Modern Moon Knight Key Issues: Ellis, Lemire, MacKay

Moon Knight is not a Silver Age character. Created by Doug Moench (writer) and Don Perlin (artist), he first appears in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975) — squarely in the Bronze Age — before receiving his first solo stories in Marvel Spotlight #28–29 (1976), and then his debut ongoing series with Moon Knight #1 (1980), illustrated by the hugely influential Bill Sienkiewicz. Marc Spector, earthly avatar of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu, is a character with multiple identities — he also inhabits Steven Grant and Jake Lockley — which makes him one of Marvel's most psychologically complex heroes. That complexity sits at the heart of every modern revival covered in this guide.

This guide focuses on modern key issues from 2014 to 2024. One important methodological note: our eBay estimator does not cover the Werewolf by Night, Moon Knight, or Marvel Spotlight series — it returns "invalid parameters" for these titles. For the modern issues (Ellis, Lemire, MacKay), no publicly documented auction record is available at Heritage Auctions or ComicConnect at the time of writing. Every figure in this guide comes from sellmycomicbooks.com or GoCollect; where no public figure exists, we stay qualitative.

Modern Moon Knight key issues at a glance

All figures below come from public web sources (sellmycomicbooks.com, GoCollect). Our eBay estimator does not cover these series.

Sources: sellmycomicbooks.com, GoCollect. Our eBay estimator does not cover these series.

Reference point: Werewolf by Night #32 (1975), the founding key

Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975) is the absolute key for Moon Knight collecting. Doug Moench and Don Perlin introduce Marc Spector as a masked mercenary hired to capture Jack Russell — before he ultimately takes Russell's side. This is a Bronze Age book: no Silver Age key exists for this character. Sellmycomicbooks.com data shows a CGC 9.8 selling for $42,000 in 2023; a CGC 9.6 traded at $25,200 in 2022, then fell back to $8,000 in 2024, reflecting the broader market correction after the pandemic peak. GoCollect reported a CGC 8.5 reaching an all-time high of $5,499 in December 2021. With only 18 CGC 9.8 copies in the census, the top grade remains exceptionally scarce.

Moon Knight #1 (2014, Ellis/Shalvey): the revival that redefined the character

Published on March 5, 2014, with a cover price of $3.99, this issue marks one of the most celebrated revivals in the character's history. Warren Ellis and Declan Shalvey made the radical choice of a purely episodic format — each of their six issues is a self-contained story in a different genre — drawing on crime-procedural and psychological horror traditions. Shalvey delivers some of the most memorable page compositions of the era, particularly in issue #6 (the hallway fight sequence), with colors by Dave Stewart. This issue also contains the first appearance of the Mr. Knight persona (white suit identity) and Ryan Trent. The Ellis/Shalvey run lasted only six issues, making it one of the briefest and densest modern Marvel collaborations. On the secondary market, no publicly documented auction record exists at specialist houses (Heritage, ComicConnect) at the time of writing; collector demand remains qualitatively strong, particularly for first prints in high grade.

Moon Knight #1 (2016, Lemire/Smallwood): the psychological run

Published on April 13, 2016 (cover price $4.99), this issue opens one of the most artistically ambitious Moon Knight runs ever published. Jeff Lemire and Greg Smallwood lean fully into Marc Spector's dissociative identity: the story begins inside a psychiatric asylum where Marc can no longer distinguish reality from hallucination. Smallwood builds a visually demanding narrative architecture, with chapters that shift art style to reflect which identity is in control — a formal achievement that has given this run a lasting reputation in the medium. The series ran 14 issues; the complete run is collected in Moon Knight by Lemire & Smallwood: The Complete Collection. On the collector market, this #1 remains in demand, but no publicly documented auction record at specialist houses is available at the time of writing.

Moon Knight #1 (2021, MacKay/Cappuccio): the Midnight Mission

Published on July 21, 2021 (cover price $4.99), this issue launches the MacKay/Cappuccio era — the longest modern revival of the character. Jed MacKay grounds Moon Knight in a sanctuary concept: the Midnight Mission, a temple of Khonshu housed in the Midnight Hotel, is open to all who travel the night. This issue contains the first appearance of Hunter's Moon (cameo), a fellow avatar of Khonshu who becomes a central figure in the run. A direct sequel series, Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1 (MacKay/Cappuccio), was published on January 3, 2024. No publicly documented auction record at specialist houses is available for these modern issues.

The Disney+ series (2022): six episodes, Oscar Isaac, and the market effect

The Moon Knight Disney+ series premiered on March 30, 2022 and concluded on May 4, 2022 across six episodes. Oscar Isaac plays all three of the character's identities — Marc Spector, Steven Grant, and Jake Lockley — alongside Ethan Hawke as the villain Arthur Harrow and F. Murray Abraham as the voice of Khonshu. The series was created by Jeremy Slater; Mohamed Diab directed four of the six episodes, with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead directing the remaining two. The announcement and broadcast of the series drove visible renewed interest in Bronze Age keys — Werewolf by Night #32 reached its price peak in 2022–2023 in this context. For the modern keys (Ellis 2014, Lemire 2016, MacKay 2021), the market effect is harder to quantify in the absence of documented specialist auction data.