Layla El-Faouly, the breakout character from Disney+'s Moon Knight series, is making her Marvel Comics debut in the monumental Moon Knight #25.
Revealed by IGN, Moon Knight #25 will mark the official comics debut of Layla El-Faouly, who was played by May Calamawy in 2022's Moon Knight series. Written by Jed MacKay and featuring art by Alessandro Cappuccio, Alessandro Vitti and Partha Pratim, Moon Knight #25 is an oversized anniversary issue that also features a backup story by Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz. The publisher teased, "The past comes back to bedevil Moon Knight as he pursues his latest enemy, someone once familiar and new. From grim New York nights to the blazing sun of Alexandria days, Moon Knight hunts for answers among the graves of Hart Island while haunted by the last mission of the Karnak Cowboys, a mercenary crew counting among its members Marc Spector, Jean-Paul Duchamp, Robert Plesko... and the official comic book debut of Layla El-Faouly!"
Following her appearance in Moon Knight #25, Layla will become the all-new Scarlet Scarab in Moon Knight: City of the Dead, a five-issue limited series written by David Pepose and illustrated by Marcelo Ferreira. "When a young runaway is attacked by a gang of death cultists, he is left barely alive outside the Midnight Mission," Marvel teased. "But Marc Spector made a vow long ago to defend the travelers of the night…and as long as a spark of life remains, his mission isn’t over yet. Follow Moon Knight as the Fist of Khonshu journeys far beyond the land of the living – and battles across the mind-bending underworld known as the City of the Dead!"
MacKay and Pepose on Perfecting Layla’s Comics Debut
"Working on Moon Knight #25 was a bit of a mammoth task… 70 pages of story, cutting between three stories, each with their own artist! It was a really exciting opportunity to have that much space to work in, telling a Moon Knight story in a longer form than we're usually used to. Bringing Layla El-Faouly into our story was exciting. Adding an already beloved character into the universe of the comics is a really interesting opportunity, and being able to show the 'before' to David and Marcelo's 'after' was a wonderful bit of synchronicity. It was an idea that we both came to independently, and the way our stories were able to dovetail is something that I'm looking forward to people experiencing. While the Scarlet Scarab will indeed be turning up in Moon Knight: City of the Dead, in Moon Knight #25 we're seeing a much younger Layla and a much younger Marc Spector as they embark on a mission as members of the crack mercenary team, the Karnak Cowboys."
Pepose added, "I'm thrilled to be tackling one of my all-time favorite Marvel characters in Moon Knight: City of the Dead. Teaming up with sensational artist Marcelo Ferriera, we're sending Marc Spector on one of his most mind-bending adventures to date — rescuing a young runaway's soul from the City of the Dead. Yet as a mercenary and as a hero, Moon Knight has been no stranger to leaving a body count... so he might see some familiar faces looking for payback! But Marc won't be embarking on this mission alone… I couldn't be more excited to be writing Layla El-Faouly's debut as the all-new Scarlet Scarab! Layla has been such a fun character to adapt — she knows Marc better than almost anyone, and that tension is going to spark some spectacular fireworks on this otherworldly adventure."
Featuring cover art by Steve McNiven, Moon Knight #25 releases on July 12, 2023. Moon Knight: City of the Dead #1, which features cover art by Rod Reis and variant cover art by Davi Go, follows on July 19, 2023.