Things Get Dangerously Dark For Marvel’s First Family in Midnight Fantastic Four #1 First Look [EXCLUSIVE]

After 80 years in the light, darkness is coming for the heroes of the Marvel Universe. Announced earlier this year, the Midnight Universe will see haunting, dark new versions of some of Marvel’s most beloved and iconic characters and among the first to get the Midnight treatment is the Fantastic Four. Set to release on October 7th, Midnight Fantastic Four is written by Benjamin Percy with art by Kev Walker and will make some major changes to the First Family with things taking a turn into the realm of horror in a way readers have never experienced before — and ComicBook has a new first look.

ComicBook spoke with Percy about the upcoming Midnight Fantastic Four #1 and whatever you’re expecting from a “dark” take on the heroes, you’ll want to go into things with an open mind and maybe even leave the lights on. According to Percy, this new book is an origin story that completely reimagines Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben with new backstories, a “toxic” and complicated new sort of “family” and a big location change that will shift everything. We’re so not ready… but we also can’t wait.

Midnight Fantastic Four Will Go “Dangerously Dark”

ComicBook: When I first read about Midnight Fantastic Four, there were about a thousand questions but when I read someone describing the story as a being told through a more body horror lens, it got me to thinking about how the Fantastic Four has always, to an extent, been a body horror story, just one where the outcome of their transformation is positive. Midnight Fantastic Four is giving the sense that won’t be the case this time. What would you say is the biggest challenge (or opportunity) you faced in taking what’s been a familiar and beloved team and their transformation and taking it in a very different direction?

Benjamin Percy: When people think of the Fantastic Four, they smile. Because there’s a wholesomeness to the series. A big-hearted hopefulness that defines the First Family. Which is why I’m exactly the wrong writer for them in the 616, but the perfect writer for them in the Midnight Universe.

This is an origin story. Reed doesn’t know Sue and Johnny and Ben, and even as their stories intertwine, a very different breed of “family” is born. Far more toxic and complicated. These characters are all facing horrors within that will help them pursue the horrors without. Their backstories are all different, and so are their futures, so whatever you think you know about FF is about to be revised through the lens of cosmic horror.

You’re also giving the characters a location change, from New York to California. Why the switch — and from your perspective, how did you feel that changed the characters?

California is home to many cults (one of which plays an important role in this story) as well as Jack Parsons and the Jet Propulsion Lab (Google it if you want a strange rabbit hole). And California is also the home to the tech giants of Silicon Valley. All of this suits the vibe of Midnight Fantastic Four.

Without spoilers, was there anything you came up with for Midnight Fantastic Four that surprised you in terms of how strange or dark it was — and was there ever a point where you felt maybe you’d gotten too close to the line of what was too much?

When we first spoke to Marvel about the Midnight line, we wanted to make sure we could go seriously, dangerously dark. They said hell yeah. So, there is no line (in the standard sense—we’re not being censored). There’s simply the question of how scary and upsetting we want our stories to be (answer: very).

If you had to offer up some advice to readers before diving into this very different take on Marvel’s First Family, what would it be?

Kev Walker is a genius, and though his art will be the greatest thing you put in your eyeballs this year, I can’t promise they won’t explode from sensory overload.

What, for you as a creator, was the coolest thing about getting to take on this story?

Cthulhu has rewarded me for my service with a throne made of squirming tentacles.

Everything You Need to Know About Midnight Fantastic Four #1

Here’s how Marvel describes Midnight Fantastic Four #1: An obsessive scientist delves into the secrets of the universe perhaps best left unknown to mankind, leaving himself and three others warped in strange and horrifying ways. What horrible secrets lie in the new dimension they have discovered? And can humanity survive the discovery? The series is written by Benjamin Percy with art and cover by Kev Walker. It goes on sale October 7th along with two other Midnight Universe titles, Midnight X-Men and Midnight Spider-Man.