Here Is How Moon Knight Got His Powers

Moon Knight quickly rose to popularity after his inclusion in the MCU, and fans were quick to catch up on his unusual personality and somewhat unconventional methods of dealing with trouble. Still, besides the MCU, Moon Knight is a character with a long history, and like just about any superhero (or anti-hero), he has his origin story. Marc Spector, as he was known before he took on the mantle of Moon Knight, was born as a human with no superpowers, and one unfortunate incident led to his life being changed forever. Now without further ado, let’s see how Moon Knight got his powers.

Moon Knight got his powers from the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Marc Spector was left for dead in front of the statue of Khnoshu, where Spector’s spirit met with the god in a spiritual dimension. Khnoshu offered Marc a deal. In exchange for his service, he would save his life and restore him to his full health. Spector agreed and received the blessings of Khonshu, which greatly enhanced his physical abilities as well as gifted him powers that depend on moon phases. Spector considered this encounter to be a hallucination, and it took him quite some time to realize what exactly took place.

Now that we’ve given you a short version of how Moon Knight got his powers, it’s time to explore the backstory and past of the Crescent Crusader. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Where was Moon Knight born?

Before he was known as Moon Knight, Marc Spector was seemingly an ordinary human with a difficult childhood. Marc Spector was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were immigrants Jewish immigrants from Czechoslovakia, and his father was a rabbi by profession.

Marc grew up destitute and in poverty. His father always preferred to rely on his faith and teachings instead of material things, and this is one of many traumas that will follow Marc for the rest of his life. Being Jewish is a large part of Moon Knight’s identity. He grew up in a neighborhood where Jews were bullied, and his father at one time returned home with a swastika carved on his forehead. The thing that bothered Marc the most was the fact that his own father never wanted to stand up to bullies.

Back in Czechoslovakia, Marc’s father, Elias, was a revered member of the community. When the Jew prosecution happened, Elias arrived in America, where he was content to be alive, living in poverty. He never wanted to defend himself, and Marc considered him spineless.

Marc also had a younger brother, Randall, who was frequently bullied due to being a Jew. One day Marc decided to defend Randall and got into a violent conflict. His father, instead of siding with his boys, accused them of being obsessed with violence and chastised them heavily. This is just one more incident that will lead to Marc not seeing his father for 18 years.

Later, Marc’s father would get a teaching gig at the Faculty of Theological Seminary. He also encouraged Marc to join the Faculty and dedicate his life to higher values, but Marc preferred to hone his self-defense skills in a local gym, fighting and earning money boxing. His father was deeply ashamed of him, convinced that he was obsessed with war and tainted with sin.

How did Moon Knight develop dissociative identity disorder?

Dissociative identity disorder is one more thing that Moon Knight is, well, famous for, and it is a result of childhood trauma that he suffered at the hands of a person he probably trusted the most at the time, his family friend Yitz Perlman. Yitz Perlman was a rabbi like Marc’s father, and the two would spend a lot of time together discussing religion and joking with each other. Marc was often present during those conversations, and he thought Yitz was quite a funny and charming man. At one point, Spector admitted that he liked Yitz more than his own father and often sought his company.

One day Marc was supposed to meet Yitz at the synagogue, but Marc arrived too early, and to kill time, he decided to explore the basement of the building. He found a trap door leading to a hidden part of the basement. He fell down the hole and, to his surprise, found Yitz down there.

Yitz was dealing with what appeared to be a corpse of a man suspended from the ceiling. At that moment, he decided to come clean and admitted that he wasn’t actually a jew. He was a Nazi sympathizer and serial killer of Jews. Yitz, or rather Ernst as was his true name, attacked Marc and proceeded to “deal with him” to keep his secret safe.

Thanks to Marc’s self-defense and boxing training, he managed to beat Ernst to submission but didn’t have enough willpower to kill him and deal with him permanently.

Ernst disappeared forever after that fateful fight in the synagogue basement, and Marc, as a consequence of this trauma, developed dissociative identity disorder.

Moon Knight got his powers from the Egyptian God Khnoshu

Afterward, Marc Spector joined U.S. Marine Corps but was dishonorably discharged when it was discovered that he was mentally unstable. He joined the CIA and seemingly got his life back on track when his brother Randall, killed his girlfriend to cover up his own crimes. Marc attempted to kill Randall and was seemingly successful and assumed that he was dead. However, this was far from being true.

After his gig with the CIA fell through, Spector continued doing what he does best, fighting, but this time he became a mercenary. It was during his time as a mercenary that Marc met “Frenchie” Duchamp.

Spector’s life, however, changed forever when he met Raul Bushman in Egypt on one of his mercenary assignments. Raul Bushman had a special assignment that involved raiding ancient tombs. Spector and Frenchie journeyed to North Sudan, close to the Egyptian border, with the intention of raiding an archaeological site. During the raid, Bushman killed the lead archaeologist, Peter Alraune, in search of an Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb.

Spector wanted to protect Marlene, Peter Alraune’s daughter, from getting killed by Bushman, which led to a conflict between Spector and Bushman. Bushman managed to injure Spector gravely, and he proceeded to kill everyone present except for Marlene and Frenchie.

Despite his injuries, Spector managed to crawl to the tomb before collapsing. Marlene and Frenchie placed him beneath an idol of Khonshu, where his spirit encountered the deity who offered to save his life in exchange for his service. Spector accepted and was imbued with Khonshu’s powers.

And this is how Marc Spector got his Moon Knight powers, even though he would later think that all of that was merely a hallucination.

Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!