#red jackal

I saved these for character building/art reference and I figured others may find them useful as well

"Random bullshit, go!"

In his first appearance, Moon Knight was a villain. Or at least, playing the role of a villain. Jack Russell, reluctant star of Werewolf By Night, was being pursued by an evil cabal of rich people who wanted to harness lycanthropy to make themselves even more rich and powerful. According to the story Marc Spector tells in that first issue, he's a mercenary who was hired and given his costume and silver weaponry by the conspiracy for the purpose of hunting and capturing the werewolf.

Of course, he's telling this story to Jack shortly before the full moon rises and turns the protagonist into his monster form, which is kind of weird, And also after capturing Jack for the Committee, he's nagged by also captive women to not be so evil in a fashion that's a little too easy.

So it's not difficult to buy the retcon that he'd already been Moon Knight, and his friend Frenchie had infiltrated the Committee to trick them into making mercenary Marc Spector into Moon Knight with stuff Frenchie just happened to have lying around somehow.

The mercenary part turns out to be real, he's done some awful things for among other groups, the CIA, but a "religious experience" in an Egyptian tomb got him connected to the moon god Khonshu, and he chose to become a masked adventurer, fighting on the side of mostly good.

He borrowed the idea of multiple secret identities from the Shadow, with Steven Grant as his Lamont Cranston and Jake Locksley as his Moe Shrevnitz. These fellows eventually became full on alternate personalities as Moon Knight's mental instability was turned into a major theme.

Moon Knight's been up and down the power scale, from just a guy with special training in a fancy costume, to full on moon god avatar, depending on the writer. He generally means well, but has severe personal issues.

Here's a look at a magazine issue that has Moon Knight as a central character before a lot of his character development kicked in:

And a review of a book about the Red Jackal, a pastiche of Moon Knight if he were an actual pulp character:

Front cover of: Battle Action Force #508 (26th Jan, 1985) IPC Magazines Ltd.

Art: John Cooper

Some of the superb logos used for the Action Force strips in Battle Action Force.