Moon Knight

Origin

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Marc Spector was the rebellious son of an academic Jewish rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to escape the Holocaust. Marc could not understand why his father refused to fight against his people’s persecution and grew disgusted with his pacifistic ways, viewing him as a coward.

Rejecting his father’s faith, Marc started out as a heavyweight boxer before eventually joining the U.S. Marines, where he was trained as a commando. Shortly afterward, his skills led to his recruitment into the Central Intelligence Agency. He worked with William Cross (who later became the villainous Crossfire) and his own brother, Randall Spector. However, Randall betrayed the CIA and was secretly smuggling and selling weapons. When Marc’s lover discovered this and tried to turn him in, Randall brutally murdered her with a meat cleaver. In retaliation, Marc hunted Randall down, but during the fight, Randall was seemingly killed by an exploding grenade.

Fed up with the CIA, Marc went independent and became a fierce soldier of fortune, renowned for his willingness to do anything providing the job paid well enough. In Africa, he met a French mercenary, Jean-Paul “Frenchie” DuChamp, who would become one of Marc’s closest friends and Marc’s pilot.

While working for the terrorist Raoul Bushman, Marc became increasingly disturbed by Bushman’s savagery and ruthlessness. For the first time in his life, his conscience had awakened, and it troubled him deeply. In Selima, Sudan, they stumbled across archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune‘s excavation of an Egyptian Pharaoh’s tomb. Believing there were gold and riches within, Bushman murdered Alraune to plunder the tomb.

Sickened by Bushman, Marc tried to do the decent thing and helped Alraune’s daughter, Marlene, escape from Raoul’s notice. Annoyed with Marc’s betrayal, Bushman brutally beat Spector and abandoned him in the desert so he would suffer before he died.

Barely conscious, Spector staggered to the ancient tomb for shelter. Marlene was there with her father’s men and brought Marc to rest near a statue of the moon god, Khonshu.

Weakened from his fight with Bushman and the elements of the desert, Marc Spector died. As Marlene cried over his cooling body, Spector suddenly returned to life, claiming that he had a vision that Khonshu had brought him back from the dead to be the Moon’s Knight of Vengeance.

Spector removed the burial shroud from the statue of Khonshu and wrapped it around himself as a makeshift cloak, before confronting Bushman once again, and this time, he was victorious. Thus, Moon Knight was born.

Creation

Moon Knight was created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin and his first appearance was in Werewolf by Night Volume 1 issue 32 in 1975.

Originally he appeared as the enemy of the titular character in a two issue story arc. However, Moon Knight proved so popular that due to reader demand, he returned to guest star in Marvel Spotlight, Spectacular Spider-Man, Marvel Two-In-One, and The Defenders which helped define his background before he gained his own solo strip as a backup feature in Hulk! magazine before he was finally awarded with his own solo comic book series in 1980.

Character Evolution

Since his debut in 1975, Moon Knight has appeared in dozens of comics, both self titled and other heroes.

Originally created as a foil to Jack Russell, the Werewolf by Night in 1975; Moon Knight was intended to be a one-shot villain, a mercenary who was much more sympathetic to his target than his employers. However, he received such a reader response that instead of being an obscure ally/villain to Russell, Moon Knight would appear in several other comics as a guest star which helped refine his nebulous past and history over the next few years. His aide-de-camp Frenchie plus his onoff girlfriend Marlene also made their early appearances, solidifying his cast as well as the fact that he had two separate aliases; Jake Lockley the streetwise cab driver and Steven Grant the millionaire playboy. Moon Knight also received an update to his costume, eliminating his glider wings with a more traditional cape.

Moon Knight finally received his own titular series in 1980; in which he received his death and resurrection by Khonshu origin. His first comic series also introduced the possibility of Marc’s mental instability; suggesting that his resurrection was nothing more than a near death experience and that his damaged mind had filled in the blanks with hallucinations.

Unfortunately in 1982, with issue #15 and onwards, Marvel was forced to withdraw Moon Knight’s ongoing comic series from newsagent distribution and instead relied solely on direct market purchase. This resulted in a large decline in readers culminating in the series being cancelled by 1984.

The second Moon Knight series writers decided to abandon the ambiguity of Khonshu and Moon Knight’s resurrection by embracing it wholeheartedly in 1985 in the series “Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu”. They also threw away the MPD angle and made Moon Knight into a more supernaturally-based hero by giving him a new costume with a more Egyptian motif along with Egyptian-inspired weaponry and transformed him into a globetrotting adventurer. Poor sales saw this series cancelled and Moon Knight vanished once more. Moon Knight was ultimately rescued from obscurity by the West Coast Avengers, popping up in their comic title where the writers redefined Khonshu from a benevolent magnanimous god into one who was far more manipulative and selfish in the Phantom Rider story arc.

The third Moon Knight series, titled “Marc Spector: Moon Knight” suffered from a succession of different writers with different viewpoints and ideas about the direction of Moon Knight and oftentimes, Moon Knight found himself lost within his own comic with the succession of guest superheroes from Spider-Man and the Punisher, not to mention that the writers were forced to adapt or modify their storylines to match up with the major crossover continuity series such as “The Acts of Vengeance” and “The Infinity War” which culminated in the death of Moon Knight at the end of the series.

Moon Knight was ultimately resurrected in a miniseries, “Moon Knight: Resurrection Wars” in 1998 following by a sequel, “Moon Knight: High Strangeness” a year later. Nevertheless, Moon Knight languished as a minor guest star in comics until a fourth Moon Knight series that was launched in 2006 by Charlie Huston which was much more violent and macabre than his previous incarnations by playing up his psychological instability. Huston stayed as writer on the title until issue #14 when Mike Benson took over and Huston transitioned to plot. The series ran for 30 issues with a number of annuals and specials.

After the end of his last series Marvel launched a new Moon Knight book called “Vengeance of Moon Knight” written by Gregg Hurwitz. This series changed Moon Knight in to a much more tech oriented character, where he used advanced armour and gadgets as well as lighting the tone of past series. The aim of the series was to position him as more of a mainstream hero, however it only lasted 10 issues.

Even after the cancellation of his last ongoing Moon Knight still made regular appearances as part of the Secret Avengers as well as playing a part in the Shadowland event.

A new Moon Knight ongoing written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Alex Maleev was launched in 2011. This series was a dramatic departure from past series moving Moon Knight to the West Coast and taking his mental troubles to extremes. It only lasted 12 issues.

In 2014 Marvel launched a new Moon Knight ongoing. This time they took the “seasons” approach where a new writer comes on every volume to write the story they want to tell. The first writer was Warren Ellis who set the foundations for every writer who followed.

Major Story Arcs

The Hero of the Night Rises

After defeating Bushman, Marc returned to the United States with Marlene and Frenchie along with the statue of Khonshu. He decided to continue his work to fight a war against evil and used his savings that he had collected during his mercenary days and invested it, turning it into a small fortune which he proceeded to finance and support his private war and set up shop in New York City.

In an effort to distance himself from his mercenary days, Marc created the persona of Steven Grant, a millionaire entrepreneur and high-roller whose jet setting personality enabled him to walk among the high rollers and elite of New York City. Realizing the value of these contacts as criminal activities are often plotted and planned at cocktail parties and boardrooms, Marc also decided to create a persona for lower level contacts and invented the identity of Jake Lockley, a New York cab driver. Through Lockley, he was able to make several contacts “on the streets” such as Bertrand Crawley and Gena Landers plus her sons Ricky and Ray.

Shortly after developing his costume and weapons along with a customized helicopter known the “Mooncopter”, Frenchie posing as a French businessman made contact with a group of aristocrats known as “The Committee” who had plans to capture and retrieve Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night whom they intended to use as a weapon to fulfill their desire to rule the city. Frenchie acting as the go-between, presented the Committee members with Marc Spector as a mercenary and ostentatiously revealed the Moon Knight costume and weapons which Frenchie claimed that he had created to battle Russell.

Although Marc was successful in defeating Russell, his suspicions were realized when he discovered the Committee’s goals and proceeded to release Jack and defeat “The Committee” which earned him their undying enmity and established Moon Knight as a vigilante to be respected.

After thwarting a man calling himself Conquer-Lord, Moon Knight briefly joined the superhero team, The Defenders, to fight the Life Model Decoys of a villain group called Zodiac. He then went on to battle Cyclone alongside Spider-Man, and Crossfire with The Thing, as well as some solo missions against a terrorist group lead by a man named Lupinar, and even his own brother, Randall who had survived their previous encounter and had become a psychotic ax killer targeting women.

Afterwards, Moon Knight encountered villains that would become part of his own rogues gallery–such as the Midnight Man, Morpheus, Stained Glass Scarlet, and Black Spectre, just to name a few–and teamed-up with Spider-Man a few more times, as well as other heroes such as Daredevil, Iron Man, Power Man and Iron Fist.

Then, Marc received word that his father was dying and decided to try and patch things up with him. Unfortunately, his father passed away before he was able to return to Chicago and instead discovered that his father’s body had been stolen by his father’s former student, Zohar who used the deceased rabbi’s body to focus for his mystical spells to punish Marc for his perceived sins against his dead mentor. Although Moon Knight was able to overcome Zohar; the mental trauma combined with the act of juggling his different personas put a serious strain on Spector’s mental health and he suffered a nervous breakdown and was deemed to be suffering from Multiple Personality Disoder (MPD) or as it later became renamed; Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

The Fist of Khonshu

After several months of recuperation for his mental health, Spector decided to retire as Moon Knight and with pressure from Marlene who greatly preferred his debonair and sophisticated Steven Grant persona, decided to give up both his Jake Lockley and Marc Spector identities. Marc became convinced that he only had a near-death experience and merely hallucinated the episode with Khonshu and even sold the idol of the Egyptian deity.

Marc however was plagued by strange dreams which convinced him that he had to return to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

Marlene however adamantly refused to follow him again in his downward spiral of violence and insanity and demanded that he not go, sure that he would once more take up the mantle of Moon Knight. When he did so anyways, she left their home and broke up with him.

On his pilgrimage in Egypt, Marc met three priests who proclaimed that the idol of Khonshu had fallen into hands of the avatar of Anubis, Ahmad Azis who intends to perform a ritual that would destroy the idol to strike back at Khonshu whom he believes is the sole thing stopping him from world domination. Proclaiming Marc as the Fist of Khonshu, they gifted him with an assortment of mystical weaponry and supernatural strength and powers that waxed and waned with the light of the moon.

His strength renewed and his faith restored, Marc would once again take up the mantle of the Moon Knight and even more powerful than before would defeat Anubis’ plot and rescue the idol of Khonshu. Strangely enough, seconds after saving the idol from being destroyed; a sudden desert sandstorm comes and blinds Azis and causes the temple to collapse on him, killing him.

The Silver Avenger

When the the West Coast Avengers were trapped in ancient Egypt, Hawkeye made a pact with Khonshu and created an assortment of weapons that Khonshu would mystically enhance and would subsequently be gifted to Marc Spector in the 20th Century.

In exchange, Khonshu informed his avatar, Marc Spector of their situation; allowing Moon Knight to help rescue them and return the Avengers to the present. Moon Knight then joined the team as the 24th Avenger. He possessed a rather tumultuous stint of membership even though he proved to play a critical role in defeating Dominus and later, the Examiner of the Silg race; he often had a habit of playing fast and loose with the rules such as his pursuit of Cornelius Van Lunt which may have driven the man to his death and possessed less-than-stellar teamwork due to his longtime career as a loner. Further, his tenure was complicated with a romantic relationship with fellow Avenger Tigra.

When it was discovered that Mockingbird had allowed the Phantom Rider to be killed after he had drugged and raped her, her husband Hawkeye denounced her which caused Mockingbird to resign. In response, Tigra and Moon Knight both chose to accompany her and form their own splinter group of Avengers. The trio would fight the High Evolutionary in the Evolutionary War alongside Bill Foster, as well as battle the Night Shift.

When the team sought help from Hellstorm for the Phantom Rider’s haunting of Mockingbird, it was discovered that Khonshu was possessing Moon Knight and was the true source behind his supernatural lunar-based powers.

Hellstorm was able to convince the Egyptian God of the Moon to leave Spector’s body and it was revealed that it was Khonshu, not Marc who wanted to join the Avengers West Coast. Unsure of how much of Khonshu’s influence had on himself for the past few months led Marc to breaking off his relationship with Tigra and also abandoning his mystical weapons.

Marc Spector: Moon Knight

After the fallout of Khonshu’s possession, Marc returned to New York and sought out Marlene and reforge his ties with Frenchie even though he was no longer certain he wishes to continue as Moon Knight anymore. However, the return of his old enemy Bushman who kidnaps Marlene prompts him to return as the Crescent Crusader.

However without Khonshu’s supernatural influence, Spector was much more psychologically stable and did not resume his previous identities of Jake Lockley or Steven Grant. Instead, he refocused his financial empire and created his own company SpectorCorp while he dedicated himself towards more urban street crimefighting over the more cosmic, supernatural evil that he previously battled under Khonshu’s influence.

Afterwards, Marc discovers that an old enemy, Midnight Man may still be alive only to discover that foe is deceased but his grown son now seeks to redeem his father’s criminal lifestyle as a hero and has sought out his father’s greatest enemy; Moon Knight to train him up to become a crimefighter. Feeling a sense of obligation, Marc reluctantly agrees. Desperate to prove himself worthy, Midnight infiltrates the Secret Empire and is ultimately captured and is presumed deceased while dressed up as Moon Knight.

Midnight however survived his horrific wounds and is converted into a cyborg soldier for the Secret Empire. Believing that the Silver Avenger had abandoned him, Midnight came to believe that his condition was all Moon Knight’s fault. With Midnight acting as their field agent, he broke Thunderball out of jail which earned him the attention of Spider-Man and Darkhawk. He was able to escape but Spider-Man recognized Midnight from his previous encounter with Moon Knight and called in the Lunar Legionnaire.

Midnight was then sent to capture the New Warrior Nova and discovered that he was soon to be rendered obsolete as merely one of cyborg grunts while the Empire would rebuild superhumans to enhance their formidable attributes. With the clandestine assistance of a sympathetic nurse, Lynn Church who disabled the Empire’s control devices, Midnight turned on the Empire and sought to establish himself as their new leader. Alongside Spider-Man, Darkhawk, the Punisher, Night Thrasher, the freed Nova; Moon Knight aided in bringing down the Secret Empire as well as Midnight and Lynn Church who was actually a cyborg herself who had been using Midnight as the testbed of the most successful cybernetic implants for her own upgrades.

In another encounter with his brother who had taken up the costume of Shadowknight as a sort of twisted version of his Moon Knight identity, there was an explosion at Spector Mansion which crippled Frenchie, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and forcing him to abandon his role as a Moon Knight’s pilot. As a consequence, Marc was forced to create the “Angelwing”, a remote controlled aircraft for his activities. An increasingly formidable array of opponents also prompted him to upgrade his crimefighting equipment and accoutrements.

Marc also began actively recruiting specialized agents to assist him on his missions from psychological profiles, to expert thieves, and intelligence operatives in a think tank organization he dubbed “The Shadow Cabinet” that he kept in contact via holo-communicator rings.

Moon Knight would later become infected by the then-demonically possessed Hobgoblin with a demonic virus which prompted Marc to create a suit of armor which helped contain the virus while he sought a cure to his deteriorating physical condition and was only cured thanks to the mystical aid of Dr. Strange.

Infinity War and Crusade

When the Magus, the evil incarnation of Adam Warlock plan to gain absolute power, he created evil doppelgangers of both heroes and villains on earth. Moon Knight had to face his own evil self, manifested as Moonshade which he defeated. After the War, the Goddess, the good incarnation of Adam Warlock recruited many heroes who are very spiritual, religious have had near-death experiences. Because of Moon Knight’s close affiliation with the moon god and his first resurrection to serve as the avatar of vengeance; the Goddess recruited Moon Knight to defend her as she purges the evil in the universe. Moon Knight was returned to normal when the Goddess was defeated by the combined efforts of Adam Warlock, Thanos and Professor X.

Soon afterwards in a battle against Seth the Immortal, Moon Knight sacrificed his life to save Marlene and Frenchie.

Resurrection War

Khonshu seemingly willed Moon Knight back to life in order to thwart the plans of his three greatest villains: Black Spectre, Raoul Bushman and Morpheus, who were all under the worship of Set, God of Darkness and Chaos. Marc, questioning if his death was real or not, started experiencing dreams of the future in which Marc concludes that it is either Morpheus or Khonshu speaking to him once again. With the knowledge that he is the “white-light” of Khonshu, he sets out to thwart their plans, receiving help from Stained Glass Scarlet as well. The two are able to defeat the trio and stop their plans of attacking a U.N. building that was holding a meeting at the time. Afterwords, Moon Knight went back to his crime-fighting once again.

He helped save the Black Panther from the Kingdom of the Dead and subsequently joined the Marvel Knights, a group of street level superheroes and vigilantes. However the team broke apart and went their separate ways including the Crescent Crusader.

Moon Fall

In an attempt to bring down the Moon Knight, the New Committee hired the The Profile to fully utilize his unusual talents to not simply defeat Moon Knight, but to break him. As per his suggestion, they embarked on a long term strategy. First, they hired Bushman to attack the Lunar Legionnaire again. As part of their campaign, they wanted Bushman to physically cripple him and both of Marc’s legs were severely fractured. However, Bushman grew overconfident and was unprepared for Marc’s brutal counterattack and then, in a fit of indescribable rage, Marc used one of his crescent darts to carve off Bushman’s face, giving him a true death’s head.

Unable to continue his career as Moon Knight, Marc began taking more and more painkillers and anti-psychotics, burning through his fortune and was no longer able to maintain his crumbling financial empire. His manner had gotten to the point that he completely and irrevocably alienated those around him, especially Frenchie, who came to the conclusion that there was simply no course of action that he could take that could attempt to assist Marc in even the slightest way. After a heated argument with Marlene, Marc struck her and Marlene left.

His sanity apparently deteriorating as he is constantly “seeing” and “hearing” Khonshu talk to him and give him foul suggestions while Khonshu decided to use the guise of the deceased Bushman (without his face) to torment Moon Knight.

Knowing that he was both physically and psychologically weakened, the Committee overstepped themselves by hiring a thug to physically assault Frenchie and left him hospitalized. Instead of breaking Marc, it reinvigorated him as he tracked down and savagely injured Frechie’s assailant. Panicking, the Committee hired the Taskmaster to take out Moon Knight.

Taskmaster tortured Marc but he was aided by Marlene and defended by his butler, Samuels. This gave Marc the strength to defeat Taskmaster and destroy the Committee once more.

Soon afterwards, Marc learns that one of the struggling companies that he still retains ownership of has just made a significant technological breakthrough and he will once again be wealthy and begins to rebuild himself and life; finally getting himself out of his wheelchair and began physical therapy with the help of Frenchie’s boyfriend.

It is only afterwards that Marc makes an appalling discovery that Khonshu was responsible behind the entire affair. After Marc’s latest resurrection, his reputation had taken a nose dive and so Khonshu decided to ensure that his Knight of Vengeance was firmly back in the saddle; nudging the Committee, bringing back Marlene at a critical moment, even arranging for Marc’s wealth to be restored while reminding him who and what he is; Khonshu’s Knight of Vengeance and bades him to go forth and do his work in Khonshu’s name once more.

Although the Committee has gone underground, Marc locates the Profile who discovers that he was no match for Moon Knight, and ironically, became an informant for him instead.

Moon Knight takes back to the streets and attempts to be make up for lost time and would discover a string of murders were perpetrated by his former sidekick turned cyborg, Midnight who had survived their last encounter and had gone insane. Realizing that he had no choice, he was forced to kill his former sidekick Midnight.

The Waning Moon: Civil War and the Initiative

During the Civil War, Moon Knight chose to ally with neither side because, as he had said to Captain America, “The war is just like a game of capture the flag”. Captain America retorted that he didn’t want Moon Knight to join the fight because of his “methods” of bringing justice and Iron Man, seeing his history of psychotic tendencies and feeling some sense of obligation due to their past history as Avengers, decided that arresting him will just make his condition even worse.

When the Super-Human Registration Act became a law, Moon Knight felt that he didn’t want the law to disrupt his work, so legally registered. Tony Stark assigned Marc to undergo a psychiatric examination, sure that he would fail. But when the psychiatrist placed Marc under deep hypnosis to talk to Marc’s other personalities, Khonshu emerged and possesses Marc who then demoralized the psychiatrist and rebukes him. After this the intimidated psychiatrist approved Marc’s registration, but also did something quite peculiar–he bowed down before him and started worshiping him.

Afterwards, Marc claimed to the Profile that he had faked the whole possession and had employed the information given to him by the Profile to frighten the psychiatrist as a ruse to get his registration approved and proceeded to stalk the nights, bringing brutal justice to the thugs and gangs running around the city.

Unknown to Marc, the Black Spectre was recently released from jail and sought revenge against Moon Knight. The Black Spectre decided to turn to his life of crime again and frame Moon Knight for murder by killing his victims and carving a crescent moon on the victims head, which was Moon Knight’s previous calling card. Due to public pressure, Iron Man immediately revoked Moon Knight’s ID and told him he is no longer apart of the Initiative. Looking to still bring justice on Black Specter, Marc finds out that he is going to release a stream of nanobots into a big parade in a plan to control the city. Moon Knight thwarts his plan and ends up throwing him off the roof of a building to his death. Outed by the government and with SHIELD searching for him, Spector moves underground.

With a warrant out for his arrest the, C.S.A. call in for the Thunderbolts to come and hunt down Moon Knight as a fugitive of the law. Iron Man strongly opposes the idea but is overruled on the matter. Moon Knight continues to lay low only to resurface in a black uniform and a with a few new bones to pick. SHIELD interrogates several of Marc’s friends and contacts, although nothing comes out of them. Now is the time for the Thunderbolts to strike.

Several weeks later after having a run-in with the Thunderbolts, Moon Knight pleads with Khonshu for forgiveness for losing his faith at him, but the Lunar god will not have it and says that he has worshipers that actually follow him. Marc returned into his costume to help Frenchie, who was attacked by a gang and left his boyfriend injured. But little did he knew that the attack was used to set-up Moon Knight to be captured by the Thunderbolts. Moon Knight was then ambushed by Venom.

He was captured by the reformed villain team, but he got away when SHIELD came. Frenchie agreed to help Moon Knight while the Thunderbolts release Bullseye to kill him. Moon Knight and Bullseye fight all throughout New York and the battle leads them to a warehouse, which was secretly planted with many explosives. Moon Knight sets it off and the warehouse explodes. Later in a press conference Norman Osborn tells reporters about the Thunderbolts’ success in eliminating Moon Knight while Iron Man condemns his team on the death of the vigilante.

However, it all was a ruse for Moon Knight to fake his death via a prepared escape tunnel. However, the events effectively killed the “Marc Spector” persona with the Jake Lockley persona now in control.

Lockley fled to Mexico to recuperate and is hired by a millionaire to search for his daughter who has been kidnapped by corrupt cops. Little does Moon Knight know that the Punisher is also in the trail of the corrupt cops and is now out to bring them justice through a method he knows best, punishment.

Moon Knight then goes to fight off the Zapata Brothers (who were brought in by Alcantara after Jake killed his henchmen and took his condemned daughter) only to make a deal with them to take down Alcantara. Moon Knight then proceeds to launch a full-scale assault on Alcantara when he finds everyone is murdered except Alcantara himself until Toltec finds them and Moon Knight walks away as Toltec kills Alcantara. Moon Knight (having taken Alcantara’s money and bought himself a condo) has seen on TV what Norman Osborn has become and vows to go back to the U.S. and bring him down.

Return with a Vengeance

Moon Knight has returned to New York to exact his revenge on Norman Osborn and did so by stopping a bank heist in progress without killing a single bank robber, much to the surprise of the police. Khonshu is still convincing him to become the ruthless vigilante he was before, but Moon Knight continues to ignore the temptations of the deity and plans to redeem himself as well as reform into a new hero. News of Moon Knight’s return circulated throughout the bustling city, with Norman Osborn denouncing him as a renegade and a menace while promising the public that Moon Knight will be dealt with for his acts of vigilance accordingly.

The Sentry appeared before Moon Knight and reminded him that he can never run from his past and that he will be tested for to prove himself as a hero, to which he replied that he will also be tested as well. Moon Knight paid a visit to his criminal contact, the Profile and told him about the Slug and some stolen diamonds that he has. Moon Knight confronted the Slug and his henchmen for the diamonds, while Khonshu urges him to kill the villain but he was squashed in the floor. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has delegated the Hood on stopping Moon Knight. The Hood then had the Profile to track down and profile Moon Knight. The Profile thought of a plan to take down Moon Knight and it involves the grave of his late nemesis, Raoul Bushman.

Jake goes home and sees the news coverage about the jailbreak in Ravencroft. Jake suits up as Moon Knight and tells his butler to call his pilot for the Mooncopter, but he cannot reach him and Moon Knight decides to use his other vehicle, Angelwing. When the hanger doors were opening, Moon Knight was surprised to see his old partner, Frenchie, dressed in a aviator suit and walking on a cane. Reunited with his friend, Frenchie flies the Mooncopter and drops Moon Knight inside the melee of the escaped convicts. In the middle of the chaos, Khonshu is still persuading Moon Knight to kill for him, but to no avail. When Moon Knight called Frenchie to come back, he told him he can’t because of an enormous flock of birds blanketing the sky, which was summoned by the Scarecrow. Frenchie then shoots a large net from the Mooncopter to catch the flock, neutralizing it. Moon Knight then catches Scarecrow, but he then argues to him that Moon Knight should confront his old nemesis, Bushman. Moon Knight goes to his contact, Crawley for any word from the street,but they were suddenly attacked by Bushman. After taunting him, Bushman fires a RPG to Moon Knight but it hits a corner of building, threatening it to collapse. Moon Knight rushed in to hold the building and Bushman left him to be beaten by his army of convicts from Ravencroft.

After beating the convicts with only his underwear and mask on, Moon Knight carves his symbol on all that he defeated on their strait jacket. Spider-Man then swings by and he tried to convince Moon Knight to stop his heroics before he return back to his murderous ways, to which Moon Knight argued that his heroism doesn’t fare better because Norman Osborn is still in power. Moon Knight got a tip from Crawley goes in search for Bushman in one of OsCorp’s warehouses. Moon Knight then infiltrates the warehouse and begins searching for Bushman to no avail, until he surprises Marc. After a much drawn out, grueling fight between Marc has Raoul pinned down and mounts him with his crescent dart in his hand as if to cut off Bushman’s face again. Though Bushman begs Marc not to take his face again, causing much hesitation for the hero before stopping his act. Marc left and let the authorities take care of him. Meanwhile, now that Marc has prevailed, The Profile left to the cavern of Khonshu, for reasons unknown.

Moon Knight finds that someone has forcibly enter a hospital. When he got there, he saw Deadpool about to kill a bed-ridden patient. Moon Knight stops him and they go into a brief scuffle until Deadpool gets thrown through a window and escapes. Moon Knight then finds out that the person he just rescued was a Ukrainian crime boss dying from cancer, that made him question himself about being a hero. Deadpool then met up with his employer, a mother whose son was kidnapped by the crime boss’ henchmen. Moon Knight goes to see Deadpool and after they talked, Moon Knight goes to a warehouse to rescue the employer’s son. Moon Knight saves the boy and left the henchmen for the police, but soon Deadpool picked up where they left off in their previous encounter. They fought in a carnival’s hall of mirrors where the duel turned into a sword fight, which left Moon Knight left as the winner. When Jake was having nightmares in his sleep, he suddenly woke up rushed to get into the hospital but he was too late to save the crime boss from Deadpool’s employer who killed him with an injection of potassium chloride, stopping the patient’s heart.

Heroic Age

After the events of Dark Reign and Siege, Norman Osborn was deposed as America’s “top cop” and his organization H.A.M.M.E.R. was disbanded. Captain Steve Rogers then forms the Secret Avengers as a group of superheroes to operate under a veil of secrecy, in addition to the main Avengers team.Moon Knight was approached by Steve Rogers and he asked him to join the Secret Avengers to find his redemption.

Moon Knight agrees to this and his first mission was to go after Captain Barracuda who was capturing Oil Tankers. Moon Knight proved himself to the team by saving them and the Tanker crew when Captain Barracuda used the Horn of Proteus to summon sea monsters and destroying the Oil Tanker. Next, Moon Knight infiltrated Roxxon headquarters with fellow Avenger, Ant-Man. They then had to travel to Mars to rescue another teammate, Nova who was looking for the Serpent Crown. The team split up and Moon Knight was accompanied by Black Widow and Valkyrie to look for Nova. When they found him he is wearing the Serpent Crown and he also detected their presence. He and Black Widow were knocked unconscious when they confronted Nova. After the threat on Mars, the team went back to Earth and continues their objective of finding out who is trying to steal the Serpent Crown and why they want it.

Shadowland

Moon Knight goes to his mansion and sleeps with Marlene, he wakes up and is taunted by Khonshu on going back to his murderous ways and to kill in his name. The other night, Marlene asks Jake out and reveals that she is pregnant, which he is happy about.

After days of being taunted by someone calling himself Shadow Knight, Jake gets a mission from Steve Rogers to infiltrate Shadowland as a prisoner. As the heroes and the Hand ninjas fight each other, Jake takes a white cowl and joins to the brawl. Daredevil then attacks Marc from behind, but when Moon Knight begins to fight him, his mind is subsequently infiltrated by an unknown entity that has been inside Daredevil. Khonshu then appears and tells Moon Knight that in order to kill the creature, he will need the Sapphire Crescent, an artifact that was a part of the original sculpture of Khonshu. Moon Knight asks for it, but Khonshu demands him to kill in his name, which Moon Knight declines to do. When he returns home to his mansion, he finds Marlene in a bloody pulp and is informed that Shadow Knight did this and that the baby she was carrying is now dead. Moon Knight then agrees to kill for Khonshu and he will start with Shadow Knight.

When he begins to fight him by crashing his glider, the crazed man reveals himself to be Randall Spector. The brothers fight it out but Randall escapes. Driven by revenge over what Randall had done to Marlene, Jake agrees to kill Randall in Khonshu’s name. The deity then tells him the Sapphire Crescent’s history and that is found in New Orleans.

Jake finds it in the possession of a fortune teller which he buys for a large sum. As Jake walks through a carnival, Randall steals it and the brothers again begin a scuffle in the middle of a Mardi Gras festival. Shadow Knight begins to tell Moon Knight that he is doing this because he was sent by the acolyte of Khonshu, the Profile. Jake persuades him that he is being played for a fool by the Profile (working for Daredevil) but he will not have it all. When collateral damage begins to mount, Moon Knight takes control of the fight and corners Shadow Knight on a dock, but he is prepared to commit suicide and kill them all with dynamite. Moon Knight then throws the Sapphire Crescent into Shadow Knight, slicing his throat and causing him to fall in the water below. Moon Knight then flies off back to Shadowland to face Daredevil and the Hand. Afterwards, the Lunar Legionnaire declares that Jake Lockley is dead and that he is now Marc Spector once again.

Move to the West Coast

Leaving New York and memories of Marlene behind him, Marc moved to West Coast where he is developing a Moon Knight television series, “The Legend of Khonshu”.

Unable to cope with his past identities, Marc has instead developed a new batch of personalities in the form of other heroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine. Marc honestly believes that he has been asked specifically by these three heroes to once again take up the mantle of Moon Knight and frequently consults with them, unaware that he is hallucinating.

He later recruits an assistant Buck Lime, an ex-SHIELD agent who provides technological support for his activities.

Investigates an illegal deal going down in the docks, Moon Knight stumbles into a major case involving high-end technology being run by Mr. Hyde. Moon Knight engages Hyde in hand-to-hand combat but Hyde escapes, leaving behind a shipment of Ultron technology.

Marc later continues on to uncover more details about this new gang by subconsciously dressing as Spider-Man while attacking the new gang lead by Snapdragon. Overwhelmed by the Snapdragon’s henchmen, Marc was rescued by Echo, who was undercover at the time and had to blow her cover in order to save Moon Knight. Teaming up with Echo to continue their investigation together, Marc begins falling in love with her and tries to pursue a romantic relationship only for it to fail badly. After fighting the Night Shift, Marc and Echo discover that the leader of this gang is none other than Count Nefaria.

When Moon Knight and Echo target his bases of operations, Nefaria retaliates and kills Echo before demanding that Marc serve him. Apparently surrendering, Marc instead lures Nefaria into a trap and is later congratulated by Iron Man for a job well done.

Age of Ultron

Marc was involved with the ‘Age of Ultron’ crossover series, and is shown to be one of the few heroes left in the city of New York, after the Avengers’ villain Ultron took power. He is working with Black Widow from an old hidden base left by Nick Fury, and their plans focus on destroying Ultron, before they are destroyed.

Return to New York

Using laundered old money, Marc returned to New York with a host of new equipment including an upgraded baton and an automated limousine. He also discovered with the help of a psychologist, Elisa Warsame, that he has never had DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) but instead when Khonshu‘s consciousness colonized his own, it forced Marc’s mind to adapt to it’s four aspects which has resulted in brain damage.

Calling himself “Mr Knight” and wearing a white suit and mask, Marc now works with Detective Flint‘s Freak Beat to investigate weird crimes. When a more direct approach is needed Marc discards the Mr. Knight persona and instead will use the Moon Knight one with a new updated light armor.

Some of the investigations were into trained killers going after Gen. Lor of Akima, an East African micronation that was recently being recognized by the UN. Elisa had been using therapy sessions to recruit these killers having seen Gen. Lor’s violence up close. Spector confronts her and believes she is trying to recruit him, only she was actually recruiting Khonshu. who abandons Spector.

Spector would be arrested and sent to an off-the-books special prison. Khonshu continued to visit Spector hoping to convince him to join Elisa’s quest, however, Spector was able to convince Khonshu instead that he was being used and get his help escaping.

They discovered Gen. Lor actually led revolutionaries against Warsame’s father, the former governor of Akima, who was in fact guilty of the crimes Elisa described. Elisa has been trying to restart the unrest in her home country so that she could take her father’s seized fortune quietly.

Spector was able to save the general before Elisa could execute him.

Freak Beat

As part of Flint’s task force, Moon Knight would go on many weird investigations. For one, he would try to fight off a gang of punk ghosts; but was unable to harm them. Khonshu reminded him of his various acquisitions of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including enchanted weapons and armor. Facing of against the ghosts again in a ornate armor with a bird skull mask he was able to fight and defeat them

Other investigations included a pack of dogs trained to attack the city’s wealthy elite, a hotel full of benevolent ghosts and violent gang members, and a demon posing as the monster under the bed. Spector believes he is representing Khonshu by protecting those who travel at night, but Khonshu disapproves of Moon Knight’s current fight for justice.

It appeared as if Khonshu was looking for new guardians to replace Spector and collect sacrifices for him. Spector took the fight to them only to discover a cult leader acting in Khonshu’s name but without Khonshu’s support.

Versus The Moon

Marc Spector and his allies (Frenchie, Crawley, Marlene, and Gena) mysteriously find themselves in a mental institution with no memory of how they got there. Their past lives come back to them slowly and in fragments, with Marc the most confused due to his multiple identities. The doctor in charge, Dr. Emmett, was trying to convince Marc that he imagined his adventures as Moon Knight. However, Khonshu informs him that Dr. Emmet is in fact Ammut, the Egyptian god of judgement, and that the Egyptian pantheon is trying to take over New York. This convinces Marc and his allies to stage a successful breakout, at the cost of one of their souls. Crawley volunteers.

Unfortunately, Khonshu was lying. It was Khonshu who was setting up a New Egypt, and he has been breaking away at Marc’s psyche so Khonshu could take Marc’s body for himself. Marc refused and leapt from Khonshu’s pyramid. When he awoke, New York was fine and he was his billionaire identity, Steven Grant.

As Steven, he is producing a movie about the Moon Knight. Marc Spector is cast as the leading man. Jake Lockley is a local cab driver, who is actually Moon Knight. They all seem like they are separate people now, but they are sharing memories. Just as Steven started questioning it all, he is hit with a new identity. This one shared a name with Marc Spector, but he was a fighter pilot for a futuristic space force that protected the humans of a moon colony against werewolves that had taken over Earth.

These disparate identities are joined together by the primary Marc Specter to hash things out with fists and words until the real Marc was finally back in control and ready to face Khonshu. Marc first revisits Anubis, who aided in Marc’s escape. Marc made a new deal to save Anubis’ wife Anput from the Overvoid in exchange for the return of Crawley’s soul and passage back to Khonshu.

Khonshu throws everything he can at Marc, but Marc is able to fight through it. to Marc, that means he has proven he can be Moon Knight without Khonshu, but in his final confrontation, Marc doesn’t throw a single punch. He acknowledges Khonshu (or at least this version of Khonshu in his mind) as “that thing in [his] mind that is wrong” and not the Egyptian god. By doing so, Marc expels this Khonshu from his mind and receives clarity. He is suspicious of the clarity, but it feels real enough for now.

Versus the Sun

With his identities at ease and working together, Moon Knight is slowly rebuilding his street cred. In his first big fight, he comes across a tall muscular tattooed man calling himself The Truth. He is able to infect people with hard truths, but when Moon Knight lets Jake take over, The Truth can’t take his dark side. Jake ends up blinding him with two shurikens to the eyes.

Afterward, he gets a call from his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Marlene. She invites him over after they had some time apart, but it was a ruse by the Sun King, an avatar of Ra, looking to get back at Khonshu. The Sun King’s plan was to use Marlene as bait but ended up introducing Moon Knight to his daughter. Unbeknownst to Marc, Jake had been meeting with Marlene in secret, fathering the child and helping to raise it. Moon Knight fought his way out with his daughter, Diatrice, but Sun King took Marlene.

The Sun King also recruited Bushman, his new gang, and The Truth to aid him in taking out Moon Knight. They collected Moon Knight from his apartment and sailed to Isla Ra, Sun King’s new city for the disenfranchised. Here, Sun King is determined to fight Moon Knight to the death and prove his dominance. However, Moon Knight “out-crazies” Sun King, and Sun King’s insecurity disables his abilities. So, Sun King submits, Bushman and the Truth abandon his quest, and Moon Knight becomes guardian to the disenfranchised Sun King had already given shelter too.

Age of Khonshu and The Phoenix Force

With the Phoenix Force oncoming due to the machinations of Mephisto, Khonshu instructed Moon Knight to steal the abilities of the present day mantle holders of a stone age team resembling the Avengers. While briefly connected to the Phoenix, Marc was so shocked by his consideration of genocide to stop Mephisto that he returned the Avengers’ abilities and allowed them to best him. Black Panther tried to convince him to team up with them, but he declined, thinking the Avengers were severely outmatched.

Midnight Mission

With Khonshu locked up in Aesir by the Asgardians after he attacked the Avengers, Marc continued to keep up with his duty as the guardian of those who travel at night. He opened the Midnight Mission, an office where locals can come officially request his help, and started seeing a therapist by special request of the Avengers. He also got himself a new office assistant, Reese, who was also a vampire, and a new rival, Dr. Badr, who was loyal to Khonshu and chastised Marc’s lack of faith.

Appearance

• Height: 6’2″
• Weight: 225 lbs.
• Hair: Brown
• Eyes: Brown
• Citizenship: American
• Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: Adventurer, taxi driver; former U.S. Marine, mercenary, CIA liaison, entrepreneur, heavyweight boxer, movie executive
• Known Relatives: Elias Spector (father), Randall Spector/Shadowknight (brother), Marlene Alraune (ex-girlfriend, mother to his child), Diatrice Alraune (illegitimate daughter)

Powers and Abilities

Due to his multiple personalities, Moon Knight possesses formidable psychic resistance and most telepathic or mental attacks are less effective on him. It has also been noted by several people that Moon Knight possesses an extraordinary degree of pain tolerance and has casually ignored debilitating wounds and major injuries to keep fighting.

Throughout his varied careers as a boxer, marine, commando, and CIA agent, Moon Knight possesses a wide range of skills and abilities including military strategy and tactics, infiltration and stealth techniques, military interrogation and torture techniques, driver evasion techniques, and is a competent pilot who can fly most types of aircrafts. He is an expert in a wide variety of military firearms including pistols, sniper rifles, and machine guns with a marksman rating. His military training and background makes him not only an unconventional hero, he can and will use drastic means and extreme violence to stop criminals.

Moon Knight is a highly skilled combatant who is equally adept in both unarmed and armed fighting techniques; he is a former heavyweight boxing champion who has comprehensive knowledge of the weak points of the human body. Moon Knight’s fighting style is brutal and straight to the point and combines techniques from Krav Maga, Dambe, Savate, Silat and FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) to put down his opponents as quickly and as painfully as possible. He also has advanced skills in Judo, Kung Fu and is an Olympic-class athlete, acrobat and gymnast.

Taskmaster claims that there is no one’s fighting style that he hates copying more than Moon Knight’s. This is because unlike most other fighters, Moon Knight prefers not to block or evade an attack or injury if it allows him the opportunity to counterattack his opponent; much like how some boxers will actually court their opponent to attack and trusting in their stamina and ability to take punishment.

He is also highly adept in various conventional and unconventional weaponry as well including shurikens and thrown projectiles, combat knives and swords, batons, truncheons, bo staffs, nunchucks, three-sectional staffs, longbows, chains, and bolos.

Thanks to his extensive experience in criminal investigations, Moon Knight has also picked up a surprising degree of skill as a detective including how to profile psychopathic behavior and a broad base knowledge of the criminal underworld.

When he became the Fist of Khonshu and was possessed by Khonshu, Moon Knight gained superhuman powers derived from the moon itself. During this period, Moon Knight had enhanced strength, stamina, and reflexes based on the lunar phase of the moon. He was at his strongest during a full moon, as he could lift the weight of 2 tons and at normal strength when there is a no moon, where he could lift around 700 lbs. He could also see magical beings that normal humans cannot see and possessed night vision as well. Moon Knight could also become invisible in a shadowed area and had a “healing factor” that allowed his wounds to quickly heal when shined in moonlight.

After the exorcism of Khonshu from his body, Moon Knight appears to have lost most of his powers but there is speculation that he may or may not retain some aspect of them. He still appears to receive prophetic visions and a connection to Khonshu but it is unknown just how much is actually Khonshu’s influence or Marc Spector’s own mental hallucinations.

Moon Knight has also shown that he can be resurrected by Khonshu. This may prove that Moon Knight is near immortal.

Weapons and Equipment

Thanks to his immense wealth, Marc Spector has financed the development of numerous weapons, armored costumes, devices, specialized vehicles, and equipment as Moon Knight.

Crescent Darts

Even though Moon Knight has utilized a wide variety of weapons throughout his career, his most widely utilized and best known are his crescent darts.

The crescent darts are sharpened metal throwing weapons similar in size to Japanese shurikens and visually appear to be based on the Gibbous moon. Moon Knight has often concealed a crescent dart in his hand and in the past has used them for close quarters combat; as his calling card; and during certain parts of his career–even using them as makeshift gruesome carving tools into his victims.

Moon Knight can hurl several of these darts simultaneously with impressive force and accuracy as well as performing deflection shots. In addition, he has utilized crescent dart throwers; mechanical devices mounted on his wrists that enable him to discharge a barrage of crescent darts at high velocities for better penetration and offensive spread patterns.

Over the years, he has employed crescent darts forged out of silver for anti-werewolf use; specially modified explosive crescent darts that detonated on impact; as well as ones forged out of unbreakable adamantium alloy that can cut through virtually anything.

Truncheon

Another signature weapon that Moon Knight frequently makes use of is a specially modified truncheon.

Originally forged out of reinforced stainless steel, he later had it adapted to include a gas-propelled grappling hook with an attached cable reel inside which enables him to ascend or descend from buildings or swing around a fixed point. The 12 inch long truncheon weighed about 12 pounds and he could use a club and blunt instrument.

Moon Knight’s trusty truncheon has undergone numerous upgrades over the course of his career and has be refitted to have a nunchaku mode or an extendible 8-foot long bo staff mode. Some models have been forged out of unbreakable Adamantium and he also had certain models capable of acting like a taser or projecting an electronic disruptor field capable of knocking out electronics within a certain radius temporarily. He usually carries two identical truncheons.

Other Weapons

Moon Knight has employed a variety of other weapons including a pair of silver coated cestus which were armored gauntlets like ancient boxing gloves with spiked knuckleguards to increase damage that they inflicted when he punched an opponent, particularly certain supernaturally enhanced individuals like werewolves. He has also utilized a longbow and arrows; a katana with a crescent moon-theme hilt guard; a three-sectional staff; and brass knuckles with spikes.

He has also carried a pair of TripWire Guns that fire crescent darts that are connected with a cable that enabled him to grapple, pin down, or entangle criminals with sufficient force to embed the darts into solid stone. The TripWire Guns also had a grappling hook mode or could deploy a parachute in an emergency.

While he was the Fist of Khonshu, he was given ancient Egyptian weapons by the followers of Khonshu. This included a golden ankh that he wielded a bludgeon and had the mystical property of glowing when he was in danger, golden scarab darts that replaced his crescent darts as his primary throwing weapon, an ivory boomerang engraved with protective runes, throwing irons, bolos, and a golden axe that could also be used as a grapnel. He retired these items after he was exorcised of Khonshu’s presence.

He also utilized mechanical bracelets that replicate Spider-Man’s webshooters, Captain America’s energy shield, and a trio of retractable claws that mimic Wolverine.

Body Armor and Protective Vestments

Moon Knight has worn a variety of protective raiments over the years. Primarily, his default costume for years was a full body suit of bulletproof kevlar and was equipped with a two-way radio in his cowl that enabled him to maintain contact with the Mooncopter. In addition, his cape also functioned as a parachute and he could use it to paraglide for short distances. Recent modifications have enabled the paraglider cape to fit within a small backpack pouch for ease of movement and can be unfurled on command.

However he also has worn armored uniforms for better protection including a protective Adamantium Armor that also incorporated a pair of crescent dart throwers mounted on his wrists and a magnetic recall device for his truncheons. The Adamantium Armor retained the two-way radio in his cowl but also included a remote control device for the Angelwing and his glider cape.

He has also worn body armor made out of carbonadium that he claimed was as durable as adamantium but much more flexible. The Carbonadium Armor was able to protect him from large caliber bullets and by locking it’s joints, enabled him to hold tremendous weights and giving him the appearance of superhuman strength as he once used it to prevent a building from collapsing.

The armor incorporated the crescent dart throwers mounted under his wrists, jump jets, a mini-laser torch, and had a deployable mini-Angelwing surveillance drone that had a camera that transmitted its feed to a micro-HUD which enabled him to scout out dangerous areas. The armor can also be remotely reassemble back to Moon Knight’s body as well as the two-way radio/remote control system.

Moon Knight also has a black variant of his armor used in stealth missions.

Moon Knight has employed a supernatural anti-ghost armor which he created by adapting numerous ancient Egyptian artifacts, mummies, and death garb that were first used to contact the dead and map out the underworld. In this protective suit, Moon Knight was not only shielded from the vengeful ghosts’ weapons and fists, but he could conversely touch and hurt them in return.

Vehicles

Moon Knight has numerous vehicles but his primary mode of transportation is the Mooncopter that is mainly piloted by Frenchie which is an advanced state-of-the-art VTOL which is also virtually silent.

In addition, he has utilized the Angelwing which was a smaller one-man aircraft but his more recent models have as a one-man crescent moon-shaped hangglider-like conveyance that he can remote control and has built-in turbines for long distance travel.

Moon Knight also has a moon-themed motorcycle and most recently, has employed a white stretch limousine equipped with advanced computers that he uses for crimefighting. All of his vehicles can be remote controlled and voice operated.

Legacy

Khonshu has chosen many different people over the years to be his guardian

1,000,000 BC

A caveman was first chosen by Khonshu to be his knight to stand against the Avengers BC.

Moon Knight 2620 BC

The Fist of Khonshu in Ancient Egypt stood with Imhotep‘s army against a Brood invasion as a one of the earliest versions of SHIELD.

Moon Knight 2099

A female Moon Knight who protects Attilan

Alternate Realities

Marvel 2099 (Earth-928)

A female Moon Knight is featured fighting crime in the lunar city of Attilan. Her identity, abilities and motivations are never revealed.

Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610)

In the Ultimate Universe, he was first introduced as an ex-Navy Seal who participated in the Persian-Gulf War. He later worked in Roxxon Industries under the name of Paladin until Roxxon fell apart, and later adopted the guise of Moon Knight. Moon Knight first fought Spider-Man as he thought that he caused a building to explode, and he later got involved in a gang war between Kingpin and Hammerhead. In the middle of the fight with Spider-Man, Iron Fist and Shang-Chi, he was impaled by Elektra, but not before impaling a moon blade in her head when she was about to kill Black Cat. Once he had awoken from the coma, courtesy of Elektra, he fought Spider-Man, the Punisher and Daredevil. He was later invited to join Daredevil’s new group, known as the Ultimate Knights, whose primary goal was to bring down the Kingpin of crime. He created a new personality, Ronin, in order to infiltrate Kingpin’s organization and get closer to him. Among all the Ultimate Knights, Moon Knight was the first to volunteer to pose as Kingpin’s bodyguard/assassin.

When the Kingpin decides to test Moon Knight’s allegiance, he orders him to capture Spider-Man. He discovers that a majority of the criminals in Kingpin’s organization believe that Spider-Man goes to Midtown High School. So, in order to lure Spider-Man out of his daily routine, he drives a bus through the school’s wall. Kitty Pryde arrives before Spider-Man, and ends up being knocked-out by Ronin’s vicious attack with a fire extinguisher. Spider-Man arrives just in time to see it happen, then jumps into the fight himself. He ends up being shot with a tranquilizer dart in the neck, and then Ronin uses his web shooters to swing away from the school, bringing him to the Kingpin. When he arrives, he only says, “What’s next?”

While Spider-Man was being tortured by Kingpin, Ronin stood in the back; however, it turns out Fisk knew he was Moon Knight all along. He attacked him and had his men take him to the river and executed in costume to send a message to the other “costumes”. In Moon Knight’s mind we see Moon Knight drowning and the other three personalities standing around him. Suddenly, Ronin comes in and pulls him out of the water. From there he went to the police and told them who he was and that Wilson Fisk sent him to be executed being the first hero ever to publicly unmask himself to enforce justice. Wilson Fisk was arrested and prosecuted thanks to Moon Knight, at the cost of his secret identity being revealed.

It is stated that he suffers from an incredibly complex case of dissociative identity disorder (commonly known as multiple personality disorder). It is so complex that the identities: Marc Spector, Steven Grant, Moon Knight, and a little red-haired girl actually speak to each other on what appears to be a playground. This condition may have been worsened by the creation of his Ronin personality, a ruthless and driven alter-ego willing to open fire on students at midtown high with a sub-machinegun in order to draw out Spiderman (the official marvel universe guide also states that the Ronin personality enjoyed increased strength and agility due to Dr. Strange’s mystical enhancements). Moonknight is currently living with his girlfriend, Marlene, who complains frequently about Moon Knight’s disorder.

House of M (Earth-58163)

In the House of M reality, he was a CIA operative before Magneto‘s reign of mutant supremacy. He became a wanted human on the run for “war crimes” against mutants and later a vigilante in New York. Marc Spector is a member of Luke Cage‘s Avengers along with Iron Fist when Luke and Hawkeye were recruiting to join the fight against the House of M. He first appeared without his costume when he was with the Human Resistance Movement, but wears his classic costume when he joined the Avengers.

Marvel Zombiverse (Earth-2149)

Moon Knight was one of the few superheroes that remained uninfected by the zombie plague. He was still in living form in Marvel Zombies: Dead Days and was part of Nick Fury‘s resistance against the zombie superheroes, but was apparently killed and turned into a zombie when he seen as one of the superhero zombies that was attacking Doctor Doom’s castle. He was killed by Silver Surfer in self defense, when Moon Knight and the other zombie superheroes tried to devour the Silver Surfer.

Earth X (Earth-9997)

On Earth X, most of Moon Knight’s origin is identical to mainstream version save for the fact that Khonshu has no direct interaction with him. Instead, the idol of Khonshu is revealed to have been carved out of vibranium. Marc was revived because he breathed in dust with a high concentration of this vibranium which rendered him effectively immortal and unable to die. He also inadvertently exposed his girlfriend Marlene Alraune as well as his brother, Randall who also became immortal as well.

In the world of Earth X, Marc’s deaths and resurrections resulted in him becoming increasingly disfigured and more death-like in appearance. As a result, he took to wrapping himself in bandages. Drifting away from his friends and associates, Marc returned to Egypt where he found himself fighting a never ending battle to protect the Khonshu idol, now known as the Re-Animator Stone against the Sons of Seth, a cult of ancient Egyptians who were similarly gifted with immortality thanks to exposure to it.

Captain Mar-Vell would subsequently claim the Re-Animator Stone as part of his plot to kill Death, and build Paradise in the Realm of the Dead. Weary of his immortal burden, Moon Knight helped fend off the Sons of Seth so that Mar-Vell could gain control of the Re-Animator Stone. In doing so, Mar-Vell allowed Moon Knight to finally die.

His soul was later seen in the Realm of the Dead where he joined Mar-Vell’s Army of the Unliving against the Forces of the Dead. After their victory, Moon Knight was allowed to enter the Paradise that Mar-Vell created.

Amalgam Universe (Earth-9602)

In this reality Marc Spector is only a split personality of Dick Grayson. He became the hero named ” Moonwing“. He was later recruited by Bruce Wayne to SHIELD.

Dino-World (Earth-99476)

In this reality, Moon Knight is a gun-slinging velociraptor, named Dino Knight, whose life force is sucked by Moon Knight’s doppelganger during the Infinity War, Moonshade.

What If? (Earth-244121992)

In this reality where the Punisher is in possession of the Venom Symbiote, Moon Knight is one of the heroes that tried to stop his brutal way of serving justice along with Spider-Man and Daredevil.

Multiple Realities (Earth-???)

Moon Knight travel to other realities and met other versions of himself, such as; Dark Moon, Moon-Fang, Crescent Moon, Grey Wing, Moon Man, Moon Boy, Moon Maid, Mister Spector, Ivory and the Moon Ghost.

Mutant X (Earth-1298)

In this reality, Moon Knight belong to a team called the Lethal Legion that fought the Beyonder where he lost his life.

Exiles (Earth-8545)

In this reality, Earth was consumed by a mutated form of the Legacy Virus and Warlock‘s techno-organic virus. Moon Knight was one of the infected heroes that formed the Vi-Locks Prime.

Bullet Points (Earth-70105)

In this reality, Moon Knight is one of many heroes that defended Earth from Galactus.

Earth-81156

In this pocket universe where Night Thrasher has become an evil version of Iron Man, Moon Knight was imprisoned along with other heroes until he was freed by the New Warriors.

Earth-Z

Moon Knight is one of the heroes infected by the zombie virus when the Zombie Spider-Man and Wolverine of Earth-2149 where transported from the said universe.

Battleworld

In the Egyptia domain on Battleworld, the ruling goddess Khonshu uses a military police force of werewolf Moon Knights to maintain order. One of these Moon Knights is a man called Spector who claims to have left the order and denounced Khonshu.

Other Media

Television

Animation

• In the Avengers Assemble episode “Avengers World,” an image of Moon Knight is shown as one of the potential candidates for Avengers membership. He eventually makes a full appearance in the fourth season episode “Beyond,” voiced by Gideon Emery. He encounters the Avengers after the pyramid he is guarding ends up in the Egyptia region of Battleworld.
• Moon Knight appears in the Ultimate Spider-Man episode “The Moon Knight Before Christmas”, sporting his modern costume. As a nod to the frequent accusation that Moon Knight is a rip-off of Batman, he is voiced by Diedrich Bader, who used to voice Batman in The Brave and the Bold.
• Moon Knight appears in the two-part Marvel’s Spider-Man episode “Vengeance of Venom,” voiced by Peter Giles. This version of Marc Spector has abandoned the Moon Knight identity and become a crazed survivalist living in New York’s sewers following the death of a loved one. However, an encounter with May Parker ultimately leads to him becoming Moon Knight once again to help battle the army of Venom symbiotes.

Live-Action

• In the Blade TV series, Marc Spector is mentioned. He is said to be an expert on werewolves, an allusion to the fact that he originally debuted in the Werewolf by Night comic book series.
• A live-action Moon Knight television series was announced in 2006, but the project never materialized.
• In 2019, it was announced that a live-action TV series was in the works for the Disney+ streaming service. The series will be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Moon Knight will be portrayed by Oscar Isaac.

Video Games

• In the Ultimate Spider-Man video game, during a race against the Human Torch, Spider-Man can be heard saying, “Moon Knight is faster than you!”
• Moon Knight is a playable character in Marvel Ultimate Alliance (a mod is available to download him for the PC version). In the game, he has 3 costumes and a modded 4th costume for PC: Classic (His normal cape and hood), Ultimate (His Ultimate Universe counterpart), Khonshu (showing gold highlights on parts of his Classic costume), and modded Retro (displaying more black in his Classic costume). He is voiced by Phil LaMarr.
• Moon Knight appears in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows, voiced by Robin Atkin Downes.
• Moon Knight appears in Hawkeye‘s ending in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 as a member of his West Coast Avengers.
• Moon Knight has a table in the Virtue and Vengeance pack for Pinball FX 2.
• Moon Knight is a playable character in the online MMO Marvel Heroes.
• Moon Knight appears as playable character in the video game Lego Marvel Super Heroes.
• Moon Knight is a playable fighter in Marvel Contest of Champions.
• Moon Knight is a playable character in Lego Marvel’s The Avengers video game.
• Moon Knight appears in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order as part of the Marvel Knights: Curse of the Vampire DLC pack. He is voiced by Gideon Emery.

Merchandise

• Moon Knight was featured in the Marvel’s Gold series from ToyBiz.
• Bowen Designs released a Moon Knight statue and bust.
• Diamond Select released a Moon Knight statue.
• Moon Knight was featured in The Classic Marvel Figurine Collection from Eaglemoss Publications.
• Diamond Select included Moon Knight in the Marvel Select line.
• Moon Knight was featured in Diamond Select’s Minimates line.
• Funko released a Moon Knight bobblehead as a Walgreens exclusive.
• ToyBiz released a Moon Knight figure for Marvel Legends line in M.O.D.O.K. series.
• Hasbro released a Moon Knight figure for Marvel Universe line.
• Hasbro released a modern Moon Knight figure for the Marvel Legends Vulture series.
• Another Marvel Legends Moon Knight figure was released by Hasbro as a Walgreens exclusive.