Three New Marvel Universes Walk Into a Comic Shop…

Okay, technically it's one universe.

But when Marvel launches the Midnight Universe this Wednesday, October 7, it's doing something we don't see very often: Marvel's entire new-comic slate for the week consists of just three books.

Midnight Spider-Man #1.

Midnight X-Men #1.

Midnight Fantastic Four #1.

That's it.

Marvel has essentially cleared the runway and told readers: these are the books we want you talking about this week.

And apparently comic shops got the message.

Marvel says the three #1s have already generated more than one million combined retailer orders before a single issue has officially hit shelves. Demand was strong enough that second printings of all three were ordered before release; those arrive October 28.

That's a huge launch.

But here's the question that actually matters to readers:

Are these comics going to be any good?

And if you only want to try one, which one should you buy?

We've been following this line pretty closely at ATL Comics & Cards, and we definitely have opinions.

First: What Exactly Is the Marvel Midnight Universe?

Think Marvel characters rebuilt through horror, not simply regular Marvel characters appearing in scary stories.

That's an important distinction.

The Midnight Universe is its own interconnected continuity, separate from Marvel's main universe and the Ultimate line. Marvel describes it as a long-term publishing initiative that reimagines familiar characters through horror.

That means the creators can actually mess with these characters.

Peter Parker doesn't need to become the Spider-Man we already know.

The Fantastic Four don't need to have the origin we've read 500 times.

The X-Men don't have to operate under decades of continuity.

That freedom is what makes this interesting.

We've seen how well that formula can work elsewhere. Part of the reason DC's Absolute Universe caught fire is that readers recognize Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman while simultaneously having no idea what's going to happen to them.

Midnight has a chance to scratch the same itch without simply copying Absolute.

So let's rank the three launch books.

#3 — Midnight Fantastic Four #1

Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Kev Walker

Don't mistake #3 for “bad.”

This may actually be the sleeper.

Percy and Walker are taking the Fantastic Four directly into Lovecraftian cosmic horror. Reed's obsessive pursuit of scientific discovery leads him somewhere humanity probably shouldn't go—and Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben emerge changed in horrifying ways. 

That's a terrific Fantastic Four premise.

Reed Richards has always been the guy willing to open the door marked DO NOT OPEN, mostly because he desperately needs to know what's behind it.

Midnight simply asks:

What if something terrible was waiting on the other side?

Kev Walker is also an excellent fit for grotesque creatures and physical transformation.

Our concern? Fantastic Four is probably the toughest of these three franchises to completely reinvent without losing what makes the team work.

But if Percy nails the family dynamic beneath the horror, this could surprise people.

ATL Verdict: 8/10 anticipation.

#2 — Midnight Spider-Man #1

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: ScieTronc

This one looks wonderfully disgusting.

Instead of Peter Parker receiving spider powers and putting on a costume, this version of Peter is transformed by Oscorp into a grotesque human-spider hybrid as part of the corporation's pursuit of eternal life.

Oscorp then uses what it learns from Peter's mutation to create additional human-animal hybrids.

Peter has to embrace what he's become to stop them.

That's a legitimately clever horror reinterpretation of Spider-Man.

The best alternate-universe stories don't just change the costume.

They take something fundamental about the character and twist it.

Peter Parker has always worried that his powers make him different.

Midnight apparently answers:

Yes. Very, very different.

Johnson has also spoken enthusiastically about the creative freedom Marvel is giving the Midnight teams, saying the line isn't meant to feel like either Marvel's regular universe or its Ultimate books.

Good.

If you're going to make monster Spider-Man, make monster Spider-Man.

Don't chicken out three issues later and hand him a normal red-and-blue suit.

ATL Verdict: 9/10 anticipation.

#1 — Midnight X-Men #1

This is our pick.

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Matteo Della Fonte

Hickman returning to the X-Men alone makes this the book we're grabbing first.

But the really interesting part is what he's said about the scope.

Hickman recently revealed that he can already map roughly the first six story arcs—about 36 issues—and explained that Midnight X-Men will be the only X-book in the Midnight Universe.

That second part may be even more exciting than the first.

One X-Men book.

One writer.

One place where the mutant story happens.

No giant checklist required.

Hickman has described the approach as more “Claremontian,” allowing characters to move in and out of one central series rather than spreading the story across a huge publishing line.

And the Midnight setting lets him rebuild mutant conflict around more than the traditional mutant-versus-human divide.

The result sounds substantially different from his Krakoa era—which is exactly what we want.

We don't need Krakoa 2.0.

We need Jonathan Hickman getting another big swing at the X-Men.

ATL Verdict: 9.5/10 anticipation.

What About All Those Variant Covers?

Oh, there are covers.

A lot of covers.

Marvel has recruited artists including Ryan Stegman, Peach Momoko, Skan, Björn Barends, Jeehyung Lee, Clayton Crain, Alessandro Cappuccio, InHyuk Lee and others across the three launches. 

One of the cooler concepts is Clayton Crain's three-part connecting variant, which spans Midnight Spider-Man, Midnight Fantastic Four and Midnight X-Men.

And yes, there are retailer exclusives too.

Our advice here is the same as always:

Buy the artwork you actually like.

Don't buy 14 copies of a comic because somebody on social media tells you every variant is going to be a $300 book next month.

It probably isn't.

The million-copy headline should especially put the brakes on any idea that these are inherently scarce comics. The reported figure is combined retailer orders across the three #1s, not one million readers buying one issue.

That doesn't diminish the launch—it just puts the number in perspective.

So Should You Buy All Three?

We would.

Not because they're guaranteed investments.

Because Marvel is doing something interesting.

There are plenty of weeks when buying another #1 feels like buying another #1.

October 7 doesn't feel like that.

Marvel is launching an entire universe on one day with three strong creative teams and three genuinely different horror concepts.

If you're only buying one, grab Midnight X-Men #1.

If you're buying two, add Midnight Spider-Man #1.

But we're going all three.

ATL Comics & Cards will have Marvel Midnight books available, and we're also featuring them during our upcoming live shows for readers looking for different covers and variants.

Because this Wednesday we're not particularly interested in predicting which Midnight comic will be worth the most.

We want to know something much more important:

Which one makes us desperate to read #2?

That's the real test.

And we'll know soon enough