared universe, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. While many Marvel projects thrive through their interconnected characters and plotlines, it was a refreshing change to see Moon Knight exist as a self-contained entity - at least for now.
Furthermore, referencing Thanos and his Avengers: Infinity War plan in Moon Knight might have raised more questions than it answered. Moon Knight may be a future Avenger or Midnight Son, but for now, he's one of only a few heroes with no outside connections, and that makes him unique in an ever-growing shared universe. With Moon Knight's positive reception and the storied history of the character, it's hard to imagine that Marc, Steven, and Jake won't appear again soon. Still, it's yet to be seen if that will be in more isolated projects or if they'll eventually cross paths with others beyond the MCU's Phase 4.
