Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man | Tagged: david cronenberg, midnight, Midnight Spider-Man, phillip kennedy johnson, ScieTronc
The David Cronenberg Origin Of The New Midnight Spider-Man (Spoilers)
The David Cronenberg Origin Of The New Midnight Spider-Man #1 by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc (Spoilers)
Article Summary
- Midnight Spider-Man #1 gives Peter Parker a David Cronenberg-style origin, replacing radioactive fate with brutal body horror.
- Oscorp’s mutant experiments, tied to Peter’s family tragedy, drive a darker Spider-Man mythos rooted in secrecy and death.
- It is not Peter Parker who is bitten by the mutated spider, twisting the classic Spider-Man origin into shocking new tragedy.
- The transformation sets up the grotesque new Midnight Spider-Man for Marvel’s horror line.
We all know the origin of Spider-Man as told by Steve Ditko and Stan Lee, and then, forever, by everyone else. Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider after attending a science presentation with his school, gains powers of speed, strength, and stickiness proportionate to a spider’s, invents his own web shooters, and becomes a masked wrestling performer in his new suit. Failing to stop a thief after the wrestling company refuses to pay him, the thief then coincidentally kills his uncle and foster parent. He then vows to commit his life to fighting crime as “with great power there must come great responsibility.” But this is Midnight Spider-Man. And it’s a bit more David Cronenberg, the body horror movie director behind the 1980’s version of The Fly, as well as Shivers,, Scanners,, Videodrome, eXistenZ, Naked Lunch and more
As a Red Shirt science major joins Oscorp for some unanticipated experiments, bringing an accidental spider along with him.
While Uncle Ben drives his prodigy nephew to the university where Peter Parker interns, with Ben Parker’s ongoing issues with Oscorp, which were responsible for Peter’s parents’ deaths, it seems that May is out of the picture…
As is the young recruit, actually an unwilling subject for Oscorp’s mutation experiments in a particularly gruesome and callous fascist fashion.
And just as with The Fly, an experiment in teleportation that gets invaded by fly DNA, sees a spider hit by the mutation experiment that killed its host…
As we get the Midnight Universe version of Marvel’s Mutant Growth Hormone, it is intended to create mutants from humans, but it repeatedly fails. Note the numbers of the project donors, some seem little more than snuff film lookeloos… while one takes his ten-year-old niece.
As the two-armed Doctor Curt Connors takes us through the mutant issues in the Midnight Universe…
And Peter Parker explains more, working for Connors, also that they had an Olympics in 2026, working on different years to us? And how long ago was 2026? Anyway, that’s the official class line, Peter Parker has his own investigative blog, Sagan Ritual, that isn’t on the syllabus…
…but is being read at Oscorp. Looking at scientific mutation research around the globe…
And as Peter Parker gets to combine potential interest in him with his own investigations, as well as Felicia Hardy, who we know more as the Black Cat…
Uncle Ben knows more than he has ever told Peter Parker, presumably about his parents’ deaths and exactly what Oscorp did.
And as the “experiment” before that cracked the glass seems to be more of a concern, with Otto Octavius, better known as Doctor Octopus, and Ms Weber, better known as Miles Morales’ guidance counsellor at the Brooklyn Visions Academy…
…we also get the Hanky Pym of the Midnight Universe, an older scientist also happy to work for the murdering Oscorp…
And as Peter Parker is offered a deal, a spider looks to take matter into its own legs.
And as we learn that Aunt May and Uncle Ben are no longer together, it seems, and I bet that’s Oscorp’s fault somehow…
… so the spider escapes, leaving some horrific, mutated mess behind. But it is not Peter Parker who is bitten.
It is Uncle Ben. Does he develop the proportionate strength and speed of a spider?
Not quite so much. And as Peter Parker blows off another call from his disapproving uncle, Ben loses a leg. And then, it seems, his life. As Peter Parker goes through his own transformation, not bitten by the spider…
…but trapped by it. And then, in full Cronenberg style…
…. becoming part of it. Just as the cover promised.
Midnight Spider-Man #1, Midnight Fantastic Four #1 and Midnight X-Men #1 are all published by Marvel Comics tomorrow… or at midnight tonight at participating comic book stores.
- MIDNIGHT SPIDER-MAN #1
Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON Art by SCIETRONC
A young man is transformed into a hideous spider hybrid by the ruthless Oscorp Corporation in their pursuit for eternal life. When Oscorp begins to use the secrets unlocked by his mutation to create more human-animal hybrids, he must embrace his grotesque new form to fight back. October 7th 2026 $4.99
- MIDNIGHT SPIDER-MAN #2
Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON Art by SCIETRONC
Where is Peter Parker? A new Oscorp employee is missing. An NYC teaching assistant is missing. In Queens, a municipal services tech didn’t clock in this morning. And for some reason, Oscorp defense contractors are scouring their building’s security tapes…for a spider. Where is Peter Parker? November 18th 2026 $4.99
- MIDNIGHT SPIDER-MAN #3
Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON Art by SCIETRONC
THE PARKER INCIDENT! As Peter Parker frantically searches for a way to reclaim his humanity, Oscorp hunts the emerging urban legend THE SPIDER-MAN in their first breakthrough on the path to a post-mortality future. Meanwhile, in Oscorp’s deepest, most top-secret labs, Doctor Octavius has used the lessons of the “Parker Incident” to engineer the world’s second synthetic mutant… a living horror that will make even Spider-Man obsolete. December 16th 2026 $4.99
Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!
Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!
