Moon Knight's History
Spector's father, a rabbi, managed to escape Germany when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. Spector was born in the US. His mother died soon afterward. Marc refused to follow his father's calling; he could not understand why Elias never fought back against persecution. Instead he became a prize fighter, but when his father got into the ring one night to stop him, Marc punched him. The next morning he enlisted in the Marines. He never saw his father again.
After two tours of duty, he became a field agent of the CIA. There he worked with several people who would later interact with Moon Knight, including William Cross, Amos Lardner, and his own brother, Randall Spector. Randall killed Spector's girlfriend Lisa with a hatchet to keep her from exposing a gun-running scheme; Spector retaliated with a grenade and assumed Randall was dead.
After leaving the CIA, Spector became a soldier-for-hire. During this period he befriended "Frenchie" Duchamp, who became his professional partner. They took on several assignments, mainly in Africa and South America. Spector later went to trial for assassinating the president of Bosqueverde, a South American country; such assignments paid well, though, and Spector invested wisely.
Spector and du Champ took on a job in Sudan for Raoul Bushman. Whereas Spector worked for the money, Bushman seemed to enjoy plunder and killing. When Bushman massacred the inhabitants of Selima, as well as archaeologist Peter Alraune, to find an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, Spector could stomach no more. He got Alraune's daughter Marlene to safety at the tomb and challenged Bushman, who mortally wounded him in the desert. Spector managed to reach the tomb before he collapsed, and Marlene and the crew laid him beneath an idol of Khonshu. His spirit had an encounter with Khonshu, who promised to save his life in exchange for his service. Spector agreed, although he later considered this encounter a hallucination. Restored to life, he punished Bushman's men, while Bushman himself escaped.
Finally having found a purpose in life, Spector applied himself with a will. He, du Champ, and Alraune (now his lover) moved to New York, taking the idol along. With their help he developed the costume, equipment, and persona of Moon Knight. With his fortune he could not only support his new career of fighting crime, he could create another persona: Steven Grant, financier. Finally, to gather information at street level, he created a fourth persona: Jake Lockley, cab driver. His original persona, with its multiple facets, faded into the background. Still, leading four separate lives put great mental stress on Spector. Lockley developed a network of informants, including the homeless Bertrand Crawley, diner owner Gena Johnson, and her sons Ricky and Ray.
Spector's first major job as Moon Knight came when the Committee hired him to capture a werewolf named Jack Russell. He succeeded, in large part thanks to the silver cesti he was equipped with. However, he learned that the Committee planned to turn Russell's sister into another werewolf and use them both as weapons. He did the honorable thing and switched sides; Spector and Russell shut down the Committee.
Spector faced Conquer-Lord on his own before briefly joining the Defenders to battle a Life-Model Decoy version of the Zodiac. The first skeleton from Spector's closet to bedevil Moon Knight was William Cross (now the villain Crossfire), from whom Spector rescued the Thing. He met Spider-Man for the first time when they teamed up against the Masked Marauder, who at the time called himself "Big M" and employed the original Cyclone.
Moon Knight had reached the big time and encountered super-villains with more frequency. Very early on, he had to face a serial killer dubbed the Hatchet-Man, who claimed to be his brother Randall.
Spector investigated the death of Amos Lardner when his body arrived in a crate on Spector's doorstep. He learned that Amos' brother James had become a test subject in a CIA experiment (one that Spector himself had participated in), and when Amos investigated, he was forced to undergo the same treatment and committed suicide as a result.
Spector faced other menaces: some super-powered, some insane, some simply ambitious, but all dangerous. He confronted the Jimmy Crawley Slasher, a man slaying homeless people in a effort to find his father. He tracked down Bushman and sent him to jail, but Bushman struck back by having Midnight Man (a more recent foe) destroy Spector's idol of Khonshu. By this time Spector was convinced that Khonshu had given him his powers, as well as a focus in life. His precarious self-control broke down until Marlene produced another idol, which she claimed was the original.
Moon Knight's next major foe, Morpheus, turned out to be a patient of Doctor Peter Alraune, Marlene's brother. The idol of Khonshu sustained Spector again when he first encountered the Black Spectre, who tried to terrorize people into supporting his bid for mayor. Nobody, including Dr. Alraune, believed Spector when he claimed that Knowles was the Black Spectre, but Khonshu gave him the strength to prevail.
A battle with the Fly left Spector unable to walk, but he quickly recovered. To stop an ancient Egyptian curse, Spector briefly hosted the spirit of a priest of Khonshu, which helped to integrate his personalities.
When Spector learned that his estranged father was dying, he had a change of heart, but he arrived in Chicago too late. To his horror, Spector found his father's tomb empty and his papers stolen. After his father's death, Spector was outraged when his body was stolen by Reuben Davis, a former student of Elias Spector who had mastered Kaballah. Using the body as a power source, Davis took the name Zohar and used his magical power to punish Marc Spector for his sins. Moon Knight defeated Zohar, but Spector subsequently suffered another serious mental breakdown and decided to abandon all of his alternate identities to settle down with Marlene; By reconciling with his father's legacy, though, he found a measure of peace and decided to retire from crime-fighting.
As part of his new life, Spector gave up his Grant identity and sold the idol at a gallery in Paris. He had a vision, however, telling him that "the image is delivered up to evil." Called back to action as Moon Knight, he learned that Marlene could no longer tolerate his schizophrenic behavior, and she left him. In the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, Spector met three ancients priests of Khonshu, who told him that Khonshu had chosen him as an earthly champion and gave him new weapons. Only later did Spector realize that Khonshu himself was influencing him subconsciously.
Spector joined the West Coast Avengers for a time after rescuing some of their members who had been time-shifted to Pharaonic Egypt. Hawkeye got help from Khonshu, in exchange for designing Moon Knight's new weaponry. Khonshu alerted Spector in the present day, who helped the Avengers return home safely.
While an Avenger, Spector for a time became romantically involved with Tigra, but he never became a true team player. After a while, there was a controversy amongst the team upon the discovery that Hawkeye's wife Mockingbird had allowed the Phantom Rider (who had sexually assaulted her) to die while cast away in time. Spector, Tigra, and Mockingbird left the team as a splinter group. Together with Bill Foster they daunted the High Evolutionary, and they also fought the Night Shift. When they consulted with Hellstorm about Phantom Rider's ghost haunting Mockingbird, Spector learned of Khonshu's presence in his own psyche, and Hellstorm convinced the moon god to depart. Freed from Khonshu's meddling, Spector left the "mainstream" hero business and gave up the mystic weapons the priests had given him.
Back in New York, Spector reunited with Marlene and went back to less-cosmic crime-fighting. He soon learned that Jeff Wilde, the son of his old foe Midnight Man, had tried to take his place during his time on the West Coast and now wanted to become an ally. The new Midnight fought crime for some time together with Spector, until Midnight was seemingly disintegrated during battle with the Secret Empire. Wilde had survived, however, and was turned into a cyborg soldier by the Secret Empire, told that Moon Knight had been responsible for his father's death. These difficulties with the Empire drew Spector (as well as Darkhawk, New Warriors Night Thrasher and Nova, the Punisher, and Spider-Man) into a near war. At the end of the climactic battle, Wilde again seemingly perished, this time crushed by debris when the Empire's headquarters collapsed around him.
Spector underwent another near-death experience. He then found that his brother Randall had survived, and in addition had been trying to take his place as Khonshu's champion. Randall (as Shadowknight) succeeded in usurping Spector's powers temporarily. With the Punisher's help, Spector defeated Shadowknight. The power levels of his foes kept increasing, so Spector continually upgraded his own equipment. He retooled his Kevlar armor and steel crescent darts with adamantium, and his public persona with a firm named Spectorcorp.
During the Infinity War, Spector had to contend with Moonshade, an evil twin of himself created by the Magus (himself an evil twin of Adam Warlock). Luckily, Moonshade suffered from the same blunted focus caused by Spector's multiple personalities, while Moonshade's threat had the effect of sharpening Spector's own focus. Moonshade also had an Achilles' heel: the adamantium in Spector's new weapons. During another cosmic event, the Infinity Crusade, the Goddess (another aspect of Warlock) selected Spector as one of the most spiritual beings on Earth, thanks to his near-death experiences and his devotion to Khonshu.
Seth Phalkon (actually the Egyptian god Seth) attacked Spectorcorp with a computer virus. Rather than let it destroy the entire conglomerate and his employees, Spector quarantined it in his own building, Shadowkeep, along with himself. He died in the ensuing meltdown.
Khonshu resurrected Spector again to counter another plot by Seth, who had recruited Spector's old foes Bushman, the Black Spectre, and Morpheus. Using an idol of Seth, they tried to break up a peace conference at the UN. Spector foiled the plot by destroying the idol. The CIA tried to assassinate Spector because he knew too much about their mind-control programs. With an old flame from the agency, Candace Calder, he exposed the latest refinements in their sinister schemes.
Spector journeyed back to the spirit realm to help the Black Panther reconnect with Bast, his own patron deity. Although Nightmare impersonated Khonshu and tried to divert them from their purpose, the real Khonshu helped them finish the quest.
Some time later, Spector was approached by Doorman of the Great Lakes Champions (then called the Great Lakes Avengers), who was seeking new blood for his team after Dinah Soar's death and Mr. Immortal's (repeated) suicide attempts. However, Spector mistook Doorman for the Midnight Man, leading to an altercation. Needless to say, Moon Knight did not end up joining the Great Lakes Avengers.
Despite his mistrust of teams, Spector joined a group that tried to bring in the Punisher for his excessive vigilantism, and he put up the funds for a headquarters. Zaran wounded Spector severely, and the team's building exploded in the same attack. Drained of money, health, and enthusiasm, Spector retired again.
Spector finally exorcised one of his demons when he killed Bushman in mortal combat. He survived, albeit with broken knees. Crippled and despondent, he turned to drugs and alcohol. The Civil War passed him by, although both Captain America and Iron Man tried to enlist him for their sides.
Recent encounters have forced Spector to shake off his lethargy, at the price of some psychological stability. He still believes that he is Khonshu's champion, but in his mind Khonshu wears the face of Bushman. So far he has faced a returned Midnight, the Taskmaster, and a revitalized Committee.
Recently he had to fake his own death when Osborn sent his Thunderbolts to kill him. After that he fled to mexico for a while and eventually met up with the Punisher. Moon Knight returns to New York after faking his death with Jake Lockley as his dominant personality, but still struggles against his violent nature and is hounded by a small imaginary tormentor resembling a man in the Moon Knight costume with a bird skull who goads him to kill. While trying to walk the path of a hero he makes a bold return taking on many criminals but killing none of them, now the people of New York begin to see him as a hero and not a murderous vigilante much to Norman Osborn's disdain. Jake's personality has been one of struggle against the inner demon trying to get him to kill while juggling sobriety. Most recently he was met by the Sentry who asks him "Who do you think you are, a hero?" Later the Sentry takes Moon Knight across the city while he saves people and stops crimes telling Lockley that eventually he will be tested and that he will fail to which Moon Knight replies "So will you". They stare each other down for a moment before the Sentry eventually leaves.
