Return to WhenItWasCool.com Home Page

Update! Moon Knight issue 1 Review! New Marvel Comics Series Hit Shelves July 2021 and It Is Fantastic!

Moon Knight is Complicated. How Moon Knight Could Be a Great Character but Marvel Comics is Missing the Mark… and yes, there is that Moon Knight Dracula Meme

Plus: Moon Knight is Getting a Show on the Disney+ Streaming Service

By:  Karl Stern (@wiwcool, karl@whenitwascool.com)

This article was updated on July 23, 2021

Two more Marvel Comic properties, She-Hulk and Moon Knight are heading to Disney Plus to star in their own separate live action TV series, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige announced at the D23 Expo in Anaheim, California. The Disney Plus streaming service also hosts a variety of Star Wars, Disney, and Marvel related content on the service.

I am a big Moon Knight fan.  Let me get that straight right as we begin.  I do not think of Moon Knight as "Marvel's low rent Batman" because he isn't.  I also don't see Moon Knight as some exploration of mental illness character because he shouldn't be.  I have been a fan of Moon Knight since the 1970's and I still buy his comics today so if there is anyone that Marvel Comics should be listening to when it comes to Moon Knight it is me.  I am invested in the character and I care about the character.

Werewolf By Night issue 32 - The First Apperance of Moon Knight.

I also firmly believe that Marvel Comics is getting Moon Knight wrong and has been for a long time.

That's not to say that everything Marvel is doing with the character is wrong.  I absolutely love the modern "Mr. Knight" look.  I think it is a fabulous upgrade but let's step back in time and look at the character historically as well.

Moon Knight doesn't belong in the world of Marvel Superheroes fighting alongside Spider-Man or the Avengers, nor does he belong stuck in the vigilante-verse with The Punisher.  He belongs in a corner that has long been forgotten and ignored by Marvel- he belongs with the monsters.

When Moon Knight debuted, his first appearance wasn't in Spider-Man nor Fantastic Four nor The Hulk.  His debut took place in the Werewolf by Night comic book.  Moon Knight was a werewolf fighter.  His costume, though often depicted as white, was actually original envisioned as silver- as in: silver to fight off werewolves.

Moon Knight got his first solo series in the early 1980's and the fantastic Bill Sienkiewicz’s art was eerily dark and brooding and perfectly wonderfully suited for Moon Knight.  I suppose that also helped draw the comparisons to DC Comic's Batman.  There are similarities I admit: rich white guy (but that hardly puts them in a class by themselves), uses gadgets to fight crime, street level hero, and no super powers (or at least vaguely defined super powers.) 

But even in Moon Knight's first series, which ran 38 issues, he began to stray away from werewolves and vampires and zombies by the end of the series.  

Moon Knight was brought back in 1985 with a re-emphasis on his Egyptian origins.  Moon Knight was, in his in-story origin, brought back to life by the Egyptian god of the night- Khonsu.  Though he was decked out with new Egyptian themed gadgets, his series abruptly ended after six issues.  He should have at least got to fight The Mummy during that time.

He was then brought back a few years later in his longest running series to date: Marc Spector:  Moon Knight.  This time, however, he was firmly poised as a super hero often fighting along side Spider-Man and the Punisher and other mainstream Marvel heroes.  He did, on occasion, bump into some scary monster-ish villains but that was hardly the main theme.

By the end of his series he had fallen into everything that made 1990's comic books largely horrible- techno armor, ridiculously melodramatic stories, and seriously over wrought artwork.

There is a lot going on in this picture.

It seems that once every few years a new Moon Knight series pops up.  The 2000's have mostly been spent exploring Moon Knight's "mental illness" which he shouldn't even have to begin with.  Moon Knight used multiple identities during his career to battle crime such as the millionaire persona of Steven Grant or the taxi driver Jake Lockley.  Somewhere along the way, some creator decided that using these multiple identities to battle crime equated to multiple personalities and most of the post-2000 series have been spent delving into that.

These explorations have been met mainly with indifference.  Although, I suppose we did get the super cool Mr. Knight outfit out of these largely forgettable series.

I say to Marvel Comics, it's time to return Moon Knight to his roots.  The Marvel Universe is sorely lacking in monsters, a long time staple of the industry.  We need a corner of the Marvel Universe where vampires, mummies, werewolves, and mad scientists roam.  Where the dead don't always remain dead.  It would be a cool place to explore the largely untouched zombie craze of recent years.  It would be a great place for staples of the genre like Dracula and the Werewolf and Morbius (who now, we find out, is getting a movie as well) and the other creatures of the night can strike fear into the nighttime traveler only to be protected by Mr. Knight.  Imagine this as Penny Dreadful in the Marvel Universe.  

Put the silver back on Mr. Knight and go punch a vampire in the face.  That's the Moon Knight I want.  That's the Moon Knight we need.  Not another "is he crazy or is he not" story.  You can play with the full moon as a story device.  In the 1970's Moon Knight's strength ebbed and flowed with the phases of the moon.  That was a cool twist.  It was implied that he gained this power due to being bitten while fighting a werewolf.  That's a story I can get behind.  But it went away, replaced instead with rip off Batman gadgets and voices in his head.

I humbly implore you Marvel, give Moon Knight one more chance but this time let him go monster hunting.

July 2021: New Moon Knight Series Returns Moon Knight to Where He Needs to Be and More!

At last a new Moon Knight comic book series has launched from Marvel Comics and I must say, I am very excited to see where things go from here. Finally, Marvel comics seems to be positioning Moon Knight as, not only as the esoteric “Fist of Khonsu” but also as “Protector of Those Who Travel at Night” while fighting vampires, werewolves, and more. This is exactly where Moon Knight needs to be.

Furthermore, the new Moon Knight comic book series written by Jed MacKay with art by Alessandro Cappuccio, did not ignore recent Moon Knight related storylines including the fate of Khonsu from the recent Avengers storyline. Most of the high points and need to knows were explained in narrative, so big thumbs up to good comic book story telling. The new Moon Knight comic book series from Marvel Comics comes with the highest of When It Was Cool recommendation.

… And finally. What you are really here for. (Warning: Language)

Our Moon Knight article trends highly on search engines, not because I did such a great job pitching the case for Moon Knight fighting Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Mummy, etc. It is trending highly because someone made a meme about Moon Knight and Dracula. I have no idea who made it or why. Warning: It contains adult language but here it is because I know that’s why most of you found this page to begin with. Welcome to the internet.

If you enjoyed this content we hope you will support us on Patreon. For as little as $1 you can help us keep this website and our podcast network going and growing.  We have hundreds of digital downloads available for Patreons of various levels.  Thank you!