[Editor's Note: For more on "Moon Knight," check out our extensive interview with Charlie Huston, earlier this year.]

"He still wears a cape, uses a moon copter, has a best friend named Frenchie…so it's still cool," laughed Charlie Huston, while talking about Moon Knight today.

Earlier, Marvel Comics hosted a phone press conference with "Moon Knight" scribe Charlie Huston, regarding the future of the acclaimed series. Many press were in attendance and the conference was recorded as a Marvel Podcast (which should be available soon).

According to Huston and Marvel, new readers of "Moon Knight" need only know that Marc Spector is the vigilante known as Moon Knight…and he's in bad shape. It'll be about Moon Knight going, "from the bottom to being a hero again," explained Huston. The scribe also confirmed that Bushman and Taskmaster will be appearing as villains in the series, along with a brand new foe for the mystic avenger.

Huston also reconfirmed that his commitment to the series is only through issue #12, not for lack of love of the character (he loves the character), but because of his work on novels. Novels are his source of income and so his involvement with Moon Knight is contingent upon his time away from writing novels. He'd love to work more with artist David Finch and has discussed stories past issue #12, but his predominant concern is keeping the series fun and rewarding for fans. Huston also cited a particularly shocking page in issue #1 as an example of how Finch's art inspires him.

"I'm hoping to establish the Moon Knight corner of the universe," said Huston of his goals on the series, and for the future of Moon Knight. If he does continue longer than 12-issues, fans will likely see a focus on fleshing out that universe even more.

In terms of Marc Spector's many personalities, Huston believes them to be, "a manifestation of larger problems." He cited Spector's lack of social skills, noting, "the only social skill he has is beating people up," which is a result of the character trying to express himself, but finding violence to be, "the only thing [Spector's] rewarded for and good at."

How did Huston get involved with "Moon Knight?" He's always been a comic book fan and when eh began looking at Marvel, he says, "writing a comic book sounded cool…in a lame and geeky way [laughs]." He had to be reminded of Moon Knight as a possible character, which made him chuckle, since he was a die-hard fan of the character in his classic series.

That said, he continues to plan tips of the hat to Moon Knight's involvement in the West Coast Avengers, but don't expect to see much made of that part of Spector's history. Fans can rest assured that Huston won't contradict this history, and with his upcoming "Civil War" crossover issue, he'll show how Moon Knight fits into the larger Marvel Universe. He didn't want to ignore the crossover by having Moon Knight dismiss the conflict, but it won't bog down the series for fans who just want to see more of Moon Knight.

Like many creators, Huston wishes less was revealed to the public before the release of new comics, so that there was more surprise. He cited the early reveal of Taskmaster as something he wished had been kept a secret.

Speaking of Taskmaster, CBR News asked Huston about the skull imagery in the series and Hustan says the recurrent skull imagery happened by accident. He says he had a "moment of revelation" when he realized that he was scripting similar images and says they've now added to the "emotional resonance" of the book.

CBR also asked Huston if he'd consider working on "Moon Knight" in the same way writer Joss Whedon works on "Astonishing X-Men," namely in "seasons," twelve-issue chunks that ship with months in-between. His answer? "It's too early to think about that."

The following preview art is from "Moon Knight" #2, in stores May 2006.

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