If one were to point to the most consistently great superhero comic of the past several years, Jed MacKay’s Moon Knight definitely needs to be in the conversation. Through its various forms and relaunches, MacKay has crafted a terrific character study of Marc Spector and a great outlet for supernatural action. And with Marc Spector: Moon Knight #8, MacKay is doing something plenty of fans have been clamoring for for years. He’s reviving the Midnight Sons.
Due out in September, Marc Spector: Moon Knight #8 introduces a brand new version of the iconic super-team, one that includes Blade, Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), Clea, and Daredevil. That issue is written by MacKay and illustrated by Devmalya Pramanik, with cover art by Jose Luis Soares and Adam Gorham.
Here’s the official solicitation text for that issue:
THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS!
With the lives of his closest friends and some newly forged allies on the line, Marc Spector makes one hell of a gambit! But will the price be too high?! And will this put MOON KNIGHT at odds with the likes of DAREDEVIL BLADE, GHOST RIDER and CLEA forever?!
IGN had the chance to speak with MacKay via email to learn more about Marc Spector: Moon Knight #8 and the inspiration behind this drastically different incarnation of the Midnight Sons. Read on to learn more.
It’s been a while since the Midnight Sons have had a comic to call their own. The demand is certainly there, particularly in the wake of 2022’s Marvel’s Midnight Suns game. And as MacKay reveals, reintroducing the team has been on his to-do list for quite a while. It was simply a matter of slowly raising the stakes for Moon Knight and the Midnight Mission.
“I think that the Midnight Sons was one of the first conversations [editor] Devin Lewis and I had in person when I saw him in New York after he took over the book, so that would have been a few years ago at this point?” MacKay tells IGN. “Devin was keen on the idea of the Midnight Sons and needing a threat big enough to require them, I dug out the idea of what would become the Mansion Ravenous, an adult of the Midnight Mission’s species. All that to say, we’ve been working towards this for a while now- the Mansion Ravenous’ first appearance was in Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #0, which came out almost two years ago.”
MacKay’s Moon Knight run has focused a great deal on Marc’s quest to build a community around himself. He is the guardian of those who travel by night, after all. But why assemble a team? Why look outside that community now?
“Well, like any ongoing comic, when your main character gets too comfortable, you have to shake things up for them,” MacKay says. “Outside of the constant battle, Moon Knight’s life has been pretty good. He’s got his people around him, has found his place in the world after significant struggle, so of course we have to take that all away from him (even if it’s just temporarily) and force him out into the world to make some new friends, something he’s terrible at.”
Looking at the new Midnight Sons roster, Daredevil immediately stands out as someone not quite like the others. He’s not a hero normally associated with horror and the supernatural. As MacKay explains, the fact that Daredevil is a bit of an odd man out is exactly makes him such a fitting inclusion.
“I mean, Daredevil has spent a not-insignificant portion of his life fighting a cult of undead ninjas who work for a demon,” MacKay says. “But beyond that, I wanted to include a character who was the odd man out, someone who is skeptical of the whole endeavor. More than anyone else on this iteration of the Midnight Sons, Daredevil is the foil to Moon Knight- while they’re more alike than either would like to admit, the differences between them will threaten to break everything apart.”
It’s also exciting to see Clea as part of this roster, given how integral she was to MacKay’s Doctor Strange run. Unsurprisingly, he was eager for another chance to write the character.
“Of course, I love Clea,” MacKay says. “And more than that, I love her strange friendship with Moon Knight, so getting back to that was exciting. Clea’s not one of the Midnight Mission Crew, but she’s someone Moon Knight can always go to when he gets in over his head.”
Clea aside, these aren’t generally characters Moon Knight has established strong relationships with in the past. Expect things to get plenty awkward as he tries to hold together this chaotic new super-team.
MacKay teases, “It’s always fun when a character like Moon Knight has to go to people who have good reason not to like him in order to ask them for a favor, so there’s plenty of nice drama between Moon Knight and the people he needs to form his crew!”
Marc Spector: Moon Knight #8 will be released on September 16. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
