Every Alternate Personality Used By Moon Knight Explained

Alter egos are a common trope in superhero comics, movies, and TV series. But when you're dealing with a character like Moon Knight, the term "double life" becomes something of an understatement.

As a man with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), Marc Spector doesn't just lead a double life — he leads a triple, quadruple, and sometimes quintuple life as a superhero, mercenary, cab driver, socialite, detective, businessman, little girl, super-soldier, and more. New personas or "alters" regularly manifest in Marc's fractured mind, leaving those around him confused as to whom — or what — they're dealing with at any moment.

If your knowledge of Moon Knight is limited to the Disney+ "Moon Knight" series and Oscar Isaac's popular depiction of the character(s), keep reading. We're going to take a deep dive down the rabbit hole and discover just how many alternate personalities Moon Knight has revealed in his long career.

People only familiar with Oscar Isaac's bumbling "Steven-with-a-V" character on "Moon Knight" may be surprised to learn that "Steven Grant" was originally a charming millionaire in the comic books with a personality more akin to Batman's Bruce Wayne playboy image.

Initially presented as an alias Marc Spector adopted after he parlayed the money he made as a mercenary into a fortune, the identity of Steven Grant let Moon Knight walk among corporate criminals. This created personal problems for Marc, especially when his girlfriend, Marlene Alraune, began preferring "Steven" over his other personalities. Eventually, Marc (temporarily) gave up his Moon Knight career and began living with Marlene in Steven Grant's lifestyle.

However, readers later learned "Steven Grant" manifested earlier as an imaginary friend during Marc's childhood. In a story by Jeff Lemire, Greg Smallwood, Wilfredo Torres, Francesco Francavilla, and James Stokoe that appeared in "Moon Knight" (2016) #9, "Steven" reveals he has his own memories and history, which make him "real." When Marc asks Steven to relinquish control over his body, Steven agrees and states he just wants Marc to be happy, showing he exists to help protect the core persona.

Moving from the mainstream Marvel Universe to the "Ultimate Marvel" comics, which operate in a separate continuity, readers learn that Moon Knight developed in a very different way on this alternate Earth. Written by Brian Michael Bendis, who leaned hard into the character's alternate personalities, we discover "Moon Knight" is a separate persona developed by the mind of a man who is also "Marc Spector" and "Steven Grant."

Little mention is made of Khonshu here. Instead, Moon Knight's superhuman abilities seem to come from both his DID and his participation in an experimental super-soldier program during the Gulf War that went awry. He finds himself frequently at odds with the Ultimate Universe's Spider-Man, although he later teams up with the wall-crawler—as well as Daredevil, Doctor Strange, Shang-Chi, and Iron Fist—to take down the Kingpin.

While this Moon Knight doesn't seem to have mystical powers, he can take an insane amount of punishment. At one point, he's stabbed in the chest by Kingpin's assassin Elektra and manages to not only survive but also impale Elektra in the back of the head with one of his moon-shaped crescent blades. Later, one of his other alternate personalities gets shot point-blank in the head, yet Moon Knight still takes control of the body and continues on with his mission, proving that for him, dedication and insanity form an uneasy balance.

Just as Ultimate Steven Grant took on the personality traits of Marvel's mainstream Jake Lockley, Ultimate Marc Spector is an amalgamation of his mainstream mercenary self and the original debonair Steven Grant. According to files dug up by the Kingpin, "Marc Spector" is an ex-Navy seal who took part in a failed Gulf War super-soldier experiment before becoming a wealthy businessman who uses his money to fund Moon Knight's activities.

Inside the mindscape that he shares with his other "alters," Marc frequently debates with his Steven Grant persona over the best course of action they should take as Moon Knight. Interestingly, Marc also hints that the different personas can bleed into each other, as he once told Steven in "Ultimate Spider-Man" #83 that Spider-Man "beat the hell out of you," although it was Moon Knight that Spider-Man was fighting. This suggests these alters identify more with each other than in other depictions of Moon Knight's DID and don't leave the memory gaps seen in the Disney+ "Moon Knight" show.

"Ronin" is an identity that has been claimed by many characters in Marvel comics, films, and TV. In the mainstream Marvel Universe, both Hawkeye and the deaf warrior Echo have taken on the identity of this deadly antihero to gain access to criminal society. In the MCU, a traumatized Clint Barton temporarily becomes Ronin in "Avengers: Endgame" (2019) after losing his family in "The Snap."

In the Ultimate Universe, Ronin isn't Hawkeye or Echo. Instead, he's another alter of Moon Knight, created to pose as a criminal hitman seeking to become the Kingpin's new bodyguard. Although Moon Knight's other alters thought they could use Ronin to help take down the Kingpin, Ronin soon proved too violent and unstable. He drives a bus through Peter Parker's school on the Kingpin's orders and later seemingly kills his own Moon Knight personality inside his mind.

Eventually, the Kingpin discovers "Ronin" is a plant, brutally beats him, and has his men shoot him in the head. Amazingly, Ronin survives by reawakening his "Moon Knight" self and manages to drag their shared body out of a river despite the gunshot wound.

Ronin also uses his "Marc Spector" credentials to gain access to the Kingpin's inner circle. Interestingly, the Kingpin's men discover Marc used another identity as "Paladin" to work for the corrupt company Roxxon. In mainstream Marvel comics, Paladin is the name of a mercenary anti-hero unrelated to Moon Knight. Since we never see "Ultimate Paladin" appear in Moon Knight's mindscape, it's possible he's just an alias and not an alter. Then again, since Moon Knight's alters can kill each other, it's possible the other personalities just got rid of him.

As alternate personalities go, having Captain America there to provide you with moral guidance and support isn't the worst thing that can happen to you. Like many, Marc Spector sees Steve Rogers as the pinnacle of virtue, so it isn't surprising that the Captain America alter he manifests encourages him to go on missions to protect the people of Los Angeles. This illusory Cap also helps keep the other alters (Wolverine and Spider-Man) in check and focused on their mission.

Notably, Cap never takes over Moon Knight's body, but only exists as a hallucination that Marc interacts with. However, Marc does have his SHIELD tech build an energy shield similar to the one the real Cap once used to temporarily replace his traditional adamantium-vibranium alloy shield. When you've got Steve Rogers in your head, who wouldn't want to be Captain America for a day? Unfortunately, all this is jeopardized thanks to Marc's third Avenger "alter"...

Echo (aka Maya Lopez) has been getting more attention lately in the MCU, with a version of the character appearing in the Disney+ "Hawkeye" TV show and slated to appear in her own series later on.

In the comics, Echo is a deaf woman who possesses photographic reflexes, enabling her to perfectly mimic the actions of those she sees. This lets her go toe-to-toe with Daredevil and even adopt the identity of Ronin temporarily. In the 2011 "Moon Knight" comic book series, she reluctantly teams up with Marc Spector to take down the villainous Count Nefaria. Unfortunately, during one of their battles, Echo is killed by Nefaria, triggering Marc to go into a berserker rage thanks to his Wolverine persona.

Shortly after, Marc manifests an Echo "alter" who takes the place of Spider-Man as the voice of his compassion. She urges Marc to get up after he's nearly beaten to death by Nefaria's daughter, Madame Masque, and continues to offer him advice later on, although she never takes over his body. 

If "Steven Grant" and "Jake Lockley" are fragments of Marc Spector's personality, it stands to reason that Moon Knight's own personality would eventually splinter and develop a new alter of its own. This happens in Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey's 2014 "Moon Knight" series, shortly after Marc manifests his alternate Avengers identities. Suddenly freed of those personalities, Marc instead dresses in a dapper white suit and mask, rolls up in a self-driving white limo, and announces himself as "Mr. Knight."

More of a detective than Moon Knight, Mr. Knight assists the police in analyzing their crime scenes. The police reinforce this new identity, telling their fellow officers to see Marc as a "concerned citizen" who is definitely not Moon Knight. Indeed, where Moon Knight is a vigilante who enjoys beating up criminals with his fists, Mr. Knight prefers tracking down crooks with Sherlock Holmes-style deductions and taking them out with subtle, precise movements that require a minimum of violence.

Later comics show that "Mr. Knight" is who people seeking out Marc Spector's help tend to deal with, while "Moon Knight" is whom he transforms into when things need to get more physical. It's a bit complicated, but Marc's clients are basically getting two heroes for the price of one.

In the MCU, Steven Grant (Oscar Isaac) isn't a charming millionaire or a seedy cab driver. Instead, he's a sweet-natured British man who works in a museum gift shop. An expert on Egyptology and Egyptian gods, Steven dreams about being a museum tour guide, but receives nothing but disdain from his bosses.

To make matters worse, Steven has a sleepwalking problem and later discovers his other personalities are constantly hijacking his body and leaving him in dangerous positions—like when he wakes up in a remote village and gets targeted by Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke) and his cult of Ammit-worshipping zealots.

Despite his seemingly weak-willed nature, Steven gains a stronger backbone when he learns he's part of the collection of personalities that comprises Moon Knight. He stands up to Harrow, tries to protect innocent people, and even discovers he can access a version of a "Mr. Knight" mystical suit (which Marc sarcastically refers to as "Psycho Colonel Sanders"). While he doesn't start out as a fighter, once he accepts that he's a part of Marc, his combat skills improve, and he adopts a unique "tag team" style of fighting with Moon Knight.

In the episode "Asylum," we learn "Steven" was created by Marc as a way to cope with childhood abuse. After an accident claimed the life of his younger brother, Marc's mother blamed Marc for the death and regularly beat him. To escape, Marc regularly switched places with Steven, whom he based off of his movie hero "Dr. Steven Grant" to gain some semblance of a happy childhood.

After being shot by Harrow, Steven and Marc end up in the realm of the dead where Steven saves Marc from being dragged off a ship sailing to A'Aru or the Field of Reeds, the Egyptian version of heaven. Tragically, he falls off the ship and becomes frozen in the sands, but Marc — unwilling to let a part of himself die — forsakes heaven and returns to free Steven so they can escape the afterlife together. Later, Steven returns the favor by making a deal with Khonshu to release himself and Marc from his service after they defeat Ammit.

Although the MCU version of Jake Lockley doesn't make his formal appearance until the post-credits scene in the final episode of Disney's "Moon Knight" TV show, his misdeeds are literally strewn across the series. It's almost certainly Jake who takes over Steven's body in the first episode when he's being pursued by Harrow's cultists and murders them all. In episode 3, "The Friendly Type," Jake briefly takes control of Marc's body and kills the cultists Marc was trying to question, to the confusion of both Marc and Steven.

By the season finale, Jake reveals he's also one of Khonshu's secret avatars when he manifests in Moon Knight's body and beats Arthur Harrow nearly to death. After Marc refuses to kill Harrow, Khonshu simply directs Jake to abduct Harrow from a mental hospital and shoot him, showing the Moon God still has dominion over at least one of Marc Spector's multiple personalities.

So what kind of person is the MCU's Jake Lockley? More violent than either Marc or Steven, Jake may have his own unique charm. It's very likely Jake who gets a date with an attractive museum tour guide (whom he later stands up) in the first episode. Unlike his mainstream cab driving counterpart, Jake drives a white limousine like Marvel Comics' Mr. Knight (it even has the same "SPKTR" license plate). He speaks Spanish, talks in a Brooklyn accent when he briefly manifests in an asylum scene, and has no problem carrying out Khonshu's more lethal directives. In fact, he seems to flat out enjoy them.

If "Moon Knight" gets a Season 2, it's almost inevitable that we'll be seeing more of Jake Lockley in the future. Marc and Steven may believe they're free of Khonshu's influence, but with Jake secretly still working for Khonshu (and probably sporting his own version of the ceremonial armor), the MCU Moon Knight saga may be heading down an even darker path.