The Absolute Universe is DC’s biggest success in years. Arguably, it’s the biggest thing that’s happened to the Big Two comic publishers in that time. DC’s brand-new universe reimagined its iconic characters and gave them an all-new look, gaining an all-new audience at the same time. It’s no secret that decades of continuity make it difficult, or at the very least intimidating, for new fans to get into the hobby. DC’s Absolute initiative has broken that barrier and gotten a whole new generation of fans into reading comics, and that is an accomplishment that Marvel was both sure to take note of and want to mimic for themself. Enter Marvel’s newest, much darker world, the Midnight Universe.
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The Midnight Universe is kicking off by embracing creator-driven directions for some of Marvel’s biggest names, focused on showing why this universe belongs in the dark instead of the light. It’s officially opening with three ongoing titles, including Midnight X-Men, Midnight Fantastic Four, and, important for us today, Midnight Spider-Man. This Peter Parker is very different from the hero we all know and love. He’s in a world that’s much more dedicated to beating down everyone, and is grappling with the idea that great power doesn’t just bring responsibility, but that it turns people into monsters. This reimagining is horrifying in all the right ways, but it might go a step too far in changing Peter’s origin.
Pros
Cons
Incredible modernization of Spider-Man’s origins with a horror twist
Some strange dialogue and a deviation from Spider-Man’s origin that might be too far
Art that oscillates between terrifying and fantastically down-to-earth
Art is sometimes so out there that it’s hard to tell what’s going on
Tons of mysteries and action to keep us on our toes
The Amazingly Terrifying Spider-Man
This world immediately differentiates itself from the original by showing us that Peter lived with his parents at least until he was six. During that time, his dad taught him that power always corrupts, creating monsters, and monsters will simply destroy, no matter what. Peter learned this when he made the mistake of locking his cat outside, leading to its death. Cut to just before his eighteenth birthday, where he’s offered a job at Oscorp. According to the suspiciously single Uncle Ben, Oscorp is the reason for Peter’s parents’ deaths, and even though Peter wants to bring them down, he agrees to take the job to get him and his uncle out of the hole. Unfortunately, his tour of Oscorp meant he tracked down a gamma-mutated spider, whose bite killed Uncle Ben before fusing with Peter, turning him into a monster with all the power.
This definitely feels like it’s in line with everything the Midnight Universe promised. This is Spider-Man with a horrifying new direction, but it still feels incredibly familiar in all the right ways. Peter is a young man who struggles with too many responsibilities and not enough power, but the pursuit of that power has already cost him everything. There’s so much to love in this issue, from establishing who Peter is and his vendetta against Oscorp to the addition to his classic quote. Peter is struggling to handle responsibility and learning to be a monster, which is sure to generate drama like we’ve never seen. Getting to see even this much of Uncle Ben was great, and their dynamic felt natural and wonderful. The ending left me very excited to see what comes next.
For the cons of this issue, I’ll say that my least favorite section was the Oscorp panel experiment. The dialogue from the panel was too callous and over-the-top to take seriously, and it took me out of it, which was even more noticeable given how tight everything else here is. I’ve also never personally been a fan of Spider-Man stories that focus too much on his parents or defining events happening to Peter before he gets bitten by the spider, which leads me into the main criticism. Adding the monstrous vector to the power-responsibility scale is an interesting change, but it might separate Peter too far from the core of his character. If Spider-Man doesn’t, on some level, relate to a normal life, which I find hard for this Peter to do, he might lose something essential to being Peter. It’s still too early to say, but it is something I’m worried about in the back of my mind.
Disgusting in All the Right Ways, But Sometimes Too Much So
ScieTronc is the artist on hand for this series, and his style is genuinely perfect for it. The biggest strength of this issue’s art by far is ScieTronc’s ability to combine character designs that can look truly cute and normal with horrific, disturbing violence and body horror. Peter and Uncle Ben’s designs are both reminiscent of their usual selves while also firmly taking things in new directions. Ben is a sturdy, solid man who looks far more beaten down by the world, and Peter’s youth as a scrappy teen is on full display. Of course, the main draw is the visceral body horror on display.
This issue puts people through the wringer, starting with a cat’s corpse that captures every horrific detail of decay. It only ramps up from there. Uncle Ben’s deterioration broke my heart and made me sick to my stomach. There are also so many little details that are tons of fun, like showing this world is slightly more technologically advanced with the people who use holographic technology that nobody acknowledges or explains. It also shows just how poor Peter and Ben are, with Peter only having a normal smartphone and Ben a flip phone. It’s wonderful environmental storytelling that we need more of in comics.
However, as awesome as this art is, there are times when it pushes just a little too far into the mangled territory. Occasionally, people’s forms are broken so far beyond repair that it’s genuinely hard to get a grasp on what’s going on. Horrorific art loses a lot of its impact when I need to spend time figuring out what I’m even looking at. By the time I decipher some of it, I’m not unnerved in the slightest. There’s also one really strange panel that just completely took me out of the story. When Peter and Felicia are talking in Dr. Connors’s office, there’s a panel from the perspective of her chest, with her breasts taking up most of the screen. I get that Peter is a teenage boy who is definitely staring at her chest, but making us look through it from this perspective was just entirely weird in a way that didn’t work.
Overall, this is a great first step into the Midnight Universe. This is a great new take on Spider-Man that capitalizes on all the strength of its horror setting. The story is hooking, and the ending has me on the edge of my seat. I’m especially excited to learn more about Aunt May, who seems to have left Uncle Ben in this universe. We can’t know for sure if this will live up to DC’s Absolute Universe, but at the very least, this is an amazing start.
Midnight Spider-Man #1 is on sale now!
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