Real Name: Marc Spector Powers: Due to his encounter with the spirit of Khonshu, Marc Spector possesses increased strength, reflexes, stamina during the full moon, and his abilities wane back and forth to normal according to the lunar phases. Spector is also an accomplished fighter and marksman, employing signature weapons such as the ivory boomerangs and throwing irons, scarab-shaped darts, a lasso-grapple, a bola, and a weighted ankh, which glows in the presence of danger. History: Marc Spector was the son of rabbi Elias Spector, a noted European Hebrew scholar who had fled to the United States to escape Nazi persecution. As Marc grew up, he rejected his father's way of life and began to pursue a very materialistic existence. He first became a liaison to the Central Intelligence Agency, and resigned a few years later to become a mercenary soldier. He fought in three African wars and five South American revolutions. It was in Africa that Spector met pilot Jean-Paul DuChamp, whom he nicknamed "Frenchie," a man who would become his most trusted aide and constant companion. At the peak of his career as a soldier of fortune, Spector worked as second-in-command to Roald Bushman, a terrorist for hire who had his face tattooed as a death mask. While fighting rebel forces in the Sudan, Spector learned that Bushman planned to loot a nearby archeological dig. Already aware that he was working on the wrong side, Spector decided to leave Bushman that night. However, Dr. Peter Alraune, an American archeologist trying to preserve the dig's treasures, tried to stab Bushman in the back. Spector instinctively stopped him. Bushman murdered the archeologist. Sickened, Spector warned the archeologist's daughter Marlene to get to safety, and then challenged Bushman. Bushman bested Spector and left him out in the desert to die. Spector was carried to shelter by adherents of the ancient Egyptian religion, but it was apparently too late to save his life. For nearly a minute, Spector lay before the statue of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon. Inexplicably, Spector's heart began beating again. In a delirium, he attributed his revival to Khonshu and declared himself the moon's knight of vengeance. Draping himself in a white cloth, Spector destroyed Bushman's organization in that part of the world, and then took Frenchie and Marlene with him back to America. After months of deliberation, Spector decided to adopt the costumed identity of the Moon Knight in order to use his acquired wealth and resources to wage war against criminals and terrorists. Frenchie became Spector's pilot, confidant, and special agent. Marlene became Spector's confidant and paramour. Learning of the underworld connections of a group of businessmen called the Committee, Spector sent Frenchie to infiltrate the group. When the Committee became interested in using Jack Russell, the local werewolf, as an agent of terror, Frenchie recommended Spector for the job of capturing the beast. Frenchie provided the Committee with Spector's Moon Knight costume, pretending to have created the identity for the job. Spector, as Moon Knight, found Russell and took him to the Committee, but then set him free, halting the Committee's operations. Shortly thereafter, Spector adopted the identity of millionaire Steven Grant. He bought a mansion on Long Island for use as his base of operations in his war against crime. Seeking to travel incognito, Spector also adopted the identity of cab driver Jake Lockley. As Lockley, he assembled a network of street informants and aides, including Bertram Crawley, and Ray and Rick Johnson. The Moon Knight led a successful crimefighting career in the New York area, battling such foes as the Midnight Man, Morpheus, the Jester, and the Black Spectre. He also vanquished his old enemy Bushman in battle. However, the strain of maintaining four separate identities began to take its toll. Finally, at Marlene's behest, he retired all of his false identities, even the identity of Moon Knight, so that he could concentrate on his true identity of Marc Spector. He legally transferred ownership of his mansion from Grant to Spector, and then became a world-traveling dealer of fine art. Symbols of his abandonment of his Moon Knight persona included his putting the statue of Khonshu, which he had acquired long ago, onto the auction block. A few weeks later, Spector began having vivid dreams that Khonshu was summoning him. These proving to be irresistible, he boarded a flight to Egypt to investigate their significance. Three priests of Khonshu told him that being Moon Knight was his destiny. Not able to help himself, he donned the new Moon Knight costume they had for him and accepted their new weapons. The priests, who claimed to be unable to leave the tomb, assigned him the task of returning to them the statue of Khonshu which he had sold. In the process, he encountered his counterpart, the champion of Anubis, the jackal-headed death god, and defeated him. Since returning the statue to them, he acted as the agent of the priests of Khonshu, traveling the world at their bidding to battle the forces of evil. At the priests' behalf and on mental promptings by Khonshu himself, Moon Knight contacted the West Coast branch of the hero team Avengers, as some of their members were trapped in the past in ancient Egypt. Moon Knight accompanied the Avengers to rescue their number and defeat the enemy which trapped them there, the world-dominating computer Dominus. Moon Knight accepted membership within the Avengers, and even though he shared many adventures with them, he also followed his own direction, such as tracking down the villain Taurus and allowing the villain to fall to his death.

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