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This article contains spoilers for the Moon Knight season finale
Moon Knight‘s season finale lived up to the sky-high expectations. We got some incredible action scenes showing the character at the height of his powers, a very touching resolution to the conflict between Marc and Steven, and a Godzilla-sized crocodile god getting smashed in the snotbox.
But one of the best new elements was what happened to May Calamawy’s Layla El-Faouly. After very smartly turning down Khonshu’s offer to be his avatar, she resolved to take down Harrow on her own. This was a no-go, so she eventually accepted adorable hippopotamus god Tawaret’s proposition.
This granted her powers similar to Marc, albeit with a very cool gold-winged costume and flight abilities. It’s not entirely clear whether she’ll be Tawaret’s avatar permanently or just temporarily, but either way, this makes Layla the first completely original MCU superhero, as she has no comics counterpart.
There are a couple of caveats. Layla is by no means the first original MCU character and depending on whether you still count Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as canon, Ming-Na Wen’s Melinda May is an original MCU hero. However, May isn’t a superhero and more of a highly skilled agent (and anyway, she doesn’t have a superhero suit).
You could also argue that Layla is essentially a version of Marlene Alraune, Moon Knight’s main love interest from the comics. The pair have a similar backstory, though Marlene never gained the powers of Tawaret. Fans also linked Layla to the obscure comic character the Scarlet Scarab, though while there are superficial similarities to Layla, there are also a ton of key differences.
UPDATE: Marvel.com has confirmed that Layla’s hero is indeed inspired by the Scarlet Scarab, who made five appearances in Marvel comics in the 1970s. In an interview, Calamawy said:
“I had to really sit with it and be like, I cannot represent every Arab woman or every Egyptian woman…I just hope that all Arab women can watch that and feel like a Super Hero, and that they have that space on that big scale.”
Even so, this character is so drastically different in origins, powers, and appearance from the comics Scarlet Scarab that we’re comfortable calling her an MCU original.