Everything You Need To Know About Moon Knight's Multiple Identities

Ordinarily, attributing authorship of superhero comic book characters (i.e. which writers and artists created them) is relatively simple. For example, the character of Marc Spector — the white-clad quasi-mystic vigilante Moon Knight — made his debut in 1975's "Werewolf by Night" #32 by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin. However, the characters of Steven Grant and Jake Lockley weren't introduced until 1976's "Marvel Spotlight" #28-29 by Doug Moench and Don Perlin (again), even though both characters are also Moon Knight. Jake, Marc, Steven and Moon Knight all appear on the same front cover of 1980's "Moon Knight" (Vol. 1) #1 by Moench and artist Bill Sienkiewicz. While the character first donned his "Mr. Knight" outfit in 2011's "Secret Avengers" #19 by writer Warren Ellis and artist Michael Lark, "Mr. Knight" didn't make his named debut until 2014's "Moon Knight" (Vol. 7) #1 by writer Warren Ellis (again) and artist Declan Shalvey.

These have been the most prominent of Moon Knight's alter egos over the decades, which have been variously accounted for as investigative aliases, psychologically dissociated identities (a diagnosis that's drawn fire for its accompanying inaccurate portrayals in the comics), and even discrete aspects of the same ancient Egyptian god. /Film already served up 10 Things You Didn't Know About Moon Knight in anticipation of the character's live-action Disney+ original series debut on March 30, but this time we're answering the more specific question "Who is Moon Knight?" by delving into the primary multiple identities (and their histories) that have coalesced into this character.

Matches Malone was a Gotham gangster who died in his first appearance in 1972's "Batman" #242, but Bruce Wayne kept him alive as a cover identity to access the criminal underworld, something the Batman persona could not provide. Likewise, after American soldier of fortune Marc Spector is left for dead in a freshly unearthed pharaoh's tomb at the feet of a statue of Khonshu (ancient Egyptian god of the moon and vengeance), he adopts the title of "Moon Knight." He also acquires two other identities, retaining the name Marc Spector while "adding to his list of selves," per 1980's "Moon Knight" (Vol. 1) #1:

• Steven Grant, "whose Wall Street wizardry parlays Spector's modest savings into a millionaire's fortune."

• And Jake Lockley, "a street-smart cabbie who hears everything!"

It's not difficult to discern parallels between Bruce Wayne's butler, Alfred Pennyworth, and Marc Spector's longtime brother-in-arms, former French Foreign Legion member Jean-Paul "Frenchie" Duchamp. Fans of the pulps and old-school serials might identify similarities between Spector and the original secret identity of "The Shadow," Kent Allard, a war veteran who returned to America changed by his exposure to foreign cultures. There are also similarities between Steven Grant and the Shadow's best-known alter ego, wealthy globetrotting playboy Lamont Cranston. Even Jake Lockley recalls the Shadow's cab-driving chauffeur, Moses (Moe) "Shrevvy" Shrevnitz, just as Lamont Cranston's socialite companion, Margo Lane, is reflected in Steven Grant's pampered but put-upon lover, Marlene Alraune.

That same issue sees Spector go so far as to sell his statue of Khonshu, but he then dreams that the moon god is summoning him back to Egypt. Marlene threatens to leave Marc if he follows Khonshu's call since she's put up with plenty from him, but she also compounded his delusions by telling his Steven Grant persona he needed to be a better man than the killer Marc Spector once was. Again, this is not how Dissociative Identity Disorder works. Not that they were ever destined for a healthy relationship, since Marlene originally wished death upon Marc for working with Bushman (who killed her father). Writer Doug Moench outlined the unhealthy dynamic of Moon Knight's identities in a full page of production notes for 1981's "Moon Knight" (Vol. 1) #15.

Moench described Marc Spector as "a wayward man" who "teetered on the brink of ruthlessness" and "barely managed to retain his footing this side of disaster," making him "a man Moon Knight would sometimes like to forget." Accordingly, Moench explained that Steven Grant was created to assuage Spector's guilty conscience, not only by "becoming a new man," but also by using "all the loot he'd earned or acquired as a mercenary" to achieve "altruistic ends" by financing Moon Knight's crime-fighting. Moench described Grant's personality as "the reserved, refined, capable and committed man Marlene wishes Moon Knight could truly and more fully become — but also the man with whom Moon Knight is least comfortable."

"Any man fleeing from his past and seeking to become a new and better man ... would logically be prone to role-playing," Doug Moench wrote in "Moon Knight" #15. "I've merely tried to stretch the ancient concept to further limits ... while still keeping the character sane." Subsequent writers haven't prioritized keeping Moon Knight sane, but Alan Zelenetz's introduction of Marc Spector's Jewish heritage in 1984's "Moon Knight" #37-38 proved more influential. Zelenetz established that the Spector family lived in poverty in Chicago, with Marc and his rabbi father, Elias, mutually disappointing each other as Marc grew up. Marc called his father a coward for doing nothing when a gang slashed a swastika into the rabbi's forehead, while Elias scolded his son — in the ring, during a match — for earning "dirty money" by boxing.

This led, in quick succession, to Marc punching out his father in public, Elias disowning his 18-year-old son, and Marc joining the Marines the next day. Elias Spector originally died during "the present day" of his first appearance in "Moon Knight" (Vol. 1) #37, but writer Jeff Lemire retconned Elias' death, and Marc's childhood, through his five-part "Death and Birth" story arc in 2017's "Moon Knight" (Vol. 8) #10-14. According to "Death and Birth," when Marc was a boy, Steven Grant and Jake Lockley were imaginary friends his age. Because Marc could see and hear Steven and Jake, as though they were real, Elias took his son to a child psychiatrist.

Writer Max Bemis compounded Jeff Lemire's retcons in 2018's "Moon Knight" (Vol. 1) #194 by backdating the origins of Marc's DID even further. Bemis introduced Yitz Perlman, the rabbi who taught Elias Spector how to be a rabbi in Chicago, whom Marc Spector came to regard as a surrogate uncle due in part to Yitz's self-deprecating Jewish humor. However, when Marc discovered a hidden basement room in Perlman's synagogue he stumbled on "Uncle Yitz" torturing a boy to death. The rabbi confessed he was secretly an escaped Nazi soldier named Ernst, who'd murdered Marc's grandfather during World War II so he could flee to America by posing as a friend of the family.

In Germany, Ernst belonged to a cabal that helped create the Red Skull, and in America they'd cloned Adolf Hitler into the Hate-Monger. On his own, Ernst devised a method to extend his lifespan by stimulating the pleasure center of his brain, which led to him becoming a serial murderer since what he enjoyed most was killing Jews. After Ernst subjected Marc to a horrifying account of the Holocaust, Marc found strength enough to fight his way free but never spoke of it until adulthood, as he heard that Rabbi Perlman had "transferred to another synagogue" the next day. "There were times I was even able to scrub it out of my own mind," Marc tells Frenchie, "until it came back in a hushed voice or some fleeting image."

According to Dr. Elisa Warsame, Moon Knight applied the identities of not only Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley to these aspects of Khonshu, but also those of Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Captain America, during writer Brian Michael Bendis' 12 issues of "Moon Knight" (Vol. 6). "You're not insane," Marc's psychologist tells him in "Moon Knight" (Vol. 7) #1. "Your brain has been colonized by an ancient consciousness from beyond space-time." Through hypnosis in "Moon Knight" (Vol. 7) #9, Elisa makes contact with Khonshu's aspects as "The Defender of Night Travelers" and "The One Who Lives On Hearts," the latter of whom she described as "Khonshu's vengeful secret aspect" whom Marc embodied "in your most violent moments."

Not that the good doctor is necessarily a reliable narrator, since she uses her hypnosis to recruit Khonshu to her own cause of vengeance, leaving Marc Spector to awaken and realize she'd taken Khonshu and all his alternate identities from him. This comes after Ellis establishes — in "Moon Knight" (Vol. 7) #1, again — how Marc is working with the NYPD not as Moon Knight but as "Mr. Knight," a mask-wearing, dapper-suited "concerned citizen" on the "new sweeper squad for homicide" created by the mayor "specifically for freak beat stuff." As the squad's Detective Flint tells an officer, "If that man were identified by the name of a dangerous vigilante, then I'd have to follow a very specific set of standing orders and restrain him using whatever force was necessary."