Marvel Knights Backstory

[The Watcher]

New York

In the urban dwellings of the city crime is rampant. People are in danger of theft, being attack, and even murder every night. But there are those who can not stand by and watch injustice continue. These people who use whatever talents they have to make a difference around them. Guardian devils, reformed crooks, hired heroes, and self-appointed executioners. They are the protectors of the street, the urban heroes who may not save the world but still find a way to save lives.

Daredevil…
Matt Murdock was raised by his father, boxer "Battling Jack" Murdock, in Hell's Kitchen. When young Matt saved a man from an oncoming truck, it spilled a radioactive cargo that rendered him blind while enhancing his remaining senses. Under the harsh tutelage of blind martial arts master Stick, Matt mastered his heightened senses and became a formidable fighter.
When he was attending Columbia University Law School his father was murdered by agents of the Fixer. Mat became enraged when the legal system failed to bring the Fixer to justice. He donned a costume made from his father's boxing robe and went into action as Daredevil. Now establishing a small New York law firm with college friend Foggy Nelson, Matt vowed to serve the law as Matt Murdock and to fight evils beyond the law's reach as Daredevil.

Punisher…
Born in New York, Frank Castle is a former U.S. Marine Captain. Before his enlistment, he married his wife Maria who was already pregnant with their first child. Shortly after a tour of service, Castle, his wife, Maria and their children were in New York's Central Park for an afternoon picnic when they witnessed a Mafia gangland execution. Seeking to eliminate all witnesses, the criminals shot down his family. However, Castle survived. Even though Frank was able to identify all of the shooters the police were unable to help Castle in his quest for justice. He decided that the only punishment criminals might receive is that of physical destruction. He emblazoned his body armor with a symbol of a death's head, and exacted his revenge. Since then he has waged a one-man war upon crime, taking the name Punisher.

Heroes for Hire…
A business founded by superhumanly strong Luke Cage, which offered superhuman security and investigation, services for a fee. Cage has teamed up in his business with the mystic martial artist Iron Fist to form Heroes for Hire

[The Watcher]

Magic Realms

There is more to this world then what you see; there are other worlds beneath the surface and all around us. Other dimensions where the physical laws that govern this world do not apply. Worlds where your darkest nightmares are all to real. Monsters you could only imagine are right next door. But there are those who live in this world. Those that have been chosen, who have been cursed to face these evils to keep them from ever falling over onto the world that is blissfully unaware of it’s existence.

Doctor Strange...
When brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange was in a car accident it severely damaged the nerves in his hands ending his surgical career. Strange sought a cure soon depleting his fortune. Hearing rumors of the mystical Ancient One, a millennia-old sorcerer who protected the Earth dimension as its Sorcerer Supreme, Strange traveled to the East and found the Ancient One's Tibetan palace. But the Ancient One refused to cure him. Strange was later astonished to see the sorcerer attacked by mystic forces from his pupil Mordo. Strange acted unselfishly for the first time in years to try and save the Ancient One. The Ancient One easily cast off his apprentice’s attack and exiled him. Strange vowed to learn magic himself so he could counter Mordo and his ilk and offered himself as a disciple to the Ancient One. The Ancient One spent years instructing Strange in the art of sorcery.
Having completed his masters training and being appointed the new Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange has returned to America, becoming a mystic consultant in New York's Greenwich Village protecting the dimension of Earth from evils of other realms as the Ancient One had before him.

Ghost Rider...
Long ago, the demon Zarathos penchant for human souls led him into conflicts with the vile Mephisto. Mephisto tricked and enslaved Zarathos rendering him amnesiac and trapping him in various mortal forms. John Blaze was born the son of Barton Blaze and Naomi Kale, in the Quentin Carnival, where his parents starred in a stunt show with Craig "Crash" Simpson. Naomi abandoned the family to protect John from the Kale family curse and soon after Barton died. Crash and his family adopted John taking him in.
Years later after Crash's death, Johnny found himself one night transformed into a skeletal being with a flaming skull. Fearing at first that this demonic form was a manifestation of his own evil side, he soon realized that he had bonded with some wholly separate entity the demon Zarathos. This merger of Johnny Blaze and a demonic force has become known as the Ghost Rider.

Blade...
The man known as Blade’s mother was forced to seek a stranger's assistance when she experienced severe labor complications. The stranger, Deacon Frost, claimed to be a doctor, but was actually a vampire. Frost feasted on the woman as she gave birth, passing on a series of enzymes that altered her baby transforming him into a Dhampir a being tainted by a vampire, but not converted. Orphaned, Blade was raised at Madame Vanity's brothel. He knew how his mother had died, but he did not fully understand it. Walking home one evening, he saw an old man attacked by vampires. Blade threw himself into the melee, courageously driving away the demons.
The old man turned out to be a vampire hunter. He tutored Blade in combat and how to fight the undead. Blade developed into a human killing machine, specializing in the use of teakwood daggers. Blade resolved to accept his destiny by using his uniqueness to battle the undead.

[The Watcher]

The World

S.H.I.E.L.D.…
Supreme Headquarters International Espionage Law-enforcement Division, S.H.I.E.L.D. is an intelligence and security organization dedicated to protecting the nations and peoples of Earth from all threats, terrestrial or extraterrestrial.
S.H.I.E.L.D.’s first known and current Executive Director is Colonel Nicholas Fury, an ex-World War II commando and C.I.A. operative. S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Supreme Headquarters is the huge mobile Helicarrier, but there are also regional offices in all the major cities of the free world. Although S.H.I.E.L.D.’s operations are covert and classified to top security personnel, the organization’s existence is known to general public.