A lot of people like to call Moon Knight Marvel's version of Batman, but that is only partially correct. Both characters are vigilantes who mostly fight at night with secret identities that are millionaire playboys. Both operate outside the law, and both have some serious emotional baggage. That is where the similarities end.
Batman is a straight forward vigilante who operates under a code of honor. Moon Knight is a mentally disturbed superhero with multiple identities who might or might not communicate with a moon god. He also doesn't have the moral compass that Batman has and is someone that no one really trusts -- heroes or villains. Here is everything you need to know about Moon Knight.
10 DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER
It is not easy to show mental illness in the pages of comic books without offending people who suffer from it. However, Moon Knight comics always tries to walk that line as Marc Spector suffers from dissociative identity disorder (DID). What this means is he has multiple personalities and often has memory gaps from what he did as one of the personalities.
This condition began when Marc was a child and learned a family friend was a Nazi deserter and a harmer of Jewish people (Marc was the son of a rabbi who escaped the Nazis when they invaded Czechoslovakia). He fought to survive, and this was when his DID began. When he was about to end up in a psychiatric hospital, he saw Khonshu for the first time.
9 MARC SPECTOR, MERCENARY
While Moon Knight gained his supernatural powers from Khonshu, his training as a hero was similar to that of Batman. Both men trained hard and developed their bodies into peak condition for battle. Unlike Batman, who was just a millionaire turned vigilante, Marc Spector was a mercenary before he became a superhero.
Marc Spector was a mercenary for hire, and unlike Batman, he had no problem killing his enemies. When the person he worked for decided he wanted an Egyptian treasure and wanted to slaughter an entire village to get it, Spector stood up to him and paid for it with his life -- before Khonshu saved him.
8 KHONSHU
Khonshu is the most significant question mark in Moon Knight comics. In legends, Khonshu is the son of Atum, the first of the New Gods and Amaunet, the air goddess. Khonshu is the God of the moon and vengeance. He is also who gave Marc Spector his supernatural powers and abilities as long as he worked under the moon.
Khonshu also brought Marc Spector back from the dead to do this. The problem is that, depending on who writes the story, there are many times where it seems Khonshu does not exist and is part of Moon Knight's delusions.
7 LUNAR STRENGTH
As mentioned before, Moon Knight has the powers given to him by Khonshu, but he can only use them at night under the influence of the moon. While this has changed over the years, originally Moon Knight only had his increased strength under the light of the moon, and he weakened considerably any other time.
This also meant that he was at his strongest under a full moon. When the new moon was out, meaning the moon was not visible at all but was still there, he could lift up to 1,000 pounds. Then, as the month wore on to the full moon, he would gain strength and could lift as much as 4,000 pounds.
6 FRENCHIE DUCHAMP
Jean-Paul "Frenchie" Duchamp is one of the best characters in Moon Knight comics, a close and personal friend and associate of Marc who is as much a partner as a friend to him. Frenchie is also gay, which was not revealed for many years but was revealed in Moon Knight Vol. 5 in 2006.
Frenchie is a helicopter pilot and worked with Marc on the Egyptian mission that almost cost him his life. He has also saved Moon Knight more times than you can count and is just as responsible for him being alive as Khonshu himself. Frenchie made his first appearance in Werewolf by Night #32 -- the same issue that introduced the world to Moon Knight.
5 STEVEN GRANT, MILLIONAIRE
Two things make people think Moon Knight is Marvel's version of Batman. The first is that the two heroes almost always work at night. The second is that their secret identity is as a millionaire playboy. In Moon Knight's case, his secret identity is Marc Spector, but he also has another identity as Steven Grant, the millionaire.
After Khonshu brought Marc Spector back to life, he returned to New York and had made a fortune from his mercenary days. He used the money to create a new persona in Steven Grant, a financier, which he used to finance his career as a superhero.
4 JAKE LOCKLEY, CAB DRIVER
At the same time that he developed his millionaire persona, Moon Knight also took on yet another identity -- this time a cab driver named Jake Lockley. This was done for a specific reason as well, as driving a cab put him on the ground level and helped him keep an ear out for all information that could help him fight crime.
As Jake Lockley, Moon Knight developed an excellent network of informants, including a homeless man and diner owner and her sons. However, with one man portraying a millionaire, a cab driver, and a vigilante, Marc Spector started to suffer and ended up developing as many as 10 different personalities over time.
3 BECAME AN ADDICT AFTER AN ACCIDENT
The good news is that Moon Knight survived the Civil War battle between Iron Man and Captain America and never chose a side. The bad news is that the reason he didn't was that he was crippled at the time. Moon Knight battled his main villain Bushman, the man who was responsible for him becoming Moon Knight, to begin with, and went too far, killing his enemy.
In the battle, Moon Knight ended up breaking both knees and ended up crippled and in constant pain. As a result, Marc turned to substances and alcohol and became an addict. He had to fight his addiction and his reliance on the moon god Khonshu to come back and become Moon Knight again.
2 SECRET AVENGERS
Moon Knight is one of those strange characters like Wolverine, who claims he likes to be a loner but somehow ends up on a superteam anyway. Way back in 1987, Moon Knight joined the West Coast Avengers, which led to some fun time travel as well. In recent years, he was also a member of The Avengers, even though a lot of heroes don't trust him due to his mental instability.
However, his best time as a team player was on the Secret Avengers, mostly because that was a secret black ops team and that played well into Moon Knight's history as a merc. Steve Rogers recruited Moon Knight as part of the team after Norman Osborn fell in Seige. Then, in a perfect opportunity, he became the Avenger on duty in Los Angeles -- mostly by himself.
1 EQUIPMENT
There is so much cool trivia about Moon Knight's gear, but the best is that his original gear was actually created 5,000 years in the past by Hawkeye. Yes, Hawkeye of The Avengers created the weapons for the priests to use to protect themselves when the West Coast Avengers time traveled to the past in Ancient Egypt and the priests 5,000 years later gave them to Moon Knight.
More high tech is his armor, which is made of Adamantium and has a two-way radio, dart launchers, and a light beam. He wears a cape, and just like Batman, he uses it as a glider cloak. Add in grappling hooks and a Mooncopter for travel, and his gear might be a good reason to compare Moon Knight to Batman.