WARNING: There are unmarked spoilers on these sheets for all but the most recent comics.
The Midnight Sons, also known as the the Mystic Nine, the Children of Midnight and the Order of the Midnight Sons, is a loose team of supernatural heroes and anti-heroes who occasionally have teamed up to defeat dark and demonic forces. They first appeared in Ghost Rider vol 3 #28 (August 1992) as part of a crossover called "Rise of the Midnight Sons." The crossover was between nearly all of the "Marvel Edge" books at the time, including Ghost Rider, Morbius, Nightstalkers, and Darkhold: Pages from the Book of Sins.
Ironically, their sole book, Midnight Sons Unlimited, wasn't even about the team — it was an anthology book featuring stories about the various characters when they weren't part of the team (aside from when the book was part of a crossover). The book ran from August 1993 to May 1995 and also crossed over with Doctor Strange, Marvel Comics Presents, Blade, and Blaze (a spin-off of Ghost Rider about Johnny Blaze without the Spirit of Vengeance).
Originally, the team consisted of Johnny Blaze, Danny Ketch, Morbius the Living Vampire, the Nightstalkers (Blade, Frank Drake, and Hannibal King), and the Darkhold Redeemers (Sam Buchanan, Victoria Montesi, Louise Hastings, and later Modred the Mystic and Jinx). Doctor Strange assembled the team, but wasn't a part of it until their last crossover, "Siege of Darkness."
After the cancellation of their book (and most of the "Marvel Edge" lineup), the Midnight Sons wouldn't appear again until Marvel Zombies 4 when Morbius assembled his own team of Midnight Sons consisting of himself, Daimon Hellstrom, Jennifer Kale, and Werewolf by Night, to fight against an alternate version of Simon Garth, the Zombie, and stop a zombie virus.
The Midnight Sons returned again when Doctor Strange brought back Las Vegas in the crossover Damnation. In that story, Wong and Doctor Strange's ghost dog Bats assembled a new team of Midnight Sons consisting of Blade, Doctor Voodoo, Elsa Bloodstone, Ghost Rider, Moon Knight, Iron Fist, and Man-Thing. Together, they fought against Mephisto.
A video game based on the team, titled Midnight Suns, was released on Dec 2, 2022.
- Badass Normal:
- Of the original members of the Midnight Sons, the Darkhold Redeemers (Victoria Montesi, Louise Hastings, and Sam Buchanan) had no powers at all.
- Of the team during Damnation, Moon Knight is the only one without powers.
- Bat Family Crossover: This is how most of their appearances happened — their first was a crossover called "Rise of the Midnight Sons" and their latest is one called "Damnation."
- Creepy Cemetery: Their base (when they had a base) was at the Cypress Hills Cemetery.
- Demonic Possession: Morbius ended up being possessed by Lilin blood and killing Louise Hastings during the "Seige of Darkness" crossover.
- Demon Slaying: The group was fated to fight Lilith, who operates through her demonic Lilin children, so this was a given. Blade also gets a demon known as The Taker Of Heads summoned against him.
- Divide and Conquer: Lilith attempts to avert the destined confrontation with the Midnight Sons by hiring the Nightstalkers to take down John Blaze and Ghost Rider before they realize she is their common enemy.
- Hunter of His Own Kind: The first enemy they assemble against is Lilith and her children, the Lilin, who are demons. Daimon Hellstrom just happens to be half-demon.
- Hunter of Monsters: Most members are either this, a supernatural superhero, or an Occult Detective.
- Mental Time Travel: Blade's conscious perception is involuntarily shifted to the distant past while killing the psychically gifted vampire Jared Amundson, but the affect is temporary.
- Occult Detective: Both the Nightstalkers and the Darkhold Redeemers can be considered this or Hunter of Monsters.
- Power at a Price: The Darkhold can tell you anything you want to know...but just reading it will damn your soul. to Chthon. During the "Midnight Massacre" crossover, Louise Hastings (one of the Darkhold Redeemers) eventually decided to save the day by reading the book, but damned her soul in the process.
- Red Herring: A red demon calling itself "Spider-x" while causing havoc in New York is teased to be the result of Spider-man reading the Darkhold. It is the result of reading the Darkhold and Spider-man is the inspiration, but he has nothing to do with the book.
- Supernatural Team: Morbius is the only one who does not specialize in fighting the supernatural in some way or another. Hannibal King, Blade, Ghost Rider(Dan Ketch) and Strange are explicitly supernatural in nature, John Blaze, Montesi, Hastings and Buchanan make use of supernatural tools while Frank Drake is of supernatural heritage, despite lacking any special powers, and has technology designed to detect and detain the paranormal.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Darkhold was the Tome of Eldritch Lore and simply reading it would damn your soul to Chthon.
- Took a Level in Badass: During the course of the story, the Dan Ketch/Noble Kale Ghost Rider's physical strength increases by at least five times and he gains the ability to generate Hellfire potent enough to incinerate the undead, something the John Blaze/Zarathos Ghost Rider needed natural fire to even attempt to do.
- Vampire Hunter: The Nightstalkers specialize in this, of course.
- You Are Not Ready: Dan Ketch/Noble Kale as Ghost Rider are among those prophesied to stand against Lilith but the Caretaker doesn't think they will stand a chance unless they get much tougher than John Blaze was as Ghost Rider. Lilith does indeed acquire the services of Zarathos, whom Blaze could never draw on the full power of as Ghost Rider, but Nobel Kale has grown tough enough by the needed time to fight him to a stalemate.
