Okay, I think I’ve processed enough
about Spider-Man’s, at the time of writing this, confirmed departure to talk
about Marvel stuff again. Sorry that took a bit, I was vey disappointed. It’s a
shame too, as around when that particular bomb dropped, Disney unveiled it’s
plans for several Disney+ shows on it’s streaming service. One of the ones that
fans were most excited for was the reveal of the Moon Knight TV series. If the
name is new to you, he’s basically Marvel’s Batman… the other Batman, besides
Daredevil. He dresses in white and believes he is the avatar of a Moon God, so
he might also fit into Bat’s Rogues Gallery, if I’m being honest. But I’m
getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to it.
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| He puts the Lunar in Lunatic. |
Moon Knight was born Marc Spector,
in Chicago, the oldest son of a rabbi. Marc had a somewhat… turbulent career
before donning his superhero identity. He’d been a heavyweight boxer, a US
Marine, and a freelance mercenary all by the time he was thirty. Somethings
from that time in his life were good, like meeting another mercenary named Jean-Paul
DuChamp, later dubbed Frenchie, whom became Marc’s closest friend and ally. Other
things were bad, like his brother Randall betraying the US government by double-dealing
with hostile nations. This led to the two brothers trying to murder each other,
resulting in the death of Marc’s then girlfriend and a savage beating to him
that left him psychologically scarred. So, it was kind of a mixed bag.
Marc’s life changed forever while
working in Egypt for another mercenary named Raoul Bushman. The African mercenary
led Marc and the rest of their group into an archaeological dig. The dig had
unearthed several Egyptian relics, including a statue to their moon god,
Khonshu. Bushman, who was always a bit too unstable, murdered the chief
scientist, Dr. Peter Alraune, and attempted to loot the dig. Deciding that Bushman
went too far, Marc challenged him to a duel and got his ass kicked. Bushman
left the horribly beaten Marc to die in the freezing temperatures of the desert
after sunset. Dr. Alraune’s daughter, Marlene, and a small cult of worshipers
to Khonshu saved Marc by dragging him into the temple. Despite their efforts,
Marc’s heart stops and he dies beneath the statue of Khonshu. The Egyptian God
then appears before Marc in a vision. He offers the warrior a second chance at
life if he’s willing to serve Khonshu as his new Avatar on Earth. Marc agrees
and revives. He wraps himself in the silver shroud that covered the statue and
then gets a rematch with Bushman. He defeats Bushman, and then returns
stateside with Marlene, Frenchie, and his souvenir from the temple, the statue
of Khonshu.
Once back in the US, Marc invests the
rather hefty sums he’d accumulated as a mercenary and develops a small fortune.
He uses that money to invent a new identity, Steven Grant, to best use the money
and to distance himself from his mercenary past. He created a few fake ids to
help with his work, like a cabbie named Jake Lockley to help him interact with
the criminal element in New York. These develop from mere aliases to full on
alternate personalities. Turns out the crap he’d been through plus the mental
shock from dying and possibly being made the Avatar of a God caused Marc’s mind
to splinter into multiple personalities. Yes, it’s a largely debunked condition,
but this is a world of fiction. We can suspend our disbelief. He also buys the
initial equipment and costume for his superhero persona, the Moon Knight aka the
Fist of Khonshu.
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| Marc is a big fan of the low blow. |
His first job is working as a merc
for the criminal organization called the Committee. They provide him with a lot
of his early gear. The job he’s hired for is hunting down the monster-themed
anti-hero Werewolf-By-Night (yes that is his alias) aka Jack Russell (yes, that
is his legal name). He does capture Russell for the group, but then almost immediately
frees him and the two heroes end up dismantling the Committee.
Marc has worked pretty much all
over the US since his debut, spending time on both coasts and in Chicago. He’s
been on both the Main Avengers Team and their West Coast branch in LA. He’s
also on decent terms most of the street level heroes. I’m talking guys like Daredevil,
Spider-Man, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. He’s got kind of a frenemy’s
thing going with Punisher, as the two have worked together about as often as
one has hunted the other. He’s also buddies with Ben Grimm, a fellow Jewish
hero. He’s also been killed a few times, but Khonshu refuses to let him rest
for long, using his powers to revive him within a few years of death.
His mental health has gotten
through some major changes. For a time, the personas of Jake Lockley and Steven
Grant were repressed and replace by ones modeled after heroes that he either
admired or was closely linked to, chiefly Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain
America. These were later dropped and Jake and Steven returned to prominence.
Hell, for a time, Marc Spector’s persona “died” and was replaced full time with
Jake. During which, Moon Knight seemed far more stable than he had when Marc
was in the driver’s seat. He ever was able to patch things up with Marlene, his
on-again-off-again girlfriend and the two had a child together. Marc returned
after a few more years, after a particularly brutal final showdown with Marc’s
brother Randall, who’d taken up the moniker of Shadow Knight. He’s also
routinely harassed by Khonshu, whom often chastises Marc for not being the best
Avatar he can be. He’s taken on the form of a man in a Moon Knight costume with
a bird skull for a head and tried to goad him into killing people. And Khonshu
wonders why people stopped worshipping him. Marc’s had something of a bumpy
ride.
Moon Knight is a skilled hand-to-hand
combatant, having been trained in several forms of martial arts. These include
but are not limited to, boxing, kung fu, eskrima (Filipino martial arts), judo,
karate, ninjutsu, savate (French boxing), and Muay Thai. He’s also a skilled acrobat
and gymnast. He’s good with a variety of weapons, including throwing darts,
nunchaku, bo staff and truncheon. Basically, he’s a master at punching,
kicking, throwing, and hitting things with blunt objects. Oh, and he can pilot
a helicopter. His suit was originally made of Kevlar but was later upgraded
with an Adamantium weave for better protection. The suit is designed to maximize
his strength. It’s been noted by Taskmaster, a mercenary supervillain that
specializes in copying fighting styles, that he HATES coping Moon Knight and
tries to avoid doing so. Why? Because the dude isn’t a fan of dodging and due
to a pretty high pain tolerance will more often than not take a punch rather
than block it. It’s not a style most would favor, but hey, the dude is
admittedly nuts.
 |
| The Fist of Khonshu is gonna mess you up. |
When it comes to superhuman powers,
he’s had a few. The most notable is enhanced strength, endurance and reflexes.
This power is said to be a gift from Khonshu and is tied to the lunar cycle. At
a full moon he’s at his strongest, the new moon his weakest. But his weakest is
still supernaturally strong as he’s able to lift several hundred pounds. His dissociative
identity disorder also makes him largely immune to telepathic intrusion,
similar to Deadpool’s brain cancer making him immune. In that it’s a pain in
the ass that could kill him, but there is a silver lining. It’s unknown if his
powers are truly mystical in origin, or a form of intense self-hypnosis created
by his damaged psyche. The Profile, a mercenary with the mutant ability to
instinctively analyze and predict (otherwise profile) an individual just by observation,
has confirmed that Marc’s powers maybe supernatural in origin. In that The
Profile’s own powers don’t work on him, something that is true of all beings of
a mystical persuasion, and causes him extreme headaches to even look at Moon Knight.
He explains either Khonshu is real and interfere with his powers, or Marc’s mind
is so messed up and unstable that his belief in the Egyptian god is tantamount to
magic and is disrupting him. It’s a comic book superhero, I know you’ve heard
crazier ideas.
Marc Spector has made a few
appearances outside of the comics. Mostly in the last decade. The character, I
assume, was relatively obscure enough that he didn’t warrant an adaptation
until the semi-recent superhero movie explosion that the MCU created.
Marc Spector was mentioned in Blade,
the 2006 sequel series to Blade Trinity. It starred Sticky Fingaz as
Blade. The show was cancelled before introducing him.
He appears in the Ultimate
Spider-Man Christmas special “The Moon Knight Before Christmas.” Trust me,
this isn’t the dumbest idea that Ultimate Spider-Man went with. In it, Spider-Man
is house sitting for Doctor Strange (I’m rolling my eyes reading and typing
this), spots and ends up stopping Moon Knight from chasing a young woman. It’s
revealed that she’s Frances Beck, the daughter and would be successor to
Quinten Beck aka Mysterio. The two heroes work together to both stop Frances
and reunite her with her father. And the episode ends with everyone having
dinner with Aunt May. Oh yeah, this is another version where she’s figured out
Peter’s secret identity and is cool with it. Marissa Tomei was not the first.
 |
| I mean, if you're going to model the voices in your head off of heroes, you might as well go with three of the best. |
He later appeared in Avengers
Assemble. His first appearance was a cameo in “Avengers World” where he’s listed
as a candidate for initiation into the Avengers if they expand their roster. He
appears in full in “Beyond.” This was the start of the Beyonder, one of Marvel’s
close-to-but-not-quite God beings, slicing together various parts of the Earth and
the rest of the universe into Battleworld. Captain America and Black Widow
along with Iron Man end up in Egyptia, where they run into Moon Knight guarding
a pyramid. Moon Knight initially attacks them along side an army of mummies, but
is freed of the mind control he was under by Iron Man. He helps them defeat the
rest of the mummies but bids the group goodbye after, as he needs to guard the
Pyramid for Khushu. Captain America lets him know that the offer to join the
Avengers is an open one and they’ll save a spot for him when he’s ready.
The TV series for Moon Knight has
apparently been in the works off and on since 2006. It took 13 years but they’re
finally getting on with it. While an official release hasn’t been announced,
the show is expected to be released in “Phase Four” so at the latest it should
be airing in 2021. Fingers crossed.
The last appearance I’ll mention
was his minor role in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows in 2008. He appears as
a support character on top of his skyscraper Spector Tower following a fight
Peter had had with Black Cat. The player is given the “Evil” choice of teaming
up with Black Cat to defeat the Kingpin or the “Good” choice of working with
Moon Knight… to defeat the Kingpin. Yeah, the moral choice in this game was largely
“Will Peter be a Spider-Man or Spider-Ass?” He can be called in to help the Player
during difficult fights as an NPC, and is seen doing his best to help thwart
the Symbiote invasion in the last quarter of the game.
Marc Spector as Moon Knight at a
glance does seem a bit like a Batman clone. He’s a multi-millionaire that
fights crime in a protective costume, wears a cape, and is kind of difficult to
work with. But that’s just the surface layer. He’s also a deeply damaged individual
that is trying to help people, all the while battling with his internal demons.
Be they the alternate personas in his mind or the possibly real possibly fictitious
God of Justice that tells him to beat up the unworthy. Plus, Batman wears a
black costume, Moon Knight wears a bright white one. Totally different. But in
all seriousness, I do enjoy the look of this character, his quirks, and the fact
that he’s all but compelled to bring justice to the world. Khonshu is somewhat
vague on what that can mean sometimes. And I mean come on, a Jewish Avatar of
an Egyptian God? The irony alone makes this character worthwhile. I’m curious
to see how the show will tackle his multiple personalities and his relation to
the rest of the MCU. It seems like he’s on a respect but mostly tolerated standing
with most of the characters he works with. Not that I can blame them, the fact
he’s constantly talking to himself is kind of unnerving if you aren’t used to
it. Next up, we’ll talk about the newest heroine to go by Ms. Marvel.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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