The spooky season is upon us all!
October. The time of the season when all of the scary stuff comes out of the darkness. When all of the blood curdling costumes and menacing visages pop-up unexpectedly. When, finally, the foreboding bell tolls for thee!
October. Around these parts of the interwebs, it’s our favourite time of the year.
Luckily, there’s plenty of reading to keep our horror-starved appetite satiated. Whether it’s magazines or books, films or television, we’ve got plenty of spooky season offerings to choose from.
And why wouldn’t the comic book industry get in on the popular seasonal game?
Today, Marvel Comics unleashes a brand new, dark and horrific direction for its slate of comic book heroes and villains in the Midnight Universe, featuring a trio of brand new first issues including: Midnight X-Men #1, Midnight Spider-Man #1 and Midnight Fantastic Four #1.
All three titles lean into the horror genre in different and fascinating ways. From vampirism to body horror to cosmic horror, all three titles are must reads this month.
The Marvel Midnight Universe is a brand-new universe of publications featuring your favourite Marvel characters like they’ve never been seen before – in a setting you’ve never experienced before.
No different from the uber-popular Ultimates line of titles a few decades ago, this is a shared universe that is birthed in the darker regions of existence. Monsters exist. Fear is omnipresent. And horror is at the center of every story.
And with all of the first issues available today, it’s a great way to enter these dark lands…and see the landscape of characters you once thought you knew in an entirely different, uh, light.
Midnight X-Men #1
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by: Matteo Della Fonte
Published by: Marvel Comics
In Midnight X-Men, celebrated writer Jonathan Hickman (The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Secret Wars, East of West, Three Worlds Three Moons) and artist Matteo Della Fonte (Nova: Centurion) bring us a New York that is populated by both vampires and mutant “empyres”. Amidst a backdrop of war, the unturned will be caught in the middle of these two horrific factions!
Midnight Spider-Man #1
Written by: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Illustrated by: ScieTronc
Published by: Marvel Comics
In Midnight Spider-Man #1, acclaimed world-builder Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Alien, The Last God, Action Comics, 007) and artist ScieTronc (Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe), a young Peter Parker undergoes a horrific science experiment at the hands of Oscorp leading to a grotesque body transformation. Can this frightening human-spider abomination end the scientific madness that runs the evil conglomerate?
Midnight Fantastic Four #1
Written by: Benjamin Percy
Illustrated by: Kev Walker
Published by: Marvel Comics
Midnight Fantastic Four #1 takes another terrifying track through the Midnight Universe, this time relying on cosmic horror to earn the frights of readers everywhere! Under the hard-hitting pen of Benjamin Percy (Wolverine, Punisher) and artist Kev Walker (Infernal Hulk, Doctor Strange), deep and maddening science best left undiscovered is thrust upon humankind. New dimensional doors are opened but can humanity survive their horrific findings? This is perfect, dark, Fantastic Four storytelling!
It’s October.
Beyond the thirsty frights we normally desire at this time of year, you need to make the run to your local comic book shop and get in on the ground floor for each of the three dark Midnight Universe titles from Marvel Comics.
As the tag line states: The light had its turn.
Now it’s joyfully, maniacally, yours.
To get a better feel for the terror and new mythos-making on offer, you can catch the Marvel Comics Midnight Universe trailer directly below.
