The following contains spoilers from Midnight Spider-Man #1, on sale wherever you get your comics.
Ew. When Marvel announced that the new Midnight line of comics would feature horrifying new visions of classic characters, that might have seemed tame. Midnight X-Men blended our favorite characters with vampires, but the characters and general X-Men vibe wasn’t drastically changed.
And with Midnight Fantastic Four, we get new spins on the characters, but we haven’t yet seeing horrifying. Well, now we have the third new title, and it lives up to the promise. Midnight Spider-Man #1 is indeed a horrifying new take on our favorite web-slinger.
Midnight Spider-Man #1 Starts With A Familiar Peter Parker
Some things about Spider-Man’s origin can’t be altered too much, and Peter Parker’s backstory is consistent with the basic formula. Peter is incredibly intelligent, and incredibly broke. His parents died when he was really young, though he remembers them well. Here, we start taking a few detours. One, at 17, he is already a college intern working with Doctor Conners, and has even published some papers with him. And while he lives with Uncle Ben, there’s no sign of Aunt May. In fact, there’s hints to some more drama on that front.
But Spider-Man origins always have two important components. Peter does something selfish and careless, and Uncle Ben dies because of it. In Midnight Spider-Man #1, we get that moment. When offered a highly lucrative position at OsCorp, he takes it without putting up too much of a fight. He goes to Osborn Square, given a tour, and that’s where the spider comes in. Now, usually, it’s a criminal who kills Uncle Ben. Not here. The spider that went home with Peter bites him and what follows is a horrendous death. He had to die somehow, right?
There Are Plenty Of Familiar Names and Faces
Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson waists no time in setting up Spider-Man’s friends and rogues in Midnight Spider-Man #1. As said before, Peter’s already working with Doctor Curt Connors, who eventually becomes the Lizard. We also meet Felicia Hardy, an associate of OsCorp who goes to recruit Peter. How she might become Black Cat could be interesting in this series. We also get references to Doctor Otto Octavius, so we can expect to see Doctor Octopus at some point.
The one character that was more surprising to see was Hank Pym. He greets Peter when he goes to the OsCorp labs, and Peter is a huge fan of his. It kind of fits with the insect theme. We’re getting Spider-Man, why not Ant-Man too? But with all these characters stacked up in OsCorp, it wouldn’t be too believable that they all change there. Some of the transformations need to happen away from the company.
Oh, and of course we get hints of the Green Goblin. There’s an establishing shot of the lab and a tiny view of his glider.
Midnight Spider-Man #1 Is Just The Start
What Midnight Spider-Man #1 does best is set up a lot of pieces while also telling a good story and tone. ScieTronc’s art in the first issue sets a great tone, and that tone is “that’s just wrong.” There’s a LOT of body horror already and we’re just at #1. Expect things to get grosser as the series goes along, especially considering how Johnson describes his intent with the series. In the announcement, he says:
I want to see a Spider-Man that was conceived by H.R. Giger, directed by David Cronenberg, adapted for the comic page by Junji Ito. I want Peter’s origin to be so upsetting it haunts me, and to see the Lizard and Doctor Octopus through the lens of a John Carpenter movie or a Resident Evil game.
The creative team has already made good on that promise, and we can expect a lot more. Johnson notes that at both Marvel and DC, he’s written two series that have gone over 50 issues, but he wants Midnight Spider-Man to go even further. So, stick around for the long haul. It looks like it will be worth it.
Grade: 4.9/5
