Moon Knight

[Moon Knight]

(First appearance in Werewolf by Night #32) 

Born in Chicago Illinois Marc Spector was raised as the son of a Rabbi, Elias Spector who he and his wife had fled from Europe in 1930's to escape persecution. Growing up without his mother and only having his father Marc grew to resent him for fleeing Europe instead of fighting against persecution.Becoming an adult instead of following his father's footsteps and becoming a religious man Marc began to cut off ties to him and followed militarism. Now a full adult Marc became an amateur heavyweight boxer, he then left that and enlisted in the US marines, and from there promoted into the CIA. Fed up with working with to CIA Marc become a mercenary spent several years working for contractors as a hired gun accepting the highest bidder. After a few missions Spector met another mercenary, a French pilot by the name of Jean-Paul DuChamp, who he had nicknamed Frenchie, they quickly became best of friends.  

                                                                                                                 

Eventually working with a bloodthirsty terrorist by the name of Raoul Bushman Marc started to question his life choices. During an assignment in the country of Sudan Marc witnessed Bushman attack the town of Seliam, looking for information on the archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune's discovery of an Egyptian tomb to find gold. Dr. Alraune captured by the terrorist Bushman, he tried to escape by attempting to stab Raoul, Marc as to warn Bushman in time and Dr. Alraune was murdered. 

Anger and repulsed by Bushman Marc aided Dr. Alraune's daughter Marlene in escaping the town of Seliam. To Marc's luck though Bushman had caught him in the act and witnessed the entire town being executed. Beyond angry Marc fought Bushman but ultimately lost and his unconscious body was dumped into the middle of the desert left to die. Spector dragged himself to the tomb Dr. Alraune had unearthed. found by Marlene and her servants they moved his body into the tomb and placed him at the foot of a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. 

After a few hours, he was pronounced dead, Marlene crying over his body. Spector rose from his death with the vengeance of Khonshu in his heart, he pledged to become the moon gods avatar protector of night, the Moon Knight. Sporting the silver cloak that laid upon Khonshu's statue he went off to destroy Bushman's forces still held up in the town of Seliam. 

  

Returning back to America Marc began to wage war on crime on the streets of New York. In doing so he put his military background and boxing career to use and created a costume for his Moon Knight persona.  To further aid his war on crime he created two alternate identities. The first one, Steven Grant, was created from Spector using his mercenary founds to have the identity of a billionaire, this was to aid him in mingling with a higher society where crime is planned.  His second identity a taxi driver by the name of Jake Lockley, this one was to aid with the street level of people and to stop crime before it was committed. Both identities shortly after started to affect Marc's sanity. 



As Jake Lockley, he made friends with a homeless man named Bertrand Crowley which became his main street contact. With the same persona, he had also the coffee shop owner Gena Landers which would become another good friend and her sons would aid Moon Knight with investigations. For years Moon Knight fought the crime of New York and had even teamed up with groups such as the Secret Avengers, the West Coast Avengers, Marvel Knights, Heroes for hire, and the Defenders. Although Moon Knight has worked with the Avengers he has had trouble with them in the past.



(Full account of canon history here, minus current comic events due to continuity of the series https://marvel.com/universe/Moon_Knight_(Marc_Spector))