Marvel surprises fans and retailers with a new Moon Knight comic

[If you have not read yesterday’s Blood Hunt #4, SPOILERS ahead!]

Marvel has surprised the world with a new Moon Knight comic, spinning out of the events of this week’s Blood Hunt #4.

Jed MacKay, Alessandro Cappucio, Rachelle Rosenberg and Devmalya Pramanik are the creative team for Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu, whose first issue arrives in October. But a “special surprise shadow drop variant edition” of Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #0 shipped to some retailers this week. Marvel is also now taking orders for the zero issue, with plans to release it in mass on July 3.

“The father, freed. The son, returned. Marc Spector, Jake Lockley and Stephen Grant hit the streets once more as Moon Knight, and he’s making up for lost time,” MacKay told Marvel.com. “The streets have changed since Moon Knight died, and I’m excited to explore how he deals with all-new threats to his territory along with fellow Midnight Missionaries Alessandro Cappuccio, Rachelle Rosenberg and Devmalya Pramanik! Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #1 marks the 40th issue of our time with Moon Knight—and we’ve got plenty more that we’re looking forward to sharing with you!”

Here’s what the cover for the surprise variant looks like, by Cappucio:

And here’s the main cover for the zero issue that’ll arrive next week, by E.M. Gist:

The comic spins out of this week’s Blood Hunt #4, which featured Tigra and Hunter’s Moon freeing Khonshu to battle the vampire threat — who in turn resurrects Moon Knight.

As for whether your retailer received the variant or not, you’ll obviously need to check with them — not all shops received copies. It can be ordered by retailers from both Penguin Random House, Marvel’s distribution partner, and Diamond, who serves as a sub-distributor for PRH.

At least one retailer was not happy with the “surprise.” Brian Hibbs, owner of Comix Experience in San Francisco, shared his concerns on Facebook:

I am physically sick to my stomach that Marvel thinks it is a good idea to “surprise” solicit a comic that isn’t going to be in any catalog or order form, that’s based all around “Fear of Missing Out”, rather than character or content or anything that can help GROW the market.

I’m even more disgusted by my so called “peers” who are panicking on the private retailer channels about HOW they can order it, and get their teeny little chunk of the chump change that a Moon Knight “#0” can bring.

The branch is about to break, kids. STOP BEING SUCKERS!

We won’t be ordering any copies at Comix Experience that aren’t a special order from a known customer: you couldn’t give me enough money to speculatively buy into this kind of stunt casting because I don’t want to help dig my own grave.

This isn’t the first time a comics company has attempted a “surprise” drop like this. Likely inspired by unannounced music drops that have become more commonplace, Comixology has done this sort of thing before with digital comics. But it’s much easier to pull off when you have a dedicated digital platform and aren’t relying on a network of comic book shops to have get your comics in the hands of customers.

Skybound has attempted similar moves in the past with printed comics, including Die!Die!Die! and Solid Blood #17 (which was a weird one). Skybound also kept the end of The Walking Dead series a secret, going so far as to solicit future issues that were never intended to be released.