Moon Knight is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975).
The son of a rabbi, Marc Spector served as a Marine and briefly as a CIA operative before becoming a mercenary alongside his friend Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp. During a job in Sudan, Spector is appalled when ruthless fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman attacks and kills archeologist Dr. Alraune in front of the man's daughter and colleague, Marlene Alraune. After fighting Bushman and being left for dead, a mortally wounded Spector reaches Alraune's recently unearthed tomb and is placed before a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Spector dies, then suddenly revives, fully healed. He claims Khonshu wants him to be the "moon's knight", the left "Fist of Khonshu", redeeming his life of violence by now protecting and avenging the innocent. While early stories imply Spector is merely insane, it is later revealed Khonshu is real, one of several entities from the Othervoid (a dimension outside normal time and space) once worshipped by ancient Earth people. On his return to the United States, Spector invests his mercenary profits into becoming the crimefighter "Moon Knight", aided by Frenchie and Marlene Alraune, who becomes his lover and eventually the mother of his daughter. Along with his costumed alter ego, he primarily uses three other identities to gain information from different social circles: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, and suited consultant Mr. Knight.
It is later revealed Moon Knight has dissociative identity disorder (incorrectly referred to as schizophrenia in some stories) and that the alter known as Grant and Lockley originally manifested during his childhood. Other subsequent identities (including an unnamed red-haired little girl and astronaut) have briefly emerged at other points during his adulthood. It is debated in different stories whether Spector has genuine DID due to childhood trauma or if his similar symptoms are the result of "brain damage" caused by his psychic connection to Khonshu, a connection compelling his personality to shift between the four major aspects of the moon god's multi-faceted nature ("the traveler", "the pathfinder", "the embracer", and "the defender of those who travel at night"). Khonshu claims he created a psychic connection with Marc Spector when the latter was a young boy, decades before calling him to become Moon Knight.[2]
In most of his stories, Moon Knight has no supernatural abilities beyond occasional visions of mystical insight. He relies on athletic ability, advanced technology, expert combat skills, and a high tolerance for pain based on willpower, training, and experience. Since becoming Moon Knight, there have been multiple occasions when the character has died only to then be resurrected by Khonshu, implying he may now be effectively immortal until the moon god's protection is revoked (whether Khonshu has limitations on how often he can resurrect Spector is unknown). For a time, Moon Knight's strength and resistance to injury could reach superhuman levels depending on the phases of the moon, but this ability later vanished.[3]
The character has made appearances in various media outside of comics, including animated series and video games. Moon Knight appears in the self-titled live-action Marvel Cinematic Universe / Disney+ series Moon Knight, with Oscar Isaac starring in the title role.[4][5] The character was ranked by Wizard magazine as the 149th-greatest comic book character of all time.[6] IGN also listed Moon Knight as the 89th-greatest comic book character, stating that Moon Knight is more or less the concept of what would happen if Batman were to have dissociative identity disorder,[7] and as #49 on their list of the "Top 50 Avengers".
