Born in Chicago, Illinois, Marc Spector was the rebellious son of an academic Jewish rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to escape the Holocaust. Marc could not understand why his father refused to fight against his people's persecution and grew disgusted with his pacifistic ways, viewing him as a coward.
Rejecting his father's faith, Marc started out as a heavyweight boxer before eventually joining the U.S. Marines, where he was trained as a commando. Shortly afterward, his skills led to his recruitment into the Central Intelligence Agency. He worked with William Cross (who later became the villainous Crossfire) and his own brother, Randall Spector. However, Randall betrayed the CIA and was secretly smuggling and selling weapons. When Marc's lover discovered this and tried to turn him in, Randall brutally murdered her with a meat cleaver. In retaliation, Marc hunted Randall down, but during the fight, Randall was seemingly killed by an exploding grenade. Fed up with the CIA, Marc went independent and became a fierce soldier of fortune, renowned for his willingness to do anything providing the job paid well enough. In Africa, he met a French mercenary, Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, who would become one of Marc's closest friends and Marc's pilot.
While working for the terrorist Raoul Bushman, Marc became increasingly disturbed by Bushman's savagery and ruthlessness. For the first time in his life, his conscience had awakened, and it troubled him deeply. In Selima, Sudan, they stumbled across archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune's excavation of an Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb. Believing there were gold and riches within, Bushman murdered Alraune to plunder the tomb.
Sickened by Bushman, Marc tried to do the decent thing and helped Alraune's daughter, Marlene, escape from Raoul's notice. Annoyed with Marc's betrayal, Bushman brutally beat Spector and abandoned him in the desert so he would suffer before he died. Barely conscious, Spector staggered to the ancient tomb for shelter. Marlene was there with her father's men and brought Marc to rest near a statue of the moon god, Khonshu.
Weakened from his fight with Bushman and the elements of the desert, Marc Spector died. As Marlene cried over his cooling body, Spector suddenly returned to life, claiming that he had a vision that Khonshu had brought him back from the dead to be the Moon's Knight of Vengeance. Spector removed the burial shroud from the statue of Khonshu and wrapped it around himself as a makeshift cloak, before confronting Bushman once again, and this time, he was victorious. Thus, Moon Knight was born.
Hero:
Moon Knight
Supporting Cast:
Frenchie
Marlene Alraune
Samuels
Nedda
Creepy Crawley
Gena Landers
Ray Landers
Detective Flint
Rob Silverman
Khonshu
Hunter's Moon
The Midnight Mission
Equipment:
Angel-Wing
Angel-Wing Mark III
Moon Copter
Mr. Knight's Limo
Moon-Cycle
Various Weapons and Equipment
Allies:
Stained Glass Scarlet
Echo
Hunter's Moon
Scarlet Scarab
Group Affiliations:
Avengers West Coast
Secret Avengers
Villains:
Bushman
Midnight
Black Spectre
Master Sniper
Plasma
Taurus
Crossfire
Jester
Killer Shrike
Morpheus
Shadow Knight
Hobgoblin
Chainsaw
Sun King
The Truth
Snapdragon
Taskmaster
Count Nefaria
Zodiac
Waxman
Man-Mountain Marko
Manslaughter Marsdale
Jackal Knight
Villainous Groups:
The Zapata Brothers
Night Shift
