Biography - Page 13
Marc remained active as Moon Knight, working cooperatively with the various aspects of his personality. "Marc Spector" and "Moon Knight" were the same persona, representing only a change in clothes and not a change of identity. The Khonshu in Marc's head was now akin to a father figure, a voice of calm, reason and duty that did not impose demands on Marc, but merely 
reminded him of his obligations. (Whether this was Marc's image of Khonshu alone or an actual manifestation of the divine entity is almost academic at this point.) Marc could recede into the background so that Steven Grant could take over. Grant operated again as a millionaire philanthropist, bringing in tons of money for his company which he redistributed through his Lunar Lives Fund, focusing on helping the mentally ill and disenfranchised people of society.
Marc was somewhat reluctant to let Jake Lockley out in these days, however. As Moon Knight's ear to the streets and the closest persona to the criminal element, Jake had come to represent the aspects of Marc Spector he least enjoyed or wanted to remember. It was Jake who knew how to fight dirty and the worst ways to hurt a man, but he also contained the unpleasant memories of all the times Marc had administered that pain and suffering to another human being. Jake could keep things from Marc (indeed his purpose in life was basically to do just that), and Marc had to be uncomfortably accepting of the idea, and trust that Jake was repressing memories for Marc's own mental health.
Marc's former psychiatrist made the mistake of using his case as a touchstone to try to connect with a new patient of hers. A soldier who had been hazed and brutally beaten by his fellow recruits, this nameless patient burned his attackers alive and was discharged from the military for his psychosis following the incident. The patient took quickly to the doctor's use of Egyptian mythology to contextualize his experiences, but he imprinted onto the feud between Khonshu and 
his father aspect, Atum Ra. The hospital neglected to recognize the soldier was a super-being, a pyrokinetic who killed his attackers with the power of his mind. Soon convinced of his own divinity, the "Sun King" believed himself to be the avatar of Ra on Earth, just as Moon Knight stood for Khonshu. He internalized the mythological struggle between Amun Ra and Khonshu, believing it was his purpose in life to confront Moon Knight and prove the Sun King of Ra was the stronger avatar. [Moon Knight (1st series) #188-189]
The Sun King found many allies against Moon Knight. He located Bushman, reduced to a minor drug lord in the Bronx partially because of his fear of Spector. Bushman brought with him a small army of criminals, the marked and maimed left over from Moon Knight's more vicious period. Finally, he recruited the Truth, a hulking psychic who infected people with a toxic honesty that supposedly revealed the true ugliness of the world. Naturally, step one of their master plan was to kidnap Marlene Alraune. When Sun King and Bushman tracked Marlene to her new suburban home far from Marc Spector, however, they also found something extra.
Marlene reached out to Marc at Bushman's prodding, reconnecting with him for the first time in years. At least, as far as Marc knew. When Marc walked into Sun King's trap, he also became 
aware of a second surprise: Diatrice, his daughter with Marlene. It seemed Jake Lockley had reconnected with Marlene sometime after Marc last remembered speaking to her. Jake and Marlene's side affair had been brief, but Marlene became pregnant from it. Jake had supported Marlene and Diatrice since then, and chose to compartmentalize knowledge of them inside Marc's mind and away from Spector's other personalities.
Moon Knight managed to escape the trap with Diatrice, but Sun King and the villains got away with Marlene. Marc reconnected with Frenchie and got him to look after Diatrice when Bushman came a'calling. The Sun King was holding Marlene on Saint Palaemon Island and Bushman was 
charged with bringing Marc to face his adversary. On the voyage, Bushman got ahead of himself and struck out at Marc again, only for Moon Knight to defeat all the pirates and slice off some of Raoul's fingers this time. Still, the corrupting negativity of Truth's psychic honesty shook Marc, forcing him to confront his doubts about his own sanity. In the island village, Sun King and Moon Knight first confronted each other in a psychedelic ritual where their purported aspects of Ra and Khonshu could "meet." The aspect of Ra shook Marc's confidence in the way of Khonshu, giving Sun King an edge in the coming, true battle.
As Moon Knight and Sun King fought each other in a circle of fire, the other aspects of Marc's mind tried to reconcile what had happened. Was Ra really intervening on behalf of the Sun King to defeat the avatar of Khonshu? The Khonshu aspect in Marc's mind explained to Steven and Jake that belief had a power all its own, whether or not the god or idea the belief was focused on was "true." By focusing on Diatrice, the many minds of Marc Spector found a new foundation for 
Marc's belief, restoring his tenacity. Marc regained the advantage in the fight and his physical resilience proved strong enough to shake Sun King's faith in his new belief structure. The moon conquered the sun, claiming Sun King's belief and robbing him of his power. Or so they both believed, and therefore it was true. In the aftermath, Bushman slunk away while Truth and Sun King willingly returned to psychiatric treatment. [Moon Knight (1st series) #190-193]
With Diatrice now in his life, Marc spent time getting to know his daughter, and confided in her about his Dissociative Identity Disorder and "weird brain." [Moon Knight (1st series) #194]
The unique nature of his mind allowed him to interface with a being called the Collective, a flesh-hungry mixture of the minds of bodies of several New Yorkers, trying to increase its "community." Marc, Steven, Jake and Khonshu manifested individually inside the Collective unconscious. The Moon Knights imposed order on the Collective's Headspace, rooting out the bad apple in the mix and allowing the innocent New Yorkers to free themselves from the assimilation. [Moon Knight (1st series) #195-196]
As Moon Knight, Marc confronted the Societe de Sadiques, expecting them to be an uncompromisingly easy target for vigilante violence. Instead, Marc discovered their leader was his "Uncle Ernst," the Nazi war criminal who infiltrated his family and traumatized him as a child. Ernst welcomed Moon Knight to the Societe, and tried to convince Marc that his heroism and vigilantism were just his way of expressing his inner sadistic desires. Marc agreed to undergo trials to join the 
Societe, but even he was wavering over whether he was infiltrating the group to destroy them or because he genuinely wanted to renew his relationship with Ernst. After a series of tests of his capacity for brutality, Moon Knight was finally locked in a room with a young girl and ordered to kill her. Marc cycled through various personalities, but couldn't find anyone willing to complete the deed. In a moment of inspiration, Marc finally realized what that meant: He didn't want to do it. He didn't want to inflict pain. Reassured of his own self-image as a hero, Moon Knight prepared to protect the girl and stand against the Society. [Moon Knight (1st series) #197-198]
Ernst tried again to drug Marc and force him to accept the Nazi sadist's point of view on life. Marc resisted the pressure and held himself together by focusing on his daughter's vision of who he should be. Marc emasculated Ernst and left him in the dust, but was confronted afterwards by the Sun King. Ernst had free the Sun King and Truth from the asylum before launching his endgame against Moon Knight. The Sun King had actually accepted wellness in therapy and rejected Ernst, but Truth was corrupted. His own powers were derived from the same source as Ernst's longevity, 
a "blue corruption" to infect people with a constructed thought-virus as living propaganda. This allowed Ernst to imprint Truth with a "false truth," psychically broadcasting his toxic, nihilistic world view to others. Moon Knight and Sun King fought through what remained of the Societe and reached the Truth, their own weird brain chemistry protecting them from his power. Truth and Sun King returned to their therapy, and Marc reunited with his family. [Moon Knight (1st series) #199-200]
In the months since, Moon Knight joined a new incarnation of the Midnight Sons. They helped Wong and Doctor Strange prevent Mephisto from dragging all of Las Vegas into Hell. [Doctor Strange: Damnation #1-4] He teamed up with Punisher and other street level heroes when Mayor Wilson "Kingpin" Fisk began providing shelter for Hydra terrorists in his NY-based team of "heroes," the Thunderbolts. [Punisher (12th series) #14-15] Finally, Moon Knight joined with a number of heroes in New York when a fungal infection from K'un-Lun got loose in the city. This mystically enhanced hive mind led to the temporary quarantine of Manhattan until Spector was able to interface with the hive consciousness behind it. [Contagion #1-5]
Stable? Hardly. But his heart is in the right place.