Another original MCU character is about to make her debut in Marvel Universe comics as Layla El-Faouly will soon appear as a new iteration of Scarlet Scarab in a pair of upcoming Moon Knight stories.
The Scarlet Scarab name goes back to the '70s in the comics, where Abdul Faoul first appeared first appeared with the mantle as an ally to the Axis powers. He eventually rejected the Nazis and much later passed the Ruby Scarab that granted his powers onto his son Mehemet, who briefly fought Thor as he attempted to take Egyptian artifacts from a museum and return them to his home country.
Those characters served as only the loosest inspiration for the MCU's Scarlet Scarab. Portrayed by May Calamawy in the Disney Plus Moon Knight series, Layla El-Faouly is Marc Spector's estranged wife and, by the end of the show, becomes the Avatar of the goddess Tawaret to become Scarlet Scarab.
Moon Knight #25, due out in July, will see Layla El-Fouly make her comic book debut. The 70-page mega issue will feature three different stories, written by Jed McKay with art by Alessandro Cappuccio, Alessandro Vitti, and Partha Pratim.
Layla will then take on the Scarlet Scarab name with the first issue of the Moon Knight: City of the Dead miniseries, written by David Pepose with art by Marcelo Ferreira, also due out in July.
"Bringing Layla El-Faouly into our story was exciting," McKay told IGN. "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 that "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."
Layla El-Fouly is just the latest in a line of of MCU originals making their Marvel comics debuts, perhaps most notably including Darcy Lewis.
Maybe it's time to bone up on Moon Knight's comic history, too.
