AIPT’s 31 Days of Halloween is back! After a four-year absence, we’re celebrating the spooky season with a new article every day throughout October. Follow along as the AIPT staff explores horror across comics, movies, games, music, and more, with plenty of monsters, scares, and Halloween favorites along the way. Check back every day for something new, all the way through October 31.
Marvel’s Midnight Universe is almost here, and expectations are understandably high. The new line launches with three familiar corners of the Marvel Universe transformed via a darker lens: Jonathan Hickman and Matteo Della Fonte on Midnight X-Men; Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker on Midnight Fantastic Four; and Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc on Midnight Spider-Man. Horror may be the connective tissue, but everything we’ve heard/seen so far suggests that these creators have plenty of freedom to push their characters into truly unfamiliar territory.
That freedom also makes Midnight particularly interesting following the conclusion of Marvel’s latest Ultimate Universe. Rather than investigating how these heroes might change under different circumstances, Midnight appears ready to reconsider the worlds around them, from the nature of mutant identity to fractured family dynamics and even a Peter Parker whose origin has become something altogether more sinister. There are plenty of questions about how tightly these books will connect, what ultimately defines a “Midnight” story, and how large Marvel intends this universe to become.
With the line launching at midnight on October 7, the AIPT staff has come together to discuss what has us excited (and even a smidge concerned), where we see the most potential, and what we hope Marvel ultimately accomplishes as the Midnight Universe grows. Some of us are already sold on the horror, while others are approaching the experiment with cautious optimism. Here’s what we’re watching for as Marvel opens the doors to its dark new universe.
A Truly Twisted Realm
The more I hear about Marvel’s upcoming Midnight line, the more intrigued I become. Flipping the “world outside your window” perspective that Marvel has maintained forever into a full-on horror element isn’t exactly what I expected. However, it makes sense when you look at some of Marvel’s biggest characters. The X-Men are often feared and hated for their mutant powers, so what happens in a world where those fears might be justified? Of all the Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm has had the hardest life as the Thing — so what happens when the rest of the Four share his grisly fate?
Surprising absolutely no one, the title I’m looking forward to the most is Midnight: Spider-Man. Johnson’s already proven to be more than a match for the Midnight’s horror themes thanks to his work on the insanely underrated Infernal Hulk. There’s also the way that this series is twisting Mr. Parker’s origins; not only is this a version of Spider-Man who’s been forcibly experimented upon, but it’s revealed that OsCorp performed said experiments as a way to unlock eternal life. In essence, this is more or less a Marvel-style take on Kamen Rider,and that’s amazing (if you’ll pardon the pun.) I also love that Peter’s mantra of “with great power comes great responsibility” is twisted in a world where he holds no power, and the people who altered him show no responsibility for their actions.
Discourse around the Midnight line seems to lean in one of two directions: that Marvel is hoping to ape the success of DC’s Absolute line, or that the Ultimate Universe was wrapped up to make room for this new line. Midnight: Spider-Man dashes both arguments into pieces; not only is it far more horror-oriented than most of the Absolute titles — and looks far more intense, thanks to ScieTronc’s immensely haunting artwork — but the premise it carries feels very different from what Hickman and other creators were doing with the Ultimate Universe.
Here’s hoping that this line has a long shelf-life, and that it paves the way for other characters to get the “Midnight” treatment I can’t be the only one who’s thinking about a possible Midnight Avengers.
A Scary New World
From Midnight Spider-Man #1. Courtesy of Marvel.
I suppose if there’s two words I’d used to describe my thoughts on the Midnight line they’d be “cautious optimism.” No one would love it more than me for Marvel to make it 2006 again through science and/or magic, but the House of Ideas has been in such a slump lately that it’s hard to muster any excitement for yet another big line relaunch so soon. (Especially after the legitimately great Ultimate universe relaunch came to such a lackluster end.) DC has been eating Marvel’s lunch thanks to their Absolute line and “All-In” initiative, bringing interesting creators and characters together to make DC comics the most exciting they’ve been in decades.
When I look at Marvel’s current slate, I am left with a sense of “same old, same old.” Any given solicit is filled with miniseries that go back to a bygone era in character’s histories, “world-changing” promises for established characters that largely go nowhere, and not one, not two, but threeevents happening at the same time. Between these publishing plans, and an overabundance of Doctor Doom appearances, it’s clear more than ever that Marvel is really playing up the corporate synergy with the MCU while also staying the course as they prepare to move offices in California. After years of stagnation, it’s hard to get excited for any of their plans, and as a true Marvel zombie, that’s a huge bummer.
Yet the Midnight line looks to be at least different from the other announcements Marvel’s made in the past. Even the aforementioned restart of the Ultimate Universe was just that — a restart. Midnight looks to at least be something that is likely allowing creators more freedom to really get involved with the Marvel characters and mess them up a little. Look at the preview images of Midnight Spider-Man and compare the art from ScieTronic with any of the other books in the regular Spidey line. It looks vastly different, engaging, and exciting, something that even a die-hard Spidey fan like myself can say has been severely lacking in the Spider-Man books for some time.
Marvel is obviously looking to get a sales boost from this line, and they will most likely get it if horror comics play like horror movies have this past year. However, my hope for Midnight is that it allows some much-needed creative freedom back into the House of Ideas. If there was ever a time for Marvel to “borrow” some ideas from DC, it’s right now.
Same Sandbox, New Scares
From Midnight X-Men#1. Courtesy of Marvel.
One of the things that excites me most about Hickman writing the X-Men in this new Midnight Universe is the possibility that he might revisit some of the ideas that made his earlier mutant work so interesting — just through the lens of horror. During the Krakoan era, Hickman complicated the traditional human/mutant conflict by introducing machines as a third center of gravity, with their own identity, interests, and struggle for survival. I’m curious what happens if you do something similar with the traditional monsters of the Marvel Universe.
After all, what really separates a vampire, werewolf, or ethereal spirit from a mutant with essentially the same powers? Marvel has never been short on mutants whose abilities make them look monstrous, transform their bodies, or resemble creatures out of folklore. The more interesting distinction may be that these groups understand themselves as fundamentally different kinds of beings. Put humans, mutants, and monsters alongside one another as competing identities, and suddenly there is a lot of room to explore who gets defined as human, who gets defined as monstrous, and who gets to make said distinction in the first place. I always loved the way Grant Morrison offered space for the more physically freakish mutants to develop a real personality within the X-line, and the competing identities feels like particularly fertile territory for Hickman to explore.
I won’t be miffed if they don’t lean into this dynamic, as there’s already plenty to get excited about aesthetically from the Midnight Universe. (I’m just an easy mark for dark libraries and Gothic sensibilities.) Marvel has certainly played in that sandbox before, but the prospect of seeing an entire interconnected Marvel world filtered through those aesthetic sounds incredibly fun. If Midnight can combine the atmosphere and iconography of classic horror with these questions about identity, community, and conflict that Marvel’s characters are so well suited to explore, this could become a corner of Marvel I’m very happy to get lost in.
Identity Above Terror
From Midnight Fantastic Four#1. Courtesy of Marvel.
It’s safe to say there hasn’t been this much hype for a Marvel Comics story since the Ultimate Universe relaunch, and that’s not just because it’s a new universe. No, Hickman has already told AIPT that he’s had pretty much free rein (and being left alone at that) to tell his X-Men story. Meanwhile, Percy and Johnson told me that the three writers are being very careful in crafting the start of something that is meant to last quite some time. Given how fans responded to the Ultimate Universe relaunch lasting only two-ish years, that’s already a huge win.
As a lifelong Spider-Man fan, I’m most excited for what Johnson is bringing to the character, especially since we’ve seen horror takes on Spider-Man before. Midnight Spider-Man is seemingly a classic, wholesome character who is quite young, so it’ll be interesting to see how the story develops him (even if Johnson has said he’s still inherently a “good guy.”)
Meanwhile, Percy’s take on Fantastic Four might be the boldest, at least from what we know so far. That’s because he’s playing around with two timelines: one when the nuclear bomb was created and another in the present. This ultimately ties to real-world events that ground the story in some intriguing ways. Even more exciting is that Percy has said that this book isn’t a family in the traditional sense, and the horror will come from the toxic nature of this team dynamic. That in itself takes the Fantastic Four into new ground never before explored.
My hope is the creators truly take their time further building out each book — similar to DC Comics’ deliberate approach to the Absolute Universe and only introducing new series once its own three opening books were properly established. On the other hand, they could learn a more valuable lesson from Absolute: the identity of these books should follow some kind of rule or truth to keep the feel intact. (For instance, in the Absolute line, the universe is built on Darkseid’s negative energy, and yet even that seems to be used or enforce loosely enough.) A guiding star to follow could keep these titles’ identities intact without them crossing over, and allow for everything to real grow with true universal might.
The Man With Two Brains
I am of two minds when it comes to Marvel Midnight.
Like some of my compatriots (and so many other True Believers), I can already see the holes in this universe from a mile away. It’s really the Universal Monsters spin on the Marvel Universe, a spooky sheen of horror clichés slapped atop a more dynamic universe of heroes and villains. And in that sense, I wonder if the “horror-ization” of Spider-Man, F4, and the X-Men may feel like a trite gimmick — a way to strip out the character’s nuance to make them all feel shiny and new — when the real draw is that Peter Parker, Ben Grimm, etc. are real, multifaceted characters who live right alongside us. And not, like, cannon fodder for some bloody Ed Wood-esque remake.
At the same time, there’s no denying that Marvel needs a shot in the arm. As others have said more eloquently, the company has been continually trounced* by DC’s Absolute universe (like Batman’s XXXL boot stomping out a thug). And so anything that Marvel can do to compete, to bring attention back to their line (especially since much of that effort as of late stems from recent operational changes and not actual stories) is clearly a good thing. Plus, with horror comics having a heyday right now (but mostly anthologies, which are meant for more casual readers), it seems like the most surefire shot for a bit of a resurgence from Marvel. Maybe it’s a little too safe, but then sometimes a win is still a win regardless of it all.
(* = As a colleague pointed out, getting trounced might be a weebit hyperbole, and Marvel could be more than satisfied with sales figures that only matter to obsessive weirdos and/or comic shop owners. At the same time, I’d argue that perception matters — it’s how companies can take risks and still satiate the inevitable bottom line. But if trounced doesn’t sit with you, maybe you’re more elevated and/or you see more nuance to this issue, which is sort of my larger point.)
So, I keep bouncing between these “pillars” — the thinking that Midnight is 1) a cliché shot in the dark against the well-established “competition” or 2) a solid shot of adrenaline to make the company feel as lively as it ought to most days. I’ve tried to reconcile these two stances, and to find a way to really embrace one over the other. But for every time I see a new page that thrills me, a sense of uncertainty claws back mere moments later. I’m stuck between the darkness of cynicism and the light of optimism, and I can’t really see a way out of my eternal tumble.
I mean, surely I’ll receive a push either way once the books actually drop. But the more I’ve contemplated my position (or the lack thereof?), the more I’ve felt quite OK with it at large. Do I think Midnight will “save” Marvel? No, and I don’t think it really has to feel quite so “triumphant.” On the flipside, will a botched execution/run hurt Marvel? Maybe, but at this point even that notion feels a little half-cocked. I think what it boils down to is that it’s not a binary — Marvel doesn’t need to think about winning the day or reclaiming the sales charts. It needs to work to tell good stories for the sake of entertaining/engaging its readership.
It’s super fun to think about the long-term ramifications of Midnight, and how this could start up a new chapter in the endless DC-Marvel war. But we should really be interested in playing pretend and acting like monsters cause it’s a cool, dumb thing to do these days. Midnight isn’t a savior or harbinger of doom; it’s a bunch of nerds getting extra nerdy because, for reasons both creative and financial, they’ve been given the keys to the kingdom. For crying out loud, we’re getting Ben Freakin’ Percy writing “body horror Fantastic Four” — that’s the sort of thing that should elicit context-free joy. (Plus, it’ll run counter to the more layered, adventurous tone of the Ryan North-penned Fantastic Four, and that’s got value in and of itself as Marvel does increasingly meaningful creative work.)
A lot of us keep thinking about the larger context, and that’s vital as it demonstrates a level of engagement that frankly supports a more robust comics “system” overall. But we should also free ourselves to lower the temp, strip away the stakes, and just enjoy this for what it is/might be. Or, in that same vein, dislike it not as some grand corporate failing by Marvel but something that just didn’t work. Don’t let me tell you how to feel, and if you’re foaming at the mouth regarding Midnight already, then clearly it’s a good thing. (For your soul if not your blood pressure.) However, as a great woman said recently, “expectations are premeditated resentments.” They’re also the spark of true, lasting fandom, and both things are true because this is comics, baby.
So, yeah, I’m still of two minds, and I plan on staying that way until proven otherwise. Heck, I may still feel “conflicted” even after the last Midnight book has come and gone. And I’m totally OK with that distinct possibility — I’ve been reading and reviewing comics long enough to know that the line between satisfaction and anger is extra thin. What keeps me going isn’t staying on one side or the other, but rather the notion that I get to feel that way, that buzz of joy and the sting of disappointment, and no one can take that away. It’s the sign of true fandom because loyalty, commitment, etc. last longer than one event/storyline.
I feel a sense of real-life, enthusiastic concern for something that’s ultimately quite inconsequential, and comics continues to speak to me because it’s all that serious and all that silly. No other medium comes close to fostering that kind of devotion from me, to stirring a deep truth I often fumble elsewhere in my life. To also paraphrase Bruce Banner himself, I’m always riding the line between anger and enlightenment, and that feels like the best way to be a True Believer.
And, hey, if there’s far too much blood in these books, I’ll be too slap-happy to otherwise care.
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