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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.'"

Marvel Midnight is an out-and-out horror line, putting nightmarish twists on popular Marvel heroes, starting with three titles, Midnight Spider-Man, Midnight X-Men, and Midnight Fantastic Four. Each title features a new take on its lead characters, with Midnight Spider-Man taking a body horror approach, while Midnight X-Men pits the mutant team against bloodthirsty vampires, and Midnight Fantastic Four delves into cosmic horror.

Ross' concept seems to be slightly similar in its darker edge, but without having seen the entire comic, his world seems more like a villainous take on Marvel characters rather than a full-on horror comic. Still, Ross sees it as an extension of a phenomenon he's often experienced in his career in which one of his own ideas will coincide with a parallel concept that has some similarities, but which was developed independently without knowledge of Ross' plans.

"I know that the brass that I regularly meet with, which included up until the last meeting we had, [former editor-in-chief] CB Cebulski and [executive editor] Tom Brevoort, who's generally considered the man of all encompassing Marveldom, and other Marvel people. The top legal person and so on. Nobody's mentioning that thing to me even though I had made sure," Ross says. "You've gotta make sure nobody's doing exactly this kind of thing over there that I don't want to get tripped up with. You've got two people developing the same concept at the same time. And I know there's no intent on this part. Nobody's copying me, but what has been a constant experience in my life is the zeitgeist. Two things occurring that had never happened before are suddenly coming together at the exact same moment."

Ross refers back to the 1992-3 release of Peter David and Ariel Olivetti's Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect, which shows the last Avengers story as the team battles the Hulk in his fully evolved, villainous Maestro form, which he compares to his own Kingdom Come, created alongside writer Mark Waid. Published a few years later but developed in parallel to Future Imperfect, Kingdom Come tells the story of the old guard of DC heroes coming out of retirement to put a stop to the vicious ways of a younger, edgier generation of vigilantes.

Marvel Dimensions is due out on September 1.

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