So from what I have learned and discovered, Doug Moench was inspired by The Shadow when creating Moon Knight and needed a Van Helsing type character to fight werewolves. Now just think about that... Van Helsing. It might not mean much to you now, but Doug Moench's first comic series he ever worked on was Warren Publishing's Vampirella who had Adam Van Helsing as one of the main cast of characters.

So let's take a look and compare the cast of characters:

Marc Spector = Adam Van Helsing (both are wealthy mercenaries who hunt monsters with gadgets and do some vigilante work on the side with the same weapons they use for hunting monsters. EX: Moon Knight uses silver crescent darts to harm werewolves on normal people while Van Helsing would use a gun that shoots wooden stakes at normal people).

Marlene Alraune = Vampirella (both are damsels in distress who can take care of themselves and they both were introduced naked in their first appearance).

Bernard Crawly = Penn Dragon (both are homeless drunks who are like father figures to the main character. Crawly supports Moon Knight while Penn Dragon supports Vampirella).

Frenchie = Van Helsing's Father (both are long time allies to a monster hunter. In this case, Frenchie is Marc Spector's long time friend while Van Helsing's father is well... Adam's father. Yeah, this was the weakest point).

Moon Knight = Pantha (both were brought back to life and became avatar's to an Egyptian god with powers. In the case of Pantha, she was the chosen warrior of the sun god Ra and has the ability to turn into a Pantha/human hybrid. When Vampirella was bought by Harris Comics, they changed Pantha's origin to a Nazi experiment for some reason).

Both the cast of Moon Knight and the cast of Vampirella have a favorite dinner they enjoy hanging out at that allows for the story to progress. (Moon Knight makes vigilante plans at his dinner whereas Vampirella meets new people who need help).

Art Style: Doug Moench wanted Moon Knight to be in Black and White, but Marvel said no. So he settle for having Moon Knight's costume be in Black and White though he refers to it as Jet Silver. Of course, the original Vampirella comics were in black and white.

Story Telling: Doug Moench wrote a few one off Moon Knight stories that barely focused on Moon Knight, but rather focused on telling a horror story with an original cast of main characters. Vampirella started out as a story teller who presented one off horror stories. There were a few Moon Knight stories Doug wrote that seemed heavily inspired by Vampirella stories.

EX: Moon Knight and Frenchie were tracking down a mob boss who is trafficking Cocaine. Frenchie learns his wife was involved and has Flash backs to their life together before since she's been missing from his life for a full decade. His wife is murdered and he only blames himself, Moon Knight gets put under mind control and tries to kill Frenchie but Frenchie snaps him out of it. Frenchie vows vengeance on the mob.

Vampirella and Penn Dragon were captured by a mob boss who is trafficking Cocaine. Penn learns his wife, daughter, and son in law were involved. He has flash back to their life together before since he never seen his Wife and daughter since a full 20 years ago. Vampirella gets put under mind control from the cocaine and her hunger pains. Vampirella ends up killing Penn's daughter, son in law, and severally wounded his grandson. Penn Dragon only blames himself. Penn Dragon's wife Vows Vengeance on her families deaths.

(there are three more stories that are very similar, but you get the picture).

As mentioned before, even though Moon Knight comics were NOT in black and white. Doug Moench still felt the need to describe every single thing in the background settings through narrations just like in Vampirella comics.

Misconceptions:

Just like how people keep mistakenly call Moon Knight a Batman ripoff, Vampirella was often called a Superman ripoff back in the day. Vampirella was actually created to be a parody of Barbarella if you couldn't already tell, and was inspired by Dark Shadows.

Bonus: (just because I feel like explaining this)

Moon Knight was not mentally insane nor had multiple personality disorder until 2006. Moon Knight was just very religious and was in hiding from the CIA and Terrorist. That is why he has the Steven Grant and Jake Lockely disguises since Marc Spector can no longer go out in public as himself.

So what do you guys think? Is Moon Knight a ripoff of Vampirella?

Most characters are rip offs of other characters

Thanos is a rip off of Darkseid

Aquaman is a rip off of Namor or maybe that's the other way around don't remember

Marvel has countless Supermen: Sentry Hyperion Mr. Majestic etc

@marvelanddcfan24: Well Evil Ernie is a ripoff of Thanos and Darkseid did not always look like Thanos.

Evil Ernie was a all powerful comic book character in a similar vain to Legion trying to kill everyone on the planet to be with Lady Death, his girlfriend.

not ripoffs if theyre better

@stoneyalex: Well in this case, Moon Knight is like Family Guy to Vampirella's Simpsons. Moon Knight got worst after Doug Moench left and it never got any better While Vampirella steadily got worst after a decade until she was bought by Harris and then Dynamite in which she was never as good as the original.

Even though I'm a fan of both, I'd say Vampirella has a lot more classic issues than Moon Knight. I mean she had a full decade plus of great content while Moon Knight only had three years.

Don't think any of this was intentional.

Umm Mr. Majestic is not a Marvel Superman rip off... He is apart of the Wildstorm universe which was purchased by DC.

@ramsthenamecom: do you think bane is just a bushman rip off?

@zemoftw: Yes, I strongly believe that Bane is just Bushman 2.0. (Bushman with super strength and higher intelligence).

Also a little bit off topic, DC's Cyborg was pretty much a ripoff of Marvel's Deathlok (created by Doug Moench).

I don’t think so. I just think writers have tendencies that carry into characters. Although I’m sure all of his former work influenced everything he wrote after, including MK. Cool theory though.

What I do find interesting though, is that Frank Miller was loosely involved with MK, when he became a dark street level type of hero. And he was involved BEFORE writing the Dark Knight, which redefined Batman. I like to believe that MK had some influence on Miller’s Dark Knight and what Batman evolved into, which is kind of cool, since most people claim MK is a Batman ripoff.

@ramsthenamecom: i agree with the last statement as well. I also believe batman has ripped off several things from moon knight.what do you think?( i ask you because other than me the most knowledgeable moon knight fan i know on here)

@tparks: i agree man batman stories stole alot more than that from moon knight

@zemoftw: From what I know, Batman is the BIGGEST KNOCKOFF in comics PERIOD.

Bob Kane got away with plagiarizing The Shadow for the FIRST 5 ISSUES OF BATMAN. So yes, one of the most valuable comic book first appearances of all time is just a random early issue of The Shadow with "The Shadow" in context replaced with "Batman" among under some changes like redrawing each panel to only just to remove The Shadow to be replaced with Batman. He didn't even bother changing Commissioner Gordan's name who originally appeared a handful of times in The Shadow comics.

The Shadow also used to have the nickname, "The Darkest Knight" and had a semi reoccurring villain named, "The Grim Joker" who killed people by making them laugh at his jokes.

The Bat by Johnston McCulley also had ideas that Batman stole. The Bat's origin story was of an off duty cop walking out of the theaters passing by his parents home. He heard a noise and investigated their home. He found an armed gun man aiming a gun at his parents and shooting to kill. The off duty cop chased after the armed man but lost track of him in a crowd. The off duty cop was charged with the murder of his own parents and was now awaiting the electric chair in jail. He saw a Bat through by his window and became inspired to be a Bat themed vigilante to find the man who murdered his parents. At the electric chair, the chair malfunctions and the off duty cop charged with murder was let go since he survived the chair. He uses the bag that was placed over his head as his mask and draws a Bat symbol on it. He uses a gun that stuns his enemies and a bat themed knife to carve a Bat symbol into the foreheads of criminals he catch. In the end, turns out a retired Circus Clown killed The Bat's parents.

The Green Lama was the first comic book vigilante to have a no kill rule.

But that's not all... Batman's iconic costume we see loosely redone in films and currently comics was ripoff from 1939's Black Bat. Primarily Black Bat's Bat-winged gloves were stolen by Batman.

Bonus: Marvel's Daredevil is an almost perfect play for play ripoff of Black Bat.

As for what Batman stole from Moon Knight... prepare for a list:

• Bane = Bushman
• Harley Quinn = Stain Glass Scarlet
• Batman sometimes hunts Vampires = Moon Knight sometimes hunts werewolves
• (here's a new one) Evil Multi-verse Batman = Evil Multi-verse Moon Knight
• Batman's Bat Darts = Moon Knight's Crescent Darts
• Batman's Helicopter gets a redesign = Moon Knight's Moon Copter (Batman's helicopter was just a generic helicopter with a logo on it until a few years after Moon Knight showed up and Batman's helicopter became Shaped like a Bat).
• Lucius Fox = Frenchie
• Bushman was ALWAYS a terrifying character that strike fear in his enemies = Only in recent years has The Joker been a terrifying character.
• In 2000 something, Batman had to save Gotham from The Joker putting laughing poison in the water that made people fight each other and act deranged = In 1980 something, Moon Knight had to save Chicago from a terrorist group who is poisoning the water with a toxin that makes people fight each other and act deranged.

@ramsthenamecom: cant forget bushmans face;) joker had his face cut off after bushman did.

Moon knight was crippled by the fly before batman was crippled by bane.

Jokers story from killing joke takes a bit of black spectres origin

Just want to clear up a a few things, in last 2 volumes (vol 8 and 9) of Moon Knight's solo series, it was explained that Khonshu is also another personality disorder of Marc, and is actually his brain tumor.

And there was no magical resurrection done to MK by egyptian gods, he simply survived on his own.

@lord_spectrum: true but that would retcon his powers from the 80s

Yep, it is already retconned actually in his own series he has no powers pretty much. But he still has healing factor i mean he takes some serious beatings and still heals up faster than anyone logically could, which i guess means that he still has his own subconscious ability to manipulate chi, metabolism and adrenaline.

@lord_spectrum: dammit moon knight writers. I still beleive khonsu is actually real but at this point it's anyones guess.

Not really. When Marc faces a telepath (in Vol. 9) who has ability to force anyone tell the truth even if it is hidden subconsciously, this is what Mark says.

In MK Vol. 8 is when Marc learns that Khonshu is not real.

@lord_spectrum: i know i have the issue. But im putting his 20+ years of history with real khonsu over that as of now. Also its spelled marc. Sorry. Im a grammer nazi lol

@zemoftw:

i know i have the issue. But im putting his 20+ years of history with real khonsu over that as of now.

Well, consider it as retcon or a soft reboot done to his lore and franchise and since Secret Wars did change a thing or 2 in Marvel's lore, this is not really the worst case. Plus MK Vol. 8 was great.

I mean Marvel has retconned Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as not Magneto's children, SW's powerset is completely rebooted, she has no science based powers now (she originally did), now she is metahuman with strong connection to mystic energies and that's it. There are many other examples of Marvel soft rebooting or retconning certain elements.

Also its spelled marc. Sorry. Im a grammer nazi lol

Lmao. XD

@lord_spectrum: In the original Doug Moench Moon Knight comics, Khonshu wasn't real either. Marc Spector simply needed a religion to believe in after awakening from a near death experience and so he turned to the Khonshu religion. Still the ONLY thing crazy about the old Moon Knight comics was he believed he had powers, which I guess Doug Moench was making fun of religious Monks who put themselves in danger during meditation to show they have power but really they just calmly die a horrific death without flinching.

@lord_spectrum: true

@zemoftw: Forgot to add that in the 1993, Moon Knight had an armor suit that made him more stronger but at a cost. It rapidly rotted his body until he became unrecognizable:

Whereas Batman in the mid 2000's got an armor suit that mad him more stronger but at a cost. It rapidly aged him until he either takes it off or dies from old age:

@ramsthenamecom: i was hoping you would bring that up;) batman isn't as original as his fans think he is

@zemoftw: Batman fans also often bring up "Matches Malone". Bruce Wayne's disguise that looks and behaves a lot like Marc Spector's Jake Lockley disguise. Even though Matches Malone was created first... HE DID NOT BECOME A DISGUISE FOR BATMAN UNTIL A FEW YEARS AFTER MOON KNIGHT. Matches Malone started as a small time criminal Batman fought back in the 1970's. Eventually in the early 2001, Batman decided to adopt Matches Malone's identity as a disguise.

@ramsthenamecom: wow! Oh the irony. People say moon knight is the batman rop off when it's actually the other way around

@ramsthenamecom: so how do you feel about moon knight now being a legacy hero ?