Moon Knight Has Done Some Terrible Things, And These Are The Worst

With the modern-day popularity of the merc-with-a-mouth Deadpool, alongside lesser successes like Taskmasker, Domino, Deathstroke, Deadshot, and others, the concept of a comic book hero making their living as a mercenary has become commonplace. It certainly makes sense — what better way for a superhuman weapons expert with special forces training, photographic reflexes, and impeccable aim to make a living? But no matter how common the job have become, and no matter how much sense it makes, paying the bills with contract killings is — to put it nicely — a morally questionable choice.

When readers were first introduced to Spector in 1975's "Werewolf by Night #32," he was far from a fist of vengeance, and even farther from an Avenger. Spector was just a skilled ex-soldier, an experienced combatant with the weapons training to tackle targets that laymen couldn't. In fact, that is how he first became Moon Knight. The shadowy cabal known as the Committee hired Spector to defeat the antihero known as Werewolf by Night (who, yes, works by night). To help defeat the creature, the Committee outfitted Spector with an all-silver outfit, silver weapons, and holy relics. In other words, Moon Knight was born essentially by donning a hired assassin in the appropriate armor for his target.

The 2009 series "Vengeance of the Moon Knight" didn't last long, but before its ten-issue was run was over, it left readers with a few memorable Moony moments. One of the most unforgettable was Spector's run-in with Deadpool, an encounter that helped reveal just how unhinged the White Knight could be.

In issue #8, both Spector and Deadpool have been tasked with taking down the same crooked businessman and possible child trafficker. The two mercs only come into conflict when Spector decides to capture the target alive, defying Deadpool's murderous goal. Based on that premise, it may seem like Moon Knight is one on the side of (ancient Egyptian) angels, but a thorough read proves otherwise. When the target surrenders to Moon Knight peacefully, the hero sighs and proclaims that was "not much fun." Then, through what Spector might call kismet, he discovers that Deadpool's healing factor makes him functionally immortal — meaning there's still some "fun" on that night's docket. Spector and Deadpool battle, and Spector uses the moral get out of jail free card presented by Deadpool's immortality to literally cut the merc to pieces. Using his silver katana, Spector cuts into Deadpool until he's nothing but a mound of blood and flesh and then calmly exits, saying "Man... I needed that."

As "Age of Khonshu" continues, Moon Knight becomes certain that his final challenge in defeating the Avengers will be the strongest of them all, the Mighty Thor. Spector waits for the thunder god on Earth's moon, and — endowed with his own powers, Khonshu's, Iron Fist's, and Doctor Strange's — waits calmly and silently.

Within moments of the thunder god's arrival, Spector seizes a sound victory. As Moon Knight knows but Thor does not, Thor's hammer Mjolnir was crafted from a type of moon rock — and therefore, subject to the will of Moon Knight. Spector easily steals control of the powerful weapon from Thor and uses it to pummel its former master like he were an ordinary man. Not satisfied with the easy victory, Spector then does what Spector tends to — goes much farther than anyone would have expected. With his heightened powers of lunakinesis, Spector gathers moons from across galaxies — in his own words, "As far as the Eye of Agamotto can see" — and crushes Thor between them. Though all of his actions are for the greater good, namely the defeat of a literal Devil, Spector clobbering Earth's greatest heroes and stealing their strengths is what most would call terrible.

Most heroes end their run-ins with petty criminals by administering a simple beating, maybe adding a verbal warning, and vanishing into the night. For Moon Knight, however — and especially the pitiless Moon Knight of writer Charlie Huston's "Moon Knight" (2006), beatings and advice aren't enough. In issue #13, an exchange between one frantic petty criminal and two nonchalant NYPD detectives reveals the true extent of Spector's ruthless routine.

The criminal arrives at the police station with a bloody crescent moon carved into his forehead and apparently carved deeply. The two detectives who hear his story receive it with a noticeable lack of surprise, and there is one good reason for that — Moon Knight does this often. One detective covers his desk with more than a dozen pictures of criminals who have had the shape carved into their faces, and he even offers to bring out "the others," implying any number of additional mutilations. As if that wasn't enough, several of the pictures prove that Moon Knight doesn't limit himself to one disfigurement per perp, and that "his favorites" can rack up three or four crescent moons apiece. And, because the limits of Spector's ferocity can never safely be assumed, the detective adds that those disfigured victims "are just the ones still got noses and lips and suchlike."

Like Spector's brother Randall, Jeffrey Wilde was a figure from earlier in Spector's life who, at first, served as a treasured friend and ally. In the early '90s series "Marc Spector: Moon Knight," Wilde fought alongside Spector as a sort of sidekick, even wearing an imitation Moon Knight costume for a short stretch. But, again like Randall, Wilde eventually fell into madness and cruelty, and Spector dealt with both in the same way. Just as Randall reentered Spector's life as the Shadowknight, Wilde reentered Spector's life as the villainous Midnight. In one last direct parallel, Midnight started his reentry into Moon Knight's orbit with a killing spree meant to draw the cowled crusader's attention. Unfortunately for Midnight, it worked.

Beginning in issue six of "Moon Knight" (2006), Midnight murdered and tortured his way to Moon Knight, and by issue 12, the hero had had enough. For Midnight, whose crimes had all been themed around clocks in one way or another, his death was poetic. When Moon Knight finally reached a nexus between opportunity and rage, he ripped the spear-sized hand from a clock tower face and stabbed Midnight. He impaled Midnight with the clock hand straight down his throat and through him, turning his ex-sidekick into a bloody human scarecrow.

If Moon Knight has an archenemy — or had one, anyway — it's Raul Bushman. The two have fought a number of times throughout the years, and their first bout was the very encounter that created Moon Knight. It came in the pages of "Moon Knight" (1980) #1 the retcon that came to be the hero's canon origin. Bushman is the man that left Spector to die in the Egyptian desert, which gave Khonshu the window he needed to resurrect Spector and claim him as his new avatar. In a way, Bushman is the reason for all of Spector's pain as the Moon Knight — his conflicts, his deaths and rebirths, his mental health issues, and the rest. It's fitting then, that when Spector killed Bushman, he made sure that Bushman felt as much pain as humanly possible.

In the pages of "Moon Knight" (2006) #2, Moon Knight and Bushman fought their bloodiest battle yet, and Moon Knight ended it with even more blood. As the two wrestled in a dirty alley, Spector's rage completely consumed him. He drew one of his crescent daggers and began slowly, torturously, excruciatingly slicing the skin from Bushman's face. When the deed was done, Bushman lay dead, the remnants of his head just a skull with pulpy bits of sinew strewn across it. Spector then held the death mask up to the city's moon, screaming to Khonshu to accept the flesh as a holy sacrifice. There's a reason Moon Knight is the character chosen to take the MCU in a darker direction.