If you took one look at Marvel’s upcoming Midnight Spider-Man and thought “Man-Spider,” Phillip Kennedy Johnson would like a word.
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The writer is teaming with artist ScieTronc for Midnight Spider-Man, one of three series launching Marvel’s new Midnight Universe on October 7. Early descriptions have painted this Peter Parker as being transformed into a human-spider hybrid, but Johnson told me on the AIPT Comics podcast that description doesn’t quite capture what’s actually happening to Peter.
In fact, Johnson said the language surrounding Peter’s transformation has been somewhat “reductive.”
“I didn’t actually write that,” Johnson said of the description of Oscorp turning Peter into a human-spider hybrid. “It’s more complicated than that. I think it’s more interesting than that.”
Johnson acknowledged that the description makes the concept sound a lot like Man-Spider, Peter Parker’s monstrous spider transformation from Marvel history.
That’s apparently nowhere near the level Johnson and ScieTronc are aiming for.
“What’s happening to Peter in this book is much more complicated and gross, and there’s more of an arc of where it’s going,” Johnson said.
Earlier in our conversation, Johnson was even more emphatic when discussing comparisons between the two.
“I just want to laugh in their face,” Johnson said of fans asking whether Midnight Spider-Man is a Man-Spider take. “Man-Spider is like the kindergarten version of what we’re doing. It just goes so much harder than that.”
That escalation won’t take long, either.
Johnson said he’s approaching each issue with the goal of delivering at least one moment that readers won’t be able to stop thinking about until the next installment.
“I just want some kind of like a ‘holy shit, I can’t believe I just saw that in a Marvel comic’ every single month,” Johnson said.
According to Johnson, issue #2 represents the first significant escalation in the series’ body horror, and by its conclusion, the story will already have moved well beyond familiar Man-Spider territory.
“By the end of issue two, they’re like, okay, we’re already past Man-Spider,” Johnson said. “Issue three, it’s like I want people’s minds to be blown.”
Johnson is also hoping to introduce a new character or first appearance in nearly every issue when the story allows it, adding another potential surprise to each chapter.
And for anyone worried all that horror might leave Peter Parker behind, Johnson stressed that this is still fundamentally a Spider-Man story centered on power and responsibility. The difference is that Peter’s newfound power is physically turning him into something increasingly monstrous, even as he refuses to abandon his belief that it can be used responsibly.
Midnight Spider-Man #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc launches October 7 as part of Marvel’s Midnight Universe.
For more on the Midnight Universe, listen to the chat wherever you get your podcasts or stream it below!
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