REVIEW: ‘Midnight: Fantastic Four’ Issue 1

Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1 is published by Marvel Comics. Written by Benjamin Percy, art by Kev Walker, colors by Frank D’Armata and letters by Joe Sabino.

At the start of a new horror-based universe in Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1, Reed Richards tinkers with doorways to another dimension. The Fantastic Four are usually among the first heroes introduced when a new universe is created, but not usually in a world quite as disturbing as this one.

The Midnight Universe is a new, horror-led alternate reality where the characters’ origins are much more disturbing. There are many elements of Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1 that are similar to a modern-day Fantastic Four story. But there are immediate flashes of disturbing images, and there is an unsettling beginning, all based around Reed Richards.

Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1 has Reed thrown out of his job at a university from the get-go, hinting at troubled experiments. And in the next scene, one of those experiments blows up. The comic moves slowly, but nothing is wasted. All of it is designed to gradually immerse the reader into a dark version of a story told several times before. This is only the introduction of a journey, and the initial glimpses are horrifying.

The characters are intriguing, largely because many of them aren’t likable yet. Reed is the focal character, and the first selection of pages focuses explicitly on him. He’s haunted by frightening visions, cowardly and addicted to pills. From that point on, it’s clear things are about to go wrong. The hero is therefore unstable, which helps make him fascinating.

Sue Storm is a rich, manipulative woman, Johnny is a traumatized, secluded pilot, and Ben is a rough thug. These significant deviations from figures that are so well known can be jarring, and that’s entirely the point of Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1. And their unlikability makes it easier to accept bad things happening to them.

The art is fantastic and unsettling. There is a remarkable change in Reed between before the major incident and after. Before, he looks relatively young, but the trauma aged him and converted him into an older figure, with the famous graying temples. Sue also looks older than Reed, with very big hair. Ben is bald and muscular, but looks much meaner than the ever-lovin’ version we all know and love. Even Johnny looks vacant.

Nothing in Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1 could be considered beautiful, and that’s a testament to the horrific universe Walker is helping to design. What happens to Victor Von Doom is intriguing because it’s one of the first times ever that his scarred face is revealed, and Walker goes above and beyond delivering the damage.

Then there is the imagery. It’s very difficult to pull off jump scares in comics, and yet Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1 pulls it off several times. Sudden expressions of gore and tendrils begin to instill an Eldritch quality to the comic, culminating in one glorious redesign.

The colors stay calm until they’re needed to drag the story in several creepy directions. The other dimension Reed is obsessed with always brings a deep purple, while Latveria is shrouded in a mad-science radioactive green from the castle to the sky. Jonathan Hickman had a major hand in crafting this universe, and you can see it in the uniform lettering associated with his projects.

Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1 adds a Lovecraftian twist to a family so entwined with space exploration. It’s a new level of cosmic horror, adding the science-fiction qualities of Reed Richards to generate curiosity. These flickers of what’s to come should be warnings, but instead everyone involved is committed to tearing open a gateway.

Of all Marvel characters, the Fantastic Four may be the least associated with horror. But the connections can still be made because of the devotion to discovery within Reed. The only thing that could make the comic more complete would be making the characters more likable, but it’s not wholly necessary. 

Midnight: Fantastic Four Issue 1 is available where comics are sold.