Rise of the Midnight Suns! A dark prophesy and apocalyptic new villains with horrifying powers the likes of which Earth has never faced before ordains a team of MIDNIGHT SUNS to rise and tear @#$% up: Magik, Wolverine, Blade, Spirit Rider & Nico Minoru. But what does this new threat have to do with the Sorcerer Supreme’s past? And why is Strange Academy student Zoe Laveau number one on the Suns’ list? Written by Ethan Sacks, art by Luigi Zagaria, colors by Antonio Fabela, and letters by Joe Sabino.
I have a soft spot for a few things, Marvel Comics wise. One is almost any comic featuring the character Illyana Rasputin aka Magik. The other is an entire comic based around magic superheroes. Ahead of reviewing Midnight Suns #1, I went back and got caught up on Strange Academy, the ongoing series revolving around a school for teen magic superheroes in training. It’s a good thing I did, because the mystery behind this new Midnight Suns series occurs around one student in particular, living zombie Zoe Laveau.
The issue initially begins on the date April 3rd, in the small town of Centerville. A man named Mr. Toker is burning books belonging to the family of a young woman named Mary Beth Zoric.
Mr. Toker says Mary Beth has been doing unholy magic and prepares to kill her with a gun. She tries to beg for her life, but to no avail.
Mr. Toker asks for her last words and she mutters something that causes a black clawed hand to come down from the sky unnoticed by Mr. Toker. He puts the gun against Mary Beth’s head and says God would’ve sent him a sign if she was supposed to be spared. To which Mary or someone else says, “They did.”
Mary Beth has a magical ability that she is being persecuted for, but so far we don’t know the extent of it. Maybe she is a witch that can summon dark entities of some sort. From there, the comic cuts to Strange Academy in New Orleans. Given how former student Emily Bright staged a walkout with some of her classmates in the Strange Academy ongoing series, I am surprised to see the school is still functioning. Maybe this takes place before Emily Bright’s walkout.
Anyway, a scene begins with the living zombie Zoe Laveau loudly dropping a textbook in front of Professor Agatha Harkness’s office with her demon girlfriend Dessy watching. Despite getting a scolding, Zoe grabs Dessy’s hand and runs to class, which has a guest lecture given by vampire hunter Blade.
The lecture is known as “Defense Against Vampires” and begins with Blade stating that he hopes the students retain their lives once the lesson is over. This is both amusing and ironic because some of the students have died only to be brought back to life later.
Thankfully, everyone survives the lesson. However, something strange happens afterwards. Zoe faints and has a dark vision: black clawed shadowy creatures surround a mysterious female figure as well as some civilians. We also get glimpses of a shell-shocked Nico Minoru, civilians running from dark mist, and Spirit Rider, Wolverine, Blade, and Magik battling the shadow creatures.
This vision is presented in a striking two page spread which features most of our heroes looking like a bright, bold last line of defense against darkness. This especially applies to Magik, Spirit Rider, and Wolverine, whose costumes and respective abilities look cool here. I loathe to praise Wolverine, but I must say artist Luis Zagaria and colorist Antonio Fabela make him and the others look great.
Throughout the vision, an eerie voice says, “Do not trust her, she is the bringer of ruin. Either she is vanquished or the world will be. If the Midnight Suns are extinguished here, all is lost. Then we have no choice.” Enhancing the creepiness is Joe Sabino’s lettering, which gives the shadow creature’s voice an oozing and whispery tone.
There is a lot going on here, but the parts of the prophetic vision that stand out most are the dark shadow creatures and the words “Don’t trust her.” The hands of the creatures resemble the clawed hand in the sky from the beginning of the issue. This leads me to wonder if the “her” not to be trusted is Mary Beth and if the Midnight Suns are going to run into her in a later issue.
Following the double page spread, the final part of the vision shows Zoe Laveau in zombie form with a horrifying, hooded creature with a skull face and tusks and dark clawed hands. It tells Zoe to embrace her destiny to wipe out all life, and poor Zoe looks terrified. The hooded creature is probably the ruler of the shadow creatures, but why he wants to use Zoe is yet to be seen.
On that note, Zoe awakens from the vision in the school hallway to find that other students have seen the vision too. We see that students are scared of Zoe before the comic briefly switches to Strange Academy’s faculty in what resembles a faculty kitchen. Zelda Stanton, Nico Minoru, Magik, Doctor Voodoo, and Blade discuss how they and the entire school appear to have seen the vision.
Speaking of Magik, she soon teleports away as Blade urgently asks Doctor Voodoo if the school was the only place where the vision was seen. This question is answered as the comic cuts to multiple locations and characters. Spirit Rider, Sorcerer Supreme Clea, Agatha Harkness, and Doctor Doom have seen the vision too and have very different reactions to it. We also see Magik recruit Wolverine to their cause.
Of all the characters Spirit Rider, Agatha, and Doctor Doom have really interesting reactions. Spirit Rider seems determined to find the cause and protect it, while Doctor Doom wants to do the opposite. Agatha seems to have faced this threat before, so it will be nice to learn what she knows later on down the line.
Concurrently, Zoe is still running through the hallways terrified of the other students’ fear of her. Not even the reassurance of the faculty or the sudden appearance of Wolverine and Magik can calm her down. To be fair, Wolverine unexpectedly teleporting into the room would freak anybody out but I digress.
Just then a snobby looking blonde guy grabs Zoe by her necklace in an attempt to capture her, but ends up tearing it off her and putting Zoe in her zombie form. A moment later, the shadow creatures from the vision show up and a fight starts.
Following that, the next page is a sleek display of our heroes skills and how effective or ineffective they are against the shadow creatures. Magik’s Soulsword effortlessly slices the monsters, but Wolverine and Blade can’t land a hit until the monsters attack them and solidify. Nico Minoru is at a huge disadvantage due to not being able to do much offensive magic without her staff (which was sent into space in the most recent Runaways series).
Suddenly, one of the monsters try to grab Zoe and Spirit Rider Kushala makes a fabulous entrance before Dessy tries and fails to defend Zoe. When Dessy is smacked away, newly assembled Midnight Suns try to launch an all-out attack. Even Wolverine looks decent here, as everybody tries to charge the shadows. Before they can land their attacks, Agatha Harkness appears and takes Zoe away by wrapping her in her purple cloak.
With Zoe gone, the shadow creatures disappear, but they leave behind some dead bodies they brought with them. One of the bodies is identified as Samuel Toker, the man who tried to murder the woman Mary Beth at the beginning of the issue. This adds some weight to my theory about Mary Beth being connected to all this somehow.
For now, the Midnight Suns try to regroup since they know that everyone who saw Zoe’s vision will be after her. Although Wolverine didn’t see it, he is roped into helping because he was in it. At least he gets an amusing bit of dialogue when Nico describes the vision and Wolverine says, “See, this is why nobody likes being around magic people.”
At this point, Nico also reveals that she also saw herself wearing a watch with a date that reads April 8th. If the date shown at the beginning of the comic is any indication, this whole thing has started on April 3rd. Thus, everybody has four days to save the world, but no pressure.
To make matters worse, the issue ends with the unwanted appearance of Doctor Doom, who demands that they hand over Zoe. It’s a good thing Agatha Harkness showed up and took Zoe away when she did. Hopefully, the next issue will show where the pair have gone and have the Midnight Suns knock some sense into Doctor Doom.
Latonya Pennington
Latonya Pennington is a freelance contributor whose comics criticism can be found at Women Write About Comics, Comic Book Herald, Newsarama and Shelfdust, among others.
