Stained Glass Scarlet: MCU Moon Knight’s Possible Villain Explained

Moon Knight has a vast, interesting rogue gallery. However, some of those villains made a bigger impression on readers than others. One of those villains is Stained Glass Scarlet, who was a long-term adversary of Moon Knight, now rumored to appear in the MCU’s Moon Knight TV show. So, who is Stained Glass Scarlet, and what are her ties with Moon Knight?

Stained Glass Scarlet was a nun who fell in love with a petty criminal with whom she had a son. After being forced to kill her son, Scarlet became a vigilante and a criminal who operates at night, putting her on a collision course with Moon Knight.

Stained Glass Scarlet had no superpowers at first. However, Scarlet and Marc Spector shared an unexplained psychic bond, where she could communicate and influence Moon Knight through that mental connection, either in dreams or the real world. Stained Glass Scarlet just recently returned to comics, with a whole new set of powers. Let’s explore the character.

Stained Glass Scarlet Origin & Life

Stained Glass Scarlet first appeared in Moon Knight #14 way back in 1981 and has returned as both an adversary and sort-of ally for Marc Spector in several storylines throughout the years. She’s a sort of a female Punisher – a vigilante who hunts down criminals and kills them, which puts her in Moon Knight’s sights. But, how did she become Stained Glass Scarlet?

Her real name is Scarlet Fasinera, and life has been dealing her a terrible hand ever since her childhood. Scarlet’s father was abusive to her from a young age. One day, the girl couldn’t take it anymore, so she burned him in his bed by causing the fire with a cigarette. Scarlet made it look like an accident, after which her aunt and uncle took her in and raised her.

Things were going better for Scarlet, who had a nice upbringing, leading to her eventually becoming a nun. However, she had later met and fell in love with Vince Fasinera. Scarlet thought Vince would finally give her the love she needed; it turned into an ugly affair quite fast.

Vince was a small, petty criminal who was the spitting image of Scarlet’s dad. Instead of being loving and supporting, Fasinera was just as abusive. What’s even worse; when Scarlet told Vince she was pregnant, he just wanted nothing to do with the child.

Karma caught up to Vince later, as he died after being killed at the steps of a church. But, that was far from the end for Scarlet’s horrible destiny. Joseph Fasinera, Scarlet and Vince’s son, turned to crime later, becoming even worse than his father. Joseph called himself the Mad Dog.

After Mad Dog got arrested and thrown into jail, it didn’t take long for him to escape. Saddened, Scarlet did her best to put Joseph on her back and carry him out of that dark life. However, it only leads to a terrible fight where Scarlet is forced to kill her son. Joseph died at the same church where his father lost his life years ago.

After everything she had been through, that event was the last straw for Scarlet. She vowed to find and kill every criminal who ever worked with her son or in any way led him into the life of crime.

The alias, Stained Glass Scarlet, comes from her background as a former nun. Stained Glass windows and art is well-known and common in churches – which is another reason why Scarlet took the name. Also, Scarlet made sure to rock a dress in the same color as her name would suggest.

As Stained Glass Scarlet started cleaning up the streets of New York, her violent kill-all policy didn’t sit well with Moon Knight. They became adversaries who met numerous times. One time, Scarlet even helped Moon Knight and teamed up with him instead of fighting.

It was long presumed that Stained Glass Scarlet was dead, but after over 20 years of absence, the character returned in Moon Knight Vol. 9 #8, which came out only a few days ago. She’s packing more power and more mystery now that she’s back—more on that below.

Stained Glass Scarlet Powers

Stained Glass Scarlet never had special powers throughout her life. She simply had grief, anger, and the will to act. Scarlet also became a prolific martial artist, incredible in close combat but even more prolific with her signature crossbow. 

However, Scarlet shared something unique with Marc Spector. It’s unexplained how or why the connection exists, but Stained Glass Scarlet and Moon Knight have a psychic bond that sometimes allows them to communicate telepathically through dreams or thoughts.

It’s not a 24/7 affair, though. Scarlet has to really focus on forming the connection, and Moon Knight has to be receptive. It usually happened in dreams, where they intertwined, met, and spoke. 

None of them had those mental connections with anybody else, so perhaps they had something to do with Khonshu – the God of the Moon and Vengeance. He gave Marc Spector the Moon Knight powers, so maybe he could somehow form a bond with Scarlet, who was on a path of vengeance herself.

Those were all the superpowers she ever had if you can even call them that. However, since the character’s return in the comics after 20-something years, Scarlet has a lot more juice and powers she never had before.

In Moon Knight Vol. 9 #8, Stained Glass Scarlet returned as a literal Stained Glass Scarlet. The new, entity-like Scarlet was made entirely of Stained Glass, with the ability to control glass shards and use it for maleficent work. She still dons the crossbow but has other powers, too.

The strongest power, however, is that Stained Glass Scarlet is not a human anymore. She’s a story, and you can’t kill a story as long as there are people willing to tell it.

Scarlet explained that, after she had died, her entire life story had been told among people, which made her somewhat of a folk hero. A group of faithful followers went further and started worshipping her, which ultimately led to Stained Glass Scarlet’s return as the glass-shard entity.

It’s unclear what she is capable of yet, but the artwork was brilliant, and I can’t wait to read more.

Stained Glass Scarlet Abilities

Apart from her amazing newfound powers, such as glass-shard control, near-immortality, and superhuman physiology, Stained Glass Scarlet still has all the skills that made her such an intriguing vigilante in the first place.

First, she is a brilliant martial artist, making her a close-combat threat for anybody. Stronger characters might overpower her, but Scarlet knows how to defend herself proficiently. Still, she doesn’t really like letting the fight get close. Scarlet’s signature weapon is an awesome crossbow, but we’ve seen her donning guns and bayonets before, too.

Overall, she’s a very intriguing character that I’d love to see in the MCU’s Moon Knight TV show, but we’ll have to wait and see how she would fit into the narrative.