According to the person you asked, Marvel's night hero Moon Knight is either a mercenary, or a protector of travelers, or a messenger of the ancient Egyptian gods, or an obvious Batman clone, or just an absolute lunatic. Over the years, the different images of this hero have given readers reason to see him in any one of the above ways and in more ways. The character has enjoyed (or endured) countless revivals and reinterpretations, and his relative obscurity gives writers more permission to play at will. As Warren Ellis put it in his brief but memorable period of writing about the character, in Moon Rider, "You can play without knowing that there are hundreds of thousands of viewers waiting to grab a knife." "
One side effect of all these revivals and reinterpretations is that the history, origins, and characters of the Moon Knights themselves have become more obscure. Asking a simple question like "What is the secret identity of the Moon Knight" is already complex enough to make you shake your head.
But what has not changed is the origin of his creation. The writers and artists who created Moon Knight, and the artists who made Moon Knight Volume One the threshold of their artistic careers — these are facts that can't be changed, no matter how many times Marvel presses the restart button.
Here's the untold truth about Moon Knight.
Moon Knight's name in real life
Moon Knight suffers from dissociative identity disorder, once known as multiple personality disorder. Unlike the Hero/Ordinary dichotomy we're used to with, Clark Kent or Spider-Man and Peter Parker, Moon Knight has at least three "civilian" names. There's Jack Lockley, a taxi driver, Stephen Grant, a millionaire, and finally mercenary Mark Spector. Although he used these characters only as a cover and tool, even in the earliest volume of Moon Knight, it is clear that their role is much more than that. Not only do these three identities speak and act differently, but different people in the life of the Moon Knight also choose roles they believe to dominate. For example, Moon Knight's lover Marlene falls in love with Steven Grant, and she calls him Stephen whether he wears a mask or not.
But co-creator Doug Moenchi believes the name that marks the Moon Knight's dominant character is Mark Spector, and Spector's name comes from an employee of a manhattan comic book store. Moonchi couldn't remember the name of the store when he told the story, but he did say it was the best comic book store in Manhattan. At the time, Moenchi said, he often named new characters after people in his life, and a comic shop employee named Mark Spector asked him, "When are you going to name a comic book character after me?" At the time, Moenchi was working on an issue of Night Werewolf, and he needed a villain's name, so the real-life Spector got his wish.
Moon Knight's villain roots
Moon Knight was first brought to life by Munch and artist Don Palin in 1975's Night Wolf #32, who is not a defender of the selfless innocent or the embodiment of Concho. Mark Spector is a mercenary hired by a secret organization known as the "Commission" to capture Jack Russell, a man cursed to transform into a werewolf on the night of the full moon. It was the commission that gave Spector his name, his costume, and even silver armor and silver batons specifically designed to harm savage werewolves.
At the end of The Night of the Werewolves, Episode 33, the Moon Knight shows at least one or two hints that he will be a hero. Although he fulfilled his contract by capturing the werewolf and bringing him to the commission, russell's friend's accusatory pleading and the desperate despair of the imprisoned werewolf led him to believe he was on the wrong side. He released the werewolves from their cages and helped him escape.
Still, he's not exactly like Superman. The last time we saw him was in "Night of the Werewolves" issue 33, the Moon Knight crouched on the windowsill of the roof and triumphantly raised a thick stack of banknotes he had taken out of the committee.
A milestone in early direct selling
To Moenchi's surprise, Marvel's editors not only kept asking him to do more work for Moon Knight, but the character he created— in addition to being an opponent of the werewolf comics, began to make cameos in The Amazing Spider-Man, Defenders, and Marvel 2-in-1. Moenchi was appointed as a contributor to the black-and-white edition of Hulk magazine, which eventually included a seven-page backup feature starring Moon Knight.
Eventually, Monchi and artist Bill Sienkiewicz — in "Hulk!" Was added to the backup - assigned to the first "Moon Knight" monthly magazine under the heading. Munch wrote a new, more heroic origin story for the hero, linking him to Egyptian mythology and consolidating Mark Spector as a mercenary seeking redemption.
Although the first volume was cut after 38 issues, it shared the honor of being one of Marvel's first direct-selling comics along with "Ka-Zar". In 1982, more comics appeared in comic book stores, while fewer cartoons were sold in newsstands, grocery stores, pharmacies, gift shops, and toy stores. There was a push at the time to cut distributors and sell them directly to specialty retailers, and "Moon Rider" and "Qajar" were Marvel-driven flagships.
Comic book fans have been arguing — and will likely continue to argue — about whether a move to direct market is a good idea. But in terms of what it means to Monchi and Sienkevits in the short term, that means more royalties because they don't need to sell that many copies of the comic to make a profit. It also meant more work, as comics were printed with only internal advertising, and the creative team had to submit 25 pages of stories per issue instead of 19 pages.
Bill Sienkiewicz's groundbreaking work
Artist Bill Sienkiewicz, whose unique style is both recognizable and harsh, began his comic book career with the drawing of "Moon Rider".
When Sienkiewicz came to DC Comics' office with his portfolio, he was still a second-grade art student, but he unknowingly chose a wrong time to bark at that particular tree. At the time, DC was going through a tough time and was ready to lay off many of the artists it already had. Still, Sienkiewicz's talent was evident, so "Batman" artist Neal Adams— Sienkiewicz gladly admitted that his art was based on his own early work— called Marvel Comics' Jim Shooter to tell the controversial editor-in-chief that he had a new artist to give him.
Both Sienkiewicz and Moonch speculated that, at least in part, a comparison with Adams, and the industry's persistent perception that Moon Knight was the "Batman of Marvel", paired Sienkiewicz and Moonch. In any case, Sienkiewicz proved his talent, and readers of "Moon Knight" saw the artist's work evolve closer to a unique style, making the artist an indispensable figure in franchise projects such as "Daredevil", "New Mutants" and "Legion".
A series of strange events
According to Moench, Sienkiewicz was in trouble ahead of the "Moon Rider" deadline. The solution for editor Dennis O'Neil was to tell Moench to write a seven-page backup story, and O'Neil would give it to another artist. Then, when Sienkiewicz absolutely needs it to meet the deadline, this backup will be ready in a certain month.
According to Moenchi, once he wrote something called "Hit it!" O'Neill screwed up the back-up story; instead of sending the back-up story to different artists, he sent it to Sienkiewicz.
Sienkiewicz told Moench "Hit!" It's the best thing he's ever written, and the artist believes—using larger panels and other methods—that he can expand it into a whole story. He succeeded and submitted "Hit!" As the main story of Moon Knight No. 26. Unfortunately, he delivered the manuscript so late that O'Neill called Monge from his pennsylvania home to Marvel's office to write the pages in a closet-sized "small room with a typewriter."
"Hit it!" It's about a person randomly attacking everyone he meets, and the reader eventually learns that the criminal's violence stems from severe childhood abuse. Sienkiewicz suffered his own trauma in childhood, which at least partly explains his motivation to turn what should have been a seven-page story into something else. The 26th issue of "Moon Rider" marks the emotional end of the series by Sienkiewicz, although he has left four issues and drawn the cover for the rest of the series.
A pioneer of religion
It is possible that the Moon Knight was the first Jewish superhero, although the matter is debatable.
Moonchi told Charlie Houston that he had created the first Jewish superhero, though he also said he didn't think of it at first. After naming moon knight's mercenary pseudonym after a comic shop employee, Monchi later learns that the real-life Mark Spector is Jewish. Thus, he deduced, Spector must have been a Jewish name.
Whether Moon Knight is really the first Jewish superhero depends on many aspects, including how you define the "first Jewish superhero". Ben Grimm, aka Thor of the Fantastic Four, predates Moon Knight ten years, although it wasn't revealed until 2002's Fantastic Four that he was Jewish. There's also Dr. Samson, who first appeared in 1971's Incredible Hulk, but whose Jewish ancestry wasn't discussed until the same series in 1990. There's also Magneto and his many more heroes, Crimson Witch, Meteor Hammer and North Star, as well as a host of other superhero characters inside and outside Marvel who didn't mention their legacy when they were created, but were later confirmed to be Jewish.
Whether he was the first Jewish superhero is debatable, but the claim that he was the first public Jewish superhero is credible.
Doug Moenchi prefers his Moon Knight
It's understandable that the creator of a character feels ownership of their own work — it can be a little uncomfortable to see that character handed over to someone else. But when you spend a lot of time reading interviews with comic book creators, you get used to diplomatic responses like "I'm curious to see a new perspective on this character." The most public objection you might get is usually "Well, that's not the direction I chose, but--" and you can't help but ask what it might be like if they didn't know their words were recorded, if the creators would let more anger squeeze out.
Moench, unlike many creators, is not at all shy about showing his disgust at other writers' work on Moon Knight. In his interview with Charlie Houston, when Houston mentioned that Moon Knight appeared in the two-part "Spectacular Spider-Man" story — one of the character's first cameos before his regular monthly title — Mornchi responded, "Eck. I didn't do that. He had a harsher review of Alan Zelentez's Moon Rider. Fist of Khonshu", the chuck Dixon who wrote the late 80s/early 90s series "Marc Spector" is more severe. Moon Knight".
Moenchi was unusually enthusiastic about Heston's views on the character, though it would be interesting to know what he thought of his recent volumes.
Hawkeye designed his weapon
If Monchi was so unhappy with what Zelentez and Dixon had done to the Moon Knight, he might have exploded if he discovered that there was an issue of the West Bank Avengers that gave the Moon Knight a crucial early boost from the vengeful archer Hawkeye.
In the 1987 issue 23 of the West Coast Avengers, the Los Angeles-based team returned to ancient Egypt. Once there, they found that the worshipper of the moon god Khonshu, the god served by the Moon Knight, was besieged. Hawkeye was determined to help the Egyptians defend themselves, designing weapons such as darts and boomerangs for them. The issue ends with a cut back to modern times, where we see Mark Spector find the same weapon designed by his companion Avengers.
So far, we don't know whether Moon Knight or Conshu offered Hawkeye royalties or even just an honor for co-creator, or whether Hawkeye planned to keep nelson and Murdoch or Jan Walters' services in the inevitable proceedings.
The long road to the silver screen
Before the Moon Knight series was announced as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Fourth Phase," there had been voices about adaptations for years, mostly on small screens. Mark Spector's name is mentioned in an episode of the short-lived "Blade Warrior: Series". Marvel Studios subsequently partnered with Inequality Entertainment to develop a show based on the hero. However, the show never made its trip, and long-standing rumors that Moon Knight would be included in the list of critically acclaimed Marvel Netflix shows did not materialize.
Similarly, major players in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Netflix's Marvel shows are toying with the idea of having Moon Knight adapted. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn is one of them. He tweeted in January 2017 that while his workload prevented him from making a Moon Rider movie, he made a premise to Marvel Studios. In addition, Steven S. DeKnight, host of Netflix's "Daredevil," told IGN in 2018, "I don't mind having a try against Moon Knight at some point." "
Moon Knight produced a TV show about himself
Ironically, there was one person who let the Moon Knight adaptation start when many people failed, and this person was none other than Mark Spector himself... Well, sort of. Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev's 2010 Moon Knight comic book series #1 debuted Legends of the Moon, a TV series developed by Spector that loosely — very, loosely — adapted his adventures as a mercenary, as well as some of his experiences as a Moon Knight. He didn't care too much about getting all the facts, which led the show to take some significant freedom. This includes, for example, the fictional Spector, Jack Rockley, named after Mark's taxi driver. In addition, neither Moon Knight's costume nor name was used, presumably to keep Mark's superhero life a secret to the public.
While some people have high expectations for the series, most people who work on "legendary" work seem to hate it. The biggest exception is Mark himself, though even he sometimes gets frustrated by the show's numerous production issues, including dull acting and unconvincing costumes. However, despite this, the "Legend of Zhen Zhen" was a success - in any case, in a short period of time. At the end of Bendis and Maleev's 12-issue series, Spector learned from his assistant Annie that "Legend" was canceled after a short time after it aired because it ended up not making enough profits
The last MCU
Luckily, the tortuous road to the Moon Knight adaptation is finally over, thanks to Disney+, the March 30, 2022 "Moon Knight" limited series smashed the Peacock Fist into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Marvel Studios has made it clear that faithful adaptation of the character is a priority, with trailers, TV commercials, and movie posters all confirming specter's separation of identity disorder and relationship with Conshu as key elements. Similarly, the film's central villains, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) and Anton Mogat (Gaspard Ullier), are also directly derived from the comics. Harrow is a doctor obsessed with studying pain. Mogart is the "Midnight Man", a thief dressed in artwork similar to the Moon Knight. His son, Jeff Wilde, himself adopted a masquerade identity, becoming a Midnight Man.
Oscar Isaac is the protagonist of the Disney+ series of movies, playing Marvel's moon-themed vigilante. Of course, Isaac is no stranger to large franchises or comic book adaptations, having played Po-Damelon in the Star Wars sequel trilogy and En-Sabah-Noor in X-Men: Apocalypse. In addition, Isaac is a comic book fan (he collaborated on the comic book "The Scar on the Top of the Head"). Sparrow" will debut on June 21, 2022). He has expressed deep affection for Disney+ 'Moon Rider' series, telling Extra (via CBR) that it is his "baby".
Next stop. avenger?
Of course, once any major new hero enters the MCU, it's natural to ask: Will they join the most powerful hero on Earth? Although Kevin Feige called "Avengers Endgame" "the last film of the Avengers", the team is clearly still active, having been contacted by Shangzhi in the opening credits of "Shangzhi and the Legend of the Ten Rings". In addition, Jeremy Slater, the host of the "Moon Knight" series, has said he would love to see the incarnation of Marc Spector join the Avengers. It's definitely not up to me to decide, but I think that's the goal! He told Total Cinema.
Moon Knight comic book fans know that the character has actually joined multiple Avengers teams, starting with the West Coast Avengers that fans love. Will he be part of a new Avengers team based in the West — or rather, in California, the usual base for the WCA in the comics? Or will Spector's time as one of the Secret Avengers be adapted into the history of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Plus, he could be part of the already existing Avengers team... That is, if Valentina Allegra de Fontaine hadn't come to him first, recruit her to join her mysterious super team. It can be said that the Moon Knight is not short of options.