Moon Knight

This ancient set of notes will eventually have to be replaced by a series of chronological profiles – it’s not a “real”, modern profile due to its age.

But in the meanwhile… ankh if you like Moon Knight ! 🙂

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Background

History

Marc Spector was the son of rabbi Elias Spector, a noted European Hebrew scholar. Rabbi Elias fled Europe to escape the Nazis and established himself in America.

As Marc grew older, he rejected his father’s way of life and went after money and thrills, in that order. In short succession, he became a heavyweight boxer, then joined the U.S. Marines and was trained as a commando. Once his term was over he became a liaison to the CIA, resigning after a few years to become a mercenary soldier.

As a merc, he fought in three African wars and five South American revolutions. It was in Africa that Marc met Jean-Paul Duchamp, whom he nicknamed “Frenchie”. Duchamp become Spector’s most trusted confidante and constant companion.

At the peak of his mercenary career, Spector was second in command to Roald Bushman, a terrorist for hire who had his face tattooed to resemble a death mask.

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Deaths and a rebirth

While fighting rebel forces in the Sudan south of the Egyptian border, Spector learned that Bushman planned to loot a nearby archaeological dig. Already believing he was working on the wrong side, Spector decided to leave Bushman that night.

However, when American archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune attempted to stab Bushman in the back to preserve the site’s treasures, Spector instinctively stopped him. Bushman then savagely murdered Dr. Alraune in front of Spector.

Warning the archaeologist’s daughter, Marlene, to get to safety, Spector confronted Bushman in personal combat. He was defeated, and Bushman left him out in the desert to die.

Spector staggered determinedly back to the dig, but collapsed a short distance from it. He was carried to a shelter by adherents of the ancient Egyptian religion, but it was too late to save his life.

Spector lay dead before Marlene Alraune for nearly a minute, at the foot of an ancient statue of Khonshu, Egyptian god of the moon. Then, Spector’s heart inexplicably began beating again.

Delirious, he attributed his revival to Khonshu. Spector then declared himself the moon’s knight of vengeance. Draping himself in a white cloth that had preserved the statue from the desert sands, Spector single handedly destroyed Bushman’s local assets. He then took Frenchie, Marlene, and the statue of Khonshu back with him to America.

Werewolf by night

After months of deliberation, Spector decided to adopt the costumed identity of Moon Knight. He would use his acquired wealth and resources to wage war against criminals and terrorists. Frenchie became his pilot, confidante and special agent. Marlene became his confidante and paramour.

They learned of a Los Angeles based group of corrupt businessmen calling themselves the Committee. Spector sent Frenchie to infiltrate the group, posing as a French businessman. When the Committee became interested in using Jack Russell, a local werewolf, as an agent of terror, Frenchie recommended Spector for the job of capturing the beast.

Frenchie provided the Committee with Spector’s Moon Knight costume, pretending to have created the identity for the job. Spector, as Moon Knight, found and brought Russell to the Committee. However, he then set him free and brought a temporary halt to the Committee’s operations.

Moonshadow

By this point, Spector had parlayed the money he had earned as a mercenary into a fortune by shrewd investments in the stock market. This allowed him to create the identity of millionaire Steven Grant. As Grant, he bought a mansion on Long Island for use as a base of operations in his war against crime.

Seeking to travel incognito along the ordinary walks of life, he also created the identity of cab driver Jake Lockley. As Lockley, he assembled a network of street informants and aides.

Moon Knight led a successful career as a crimefighter in the New York area. However, the strain of maintaining his four separate identities began to take its toll. Spector began believing Grant to be his true self, which was encouraged by Marlene, who hated Spector and loved the man he had become.

It took a series of nervous breakdowns for Spector to realize what he was doing to himself. He finally retired all of his identities, including Moon Knight, and set to concentrating on his true identity of Marc Spector.

He legally transferred Grant’s fortune to Marc Spector, and became a world traveling dealer of fine art. He even put the statue of Khonshu on auction to sever all ties with his Moon Knight past.

Carried away by a moonlight shadow

A few weeks later, Spector began having vivid dreams that Khonshu was summoning him. These proving to be irresistible, he boarded a flight to Egypt to investigate their significance.

Three priests of Khonshu told him that being Moon Knight was his destiny. Not able to help himself, he donned the new Moon Knight costume they had for him. He also accepted their new weapons – which were later revealed to have been designed by Hawkeye during a time travel adventure.

The priests, who claimed to be unable to leave the tomb, assigned him the task of returning to them the statue of Khonshu which he had sold. In the process, he encountered his counterpart, the champion of Anubis, the jackal headed god, and defeated him.

Since returning the statue to them, he has acted as the agent of the priests of Khonshu, traveling the world at their bidding to battle the forces of evil.

Avengers

On the priests’ behalf and on mental promptings by Khonshu himself, Moon Knight contacted the West Coast branch of the hero team Avengers. At this point, some of their members were trapped in the past in ancient Egypt.

Moon Knight accompanied the Avengers to rescue their teammate and defeat the enemy which trapped them there, the world-dominating computer Dominus. Moon Knight accepted membership within the Avengers. But even though he shared many adventures with them, he also followed his own direction. For instance he tracked down the villain Taurus and allowed him to fall to his death.

About this time, the Avengers were embroiled in a controversy about killing villains. Moon Knight thus left the Avengers along with Mockingbird and Tigra. The three tried to form their own crimefighting team, and even halted the forces of the evil geneticist the High Evolutionary.

Possessions

With the help of occult experts Hellstorm and Hellcat, the trio tried to exorcise the ghost of the Phantom Rider that was haunting Mockingbird. During this, they discovered that Moon Knight was bodily possessed by the spirit of Khonshu.

Khonshu had inhabited the body of Marc Spector prior to his joining the Avengers. He claimed that this was to experience the human life, and particularly super-hero life, more intimately.

When Khonshu left the Earthly plane to battle the forces of rival god Seth, Moon Knight’s mind became wholly his own again. However his then-current set of weaponry was destroyed and he left the Avengers – he had been on an indefinite leave due to an ethical dispute for weeks anyway.

Spector later resigned his Avengers membership altogether, on bad terms, when the group called him in to question his sometimes extreme crimefighting methods.

Bad moon rising

Spector returned to New York, eventually using his wealth to establish SpectorCorp. During this period, he adopted a suit of armor and many new weapons. Jean-Paul Duchamp was revealed to be a descendant of an ancient order called the Knights Templar, developed super-powers and took the name Bloodline.

A rogue Templar called Seth the Immortal attempted to steal Marc Spector’s resources. This Seth launched an extensive campaign against the Knights Templar and Moon Knight. Marc Spector was revealed to be a descendent of Seth, and fought a final battle against the immortal villain.

In the end, Moon Knight sacrificed himself to save Frenchie and the Knights, dying in Marlene’s arms.

Postmortem

Months later, in the land of the dead, the spirit of Moon Knight joined with that of T’Challa, the Black Panther, in a quest to find Khonshu. Their hope was that he might restore the damaged link between T’Challa and the Panther God (Bast).

Initially, they were led astray by the demon Nightmare, posing as Khonshu. Eventually, they did encounter the true Khonshu, who took the form of the young human male as which he once ruled in Egypt.

Khonshu revealed that T’Challa’s healing had been completed, and they were free to go back to Earth, although they had since been caught up in Nightmare’s bedevilments. Khonshu told them that in order to free their spirits, they did have to locate and commune with the Panther God.

Khonshu also gave them The Book of the Dead  to serve as their guide to the spirit realm.

Description

Most illustrations cover the classic Moon Knight costume. Note that the holster for the nunchaku/truncheon is on the lower leg.

The costume with the golden ankh on the chest was worn during the Avengers period. The last illustration depicts the body armour and staff set of equipment.

Personality

Marc Spector was compelled to act as a hero due to guilt and disgust over his past life. During his period as Grant and Lockley, he was a comic book multiple personality case, with serious mental problems. He truly believed Khonshu was responsible for his resurrection, and talked to the moon-god regularly.

As the years went by, he became increasingly sane, eventually curing himself of his multiple personalities.

Spector was particularly loyal to his friends, and those he cared about. He never stopped loving Marlene, despite the ups and downs of their long relationship. As Moon Knight, Spector was a loner, preferring to work with his select group of confidantes, rather than large groups of heroes like the Avengers.

Despite his financial success, Spector cared very little for wealth. More important to him were his activities as Moon Knight, which he always saw as a way of atonement for past sins.

A not-so-harsh mistress

Previous to his multiple-personality breakdown, Spector was a bit of an arse. He was a confident he-man who considered all women to be bimbos and had a ruthless, almost brutal streak. He was something of a 1970’s mercenary hero a la Mack Bolan, virile, efficient and warrior-like yet with a strong good guy code which does *not* include a code against killing.

He would not go out of his way to kill opponents, but he would not make great efforts to save their lives either.

Still, Spector has somewhat mellowed. He came to understand Khonshu was not a god of vengeance, but a god of justice. As his Motivation evolved from Responsibility of Vengeance to responsibility of Justice he became less of a killer and more of a traditional hero.

Still, he continued to consider traditional heroes such as the Avengers as pansies and prefers to work alone or along other hardcore heroes, such as the Marvel Knights.

Quotes

Marc: “I died again and this time I know what I must do”
Marlene: “No more ’Fist of Khonshu‘ ?”
Marc: “Its not about vengeance, Marlene. It’s about something deeper, more sacred. Something that’s almost impossible to put into words.”

“Maybe it was the simple defeat of Shadowknight under the proper configuration of stars around the moon. Or perhaps it was the choice I made not to kill my defeated brother, because vengeance must be tempered with justice. Or possibly it was the risk I took to protect a comrade’s life. For the god of the moon is a god of life first. Thought originally it was simply bestowed upon me – I now know I have earned this honour and Moon Knight is truly an avatar of justice. Forevermore.”

By Sébastien Andrivet and Daryl Kuxhouse.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Craig Clark , http://tisiphone.dhs.org/~tschap/moonknight/marcspector.html (defunct), marvunapp.com , Peter Piispanen, Roy Cowan, David Johnston.