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Marvel Midnight brings a new kind of horror to Marvel Comics, moving away from the publisher's classic monsters toward something far more visceral and disturbing, a choice that Midnight X-Men writer Jonathan Hickman says Marvel is only encouraging.

"We're not getting a lot of pushback," Hickman tells The Beat in an interview conducted at Comic-Con International: San Diego. "They're like keep pushing further and all of that kind of stuff. So yeah, the company seems like they're on board."

That extends to everyone from top Marvel Studios executives Kevin Feige and Brad Winderbaum to new Marvel editor-in-chief Steve Wacker, all of whom Hickman states he's spoken with. That's probably a good thing, as Midnight Spider-Man writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson is specifically aiming to capture the spirit of some of the most gruesome, skin-crawling horror movies of all time.

"We've seen such creative takes and things like the Ultimate Universe. I've seen variations on themes done so effectively," he states. "And as soon as I heard about the Midnight Universe and what we were just thinking about doing, I could not have been more excited. It's something that, it's just where my heart lies, to be able to take a character like Spider-Man and do a variation on that theme through kind of a [David Cronenberg] or John Carpenter lens. This is exactly what I want to do."

Director David Cronenberg is perhaps best known for The Fly, his fleshpeeling remake of the '50s cult classic about a man whose DNA is spliced with that of a housefly during a science experiment. Cronenberg's version is one of the most famous examples of the body horror genre, something Johnson is leaning into with his take on Peter Parker who is transforming into a spider-like creature.

Midnight X-Men #1 by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Matteo Della Fonte goes on sale October 7 alongside Midnight Spider-Man #1 and and Midnight Fantastic Four #1.

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