Marvel teases its Midnight Universe – is it an ABSOLUTE take on horror?

Although Marvel’s second stab at an Ultimate Universe is now a thing of the past, the House of Ideas isn’t done with alternate universes just quite yet. Thursday, the New York-based publisher distributed a teaser for an upcoming project called Midnight. According to the ever-vague e-mail, which included just one promotional graphic, Midnight is set to be a new alternate universe running alongside Earth-616.

The Beat can confirm reports the new publishing effort is being spearheaded by Jonathan Hickman and Philip Kennedy Johnson, though it’s not clear if Midnight has anything to do with the latter’s current Infernal Hulk series or not. Since the initial announcement e-mail, Benjamin Percy has also teased his involvement, sharing the same graphic to his social media platforms. Percy’s tease comes just hours after the writer announced he’d inked a two-year extension to write exclusively under the Marvel umbrella.

Outside of a tease that more information will be available next week, little is officially known about the new offering.Speculation is also rampant that this could be an Absolute style revamp for Marvel’s horror characters – something they tried under Hickman with the Cosmic-themed Imperial line….to mixed results. 

As others have pointed out, the Midnight moniker—combined with its “terrifying new universe” slogan—seem to suggest at the involvement or, at the very least, invoke the Midnight Sons.

Three main iterations of the Sons have appeared in the source material. The initial team included the likes of two Ghost Riders (Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch), Morbius, The Darkholders, and Blade and the Nightstalkers. That was then followed by a formation in the Damnation era that included Ghost Rider, Blade, Elsa Bloodstone, Moon Knight, Doctor Voodoo, Iron Fist, Scarlet Spider, and Man-Thing.

Most recently, Marvel formed a new team named the Midnight Suns consist of Blade, Kushala, Magik, Wolverine, and Nico Minoru for a mini-series released around the same time as the similarly-named video game. The initial team then reunited during the events of Marvel’s line-wide Blood Hunt event in 2024.

Although DC’s Absolute Universe isn’t explicitly a horror-themed world, the fact that Darkseid’s very essence makes it up gives it a darker slant—and it seems the Midnight Universe could be Marvel’s answer to that same tone and vibe.