WRITER EXCLUSIVE
Scarlet Scarab comes to comics in Moon Knight: City Of The Dead
AFTER APPEARING IN last year’s Moon Knight TV show, Layla El-Faouly makes her comic book debut in this month’s Moon Knight 25, before assuming her role as the latest Scarlet Scarab in writer David Pepose and artist Marcelo Ferreira’s new miniseries Moon Knight: City Of The Dead.
“Moon Knight 25 tees up the events of City Of The Dead nicely,” says Pepose, who came up with the idea of featuring Layla at the same time as Moon Knight scribe Jed MacKay, before editor Tom Brevoort encouraged them to dovetail their stories together. “Jed and I went back and forth about elements of each other’s stories, and I think they really strengthen one another in a profound way.”
Pepose says that the character of Layla El-Faouly was “one of the highlights of the Disney+ series” and he relished the challenge of creating the comic book incarnation of a character that had only previously existed on the small screen. “When she was revealed as the all-new Scarlet Scarab, I thought it was such a clever and welcome addition to Moon Knight’s canon,” he adds. “To me, Layla’s banter with Marc feels like a cornerstone of their dynamic, and their shared past really gives them a Mr & Mrs Smith edge when they’re facing bad guys side by side. Ultimately,our goal is to not only bring the same spark and warmth that May Calamawy brought to the role on Disney+ but to also establish a brand new status quo for anyone discovering the Scarlet Scarab for the first time.”
Moon Knight 25 contains a reprint of one of the Fist of Khonshu’s classic tales, and Pepose is drawing inspiration from Doug Moench and Bill Sienkiewicz’s seminal ’80s run. “City Of The Dead is a love letter to Marc Spector’s wide-ranging history, particularly the early world-building Doug and Bill put together,” he says. “I love the origin that they created for Marc, a story about redemption and reinvention that we
