After much anticipation, the Midnight line for Marvel Comics has arrived. This week saw the launch of Midnight X-Men, Midnight Fantastic Four, and Midnight Spider-Man. With fan-favorite creators — Jonathan Hickman, Ben Percy, and Phillip Kennedy Johnson — in charge of the titles, the books are given creative freedom similar to the DC Absolute line. The Midnight books are outside of continuity and aim for a fresh take on favorite superhero teams. Jonathan Hickman’s return to the X-Men franchise was especially heralded, given that Hickman gave fans an exciting era full of reinvention and lasting consequences with the Krakoan Age.
From the first promotional images and true to what fans encountered in the first issue, Midnight X-Men takes place in a world among warring factions of humans, mutants, vampires, and empyres (mutant vampires). The swashbuckling Nightcrawler returns to his previous status quo — Midnight X-Men #1 finds him back in the Catholic church meeting with Reverend Stryker — as he’s pulled between his faith and mutantkind, including his friend Storm, who is currently an empyre. As the promo materials tease, the first issue shows Storm biting Jean Grey, presumably Dark Phoenix at the time.
The remaining X-Men featured in the comic are scattered. The New Mutant Magma is part of Nightcrawler’s church as Sister Aquilla. Havok is part of the House of X along with Polaris, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Toad, and Magneto. Gambit, Psylocke, Empath, and Glob are empyres fighting against reaver vampires. Cyclops is in a familiar position as supposedly the last X-Man. In a move dreadfully familiar to X-Men fans, there’s also a redhead in the center of it. A redhead who, after being saved by Cyclops, reveals her name as Hope.
Hope Summers, the host of the Phoenix Force while Jean was dead in the late 2000s and early 2010s, can feel tied to that era. She’s responsible for the great Messiah Complex storyline, which followed the catastrophic decimation, along with the controversial Avengers vs. X-Men crossover. While the Krakoan Age found her a new niche as spokesperson for the five in charge of resurrection, her appearance in Midnight X-Men can’t help but feel like going back.
Midnight X-Men Builds on What’s Already Been Done
While Midnight X-Men may be the first time the X-Men have explicitly leaned into horror as a brand, it is far from the first time there have been vampires in the story. X-Men has often used vampires as villains. Selene is a metaphorical vampire, absorbing the others’ life essence to stay functionally immortal, while the villain Emplate literally feeds on mutants’ bone marrow.
In the Mutant X Universe, several of the X-Men were turned into vampires, including team leader Storm, by the infamous Dracula. Storm was able to break free from Dracula’s control but had gained vampiric abilities from her transformation, such as shapeshifting and a hypnotic gaze. Bloodstorm also appears in the 2010s X-Men Blue run, where she and a time-displaced teen Cyclops developed feelings for each other.
A strength of Midnight X-Men is this building on what’s already been done, calling back not only to Bloodstorm but to the iconic graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills. The inclusion of the Reavers feels timely — they’ve consistently shown up in X-Men comics this year with the Cyclops mini-series and McKay’s X-Men — and the decision to make them vampires adds a new layer to their characters. Unlike Midnight Spider-Man or Midnight Fantastic Four, this isn’t a ground-up reimagining but X-Men but with a vampiric conversion in their timeline.
The Hope-Jean Trap
Still, having Jean be presumably dead and thus finding hope in Hope Summers feels stuck in a way that the other threads of Midnight X-Men don’t. Hope Summers was killed off in the main timeline relatively recently, having sacrificed herself to revive the Phoenix Force towards the end of the Krakoan Age.
Since then, she’s stayed dead, making only a temporary appearance in Stephanie Phillips’ Phoenix run alongside the other hosts of the Phoenix Force. The Krakoan Age further fleshed out Hope Summers’ mixed feelings about her role as the mutant messiah. Representing the Five, along with the newer generation of mutants on the Quiet Council, made it feel like the character was progressing forward.
The first issue of Midnight X-Men ends with Cyclops and Hope parting ways. Cyclops isn’t hopeful about the future of mutants, likely blaming himself for Jean’s death or the death of somebody else. The story could easily lean into Hope being the next mutant messiah, but unlike the last time, there’s nobody sworn to protect her. There’s no Cable, at least not yet.
Reinventing Hope
In the altered timeline of Midnight X-Men — a world where the Dark Phoenix Saga and, to some extent, House of M have happened — where does the Phoenix Force come into it? The Phoenix, after decades of new lore and retcons, has become synonymous with the X-Men and with mutantkind. Avengers vs. X-Men proved Cyclops right in that the return of the Phoenix was essential for the survival of mutants as a species.
Midnight X-Men stresses that the peace must hold, which, to any reader, is a major giveaway that it cannot hold. With this, Hickman has an opportunity to reinvent Hope, whether by showing Hope strike out on her own without the protective shadow of Cable or by creating a new kind of Phoenix Force, one that challenges death and rebirth in a world where the rules don’t apply as strictly, given the abundance of vampires and empyres. Hope Summers has the potential to be a great character again, given that she isn’t placed once again into the box of being Jean’s replacement.
What were your thoughts on Midnight X-Men? Let us know in the comments!