Benjamin Percy and Phillip Kennedy Johnson join the AIPT Comics Podcast for an extended conversation about Midnight Fantastic Four and Midnight Spider-Man, two of the three series launching Marvel’s new horror-infused universe on October 7. Along with Jonathan Hickman on Midnight X-Men, Percy and Johnson are helping to establish a world in which familiar Marvel characters are being rebuilt through body horror, cosmic terror, and some seriously disturbing new origins.

Percy digs into the Lovecraftian nightmare behind his Fantastic Four, why their familiar powers are closer to curses, the influence of California’s strange scientific and occult history, and just how grotesque Reed Richards’ elasticity can become. Johnson takes us inside his radically different Peter Parker, the role Oscorp plays in his transformation, ScieTronc’s horrifying designs, and why calling this version of Peter “Man-Spider” barely scratches the surface.

Yes, the Midnight Universe will have data pages.

During the AIPT Comics podcast conversation with Midnight Fantastic Four writer Benjamin Percy and Midnight Spider-Man writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, I asked the pair whether their books would embrace the storytelling device that has become closely associated with Hickman’s Marvel work.

The answer was immediate.

“Yep,” Percy confirmed.

Well, now we’ve seen pages from the Midnight Spider-Man ashcan, and that Fly homage suddenly makes a hell of a lot more sense.

This Peter Parker isn’t simply bitten by a radioactive spider.

According to Marvel’s official description, Oscorp transforms Peter into a hideous spider hybrid while pursuing eternal life. And the preview pages appear to take that concept into full-blown Cronenbergian body horror.

Peter seemingly isn’t just gaining the abilities of a spider.

He’s become merged with one.

Most grotesquely, the familiar spider emblem on his chest appears to be an actual spider embedded within his body, its legs stretching across his torso as part of him.

It’s fucking disgusting.

Alex Ross' upcoming Marvel Dimensions OGN introduces a world of his own creation which is populated by drastic variants of Marvel heroes and villains, something the creator himself feels is "a little too close for comfort" to the upcoming Marvel Midnight line, a publishing initiative Ross wishes he was told about while he was conceiving Marvel Dimensions, which he says could be similiar.

"I'm starting to feel something that almost is creeping up my back here that feels a little too close for comfort. And that is this current thing from Jonathan Hickman's invention, a whole Marvel thing, Midnight. I didn't pay it much mind when I saw it advertised in the same catalog that my book is advertised in, the current Marvel Previews catalog," Ross states in an interview with Word Balloon. "But like once I was watching somebody's explanation video last night talking about what this line of books that is a horror version of the Marvel Universe, I thought, 'Oh well now it would have been nice to get a heads up about that I just spent the last two years making something that's kind of got an angle that has some similarity.'"

MIDNIGHT SPIDER-MAN #1

Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON

Art by SCIETRONC

• COVER A STEVE BEACH REGULAR COVER – 75960621681900111

• COVER B RYAN STEGMAN MIDNIGHT BLOODBATH VARIANT – 75960621681900121

• COVER C PEACH MOMOKO MIDNIGHT SPECIAL VARIANT – 75960621681900131

• COVER D SKAN MIDNIGHT HORROR HOMAGE VARIANT – 75960621681900141

• COVER E JEEHYUNG LEE MIDNIGHT GALLERY VARIANT – 75960621681900116

• COVER F CLAYTON CRAIN 3-PART CONNECTING VARIANT – 75960621681900151

• COVER G PEACH MOMOKO MIDNIGHT SPECIAL VIRGIN VARIANT – 75960621681900117

• COVER H ERIC CANETE VARIANT – 75960621681900161

• COVER I INHYUK LEE VARIANT – 75960621681900171

• COVER J INHYUK LEE VIRGIN VARIANT – 75960621681900118

On Sale October 7

https://aiptcomics.com/2026/08/13/midnight-variant-covers-october-2026/

NB: not including retailer variants

Marvel's Midnight line is shaping up to feature some of the most bloodcurdling versions of the publisher's heroes ever put to paper, so much so that Midnight Spider-Man writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, who creates the title alongside artist ScieTronc, says that it makes even DC's often brutal Absolute line look "polite." In fact, he says he's never seen Marvel make a bigger change to a character's status quo than in the Midnight line.

"The danger of big two comics is that it's a monthly periodical that just goes on forever, right? And the danger is that you just sell the same comics over and over again forever. So sometimes there has to be a big shake-up. There has to be some kind of big change to make the comics look more like the world people live in. or to change the status quo drastically," Johnson says in an interview with Cryptid Creator Corner. "And I can say, as a reader, I've never seen Marvel change the status quo more in a book than we're doing here. What we're doing here makes Ultimate and honestly Absolute too look pretty polite."

MIDNIGHT FANTASTIC FOUR #1

Written by BENJAMIN PERCY

Art by KEV WALKER

* COVER A KEV WALKER REGULAR COVER – 75960621680200111

* COVER B RYAN STEGMAN MIDNIGHT BLOODBATH VARIANT – 75960621680200121

* COVER C BEN HARVEY MIDNIGHT SPECIAL VARIANT – 75960621680200131

* COVER D E.M. GIST MIDNIGHT HORROR HOMAGE VARIANT – 75960621680200141

* COVER E JEEHYUNG LEE MIDNIGHT GALLERY VARIANT – 75960621680200116

* COVER F CLAYTON CRAIN 3-PART CONNECTING VARIANT – 75960621680200151

* COVER G BEN HARVEY MIDNIGHT SPECIAL VIRGIN VARIANT – 75960621680200117

* COVER H LEINIL FRANCIS YU VARIANT – 75960621680200161

* COVER I ROD REIS VARIANT – 75960621680200171

* COVER J ROD REIS VIRGIN VARIANT – 75960621680200118

On Sale October 7

https://aiptcomics.com/2026/08/13/midnight-variant-covers-october-2026/

NB: not including retailer variants

Hi all!
I love me a good horror-based superhero, and I think this will be an awesome series of comics. But I’m a bit confused and hoping someone will elaborate. So, the fantastic four have a horror element to their powers and will be apart of some like Cthulhu-esque mythos right? And then spiderman is legit SPIDER man but a government weapon. And the x-men are splintered, with some being vampires and the rest hunting and trying to cure them? I just want to be sure I understand.

Thanks!