Warning! Spoilers ahead for Crypt of Shadows #1Moon Knight‘s latest fight is a rematch against his very first foe, underscoring just how far he’s come since his comics introduction. When Moon Knight first appeared in the pages of Marvel Comics, he was not yet a vehicle for all things Egyptian mythology, nor was his head home to a hat-trick’s worth of voices that were not Marc Spector’s. Moon Knight was a simpler man then, a mercenary willing to get his hands dirty for the right price. Before becoming a superhero grappling with mental illness, Moon Knight was just a man looking to get paid for punching a werewolf.
Moon Knight is a very different character today than he was in his first appearance nearly a half century ago. Much of what defines him now was either a part of his original concept under different circumstances, or was wholly absent. Moon Knight’s mission regularly brings him into conflict with the things that go bump in the night, and his most recent battles have brought him right back to the monster-mash that started it all.
Marvel’s Crypt of Shadows is an anthology collection of short horror stories, much in the same vein as Tales From the Crypt or The Twilight Zone. Among the tales is “Werewolf by Moon Knight” by Rebecca Roanhorse and Geoff Shaw, which nods towards Moon Knight’s werewolf wrangling roots. Moon Knight first appeared in 1975’s Werewolf By Night #32 by Doug Moench and Gil Kane, where Spector was hired by the shadowy Committee to capture Werewolf by Night Jack Russell. It was here that Moon Knight acquired his first outfit, its shimmering white a result of the silver interwoven into it. For his “first” mission as Moon Knight, Spector was equipped specifically to be physically anathema to a werewolf: simply touching Marc would cause the Werewolf agonizing pain. Moon Knight managed to (repeatedly) subdue the werewolf in a series of brawls over the next two issues, but upon delivery of his prize he was abhorred upon learning the Committee intended to use Russell as their chained assassin. Spector freed Russell under the light of the full moon, and the previous adversaries united to brutalize the Committee members and effect Russell’s escape into the night.
Moon Knight & Werewolf By Night’s Rematch Is Very Different From Their First Encounter
While this marks the first time Moon Knight and the Werewolf by Night have crossed paths, their destiny remains often interwoven. Marc Spector and Jack Russell have made a habit of bumping into each other over the decades, both as allies and enemies (and once as part of a three-way fight with the X-Men’s Gambit), and recent years have brought the reveal of Khonshu’s relationship with werewolves. Werewolves are bound by the full moon, feral berserkers that the Egyptian moon god has engineered as his own tools. Their servitude to Khonshu was made evident during the 2020 “Age of Khonshu” storyline in Avengers (vol. 8) #33-37 by Jason Aaron and Javier Garrón, where the beasts served as part of the god’s globe spanning army.
Moon Knight’s relationship with werewolves is a longstanding one, and Crypt of Shadows brings it full circle to how it all began. Most of Moon Knight’s dealings have been with the original Werewolf by Night, Jack Russell, though this encounter brings him into brief conflict and contact with the other man to bear the mantle, Jake Gomez. Gomez and his cousin, Molly, quickly discover the Halloween party they’ve been invited to is a trap laid by a shadowy werewolf figure and his henchman in attempt to recruit Gomez. Instead, the henchman werewolf decides to challenge Gomez in a misguided attempt to impress his master. After some lycanthropic fisticuffs, Moon Knight crashes the party, discerns which werewolf is the one in need of a beating, and proceeds to give Jake and Molly an opening to flee the spooky manor. Where this really stands apart from Moon Knight’s first appearance, however, is that this time he’s battling Werewolf by Night to fulfill his duty of protecting travelers of the night, rather than for money.
Moon Knight and werewolves have been connected since Moon Knight’s debut back in 1975. As the moon-powered protector of those traveling at night, it should come as no surprise that creatures who draw their very existence from the lunar cycle are a constant in his life. With his brief meeting with Jake Gomez, perhaps Moon Knight has taken his first step to a new, healthier relationship with a Werewolf by Night.
