MARVEL MIDNIGHT!

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About two and a half years ago, I was on our friends at Comics Exchange’s podcast. DC had just announced their answer to the Ultimate Universe, the Absolute universe. One of the cohosts was skeptical about how successful it could measure up. “Well,” I said, “There’s worse ideas than having Scott Snyder write Batman again.”

Fast forward to today and the Absolute Universe has dominated the industry since its release, with Absolute Batman being the hottest new book we’ve seen in over a decade with enough variant covers released every month to make any 90s Gen 13 fan blush.

Enter Marvel’s answer to DC’s answer: The Midnight Universe.

Midnight presents an interesting question from the Marvel Universe: how do they do another “different” universe a year after their last one wrapped?

Their answer seems to be: lean into it, and make them all horror books.

The tl;dr summary of each of the three books:

Midnight Fantastic Four is a cosmic horror,  

Midnight Spider-Man is a body horror

Midnight X-Men is a supernatural horror.

Where the Absolute Universe clearly draws influence from shonen manga like Fullmetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia, the Midnight Universe is unabashedly inspired by horror manga like Hellsing or the worlds of Junji Ito.

It’s a smart choice and it certainly resonates from the jump with each of the books’ initial offerings. And, Marvel hopes, will click with younger readers like the lineup from the Distinguished Competition has.

Reading each of them, I have to say Fantastic Four surprised me the most. Benjamin Percy has gotten a lot of Marvel work over the last half decade to some mixed results from fans, so it’s entirely possible I went in with low expectations, but this book certainly exceeded them. Kev Walker’s art feels a little unleashed, but it only serves as a taste of what’s to come. Once you figure out where the story is going, it’s difficult not to be excited about what Percy has planned. Of these three books, this is the one that has the most interesting pitch and does the most with the concept of “Super heroes in a horror setting.”

Spider-Man is the most gruesome of the three. Kennedy-Johnson has been the mastermind behind the current excellent Hulk run which hits a similar vein as this idea, but of the three books this is clearly the most initially harrowing. Scietronc’s art is the standout here with transformation sequences that linger long after you put the book down. Of the three, this is probably the most in line with my expectations and has the feel almost of “Absolute Spider-man.”

X-Men is obviously going to be the crown jewel of the line. To steal my own line “There’s worse ideas than putting Jonathan Hickman back on X-Men.” And the book doesn’t disappoint, providing one of the most intriguing issues of the year. Hickman, for my money, is the best comic writer of this century (though, to be fair, there’s an aforementioned generational Batman writer might have something to say about that) and having him work with these characters again after his departure from Krakoa almost 5 years ago (yes, we’re all that old) is a genuine delight. No one since Alan Davis has ever written Nightcrawler so well and having him write Scott Summers again was something I didn’t know I’d missed. This is the book that leans into the political intrigue and the action from the get go with Matteo Della Fonte on art showing he belongs on what Marvel wants to be one of their top selling titles. It’s a tour de force of a book that reminds us of what Hickman does so well that few others can, and the fact that when Marvel wants to, they can put out a hell of a comic book.

The problem is what comes next.

On the other side of the aisle, we’re two years into the Absolute line and we’ve seen a myriad of Absolute titles that might or might not have needed to come out that have undoubtedly watered down the dynamic power of the initial punch of the Absolute universe’s big 3. The additional books have all had their merits, but it's undeniable that some of them have muddied the waters a bit. It probably doesn’t matter too much for the long game of collected editions, but for monthly readers when you go from only having to keep up with 3 books a month to more than double that in a relatively short amount of time, it does tend to chafe regulars after a while, especially if you’re a variant cover collector.

Are we going to see the same thing happen here? Midnight Wolverine is all but a foregone conclusion, as is I presume Midnight Hulk and maybe Midnight Daredevil. But are they going to push it until we get Midnight The Hood or Midnight Jeff the Landshark (actually, never mind, that might be perfect.)

And nobody does an editorial mandate like Marvel.

What’s always been frustrating about Marvel as a company is that, as previously stated, when they want to, they can put out a HELL of a comic book. And they’ve managed to start this line out with three that qualify. But nothing stings quite as bad as spending hours reading and years waiting for these stories only for editorial to just close up shop with everything that’s been built up to move on to the next thing- it has been the way of things in comics forever, but Marvel has a particularly brutal way of making that particular slight burn: Avengers Children Crusade, the end of Krakoa, and plenty more serve as perfect examples. In the past fans have just taken this as par for the course, but I’m not sure readers are willing to take these things on the chin as much now. My experience as a retailer tells me people are much more likely to keep their money and stay home if they feel like they’re being taken for granted, and frankly, Marvel has been taking their fans for granted for a long time.

Will they see the Midnight line through regardless of what else is next on the horizon? Or if waters get choppy?

But these are all questions about the next step, and about whether or not Marvel is worthy of the trust it takes to invest in this line. One of the biggest complaints people have about Marvel specifically is that they don’t take big swings, that they don’t take risks. The Ultimate line, whether people remember it this way or not, was actually a big risk, especially committing to ending the books after 2 years of real time. Midnight, for better or worse, is a big, big swing. They’re taking real chances with these books, and it's refreshing to see. If they get rewarded for it is the next question. 

And again, there’s worse ideas than putting Hickman on an X-Men book.

This is the first step in a new world, and I would say, creatively, anyway, it’s a successful one. Let’s see what happens in issue #2.

We will be releasing issue #1 of Midnight Fantastic Four, Midnight Spider-man and Midnight X-Men at midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, feel free to stop in and join in the chills and thrills!