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Marvel Character Affinity: Moon Knight

He is one of Marvel's vigilante heroes. He is a billionaire, a cab driver and a soldier of fortune. Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin originally doing the art. Originally conceived as an enemy of Jack Russell (Werewolf By Night), appearing in Werewolf By Night #32. He proved to be a popular character and was awarded his own series.

It was in the first issue of his own series that his true origin tale was explained. Marc Spector was working as a mercenary with Raoul Bushman and Jean-Paul “Frenchie” DuChamp. Bushman killed an archaeologist and Spector felt guilty, he helped the archaeologist's daughter to escape. Bushman was annoyed and beat Spector, leaving him to die in the desert. From here, Marc Spector crawled to a tomb and Marlene put him under the statue of Khonshu, Ancient Egyptian god of the moon and vengeance. Spector died, but suddenly came back to life believing Khonshu had brought him back to life.

Moon Knight The Bottom TPB CoverFrom here he gave himself three identities. Jake Lockley (cab driver), Steven Grant (billionaire) and Marc Spector (ex soldier of fortune). Making these three personalities, Moon Knight would use these to gather any information he needed when tracking down a villain. Although this ended up causing a problem with Marc Spector, he developed dissociative identity disorder.

Early on in Moon Knight's professional career both he and his friends questioned his sanity. This was explored in depth when Charlie Huston took over the character. He killed Raoul Bushman, carving off his face, as well as killing a number of other small time villains. He even flew his Mooncopter into a building. Moon Knight lost his chances with his old flame Marlene Alraune and even his most loyal friend, Frenchie left him. During the Civil War, Steve Rogers did not want him because of his violent methods and Tony Stark did not want him because of his mental instability. Spider-Man even referred to him as "loony moony".

After staging the death of his Marc Spector identity, Jake Lockley took over as his dominant identity. Later he returned loud and proud as a reformed hero. Suppressing his violent nature and impressing the heroes and civilians of America alike. He was approached by Steve Rogers to join the Secret Avengers and for now wanting to seek redemption, he accepted the offer. During Shadowland however, Moon Knight once again gave into his violent tendencies with the possibility he may go back to the way he was. After the events of Shadowland, Moon Knight also became an active member of the Heroes For Hire team.

Moon Knight however, does not have much of a rogue's gallery. It does include Morpheus (a dream demon), Black Spectre (a man angry with but inspired by Moon Knight), Raoul Bushman (a former mercenary who worked with Marc Spector) and The Committee (an organisation who had it out for Jack Russell). This could possibly be because for a number of years he dropped in popularity and was barely active.

With a new series starting written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Alex Maleev, I truly hope Moon Knight will be a character that is taken more seriously and given more notice as he is actually my favourite comic book character.

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