Bushman worked as a mercenary in Africa. Bushman, alongside Marc Spector, "Frenchie" Duchamp and his men, came upon Dr. Peter Alraune and his daughter Marlene in order to steal the Egyptian gold Alruane had discovered. When Bushman killed archaeologist Peter Alraune, to find an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, Spector punched the Bushman to protect Alraune's daughter Marlene. Furious Bushman mortally wounded him in the desert, killing everyone in the place except for Marlene, Frenchie and a villager willing to tell him the secrets of the tomb. While lying near death, Spector encountered the spirit of Khonshu and adopted the identity of Moon Knight.