Werewolf by Night #32: original, UK variant, and facsimile — how to tell them apart

Moon Knight is a Bronze Age creation: no Silver Age or Golden Age issues featuring him exist. The character — Marc Spector, a mercenary brought back from the dead under the protection of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu — was born in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975), written by Doug Moench, pencilled by Don Perlin, inked by Al Milgrom, and with a cover by Gil Kane. That point is fundamental for collectors: if anyone offers you a "Silver Age Moon Knight key," it is either a mistake or a deception — no such thing exists.

This guide walks through the only real versions that exist for this issue and for the other Bronze Age keys, and explains how to distinguish them by eye — or before a CGC submission. One methodological note: our eBay estimator does not index the Werewolf by Night, Marvel Spotlight, or Moon Knight series — it returns "invalid parameters" for all of them. Every figure in this guide comes from documented sources (ComicLink, Heritage Auctions, sellmycomicbooks.com).

Moon Knight key issues: summary table

Sources: ComicLink, Heritage Auctions, sellmycomicbooks.com. Our eBay estimator does not cover these series.

Werewolf by Night #32 (1975): why there is no direct edition

Marvel's direct edition system did not exist in August 1975. Marvel only began visually distinguishing copies destined for specialty shops from around 1977 (Whitman multi-packs) and standardised direct editions from June 1979, replacing the UPC barcode box with a Spider-Man face. Werewolf by Night #32 was therefore distributed exclusively as a newsstand copy — that is the only original form that ever existed. Every 1975 copy of this issue is a newsstand original, regardless of whether it carries a cents or a pence price.

The UK pence variant: a genuine original, not a reprint

Marvel simultaneously distributed a British edition of its comics with the price printed in pence rather than cents. For Werewolf by Night #32, these UK copies are 1975 originals printed at the same time — not reprints. CGC tracks and labels them separately: as of September 20, 2022, the CGC census contained 4,930 US copies and 209 UK pence variants. The pence variant is distinguished solely by the price on the cover (in sterling); the date, creators, and story content are identical. In terms of value, the two versions have sold at comparable levels in high grade: a 2017 data point shows a CGC 8.5 cents copy at $850 versus $787 for the pence copy at the same grade.

The Marvel 2021 facsimile: how to identify it

In 2021, Marvel published an official facsimile of Werewolf by Night #32 as part of its Facsimile Edition line. The facsimile reproduces the complete original — story, period advertisements, letters pages — in a format distributed through modern specialty shops. It is easy to spot:

• A UPC barcode box is prominently placed in the lower left of the cover — a detail noted as intrusive by several reviewers. The 1975 original has no UPC barcode at all (Marvel did not use them on comics in 1975).
• The cover price reflects modern pricing (around $3.99), not the original $0.25.
• The paper and print quality are modern; there is no yellowing or brittleness typical of 1970s newsprint.
• The words "Facsimile Edition" appear on the cover or inside the book.

The facsimile has no speculative value as a key — it sells for a few dollars in near-mint condition. Its purpose is purely practical: providing a readable copy of the original story without handling a period copy. Some unscrupulous sellers have been known to remove the back cover of a facsimile to obscure identification; the absence of a UPC barcode on the front cover remains the most reliable test for authenticating a genuine 1975 original.

Moon Knight #1 (1980): newsstand vs direct edition for the first solo series

The first solo series — Moon Knight #1 (November 1980), by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz — was published at a transitional moment: Marvel had just standardised its direct editions. For this 1980 issue, two versions genuinely coexist:

• Direct edition: the UPC box carries a Spider-Man face (Marvel's system introduced from February 1980) instead of an actual barcode.
• Newsstand: the UPC box carries a real barcode with two digits in the right-hand section.

In practice, the market does not yet meaningfully differentiate these two versions for Moon Knight #1 (1980) — the issue is considered very common: a single collection once contained twenty-one copies. A CGC 9.8 reached $925 in 2024; that is the only grade where the investment holds up, according to sellmycomicbooks.com data. Below 9.8, supply pressure compresses values sharply.

Moon Knight on screen: the Disney+ effect on key issue values

The Moon Knight series on Disney+, which premiered March 30, 2022, with Oscar Isaac playing both Marc Spector and Steven Grant, renewed widespread public interest in the character. The six-episode miniseries, created by Jeremy Slater and directed by Mohamed Diab, explores the character's dissociative identity disorder and his bond with the Egyptian god Khonshu — faithful to the comics mythology. The impact on values was real: the $50,000 ComicLink record for Werewolf by Night #32 dates from this period of heightened attention. Since then, prices have retreated alongside the broader Bronze Age market correction, with high-grade copies selling more recently in the $8,000 range in CGC 9.8 according to available data.