Get to Know a Hero: Moon Knight
All information herein garnered from the Marvel Website. Don’t shoot the messenger with hand bolts or anything else.
Alias: Marc Spector, Jake Lockley, Steven Grant, Fist of Khonshu, Yitzak Topol
Born: Chicago, IL
First Appearance: Werewolf by Night #32 (1975)
Affiliations: Secret Avengers, Daredevil’s unnamed team, Avengers West Coast (no, I didn’t make that up), Defenders, the Committee, CIA, Marines
Powers/Abilities: enhances strength, endurance, and reflexes at night; powers at height during full moon. Sometimes has prophetic visions. Boxer, commando, martial artist, acrobat, gymnast, pilot. Some resistance to psychic attack.
The Story:
The son of a rabbi who fled Europe during WWII, Marc rejects religiosity/spirituality and becomes first a heavy weight boxer, then a Marine, and finally a CIA operative (nope, I don’t really get the first part of that progression either). Marc’s brother, Randall, is also a CIA operative but he is a vile, vile betrayer and plans to sell weapons to both sides in an Italian Civil War (*shrug*). Marc’s lover overhears this plan and Randall kills her with a meat cleaver (then, most likely, puts her in a refrigerator). Marc beats the crap out of his brother and leaves him psychotic. He goes back to the CIA briefly, decides the lot of them are assholes, and becomes a mercenary. Probably because redemption arc.
Prickles of conscience attack after Marc contracts to one man who promises a new democracy and delivers a brutal dictatorship instead and another affiliate bites an archaeologist to death with his steel teeth.
After trying to save a village from Mister Steel Teeth and failing, Marc is left in the desert to die. Brought to an ancient temple and laid at the foot of the moon god Khonshu, Spector is resurrected and named the moon god’s knight of vengeance (shades of Spectre who is, in fact, several decades older). After taking care of Steel Teeth, Spector decides to hone his skills as a warrior for justice.
Returning to New York, Spector uses his mercenary profits to establish an alternate identity as millionaire Steve Grant, allowing him access to the high and mighty. At the same time, he also becomes Jake Lockley, a New York cabbie, in order to develop street level contacts. Marc starts to go a little whacky, what with all of the personalities, but Marlene, the lady who happened upon him in the desert and is now his lover, keeps him sane (ish), as does the presence of the statue of Khonshu. Marlene designs his costume because, hey, that’s useful work, right? Someone else, someone of the dude persuasion, designs Marc’s “Mooncopter” and acts as his pilot. Because that’s actually useful and thus necessitates the sausage.
Moon Knight fights the Werewolf (alias Jack Russell — bwahahahahahahaha) and then Conquer-Lord (no, I didn’t make that up), and dicks around with the Defenders, Spider-Man, and the Thing.
Marc’s brother Randall eventually comes back to haunt him in the form of a nurse-centric killing spree (gonna need a whole warehouse of refrigerators for this bit) and Marc thinks he’s killed the bad boy but has, in fact, been tricked by a decoy.
There’s more beating of evil ass and general doing of violent good until the statue of Khonshu is stolen by none other than the dead Steel Teeth. Moon Knight loses his shit, believing he needs Khonshu to guide him, then abruptly recovers his sanity when Marlene tells him she hid the real statue. In a rational world, this would indicate to our hero he doesn’t actually need Khonshu but, as has so often been the case over the course of this series, we’re going to have to go with COMIC! and move along. There’s another mental breakdown when Marc is trying to prove Black Spectre’s true identity and no one believes him, and a third when his father dies and a former student steals Rabbi Spector’s body to use as fuel for Cabalistic rituals. Deciding to retire after defeating the evil Cabalist, Marc is called back to action by three ancient priests of Khonshu (where do they come from? Nobody knows *spooky fingers*). Marlene decides she’s had enough (yeah, the ancient priests are the breaking point) and drops the mic.
When the Avengers West are stranded in Ancient Egypt (really? That surprises you?) Hawkeye makes contact with Khonshu who contacts Moon Knight in turn. Marc, Hank Pym, and Espirita stage a rescue and defeat the big bad. Everyone toodles off back to LA, leaving bloody swaths in their wakes.
Khonshu decides he wants Marc to join the Avengers and so, kind of-sort of possess him. Marc works with the team for a while and then realizes he himself never actually made the decision to do so. After some horrible stuff, Marc heads off with Mockingbird and Tigra do to their Own Thing. Mostly because the Avengers have a no-kill policy and Moon Knight really, really likes killing people.
Blah blah blah, evil mercenaries, evil politicians, some team ups, and then Randall shows up again. Moon Knight hunts him with The Punisher and this time, ensure he’s dead by throwing him off a building (because impaling him on a tree didn’t work). Marc decides this means Khonshu is also the god of justice and reinvents himself to reflect this, working with various shadowy agents and upgrading his armor and weapons for maximum fatality.
These changes don’t sit well with the Avengers, who get super pissed when Moon Knight uses his privileges to force a confrontation with Doom. The self-righteous bullies try him as they have so many others. Apparently bored by the proceedings, Moon Knight literally cuts up his literal membership card.
Moon Knight then locks himself in his fortress with a deadly virus to save the city and dies.
For about five minutes. Until Khonshu resurrects him again. Marc joins Daredevil in going after the Punisher, is horrifically injured again, and is forced into retirement. Again.
He has since recovered (*sarcastic font* surprise, surprise), fought another battle, ended up in a wheelchair, and recovered again.
He is now being stalked by his original vigilante bosses.
Definitely the makings of an excellent Netflix show.
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