Three of Marvel’s most horrifying heroes, Morbius, Ghost Rider, and Blade came together for the darkest crossover of the 90s.
Marvel’s horror heroes are typically some of its most solitary. Characters like Ghost Rider and Blade typically aren’t the type to join teams like the Avengers, but in the 1990s, when many of them were at the heights of their popularity, they formed a team of their own. The Midnight Sons was an alliance of Marvel’s darkest anti-heroes and despite their relatively short time together the concept of these unholy warriors banding together is one that still fascinates fans.
The team was first brought together in the “Rise of the Midnight Sons” crossover event by a variety of creators including Howard Mackie, Joe Kubert, and Andy Kubert. Unlike many crossovers, the event only featured issues from one established series, Ghost Rider, and was used to launch four new titles, featuring the first issues of Ghost Rider/Blaze: Spirits of Vengeance, Morbius: The Living Vampire, Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins, and Nightstalkers.
The event revolved around the return of Lilith, Mother of Demons, who had been imprisoned for thousands of years by Atlantean sorcerers. After escaping, Lilith planned to open a dimensional rift so she and her children, the Lilin, could conquer the world. In order to defeat her, Doctor Strange secretly began manipulating events to unite the Mystic Nine, a group of warriors who together would possess a power capable of stopping Lilith. The Mystic Nine were the first Midnight Sons, although they were seldom actually referred to by that name in-universe. The Ghost Rider of the time was Danny Ketch but after a battle with his archenemy Blackout (who is revealed to be a grandchild of sorts to Lilith) he was deadly injured and the Ghost Rider spirit had to maintain control of their shared body, or Danny would die.
The spirit teamed with Johnny Blaze, himself a former Ghost Rider, to find a way to save Danny and the two of them were the first of the nine to come into conflict with Lilith and her forces. They were eventually joined by Spider-Man’s vampiric enemy Michael Morbius, and the Darkhold Redeemers, Louise Hastings, Sam Buchanan, and Victoria Montesi. The final three members were Blade and his fellow monster hunters Frank Drake and Hannibal King. Doctor Strange freed Blade from a mental institution after which he, Drake, and King formed the Nightstalkers. Lilith was briefly able to trick them into battling Blaze and the Rider, but when they learned the truth they joined forces with the others. Strange teleported the nine to Greenland for a final battle with Lilith and the Lilin, during which Ghost Rider was able to reverse the dimensional rift, exiling and greatly weakening the demons.
The Midnight Sons were given their own publishing imprint, with issues in the respective series marked by a distinct symbol and there was tight continuity between titles, with the characters also appearing in the Midnight Sons Unlimited anthology series. Strange eventually joined the team in an official capacity along with a few other additional characters but the line began to falter after its third major crossover “Siege of Darkness” in which the Midnight Sons battled a returned Lilith and Zarathos. Following “Siege of Darkness” several of the series were canceled, leading to the end of the separate imprint, although the surviving titles continued as regular Marvel titles. Marvel Zombies 3 and 4 both featured a new version of the team native to the franchise’s alternate universe. Various later Marvel stories have reunited the 616 team and formed new versions of it, but they have not received a separate series of their own.
Despite being rather short, the Midnight Sons era is fondly remembered by fans, and with several of the characters prominent or on the verge of prominence in Marvel films and television series, some even hope that a live-action adaptation could be possible in the future. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is rumored to blend horror influences with Marvel’s usual aesthetic and Mahershala Ali will be appearing as Blade in the MCU. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series featured the Robbie Reyes version of Ghost Rider, played by Gabriel Luna, in a guest role and confirmed the existence of at least one other unidentified Rider. Likewise, Jared Leto is set to star as Morbius in a solo film within the Spider-Man franchise that seems to have at least an overt MCU connection.
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