Moon Knight is coming to the MCU this spring, with the first trailer for the Disney+ streaming series revealing a strong fidelity to the original Marvel Comics featuring the character. Some of Moon Knight's best issues from the 1990s and 2000s potentially have an enormous bearing on his future in the MCU, especially as it pertains to characters like Doctor Strange and Blade.
Throughout the last 30 years, the character of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness.
Doctor Strange: Damnation #2
Doctor Strange: Damnation #2 is one of the best issues of Moon Knight from the 2000s since it brings him fully into the world of the Midnight Sons. This team formed in the '90s to battle supernatural threats, and in this mini-series, they battle one of the biggest in Mephisto.
Doctor Strange brings together the team to fight Mephisto after he takes over Las Vegas. The team includes Blade, who is set to become a major player in the MCU. Blade is already active in the MCU, connecting with Dane Whitman in Eternals, who comic book fans know as the Black Knight. His next connection could be with Moon Knight.
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #38
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #38 is one of the more critical issues from the early '90s, as it introduces a major part of Moon Knight's ing cast. The Shadow Cabinet forms in this key issue, a group of informants and secret agents who aid Moon Knight around the world.
The team of Stash, Penny Annie, Don G, and others are all characters who could play a role in the MCU series. Most of them are unwilling allies, as Moon Knight has either coerced them into helping or misled them about his true identity as he operates from the shadows.
Moon Knight #1 (2011)
One of the hallmarks of Moon Knight's character is his dissociative identity disorder. The truth about who he really is evolved heavily throughout the '90s and '00s and the 2011 Moon Knight #1 is one of the best issues featuring this struggle by taking it to an even greater extreme.
In this issue, he takes on the personalities of other superheroes, including Spider-Man, Wolverine, and Captain America. He does so while hosting a reality television show, an intriguing meta-commentary on the nature of reality, performance, and identity.
Moon Knight #13
Moon Knight was also part of the Civil War event, an all-out war that is one of the top events in Avengers comics. His connection to it is unique and Moon Knight #13 is one of his best issues from the early 2000s for how it explores his identity as a hero.
Moon Knight initially is denied registration via the Superhero Registration Act that tears the Avengers apart, thanks to his multiple personalities. He's ultimately granted an exception when he uses the power of Khonshu to prove he is a superhuman and not mentally ill, as many suspect.
X-Men Legacy #267
X-Men Legacy #267 is a great issue for showing how Marc Spector's apparent disadvantage becomes an asset against one of the strongest X-Men, Rogue. Moon Knight played a pivotal role in another major event in the comics involving the Avengers, Avengers Vs. X-Men.
Rogue uses her mutant powers to acquire those of others to take down the Avengers one by one, They're on the ropes until Moon Knight willingly s Rogue, and his many personalities overwhelm her, allowing the Avengers to escape a major defeat.
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #55
Issue #55 of Marc Spector: Moon Knight is one of the best from the early '90s for being the debut of one of the most dynamic artists of the period. Stephen Platt came out of nowhere, but his unique dynamic art on Moon Knight catapulted the book and the artist into major success with some of the most iconic Moon Knight comic book s.
Platt brought a great deal of attention to Moon Knight in a way the book hadn't really had before. His art also gave the character a lot of life, with his goopy costume seemingly inspiring some aspects of the MCU version based on the trailer.
Avengers #33 (2020)
Moon Knight clearly deals with the mystical side of the Marvel Universe, so it's not surprising that he's had run-ins with one of the most powerful magicians in Marvel Comics, Doctor Strange. One of Moon Knight's best comics pits the two against each other as Khonshu used Moon Knight to take over the world.
Avengers #33 (2020) is a great issue since it has Moon Knight take on all the Avengers, showing just how powerful he can be, but in a preview of what may be to come in the MCU, he's able to match the Sorcerer Supreme, punch for punch.
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #41
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #41 is a key issue from the early '90s and one of the best for pitting Moon Knight against one of his most unique and fearsome foes, Moon Shade. This villain absorbs the energy of different variants of Moon Knight from alternate timelines.
This evil doppelganger of Moon Knight makes a ton of sense in the MCU as it continues to explore the concept of the multiverse, and depending on how the streaming series approaches the character of Moon Knight, he could even be a factor from the beginning.
Moon Knight #1 (2014)
Moon Knight got one of his most fascinating modern updates in the 2014 Moon Knight series. The first issue introduces Mr. Knight, a new personality and look for Marc Spector. The issue also continues to explore the confusing nature of his true identity as it relates to Khonshu.
The first issue also presents a dramatic new interpretation of the Egyptian deity of Khonshu with a skeletal bird head, one that the streaming series appears to have adopted given his brief appearance in the first trailer.
Moon Knight #5
Issue #5 of the 2014 series is a fantastic story that features Moon Knight arguably doing what he's best at - being a hero. In his Mr. Knight persona, he takes on an entire gang, punching his way through a tenement building on his own in a sequence that recalls the hallway fight from the first season of the Netflix Daredevil series.
It's a great action sequence that pits Moon Knight against a series of escalating foes as he tries to rescue a young girl. Moon Knight's stories often focus on the inside of his mind, but this is one of the best that shows how effective he is in the real world as a superhero.
