Moon Knight‘s first season is striking a chord with fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featuring the live-action debut of Marc Spector (Oscar Isaac) and his eponymous superhero alter-ego. Over the course of six episodes, the Disney+ series has redefined what an MCU show can look like, all while providing the same reliable humor and action that fans have come to expect from the mega-franchise.
Marc Spector, as fans are beginning to learn, is a quite complicated character in the comics, who deals with a mental illness known as Dissociative Identity Disorder (D.I.D.), which causes him to develop alternate personalities with distinct characteristics separate from his own. As such, there are several identities of Marc Spector that new fans of the character should know.
Spider-Man
In Brian Michael Bendis’s run on the sixth volume of Moon Knight, the titular character is accompanied by his fellow Avengers, Captain America, Wolverine, and Spider-Man. However, it is revealed shortly into the story that these three companions are nothing more than separate personalities in Marc’s mind, taking the form of the three heroes he admires most.
Marc Spector’s Spider-Man personality pushes him to become a better hero, though Marc, at a particularly difficult point in his life, often fails at this task. In an effort to become more like the web-slinging icon, Marc has a replica of Spider-Man’s suit made, as well as imitation webbing. All this leads to an unfortunate confrontation between Marc in his spider-suit and several criminals disguised as adult entertainers, only worsening Spider-Man’s public reputation.
Wolverine
Among Moon Knight’s three alternate superhero personas during Brian Michael Bendis’s storyline is the Wolverine. In his attempt to model his own career after that of this infamous X-Man, Moon Knight has three metallic claws built to extend from each of his gloved hands, allowing for vicious hand-to-hand combat on his part.
This voice in Marc’s head often takes the “devil on the shoulder” approach when speaking his case, usually arguing for excessive violence and fatal means when fighting crime. This being so, the Wolverine personality often finds itself arguing with those of Spider-Man and Captain America, who have a more level-headed approach. The Wolverine identity is the closest of the three to Marc’s true nature, and therefore often wins in the arguments of morality, with Wolverine eventually killing the Spider-Man and Captain America alternate identities.
Captain America
After moving to the west coast to fight an upcoming kingpin, Moon Knight begins to develop three new personalities in place of Steven Grant and Jake Lockley, this time based on superheroes. Among these is Captain America, with whom he had served in the Secret Avengers lineup only a few years prior, shortly after the superhero Civil War.
The Captain America personality inside Marc’s head always takes the moral high ground, telling Marc to do what he knows is right rather than what he knows to be effective crimefighting techniques. In his efforts to be more like the Captain, Marc has a special shield made for himself that mimics that of Steve Rogers. In a world where superheroes such as Captain America have already been established, this could be an interesting route for the character to take in the future of the MCU, and a helpful one, depending on where and when Moon Knight shows up next.
Jake Lockley
Many fans became familiar with the identity of Jake Lockley when he made a somewhat unexpected appearance in the Moon Knight finale. However, this version of Marc Spector has been around from the very beginning of Marc’s alternate personalities, appearing for the first time in Moon Knight #1, alongside Steven Grant.
Lockley is a street-smart everyman who works as a taxi driver in New York City. The character is usually depicted as sporting a bushy mustache, duckbill hat, and trenchcoat. In the early years of Moon Knight’s history, it was Lockley who formed the most meaningful and longest-lasting relationships in his life, as he was a simple man who was easy to get along with. In more recent stories, however, Lockley has become a “catch-all” identity for Marc’s more aggressive personality traits, becoming the far more ruthless identity of the prime three.
Steven Grant
Viewers of the Moon Knight Disney+ series are no doubt intimately familiar with Steven Grant, as both he and Marc Spector are set up to become leaders in the MCU. As in the show, the comic book version of Steven Grant is the main alternate identity of Marc Spector, who emerged in the earliest storylines featuring Moon Knight.
Steven Grant is portrayed as a higher-end version of Marc Spector, whose wealth becomes the primary financial support of his Moon Knight career. Early storylines presented Grant as a romantic lead, with primary Moon Knight love interest Marlene Alraune referring to Marc exclusively as Steven. Later comics, specifically Jeff Lemire’s run, would retcon Steven as an alternate identity that came to Marc as a child, essentially becoming his brother. As such, the Grant personality became the dearest of Marc’s alter-egos, as the two formed a touching relationship that would later be adapted for the MCU.
Mr. Knight
Fans of the MCU’s version of Moon Knight may be surprised to know that the version of the Mr. Knight persona is far different from the comics. While the series presented the suit-and-tie-wearing superhero to be Steven Grant’s version of Khonshu’s ceremonial vestments, the comic book Mr. Knight is far more important to Marc Spector’s overall story.
The Mr. Knight persona first emerged in 2014, during Warren Ellis’s run on Moon Knight, but it wasn’t until a few years later that this concept would be expanded upon. As the years went by, Mr. Knight became a type of “alpha-personality,” who could stop the many other voices in Marc’s head from getting out of control. In the current comics, Marc is almost always depicted in his Mr. Knight outfit and insists on exclusively being referred to as “Mr. Knight” by his compatriots.
Moon Knight
Perhaps the alternate identity that is most recognized by the general public is that of Moon Knight. This is Marc’s primary superhero persona and the one that is most closely associated with his patron god Khonshu, voiced by F. Murray Abraham in the Disney+ series.
While certain versions of the character depict Moon Knight simply as a conscious persona taken on by Marc Spector in order to hide his identity, this has not always been the case. Earlier stories, which featured less of Marc Spector due to the character’s guilt over his mercenary past, used Moon Knight as a way to channel everything useful about Spector into a vessel for good. As such, Moon Knight became the man that Spector was always supposed to be, bridging the gap until Marc was ready to re-emerge as a changed man.
Marc Spector
Marc Spector is the main identity from the comics, as well as the original. It is from the mind of Marc Spector that all the other personalities originate, with the exception of Moon Knight himself (whose birth can be attributed to Khonshu). In the end, it is Marc who is the most important of all his many personas.
The characterization of Marc Spector has changed drastically over the years. In the original Doug Moench run on Moon Knight, Marc was depicted as a former mercenary, whose crimes during his gun-for-hire days haunted him so ferociously that he gave up this identity entirely. However, Marc would return in later runs, eventually becoming the principal force in his own mind once more, even at times acting as the sole voice in his own head. In the most recent versions of the character, Marc has once again taken a backseat to the Mr. Knight personality, though the original still remains an important part of the overall story.
