I wrote just a smidgen ago about how Marvel was hinting about a new, “Midnight Universe,” that would feature Marvel with more of a horror bent. Many people, myself included, thought this meant a lot of beloved and cult creepy characters Marvel has would be featured in dark, edgy tales. Well, Marvel just started releasing details this week. We’re getting X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man…but evil/scary. Yawn. Oh, and the X-Men are, of course, vampires because Marvel always has had a weird affinity for making the X-Men hang out with or occasionally turn into vampires (hey, Jubilee).
A twisted universe with no heroes and only monstrous versions of Ghost Rider, Man-Thing, the Werewolf by Night, and Blade or such could be such a cool concept. Instead, we’re just churning out another iteration of the biggest characters Marvel has—but spooky! This news has evaporated much of my interest in the Midnight Universe. The creative teams are quite good, which is the only thing that hasn’t utterly erased a cautious optimism I feel. Jonathan Hickman with Matteo Della Fonte on the X-Men book, Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker doing Fantastic Four, and Phillip Kennedy-Johnson with Scie Tronc—the first-ever Marvel book he’s done art for.
I sincerely hope the Midnight Universe is indeed Marvel’s horror-heavy answer to DC’s immense success with the Absolute Universe. I want all comic publishers to do well, big or small, because then the comic industry itself remains strong. Healthy sales benefit everyone, but I just don’t know if this Midnight Universe sounds particularly interesting or all that new. The X-Men have had plenty of interactions with vampires, and Spider-Man has been a more spider-like beast on numerous occasions, too. The Fantastic Four comic does intrigue me a bit, however, because Percy and Walker are a Hell of a good team. Basically, I will try the first issues of each of these series, and we’ll see what happens from there.
