Welcome to Double Take, a column dedicated to highlighting different comics and each’s merits through a discussion between two veterans of the comic site space. One is yours truly, the person behind the Eisner Award-winning SKTCHD, David Harper, and the other is friend of the site and the Eisner Award-winning comics critic Oliver Sava.

It’s a big day for Marvel.

It brings the arrival of Midnight, the publisher’s new, horror-centric, “don’t call it an attempt at Absolutizing their characters” line. All three titles are debuting in comic shops today, and they’re the only new Marvel titles being released. What are they? They’re Jonathan Hickman and Matteo Della Fonte’s Midnight X-Men #1, Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker’s Midnight Fantastic Four #1, and Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc’s Midnight Fantastic Four #1, and near as I can tell, no one knows how to feel about them in advance of their release.

Truth be told, I didn’t know what to expect when I proposed talking about these comics with Oliver Sava, either. They had potential, as they seemed like a real focus and the creators involved were saying all the right things. But the surface level read was uninspired, as they felt like — at least conceptually — stories I’d read before. Could they be much more than that? Could they deliver a game-changer for Marvel, or, at the very least, a trio of good comics?

That’s what we’ll be discussing on Double Take this time, as Oliver and I talk about all three launch titles from the Midnight line. No spoilers for our takes, but I will say this about these books: reading them made me really want to talk about them, and that’s a feeling I haven’t felt from your average Marvel comic in quite some time. I’ll take that at the very least. But, without further ado, let’s get to our thoughts on Marvel’s Midnight line.

David: Oliver, it’s time for what is almost certainly the biggest launch of Marvel’s year. This week brings the debuts of all three Midnight titles and only those three titles, with Jonathan Hickman and Matteo Della Fonte’s Midnight X-Men #1, Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc’s Midnight Spider-Man #1, and Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker’s Midnight Fantastic Four #1 all launching on Wednesday.

I want to talk about the success (or lack thereof, maybe!) of these titles as a whole at the end — I suspect that’s how a lot of the conversation is going to orient, as they’ve been positioned as a collective and are being talked about in such a way as well — but I think it’s only fair to start by discussing them individually and on their own merits. Let’s begin with Midnight X-Men #1, which has the clearest creative hook even if its initial idea seemed a bit more been there, done that than some would prefer. Did Hickman’s return to the X-Men deliver for you?

Oliver: It’s not even a little bit scary, so no. The most important criteria for me with the Midnight line is how much horror does each title deliver, and Midnight X-Men is lacking. Marvel just did a big vampire event with Blood Hunt, and vampires feel like another group of superpowered characters rather than terrifying monsters. Vampires vs. vampire mutants vs. mutants is a fun AU concept, but this first issue doesn’t tap into the psychological aspects that make vampires scary.

Vampire Storm sucking Dark Phoenix’s blood is an intriguing storytelling beat, but it’s not frightening. There’s a sequence in the middle of the issue where vampire Reavers are feasting on human bodies, but it’s just a slightly more gory version of imagery we have seen over and over again. The vampire media that Midnight X-Men reminds me of most is the Underworld film franchise, which leans much more action than horror. Della Fonte and colorist Arthur Hesli make the action look very nice, but it still leans more superhero with thicker shadows. 

Hickman has proven that he can write effective horror with books like The Black Monday Murders and the Krakoa era had its fair share of creepy moments, so I’m going to stick around and see what this team does now that the foundation for this series is set. The cliffhanger suggests that there is carnage on the horizon, but a high body count doesn’t necessarily make something scary.

Am I being too harsh here? Am I just numb to the idea of vampires in a superhero story? Were there parts of this issue that actually freaked you out?

David: This is extremely funny. I feel like this review is going to end up being our biggest divide, and that’s mostly because we were judging these books on completely different criteria. I personally could not care less about how scary these books are. I’m strictly looking at Midnight as architecture for storytelling, with the horror angle being the environment each story takes place in. If I’m scared by it, cool. If not, also cool. My goal is, “Do I think this results in an interesting and unique take on these characters that I find to be an appealing read?”

To which, my answer for Midnight X-Men is a resounding, “Hell yeah.” I loved it. I was one of the people who was wishy-washy on it because it felt like something I’d seen before, but I’ll admit: I was wrong. Something that seemed overly familiar on the surface becomes an incredibly intriguing storytelling landscape thanks to two main additions, and that’s the cold war between Empyres (mutant vampires) and vampires as well as the overlay of the different factions of the Catholic church (which includes Nightcrawler and Magma in a specific sect). It very much is in the House of X school of approach, but those different ingredients completely change the flavor profile.

You’re not wrong that it’s little more than a Red Band-ish feeling issue of a regular X-Men vs. vampires comic in terms of horror content, but I’ll say this: it’s the first issue. Given that Hickman, Della Fonte, and the rest of the team effectively just drop readers into the middle of this story — something I appreciate, as it gives this issue momentum and a sense of urgency from the jump — they had some groundwork to lay before things can get truly freaky.

So, yeah, nothing here scared me, but I also don’t care? This feels like a deeply fascinating twist on a world I know very, very well rather than a retread like it could have been. The greatest compliment I can give this book is I cannot wait for issue #2, which is not something I’ve said about an X-Men comic in a few years.

I know it might be difficult, but outside the lack of scares, does the story intrigue you? Or are you just out on it?