Marvel Comics has a wide array of supernatural-themed heroes, and over the years many of them have come together time and time again under the banner of the team known as the Midnight Sons.
Comprised of heroes such as Strange, Ghost Rider, Blade and Morbius, along with other characters such as Daimon Hellstrom, Man-Thing, Moon Knight and many more who have joined their ranks over the years, the Midnight Sons remain the Marvel’s first line of defense against the darkest supernatural and occult threats the Multiverse has to offer, even during their long periods of dormancy.
Now, Marvel is teaming up with video game developers XCOM Firaxis to launch Midnight Suns, a game based on the general concept of a Marvel Heroes supernatural team, but this time incorporating some of Marvel’s most well-known non-supernatural characters considering of their own magical twists and turns. .
The game features a roster of Marvel heroes including Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, Magik, Doctor Strange, Blade, and Ghost Rider as they unite to take on the “monstrous shadows of the Marvel Universe” in tactical battles turn by turn.
Now that Marvel and Firaxis have assembled a team of supernatural tactical heroes under the Midnight Suns banner for the game, which is set to arrive on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC in the latter half of 2022, delayed from its initial launch in March 2022, it’s time to look into our crystal ball and unravel the mysteries of the Midnight Sons comic book team.
Who are the midnight sons?
The Midnight Sons are one of Marvel’s weirdest superhero teams. Less a team of closely related allies like the Avengers and more a loose collective of heroes who come together for specific goals when the need arises, the Midnight Sons have become one of Marvel’s occult experts over the years. 90.
The Midnight Sons reunited under the leadership of Doctor Strange, who was also the organizer of the similar, loosely associated “non-team” the Defenders. In history Spirits of Vengeance: Rise of the Midnight Sons, which lends its inspiration directly to the game Midnight Suns, Strange discovers the burgeoning threat of the demonic Lilith and her monstrous children the Lilins, as well as a prophecy of nine supernatural heroes who must unite to defeat her.
Strange organizes these nine heroes – Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze (then in human form), Ghost Rider Danny Ketch (the spirit of vengeance at the time), Blade the vampire hunter, Morbius the living vampire, anti-Darkhold mage Victoria Montesi, human occultist Louise Hastings, exorcist / soldier Sam Buchanan, descendant of Dracula Frank Drake and vampiric private investigator Hannibal King – as the Midnight Sons to take on Lilith and her Lilin offspring before they can spill their demonic influence across the Earth.
In Marvel Comics terms, Lilith is adapted from the apocryphal character of the same name from early Christian writings. As in the stories adjacent to the Bible she is from, Marvel’s Lilith claims to be the first wife of Adam, the first human created by God in Christian theology, although in Marvel Comics she claims that she and Adam are survivors of a much more hedonistic world. world that was destroyed before the creation of the Marvel Universe.
However, this is questionable in the Marvel Universe, as its true nature is shrouded in mystery thanks to several conflicting origin stories. What remains consistent across these different stories of Lilith is that she became the wife of a demon – in some accounts, the prominent villain Mephisto – and gave birth to many monstrous children who became known. under the name of Lilin.
Although her initial attempt to bring her demonic offspring to Earth was thwarted by the Midnight Sons, Lilith will continue to be their primary enemy for most of the team’s existence, even going so far as to team up with Zarathos, the infernal entity who gives Ghost Rider the power of the Spirit of Vengeance, and carrying his child.
Midnight Sons in the Marvel Universe
Throughout their initial journey in the anthology title Unlimited Midnight Sons, the squad roster focuses primarily on the Nine, the heroes initially reunited to fight Lilith. However, the inclusion of diametrically opposed characters such as vampires Hannibal King and Morbius alongside Blade the Vampire Hunter meant that the loosely organized team were often at their throats (sometimes literally, with vampirism and all), even in working against Lilith’s greatest threat.
Aside from the initial collective Midnight Sons, hosted by Doctor Strange, there have been a few other incarnations of the team over the years. In history Marvel zombies 4, Morbius reunites Hellstrom, Man-Thing, Werewolf By Night, and the witch Jennifer Kale as the new Midnight Sons to prevent the incursion of undead Marvel heroes from the Marvel Zombies universe, a world overrun with a zombie disease like its name indicates it.
(Incidentally, the Marvel Zombies universe has been shown in the trailers as one of the worlds that will appear in the MCU’s current animated streaming show What If …?).
Following the destruction of the city of Las Vegas, Nevada in history Second civil war, Doctor Strange attempts to resurrect the magically razed place – but inadvertently opens Hell’s Gate in the process, allowing Mephisto to take demonic possession of Strange and several other Marvel heroes who are at the scene.
As a result, Strange’s companion, Wong, and his Talking Astral Dog, Bats, reunite a new Midnight Sons team made up of classic Midnight Sons Blade member Moon Knight in his’ Mr. Appearance of Knight, monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, former wizard Supreme Doctor Voodoo, mutated multiverse guardian The Man-Thing, martial arts master Iron Fist and finally Johnny Blaze / Ghost Rider as leader of the ‘team.
This story, that of 2018 Doctor Strange: Damnation, marked the Midnight Sons’ last big adventure in Marvel Comics, though the cult team remains in the minds of fans of the supernatural wing of publisher, reader, and creator.
With Midnight Suns, the upcoming video game in 2022 – just in time for the team’s 30th anniversary – and key characters like Doctor Strange and Blade either already in the MCU or about to be adapted by Marvel Studios, these fans can just get their wish for a new comic book incarnation of the team ASAP.
Ghost Rider and Doctor Strange, members of Original Midnight Sons, are two of the best supernatural superheroes all time.
