Moon Knight

The son of a rabbi, Marc Spector is a former Marine and CIA operative who becomes a mercenary, despite his conflicted feelings about violence and morality. During a job in the Sudan, he is appalled by ruthless fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman. Bushman then attacks and kills archeologist Dr. Alraune. Spector saves the archeologist's daughter and colleague Marlene Alraune, then fights and is defeated by Bushman.

The dying Spector is brought into a recently unearthed tomb for shelter and placed before a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Spector seems to die but then suddenly revives, fully healed. He claims Khonshu wants him to be the "moon's knight", redeeming his life of violence by now protecting and avenging the innocent. It is later revealed Khonshu is real, one of several entities from the Othervoid (a dimension outside normal time and space) who were worshipped as gods by ancient Earth people. On his return to the United States, Spector invests his mercenary profits into becoming the crimefighter "Moon Knight", aided by his colleague Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp and Marlene Alraune, who becomes his lover and eventual mother of his daughter.

Along with his costumed alter ego, he uses four other identities to gain information from different social circles: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, red-haired little girl Inner Child, and suited consultant Mr. Knight. It is later revealed Marc Spector has dissociative identity disorder (incorrectly referred to as schizophrenia in some stories) and that the alters known as Grant and Lockley originally manifested during his childhood, subsequent identities emerging during his adulthood. It is debated in different stories whether Spector's mental disorder is due to childhood trauma or the result of "brain damage" caused by his psychic connection to Khonshu, a connection compelling Moon Knight's personality to shift between the four major aspects of the moon god's multi-faceted nature ("the traveler", "the pathfinder", "the embracer", and "the defender of those who travel at night"). Khonshu claims he created a psychic connection with Marc Spector when the latter was a young boy, decades before he was ready to be fully recruited as his avatar on Earth, the left Fist of Khonshu.