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Superstar X-Men writer Jonathan Hickman is returning to Marvel's mutants under the banner of Marvel Midnight, creating a horror-focused take on the team as part of the Marvel Midnight line, which grew out of a planning meeting with outgoing Marvel president Dan Buckley in which the pair discussed what kind of new initiative might land best with Marvel's audience.

"It kind of came out of a brainstorming session with Dan Buckley, and we just were kind of like, what would we like to do? What do we feel like could move the needle?" Hickman states in an interview with The Beat from Comic-Con International: San Diego.

Related: How to read the Marvel Midnight line in order

"And I was like, 'Look, I'm not I'm not the best horror writer or anything like that, but I feel like if we did it like a true horror line of Marvel Comics, and we did it the way that Marvel does things where we were top down, you know, we do the biggest stuff first and then we we grow it out of that," he continues. "It could be really successful.' And then he was like, 'Well, who all could we get?' And I was like, 'We should get [Philip Kennedy Johnson]. We should get [Benjamin Percy].' And they said yes, which is awesome. And then now they're writing me under the table."

Marvel Midnight will launch with three initial titles, Hickman and artist Matteo Della Fonte's Midnight X-Men, Midnight Spider-Man by Johnson and artist ScieTronc, and Midnight Fantastic Four by Percy and artist Kev Walker. Buckley previously called Marvel Midnight "the birth of a new universe," with Marvel comparing the burgeoning line to the Ultimate Universe which Buckley recently brought to a close.  

In Midnight X-Men, mutants and vampires exist in eternal competition, while Midnight Fantastic Four takes the Richards family into a dimension of nightmares, and Midnight Spider-Man turns Peter Parker into a monstrous test subject for OsCorp. All three titles will debut on October 7.

Interested? Here's where to find your closest local comic store, courtesy of Sweet, and here's a guide to how (and where) to read comics online. If you're looking for the best comics in recent memory, check out the Eisner Awards winners and the Harvey Awards nominees. And if you like free comics, here's everything we know about Free Comic Book Day 2027.