Marvel Is Betting Big on Horror — and October 7 Is the Test

Marvel is doing something next Wednesday that you don't see very often.

It's basically giving the entire day to three comic books.

On October 7, Midnight Spider-Man #1, Midnight X-Men #1 and Midnight Fantastic Four #1 all hit comic shops together, officially launching Marvel's new Midnight Universe. Even more interesting, Marvel has arranged its schedule so those will be the publisher's only new comics released that Wednesday. 

That's a pretty big vote of confidence.

And after digging into what Marvel is actually doing with Midnight, we're considerably more interested than we were when these books were first announced.

This isn't just “Marvel characters, but scary.”

At least it doesn't look that way.

So What Exactly Is the Marvel Midnight Universe?

Think of Midnight as Marvel taking some of its most recognizable characters, removing the safety rails of regular continuity and handing them to creators who can make genuinely strange choices.

That's the important distinction.

Marvel didn't start with Blade, Ghost Rider or characters who already live comfortably in horror comics. The opening lineup is Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four.

That was intentional.

Midnight Spider-Man writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson has explained that reimagining an existing horror character wouldn't really be much of a reimagining. The idea is to take characters we don't normally associate with full-blown horror and see how disturbing their basic concepts can become. 

And when you think about it, Marvel has plenty to work with.

A teenager gets bitten by a radioactive spider and his body begins changing.

A group of scientists enters an unknown dimension and returns physically mutated.

Humans suddenly begin developing uncontrollable genetic mutations.

We've spent decades thinking of those as superhero origins.

Change the lighting a little and they're horror stories.

Midnight Spider-Man #1

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: ScieTronc

This might be the easiest Midnight book to sell somebody on.

Forget friendly neighborhood Spider-Man for a minute.

In this universe, a young Peter Parker is transformed into a grotesque spider-human hybrid as part of Oscorp's attempt to unlock eternal life. When Oscorp begins creating additional human-animal hybrids using what it learned from Peter's mutation, Peter has to embrace the thing he's becoming and fight back. 

That's Spider-Man pushed straight into body horror.

Johnson has described the creative target using influences including H.R. Giger, David Cronenberg, Junji Ito and John Carpenter. He has also said he wants this version of Peter's origin to be genuinely upsetting rather than simply a darker retelling of Amazing Fantasy #15. 

Good.

If you're going to do this, do it.

Don't give Peter sharper teeth, put some blood on the cover and call it horror.

The premise of Spider-Man has always contained something inherently creepy. Midnight finally gets to lean all the way into it.

Our early pick: Midnight Spider-Man

Of the three launch books, this is the one we're most curious to read.

Part of that is the concept, but part is also ScieTronc's artwork. The visual identity feels different enough from regular Spider-Man that Midnight Peter doesn't immediately register as another temporary costume change.

That's exactly what this universe needs.

It's also the Midnight book where ATL Comics & Cards has some skin in the game. We currently have an Alan Quah Midnight Spider-Man #1 exclusive Trade Dress available through ATL. ATL Comics Cards

We obviously like the cover—we wouldn't have carried it otherwise—but the bigger reason we're excited about the book is that the concept underneath the cover looks legitimately interesting.

Midnight X-Men #1

Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Artist: Matteo Della Fonte

Here's the one that might have the biggest name attached.

Jonathan Hickman is writing X-Men again.

That sentence alone is probably enough to sell a lot of copies.

Hickman's House of X/Powers of X fundamentally changed the direction of the X-Men franchise in 2019 and launched the entire Krakoan era. Midnight gives him a completely different sandbox.

This time, New York is caught between mutants and vampires, with the relationship between the two groups moving toward outright war. 

More interestingly, Hickman has said the emotional idea behind this X-Men isn't the traditional “found family” theme.

It's isolation.

Characters can be surrounded by other people and still feel completely alone.

That's a very different foundation for an X-Men book.

If you're a Hickman reader, Midnight X-Men #1 is almost certainly going on your stack.

Midnight Fantastic Four #1

Writer: Benjamin Percy
Artist: Kev Walker

This might actually be the concept best suited to horror.

Reed Richards has always been dangerous.

He's a brilliant scientist whose natural response to discovering something humanity doesn't understand is basically:

Let's poke it.

Midnight takes that idea to its logical nightmare.

An obsessive scientist investigates secrets of the universe that probably should have stayed hidden and ends up horribly transforming himself and three other people. Percy has described the book as cosmic, Lovecraftian horror involving mad science, cults and hidden realities.

Even Reed's stretching ability becomes body horror.

Instead of the clean elastic powers we're accustomed to seeing, Marvel's early descriptions and creator discussions suggest this version can become much more physically disturbing. 

That sounds awful.

We mean that as a compliment.

The Covers Are Part of the Experiment

Marvel is also trying something unusual with the physical books.

The Midnight line introduces Cloaked Covers, which intentionally obscure portions of the cover artwork. Readers have to physically interact with the comic to see the complete image, and Marvel has built recurring variant-cover themes around the three series. 

It's a gimmick.

But it's a pretty good gimmick.

Modern comics are fighting for attention on shelves filled with variants. Creating a cover you literally can't completely see until you pick it up is at least attempting something different.

And judging from the artists Marvel has recruited—including Ryan Stegman, Clayton Crain, JeeHyung Lee, Skan, Björn Barends, Peach Momoko and others—the cover side of Midnight is clearly going to be a major part of the line. 

Is Marvel Midnight Worth Trying?

We haven't read the finished books yet, so we're not going to tell you Marvel has already created the next Ultimate Universe.

Nobody knows that yet.

But Marvel has our attention.

The publisher has taken three enormous properties, recruited Jonathan Hickman, Benjamin Percy and Phillip Kennedy Johnson, created an entirely separate continuity and then cleared October 7 so Midnight owns Marvel's entire Wednesday release schedule. 

That's not a quiet experiment.

Marvel wants this to work.

If you're only trying one, we're starting with Midnight Spider-Man #1.

If Hickman's X-Men work is your thing, Midnight X-Men #1 is probably impossible to pass up.

And if you want the book that seems most naturally suited to straight-up horror, don't sleep on Midnight Fantastic Four #1.

But there's another option.

Grab all three #1s.

Because if Marvel actually pulls this off, October 7 won't just be the Wednesday three new horror books came out.

It'll be the day an entirely new Marvel Universe began.

And those are always fun days to be standing in a comic shop.