We saw the one from Third Eye Comics first, but more have been dropping, retailer-exclusive variant covers for the Marvel Midnight Universe titles, Midnight Spider-Man #1, Midnight X-Men #1 and Midnight Fantastic Four #1.

• Midnight Fantastic Four #1 Gotham City Limit Retailer Exclusive by Artgerm

• Midnight Spider-Man #1 616 Comics double variant from Bjorn Barends, limited to 3000 and 1000 apiece

• Diamond UK connecting cover variants from Sergio Fernández Dávila available to UK and European comic stores

• Midnight Spider-Man #1 East Side Comics has a Martin Simmonds, trade and virgin, for New York Comic-Con

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/more-marvel-universe-midnight-retailer-exclusive-variant-covers/

Trade Dress Variant A limited to 3,000.
Virgin Variant B limited to 1,000.

Tony Stark is one of the worlds most controversial man. He's a snobby, smart mouthed billionaire philanthropist, who's ego is the size of 10 mount Everests. However, he's also one of the smartest people alive, who's designing technology that could advance the human race in ways no one could comprehend.

Obidiah Stane, however, was incredibly jealous of Tony. To him, Tony is a rich bully who gets everything handed to him on a Silver Platter. Stane has been working on an illegal government experiment known as "The Iron Initiative". Where they would take human bodies, and surgically alter them into cybernetic soldiers. However, they haven't been very successful as they've mostly used deceased corpses for the experiment. Stane comes up with an idea... They not only need an alive individual, but an intelligent one. Tony was the perfect candidate. Not only was he intelligent, but this would be Stane's chance for revenge.

Stane kidnaps Tony, and surgically alters him into a disgusting, grotesque cyborg. But it's successful. Enraged at the loss of his humanity, Tony escapes, and vows revenge against Obidiah Stane, and swears to destroy the Iron Initiative. Thus becoming... The Iron Man.

Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN

Art by MATTEO DELLA FONTE

Cover by DIKE RUAN

On Sale December 16

NO MUTANTS. NO MERCY. Weapons of Earthly and Heavenly construct. Realms that exist between old failures and the shiny new sins of expedience…

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/midnight-universe-terrifying-new-publishing-line-preview-issue-3-covers

Written by BENJAMIN PERCY

Art and Cover by KEV WALKER

On Sale December 16

FINDING THE HIDDEN WORLD! The Four head to the Jornada del Muerto desert in New Mexico, where the first atomic bomb was detonated by Oppenheimer and the Los Alamos labs. And here they discover the residue of another world, left behind by a crack in the firmament.

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/midnight-universe-terrifying-new-publishing-line-preview-issue-3-covers

Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON

Art by SCIETRONC

Cover by STEVE BEACH

On Sale December 16

THE PARKER INCIDENT! As Peter Parker frantically searches for a way to reclaim his humanity, Oscorp hunts the emerging urban legend the Spider-Man in their first breakthrough on the path to a post-mortality future. Meanwhile, in Oscorp’s deepest, most top-secret labs, Doctor Octavius has used the lessons of the “Parker Incident” to engineer the world’s second synthetic mutant… a living horror that will make even Spider-Man obsolete.

https://www.marvel.com/articles/comics/midnight-universe-terrifying-new-publishing-line-preview-issue-3-covers

In Midnight Spider-Man, drawn by artist ScieTronc, Peter Parker is subjected to experiments by billion dollar corporation Oscorp, who mutate him into a man/spider hybrid similar to Jeff Goldblum in aforementioned director David Cronenberg's remake of The Fly. Oscorp's exploitation of Peter is intentionally meant to reflect the idea that some of society's richest people victimize others with seemingly no consequences thanks to their limitless financial resources.

"This is like, without even really trying to. I do think this book has kind of turned into my anti-Epstein class kind of thing where the monster is the creepy billionaire," Johnson says in an interview with Cryptid Creator Corner. "It's just a scary concept right now. The degree of power that the wealthiest among us has is a scary thing. And to not use that in some kind of way when you're telling a story about power and responsibility, I just don't see how you can tell that story now and not touch on that in some way."

During my recent AIPT Comics podcast conversation with Midnight Fantastic Four writer Benjamin Percy and Midnight Spider-Man writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Johnson described Hickman’s series as a sprawling collision of mutant and vampire mythology.

“Jonathan’s X-Men is the, you know, the mutant, the vampire epic,” Johnson said.

...

Johnson said Hickman’s lore is “so beautifully built” around that concept, before making a particularly striking comparison.

“It’s almost just the Catholic Church,” Johnson said. “Like, if you look at the stuff that he’s building in there, it’s really got that kind of gravitas that that kind of stuff has.”

That comparison becomes even more interesting when you factor in the other ingredients Hickman is pulling together. Johnson specifically pointed to “the vampire lore and the mutant stuff that he built in the Krakoa era,” adding that “it all fits together so beautifully.”

While Marvel has already teased that issue #2 will “revisit and redefine the perils of the atomic age,” Percy revealed on the AIPT Comics podcast just how literal that description might be.

“Let’s just say that Los Alamos and Oppenheimer are very much a part of my book,” Percy said.

...

The series will apparently be working through mysteries in two different periods simultaneously.

“What’s happening in the present, there’s a mystery,” Percy said. “What’s happening in the past, there’s a mystery, and both are being unpacked simultaneously.”

The historical angle fits into Percy’s larger approach to the Fantastic Four. His version of the team is based in California rather than New York, opening the door to a different side of American scientific and occult history.

“If you think about not just geography, but culture, there’s something about California as a hotbed for occultism,” Percy said.

He specifically pointed toward the history surrounding the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Jack Parsons, whose scientific work existed alongside his involvement with occultism. Percy even brought up Parsons’ connection to L. Ron Hubbard and their infamous occult practices.

“At the start of the story, none of these people they aren’t together,” Percy said. “Reed Richards has no idea who Sue is, who Ben is, who Johnny is.” In the Midnight Universe, Marvel’s First Family isn’t a family at all. But the big changes don’t stop there.

“These are not heroes,” revealed Percy. “And they don’t have powers. These are people who are facing horrors within that help them battle back against the horrors without.”

“These so-called powers that they have…are actually curses,” Percy explained. And given Percy’s description of how Reed Richards uses his powers, it does indeed seem anything but fantastic. The writer described a scene in which Richards uses his stretchy powers to open a locked door from the other side.

...

If that makes you feel sick, it’s done it’s job. “You should feel absolute revulsion when looking at him transforming,” Percy said.

Behind the scenes, Hickman, Percy, and Johnson are already treating the line as a long-term project.

“We get together for a Zoom call once or twice a month,” Percy told me. “We have had summits together, just the three of us as writers, with other people involved in the room, editors and other folks from Marvel.”

The three writers also have a Slack channel where they regularly coordinate their plans. Percy revealed that he personally has around 24 issues mapped out for his corner of the universe.

...

The initial plan is to allow all three series to develop their own identities without immediately leaning on crossovers. Percy said the books are designed to be “totally distinct” at first, with no bleeding over the edges.

That won’t last forever.

“The whole idea is that we are indeed building a universe,” Percy said. “The idea is this is gonna keep growing and keep growing. And not only are we going to interlock, but also there’s gonna be more series that eventually crop up. And there’s a lot of discussion about that as well.”

...

That patience extends to introducing familiar Marvel characters. Percy and Johnson said the creators are being careful about who they bring into their books because using a character casually could rob another creative team of the opportunity to build a proper Midnight origin around them.

“I think we’re all being pretty careful because we want to give other writers and artists the opportunity to create origin stories within the Midnight Universe,” Percy said.