NEW COMIC BOOK DAY — OCTOBER 7, 2026
It’s Wednesday, which means New Comic Book Day at State of Comics!
And this week is a big one.
Marvel’s brand-new Midnight Universe officially launches today with Midnight Spider-Man #1, Midnight X-Men #1, and Midnight Fantastic Four #1 all hitting the shelves at the same time.
This isn’t Marvel just putting its characters into horror stories. It’s a completely reimagined Marvel Universe where the familiar pieces are there—but things have gone VERY differently.
And apparently readers are interested, because the three launch books combined for more than one million copies ordered before they even hit comic shops.
So let’s start there.
WELCOME TO THE MARVEL MIDNIGHT UNIVERSE
This is a brand-new universe, and Marvel is doing something pretty interesting with it.
Midnight Spider-Man, Midnight X-Men, and Midnight Fantastic Four are three separate series, but they exist in the same world. Bleeding Cool's early look at the books has already found connections between them, with Oscorp, mutant experimentation, vampires, HAMMER, and some much stranger things beginning to paint a picture of what happened to this version of the Marvel Universe.
Basically, Marvel took the characters you know and asked:
What if their origins were horror stories?
And judging by what we're seeing in these first issues, Marvel isn't playing it safe.
MIDNIGHT SPIDER-MAN #1
This is definitely NOT your normal Peter Parker origin.
Phillip Kennedy Johnson and ScieTronc turn Spider-Man into full-on body horror.
In this universe, Oscorp is experimenting with ways to achieve eternal life when Peter is transformed into a grotesque human/spider hybrid. And instead of stopping after Peter, Oscorp realizes his mutation could be the key to creating even more human-animal hybrids.
So Peter has a choice.
Try to get his humanity back—or embrace the monster he's becoming and use it to stop Oscorp.
There are still pieces of Spider-Man that you'll recognize. Peter. Uncle Ben. Oscorp. Even familiar characters beginning to appear around him.
But the actual idea of becoming Spider-Man?
It's horrifying.
Which, when you really think about getting bitten by a radioactive spider and having your entire body mutate, probably makes a lot of sense.
MIDNIGHT X-MEN #1
Jonathan Hickman is back writing X-Men.
And his version of this world is already nuts.
There are mutants. Vampires. Mutant vampires. Human factions. Religious factions. Entire mutant and Empyres - Mutant Vampires!
And somehow they're all trying not to kill each other.
The really interesting part is that Midnight X-Men isn't starting at the beginning like Spider-Man. We're entering a world where something went very wrong years ago and we're slowly figuring out what happened.
One of the biggest pieces appears to go all the way back to a classic X-Men story involving Storm and Dracula.
Longtime X-Men readers may remember Dracula trying to turn Storm into his vampire bride decades ago.
In this universe?
Things seem to have gone VERY differently.
Now there's an uneasy peace between mutants and vampires that's starting to fall apart, and humans are stuck directly in the middle.
Hickman doing X-Men again was already enough to get my attention.
Hickman doing vampire X-Men?
Yeah. I'm in.
MIDNIGHT FANTASTIC FOUR #1
Of the three Midnight books, this might have the biggest horror potential.
Because when you actually think about the Fantastic Four's origin, it's already terrifying.
Four people go somewhere humans aren't supposed to go.
Something happens to them.
And they come back...different.
Benjamin Percy and Kev Walker take that idea and push it into body horror and cosmic horror.
This version of Reed Richards is an obsessive scientist chasing something he probably should have left alone. His experiments eventually bring Sue, Johnny, and Ben into something none of them fully understand, leaving all four physically changed by forces they weren't prepared for.
And the deeper Reed looks into what happened, the bigger the questions become.
There are hints of hidden dimensions, atomic-age experiments, and things existing outside our reality.
And without getting too far into spoiler territory, one look at the issue suggests Marvel is going MUCH further into Lovecraftian/cosmic horror than I expected.
This isn't just "scary Fantastic Four."
It's starting to look like Marvel is rebuilding the mythology of the Fantastic Four around the idea that maybe humanity was better off not discovering what's out there.
I like that. A lot.
AND THE MIDNIGHT UNIVERSE IS JUST GETTING STARTED
This might be the most interesting part.
These aren't three random horror miniseries that happen to release in October.
Marvel is building an actual shared universe.
There are already clues connecting the books, and Marvel has stories planned beyond these opening issues.
We're going to learn more about Oscorp's experiments, the history between mutants and vampires, what happened to Reed Richards, and exactly what kind of world these characters are living in.
And some of the early details are completely insane.
I'm not going to spoil everything.
But Marvel has my attention.
Three books.
Three brand-new #1s.
One completely new Marvel Universe.
If you've ever wanted to read Marvel but didn't want to figure out decades of continuity, this is about as clean of a starting point as you're going to get.
SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH #1
This one couldn't have arrived at a better time.
Sabrina Spellman is back in a brand-new ongoing series just a few weeks before Halloween.
Sabrina has recently discovered the truth about her magical birthright and is still trying to figure out the whole "being a witch" thing while also dealing with the considerably less magical problem of being 16 years old.
Then Salem drops a mythical trickster on her doorstep.
Because apparently regular teenage problems weren't enough.
Corinna Bechko and Kano are launching a new era for Sabrina that mixes the magic, mischief, school, Salem, and supernatural chaos you'd expect from the character.
And again: new #1, new ongoing series, easy place to start.
G.I. JOE: A REAL AMERICAN HERO / TOMB RAIDER #1
Okay.
This is pretty cool.
Lara Croft is going to Cobra Island.
For the first time ever, Tomb Raider and G.I. Joe are crossing over in a new five-issue miniseries from Kyle Higgins and Elena Casagrande.
Lara is searching for a treasure that's been hidden on Cobra Island for decades. To get it, she's going to need Shipwreck and several squads of Joes.
Unfortunately, Destro and Baroness are looking for the exact same thing.
Honestly, that's enough for me.
It's Lara Croft raiding Cobra Island with G.I. Joe.
Sometimes the pitch sells itself.
SOMETHING IS KILLING THE CHILDREN #50
50 issues.
That's a pretty big deal for any modern comic, and especially for a creator-owned horror series.
James Tynion IV and Werther Dell'Edera bring Erica Slaughter back to the present day following the events of the Tribulation storyline.
Erica is dealing with the aftermath of her encounter with Cutter and Gabi's death, and she's now on the run from the Order.
With nowhere else to go, she heads back to the Valmont Mountain Lodge, a place with major connections to her past.
But she's not going to be alone when she gets there.
If you've been reading Something Is Killing the Children, this is a milestone issue AND the beginning of the next chapter for Erica.
BATMAN #14
The Bad Seeds storyline continues this week.
Poison Ivy and the bloom are still threatening Gotham, and Batman is running out of time to find a way to stop it before morning.
His search leads him to the one person who may actually have the answers he needs.
Meanwhile, Verity Pennyworth is back at Wayne Manor dealing with problems of her own—and apparently some people are about to learn that attacking Wayne Manor was a REALLY bad idea.
Matt Fraction continues his Batman run with Matteo Scalera on art.
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #24
And we've got another big chapter of Absolute Superman this week.
Superman's search for Brainiac continues, but he's going to need some help.
Enter Steel.
Jason Aaron continues the Get Brainiac storyline with the Absolute Universe's version of Steel finally suiting up.
We've talked a lot about DC's Absolute books in these weekly posts because they're still one of the easiest ways to jump into these characters without worrying about decades of continuity.
You know Superman.
You know Steel.
You probably don't know THESE versions of them.
That's the fun part.
AND THERE'S A LOT MORE THIS WEEK
Those are just some of the books hitting the shelves today.
We've also got new issues and series from Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, BOOM!, Dynamite, Oni Press, and more.
And with three Midnight #1s, Sabrina returning, Lara Croft invading Cobra Island, and Something Is Killing the Children reaching #50, October is starting off pretty strong.
We're not trying to tell you about every single comic that came through the door.
We want to show you a few books you might actually want to READ.
DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START?
Ask us.
Seriously.
Three of the biggest Marvel books this week are literally brand-new #1s in a brand-new universe. Sabrina is starting a new ongoing. G.I. Joe/Tomb Raider is starting a five-issue miniseries.
You don't need to know 60 years of history to read comics.
Tell us what you like, and we'll help you find something.
Superheroes. Horror. Sci-fi. Fantasy. Crime. Manga. Something completely weird.
We'll point you in the right direction.
SEE WHAT'S NEW
Check out all of this week's New Comics at StateofComics.com, or come into the shop and check out the wall.
Honestly, that's still more fun.
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New comics every Wednesday. See you at the shop.