Welcome to the compelling, confounding saga of night. When mercenary Marc Spector was left for dead in the Egyptian desert, he was left at the feet of the Egyptian moon god, Khonshu. Khonshu has a thirst for vengeance, so he resurrected Marc and gave him a new mission as a vigilante superhero. This fan favorite is one of Marvel's lesser-known heroes, though diehard fans anxiously awaited his live-action portrayal.
However, even longtime fans may not know everything about Moon Knight. Most people know he has Dissociative Identity Disorder, but he has manifested ten of them? His reputation is for brutal, hand-to-hand combat, but at one point he had actual superpowers. This complicated, fascinating man is full of surprises.
Updated on May 8th, 2022, by Shawn S. Lealos: Marvel fans anxiously waiting to see Moon Knight adapted in a live-action sense saw their dreams come true in 2022 when Moon Knight arrived on Disney+ streaming. The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe streaming series made some changes to who the hero is, including a major change to his alter, Steven Grant. However, the main gest of who Moon Knight is remains the same.
However, bringing this complex and interesting character to the small screen could send plenty of people to search for more information about the newest MCU hero. While there are great comic book stories to seek out concerning the warrior, there have been plenty of retcons, reimaginings, and reboots of the hero from Marvel Comics. With so much history, there is still plenty that fans might not know about Moon Knight, including how Moon Knight fights differently than other heroes.
Moon Knight Wears White So His Enemies See Him Coming
Too many comic book fans insist that Marvel created Marc Spector as a direct response to Bruce Wayne. The similarities are there for those who want to connect the dots. However, while they are both creatures of the night who strike fear into villains, there are some major differences. The biggest alteration is Moon Knight's costume.
Batman most often wears an all-black suit with a few yellow or gold highlights. Moon Knight's all-white suit is seemingly engineered to be a near-identical negative of Batman's dark costume. According to Warren Ellis' 2014 run on Moon Knight, the hero wears white because he wants his enemies to see him coming — and to fear the sight of him.
Moon Knight Once Had Moon-Based Powers
Today, fans know Moon Knight as a powerless mortal who's a highly-skilled fighter with no actual powers. This wasn't always the case. In a six-part, 1985 miniseries, Moon Knight was shown to be the Fist of Khonshu. During this period, the Egyptian moon god Khonshu bestowed him with special powers.
They included greatly enhanced strength and durability, the ability to see the mystical plane, invisibility while in shadow, and accelerated healing. Moon Knight only had access to these abilities when the moon was out and they intensified or diminished as the moon waxed and waned.
Moon Knight Boasts Some Of Marvel's Coolest High-Tech Gear
Marc Spector, as Steven Grant, is obscenely rich, and he uses his fortune to finance every bleeding-edge gadget a modern crime-fighter requires. First is his truncheon, a modular adamantium nightstick/staff that can separate into two fighting clubs or remain tethered together to create a nunchuck-like device. A grappling hook can be fired from one end, and it's extendable up to eight feet long.
Moon Knight's signature weapons are his crescent darts, small throwing star-like weapons shaped like a crescent moon. Much like Batman, Moon Knight has transportation with his Mooncopter. He has also used a moon-themed motorcycle and limousine.
Moon Knight Was Almost A TV Star In The Past
Moon Knight has finally arrived on Disney+ streaming, but he almost made it to television twice before. The first was in 2006 when Spike TV aired Blade: The Series. The show's producers made plans to introduce Moon Knight there, alongside star Kirk Jones, even going so far as namedropping Marc Spector. He was even in a deleted scene in the first Blade movie.
In 2008, Marvel tried taking Moon Knight outside of comics again, hiring television writer/producer Jon Cooksey to develop a Moon Knight TV series. Aside from the fact that this effort never panned out, nothing is known about how far along in the process Cooksey was able to get.
Moon Knight Is An Avenger
In 1987, Marc Spector accepted an invitation to the West Coast Avengers at the behest of Khonshu, serving alongside the likes of Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Wonder Man, and others. Spector got swept up in an adventure where the West Coast Avengers were transported back in time to ancient Egypt and had to find a way home. He stayed with the team for two years.
Since then, Moon Knight has been an official Avenger, with his own "Avengers Identicard." He was among the dozens of Avengers past and present who answered Captain America's call during Scarlet Witch's apocalyptic attack in 2004's Avengers Disassembled. In 2010, Steve Rogers recruited Moon Knight for the Secret Avengers, which focused on covert ops.
Moon Knight Has Romanced Fellow Avengers
During his time with the West Coast Avengers in the late '80s, Marc struck up a relationship with Tigra. Their relationship was ionate, but problematic, as both parties valued their independence. Khonshu disapproved of their romance, which caused tension between the hero and his god. It ended when Moon Knight departed the team to do his own thing.
More recently, Spector became involved with Echo, who saved his life and began assisting him in his crime-fighting efforts in Los Angeles. They began by working as partners in crime-fighting, but quickly developed feelings for each other. Their relationship ended tragically when Count Nefaria murdered Echo in front of Moon Knight.
Hawkeye Made Moon Knight's Earliest Weapons Without Knowing It
In 1987, a West Coast Avengers storyline saw the team separated across several time periods throughout history. The mind-bending adventure stranded Hawkeye, Iron Man, Tigra, and Wonder Man in Egypt 5,000 years in the past. With no way to get home, they met a small group who just happened to be devotees of Khonshu.
Inside Khonshu's temple, Hawkeye used materials he found there to create "darts, boomerangs and throwing irons" for Khonshu's followers to use to defend themselves against the chaos outside. In the present day, Marc Spector returned to Khonshu's Temple in Egypt, where a group of priests bestowed upon him the weapons Hawkeye crafted five millennia earlier.
Moon Knight Uses A Fighting Style Unlike Any Other
In 2006, Charlie Huston began one of the best Moon Knight comic book runs that focused on how Marc Spector's shattered psyche affected his vigilantism, upping his brutality to all-new proportions. This Moon Knight was truly Khonshu's instrument of vengeance, though Khonshu himself, more twisted than ever, frequently showed up to screw with Spector. This changed how Moon Knight fights.
During the series' first story arc, a group of nefarious businessmen called the Committee hired Taskmaster to take out Moon Knight once and for all. It turned out that the one person Taskmaster won't imitate is Moon Knight. This is because Moon Knight does not block incoming hits, even allowing arrows or bullets to pierce him, to just keep fighting.
Moon Knight's Father Escaped Hitler's Europe
As told in the tragic Moon Knight #37, Marc's father Elias Spector was a Jewish prodigy who was made a Rabbi at a very young age. When Hitler invaded Europe, Elias escaped to the United States, taking up residence in Chicago. Extremely devout in his faith, he refused to fight back when he was attacked one night by a group of neighborhood thugs, who carved a swastika into his forehead.
The event had a much more profound effect on young Marc than it did on his father. Elias clung to his pacifist beliefs, but Marc was compelled to study self-defense and boxing at the local gym. By the time he was 18, he was a prizefighter in the ring. Elias tracked him down and ordered Marc to come home. Instead, Marc sucker-punched him and they never saw each other again. Elias died from cancer in a Chicago hospital, using his last words to ask to see his son.
Moon Knight Has A Unique Punishment For The Worst Criminals
Another relic from Charlie Huston's 2006 run is this little gem meant to speak to Moon Knight's extremism. Marc Spector was in a very dark place so he had trouble drawing the appropriate line between "far enough" and "too far" — especially when it came to the worst elements of society.
Moon Knight carved his crescent moon symbol into the foreheads of the guilty. Not only did he peel away a moon-shaped piece of their flesh, but he did it more than once if the criminal was a repeat offender. The detective investigating Moon Knight's work had photos showing men with as many as three or four moons cut into their heads.
