If you think Daredevil has a hard time with Batman comparisons, just wait until you meet Moon Knight. Few Marvel characters are accused of second-tier rip-off status as often as Moon Knight, to the point that it would give anyone a complex.
Comic book fans who write off Moon Knight as an also-ran are missing out on some of Marvel’s best comics, though, especially in recent years from writers such as Jed MacKay and Jeff Lemire.
It’s a lesser known fact that Moon Knight has also landed himself various Avengers status, from the West Coast Avengers in the 1980’s to the Secret Avengers of the 2010’s. Couple that with an ongoing mental illness and challenges sorting out a possible Disassociative Identity Disorder, and Moon Knight offers plenty of different story telling angles from the Caped Crusader.
Plus, he’s got a better costume.
Updates 1.11.2022 by Peyi Olugbodi
I) Moon Knight Origins & West Coast Avenger
Moon Knight Epic Collection: Bad Moon Rising
Collects: Werewolf By Night 32-33; Marvel Spotlight 28-29; Defenders 47-50; Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man 22-23; Material From Hulk Magazine 11-15, Marvel Two-In-One 52, Hulk Magazine 17-18, 20; Material From Marvel Preview 21; Moon Knight (1980 to 1984) #1 to #4
Moon Knight Epic Collection: Shadows of the Moon
Collects: Moon Knight (1980 to 1984) #5 to #23
Moon Knight Epic Collection: Final Rest
Collects: Moon Knight #24 to #38
The first volume of Moon Knight would run for 38 issues until mid 1984. These are the Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz Marc Spector stories you’ve been looking for!
From there the series rebooted with a volume 2, which launched summer of 1985 and only ran for 6 issue.
Essential moon knight volume 3
Collects: Moon Knight #31-38 (Vol. 2) #1-6, Marvel Fanfare #30, #38-39, Solo Avengers #3, Marvel Super-Heroes #1, And Marc Spector Moon Knight #1-2.
This collection does overlap with the moon knight epic collection final rest but is the only collection that collects the moon knight miniseries Moon Knight Fist of Khonshu by Alan Zelenetz and Chris Warner. As well as collecting one off issues where moon knight appears.
Avengers West Coast Epic Collection: Lost In Space-Time
Collects: West Coast Avengers (1985) #8-24, Annual #1; Avengers Annual #15
M.D. Bright, Steve Englehart, Danny Fingeroth, Steve Ditko, Al Milgrom- 18 September 2018
Avengers West Coast Epic Collection: Tales To Astonish
Collects: West Coast Avengers (1985) #25-37, West Coast Avengers Annual (1986) #2, Avengers Annual (1967) #16, Marvel Graphic Novel (1982) #27: Emperor Doom
Tom Defalco, Steve Englehart, Al Milgrom, David Michelinie, Bob Hall- 23 September 2020
Avengers West Coast Epic Collection: Vision Quest
Collects: West Coast Avengers (1985) #38-46, Avengers West Coast (1989) #47-52, West Coast Avengers Annual (1986) #3, Avengers West Coast Annual (1989) #4, Material From Avengers Spotlight (1989) #23.
John Byrne, Steve Englehart, Mark Gruenwald, Al Milgrom, Tom Morgan- 23 December 2020
Marc Spector, Moon Knight #1 to #60
This series heads into 2022 largely non-digitized. Presumably, Marc’s MCU debut will change that, but until then, you’ve been warned!
Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Round Robin
Collects: Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #351-360, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #25, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #11, Web Of Spider-Man Annual #7, And Spider-Man: Fear Itself (1992).
Gerry Conway, Stan Lee, David Michelinie, Al Milgrom, Ross Andru, Mark Bagley, Paris Cullins, Alan Kupperberg, Chris Marrinan, Marie Severin, Guang Yap- 25 March 2015
Collects: Moon Knight: Divided We Fall #1
Bruce Jones, Denys Cowan- April 1992
Modern Moon Knight Reborn (2000 to 2012)
Marvel Knights by Dixon & Barreto: Defenders Of The Streets
Collects: Marvel Knights (2000) #1-15
Chuck Dixon, Eduardo Barretto, Mike Lily, Joe Quesada
Moon Knight, Vol. 1: The Bottom
Charlie Huston and David Finch.
Collects: Moon Knight (2006 to 2009) #1 to #6
Moon Knight, Vol. 2: Midnight Sun
Collects: Moon Knight #7 to #13
Moon Knight – Volume 3: God & Country
Collects: Moon Knight #14 to #20
Moon Knight Vol. 4: The Death of Marc Spector
Collects: Moon Knight #21 to #25, Moon Knight: Silent Night One-Shot
Moon Knight Vol. 5: Down South
Collects: Moon Knight (2006 to 2009) #26 to #30
Vengeance of Moon Knight, Vol. 1: Shock and Awe
Collects: Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1 to #6
Vengeance of the Moon Knight – Volume 2: Killed, Not Dead
Also known as Moon Knight vs. Deadpool: Dawn of Just Cuz
Collects: Vengeance of the Moon Knight #7 to #10
Occurs during the Daredevil Shadowland event, you can find Comic Book Herald’s Daredevil Shadowland reading order here.
Collects: Shadowland Moon Knight #1 to #3
Moon Knight, Secret Avenger
Secret Avengers, Vol. 1: Mission to Mars
Ed Brubaker’s Secret Avengers run, launching during Marvel’s Heroic Age, is one of the great misses in modern Marvel Comics. Brubaker is literally unable to produce a bad comic, but Secret Avengers never reaches the heights the likes of Brubaker’s Captain America: Winter Soldier
Moon Knight is merely a role player in the pages of Secret Avengers, where Steve Rogers is undoubtedly the star. Worth checking out, but largely this section will help clarify what Moon Knight’s been up to prior to the next solo Moon Knight run.
Collects: Secret Avengers (2010 to 2012) #1 to #5
Secret Avengers, Vol. 2: Eyes of the Dragon
Collects: Secret Avengers (2010 to 2012) #6 to #12
Secret Avengers, Vol. 3: Run the Mission, Don’t Get Seen, Save the World
Collects: Secret Avengers (2010 to 2012) #16 to #21
Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev Moon Knight
There are a few oddities about this 12 issue run on Moon Knight that tend to leave it overlooked in most discussions of the character.
For starters, the creative team of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev are best known for their near 60 issue run on Daredevil, one of the absolute greats of the 2000’s. When comic book fans think of Bendis and Maleev, odds are they think first of Daredevil.
On top of that, Moon Knight functions as an odd precursor to Marvel’s Age of Ultron event, written by Bendis.
I enjoyed this run as it was coming out significantly more than I expected. Partially it’s Bendis and Maleev working together, but they also carve out a strong take on Moon Knight and his challenges with identity.
Collects: Moon Knight (2010 to 2012) #1 to #7
Collects: Moon Knight (2010 to 2012) #8 to #12
Marvel NOW! Moon Knight – The Warren Ellis Run (And More)
Moon Knight Volume 1: From the Dead
The work Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey did on their six issues of Moon Knight isn’t just one of the best Marvel NOW! story arcs, it’s one of the best Marvel Comics runs of the millennium.
I’m genuinely in awe of these comics every time I read them, from Ellis’s psychotically imaginative supernatural science to Shalvey’s unrivaled action sequences. These are inventive, beautiful comics, and you don’t need to know a thing about Moon Knight heading in that the comic doesn’t adequately explain in a few pages.
Collects: Moon Knight (2012) #1 to #6
Moon Knight Vol. 2: Dead Will Rise
Collects: Moon Knight (2012) #7 to #12
Moon Knight Vol. 3: In the Night
Collects: Moon Knight (2012) #13 to #17
All-New All-Different Moon Knight – The Jeff Lemire Run
Whereas Ellis and Shalvey’s Moon Knight declared on every set-up page that Moon Knight is “completely insane,” Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood’s run takes a step back and asks: “Wait, is he really?”
There have been plenty of “Marvel does One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” takes before (I think first of Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and Dr. Rot story arc), but not many runs start and focus inside the asylum. It’s a strong, great-looking opening salvo in a new direction for Moon Knight.
Collects: Moon Knight (2016) #1 to #5
Moon Knight Vol. 2: Reincarnations
Collects: Moon Knight #6 to #9
Moon Knight Vol. 3: Birth and Death
Collects: Moon Knight #10 to #14
Marvel Legacy Moon Knight and Beyond!
Collects: Moon Knight 188-193
Collects: Moon Knight 194-198
Doctor Strange: Damnation – Complete Collection
Collects: Doctor Strange: Damnation #1-4, Damnation: Johnny Blaze — Ghost Rider #1, Doctor Strange (2015) #386-389, Iron Fist (2017) #78-80 And Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider #15-17
Ed Brisson, Donny Cates, Peter David, Christopher Sebela, Nick Spencer, Damian Couceiro, Niko Henrichon, Szymon Kudranski, Phil Noto, Rod Reis, Will Sliney- 4 July 2018
Collects: Contagion (2019) #1-5
Ed Brisson, Roge Antonio, Mack Chater, Damian Couceiro, Adam Gorham, Stephen Segovia, Juan Jose Ryp- 15 January 2020
Collects: Conan: Serpent War (2019) #1-4, Supernatural Thrillers (1972) #3
Jim Zub, Vanesa Del Rey, Scot Eaton, Ig Guara, Luca Pizzari, Stephen Segovia, Carlos Pacheco- 22 April 2020
Avengers by Jason Aaron Vol. 7: The Age of Khonshu
Collects: Avengers (2018) #31-38
Jason Aaron, Javier Garron, Francesco Manna, Ed McGuiness, Matteo- Scelera- 6 January 2021
Moon Knight Vol. 1: The Midnight Mission
Collects: Moon Knight (2021) #1-6
Jed Mackay, Alessandro Cappuccio, Steve McNiven- 16 February 2022
Latest Additions:
Moon Knight Vol. 2: Too Tough To Die
Collects: Moon Knight (2021) #7 to #12, Devil’s Reign: Moon Knight
Check out CBH’s full Devil’s Reign Reading Order!
Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood
Collects: Moon Knight: Black, White & Blood #1 to #4
Moon Knight Vol. 3: Halfway To Sanity
Collects: Moon Knight (2021) #13 to #18, Moon Knight Annual 2022 #1
Moon Knight Vol. 4: Road To Ruin
Collects: Moon Knight (2021) #19 to #24
Collects: Moon Knight (2021) #25 to #29
No collected volume yet as of 11.14.23
Collects: Moon Knight: City of the Dead #1 to #5
no acts of evil annual?
How skippable is West Coast Avengers? I’m thinking of jumping from v2 straight to Marc Spector. Thanks for the awesome list, as usual!
Thanks for writing down this list, great job! 🙂 I don’t know anything about Moon Knight except some basic stuff I read in wikipedia. Therefore, I would like to ask you whether you think it would be fine to start from the Modern Moon Knight Reborn (2000 to 2012). Cheers!
I started from The Bottom (lol) and I didn’t feel lost at all with my quite basic Moon Knight knowledge. You’ll be fine!
Thanks for this, I was confused with Warren Ellis run, he has sort of a special way of storytelling, greetings.
Glad the reading order helps! Ellis can certainly dive right in, it’s a great read though.