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Who is Moon Knight?

Oscar Isaac as Moon Knight

Moon Knight’s finale is upon us, but do you know who the hero is?

Taking a look at his comic book origins, Marc Spector was born into a respected family, but he chose to disregard its history and ideals, becoming a boxer, a Marine, and finally a CIA officer. Spector ejected any principles he still had and went into mercenary work all around the world, disgusted by the CIA’s actions and saddened by his brother Randall’s betrayal. He made friends with Jean-Paul “Frenchie” DuChamp, one of the few bright spots in the murderous career of a hired gun, during this gloomy period.

Spector, tired of overturning governments and carrying out assassinations, fell into the clutches of an extreme terrorist known as Bushman, who turned on him and abandoned him in the arid Egyptian desert. The mercenary managed to make his way to an ancient tomb nearby and into the hands of Marlene Alaurune, the daughter of an archaeologist murdered by Bushman. Spector, who was near death, awoke to discover a statue of the Egyptian god Khonshu looming over him, and he believed it had saved his life. With Frenchie’s support, he smashed Bushman’s operations and subsequently discovered he’d gained a new perspective on life.

Spector returned to the United States with his pals and set about constructing not only a costumed identity dubbed Moon Knight, but also two other characters, wealthy Steven Grant and cab driver Jake Lockley, to aid him in his fight against crime. Moon Knight began to make an impression on the rest of New York City’s heroes with Frenchie as his pilot.

Moon Knight enters the Marvel Cinematic Universe

If you’ve been watching the Disney+ series, you can see some similarities between the comic book origin and the live-action counterpart. The biggest difference is that, in the limited series, Marc Spector (portrayed by Oscar Isaac) doesn’t simply create these alter egos to fight crime. He has dissociative identity disorder. Steven Grant, who differs greatly from his comic book counterpart, was born out of Spector’s trauma of being abused by his mother. He also doesn’t create the hero persona of Moon Knight, it’s part of his deal of being an avatar for Khonshu. To date, there is also no third persona we have officially met as part of Spector’s D.I.D., though it’s been hinted at a few times.

Spector’s relationship with his brother seems to differ greatly from the comics as well, and we also don’t see many of his friends in Moon Knight. The series also takes a lot of inspiration from Marlene Alaurune for Layla El-Faouly (portrayed by May Calamawy), Marc’s wife in the series. Arthur Harrow (portrayed by Ethan Hawke) is the villain of the series and, while sharing a name with a minor comic book character, is largely an original creation for the show.

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Images are courtesy of Disney Media & Entertainment Distribution

Kevin M. Gallagher, Jr
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