Every Comics Character In The Marvel's Midnight Suns Trailer
Firaxis Games has released the first trailer for "Marvel's Midnight Suns," set to debut in March 2022. The game will feature a dozen Marvel heroes alongside a customizable original character called the Hunter, who is deeply connected to the game's central antagonist, Lilith, the Mother of Demons (the Hunter is Lilith's daughter). The game is a loose adaptation of the 1992 team-up crossover "Rise of the Midnight Sons" by Richard Case, Dan G. Chichester, Christian Cooper, Ron Garney, Len Kaminski, Andy Kubert, Howard Mackie, and Ron Wagner. In the original comic story, Doctor Strange has to put together a team to defeat Lilith.
That team consisted of nine beings with ties to magical realms, loosely collected as the Midnight Sons (later the Order of the Midnight Sons), with the initial purpose of opposing Lilith and her demonic spawn, the Lilin. The game alters "sons" to "suns" and brings some of the Marvel universe's more popular heroes into the fold, but otherwise the premise is similar. With all that in mind, here's a breakdown of all the main Marvel characters spotted in the "Marvel's Midnight Suns" trailer.
Captain America
The first hero seen in the trailer is one not traditionally associated with magic or the occult: Captain America (specifically the Steve Rogers version). The first Avengers member, Rogers was as a soldier in World War II before volunteering for Project Rebirth, which saw him injected with Dr. Abraham Erskine's Super Soldier Serum. The only one of its kind, the serum enhanced Rogers' physical attributes to superhuman levels, including agility, reflexes, stamina, and strength. He was also given a disk-shaped shield made of a Vibranium-proto-Adamantium steel alloy with aerodynamic properties, nigh-indestructibility, easy utility as an effective weapon.
Rogers was frozen in ice during a battle against the Red Skull — and although he was long presumed dead, he was instead effectively in suspended animation thanks to his serum-enhanced body. In the comics, he was discovered by Namor the Sub-Mariner and thawed, to be revived by the newly formed Avengers. Captain America has fought against all sorts of villains, from Nazis to rogue super-soldiers and aliens, but at no point has he ever been a member of the Midnight Sons. He's faced enemies of the more supernatural or magical variety before, however — such as Dormammu and the Serpent — and at the trailer's end he's seen sporting gold-tinted armor and a shield adorned with mystical symbols.
Iron Man
Another of the first heroes we see in the trailer is Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, a brilliant inventor, industrialist, and weapons manufacturer who builds (among other things) a succession of Iron Man suits. Each suit is capable of flight, augments Tony's strength, resiliency, and defense, and gives him a variety of powers and capabilities to fight various foes in specific contexts. As Iron Man, Tony became a foundational member of the Avengers (though, like Captain America, he was never a member of the Midnight Sons in their brief comics run).
Iron Man has developed suits for other heroes, most notably James Rhodes' War Machine armor and Peter Parker's Iron Spider suit. Most importantly, his endless capacity for tinkering has produced an exhaustive array of powerful suits for every situation one can think of, from his Hydro Armor to his Silver Centurion Armor and even his famous Hulkbuster suit. While Iron Man isn't typically the first call against magical enemies, he has developed armors for the task. His Thorbuster Model 23 armor is powered by Asgardian crystal, infusing it with magical energy, while his Model 48 armor is built of actual iron and specifically developed for killing Dark Elves. Perhaps his most impressive magical armor was seen in the "Fear Itself" storyline — the Uru Armor covered in Asgardian Uru and enchanted with Asgardian magic. While the armor Tony wears in the trailer doesn't seem to be based on these designs, it no doubt was built for fighting magical nemeses.
Captain Marvel
Major Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, is easily one of the more powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe. While she gains powers from exposure to the Tesseract in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in the comics her powers derive from exposure to the Psyche-Magnitron, a Kree machine that can alter living beings, giving them superpowers. The effect transformed her into a Kree-human hybrid gifted with vast superhuman strength, stamina, agility, and durability, as well as flight (in air as well as space). She has enhanced healing, the ability to sometimes have precognition over enemy attacks, and can control, absorb, and manipulate different kinds of energy, including the ability to emit blasts and change matter at the molecular level. At one point, Danvers was further modified into the cosmically powered Binary, her powers brought to full fruition. As Binary, she had even greater control over the energy spectrum and her other powers were further enhanced.
Captain Marvel isn't typically associated with magic or magical villains, and she's certainly not connected with the Midnight Sons in the comics. Recent storylines have put Captain Marvel directly into magical territory, attempting to learn the mystical arts to avoid a potential weakness that will provoke a dark future. After many magical heroes refuse to aid her learning, she turns to the Asgardian Enchantress Amora ... a dangerous bargain indeed. It is unknown if the game will draw from these stories or provide a different one, but the Sons certainly have a powerhouse on their side.
Doctor Strange
Doctor Stephen Strange started out as a neurosurgeon before becoming a Master of the Mystic Arts, and eventually Earth's Sorcerer Supreme upon the death of his mentor, the Ancient One. The catalyst for his career shift was a fateful car accident that damaged his hands — it led him to seek out the mystical Kamar-Taj in Tibet, whose magical capacities allowed him to heal himself before taking on said mantle. As Sorcerer Supreme, his main magical energies and capacities are derived from the Vishanti, a trio of vastly powerful beings named Agamotto, Hoggoth, and Oshtur.
In Marvel parlance he often uses a form of Eldritch Magic, allowing him to achieve vast magical feats through various incantations and hand movements (often with an orange energetic tint). If it's a magical feat, he can perform it: astral projection, flight, telepathy, magical bolts, protective shields, transportation portals, transmutation, and a variety of other spells — he's one of the most powerful sorcerers in all reality. He's also capable of "taking" the power or ability of another entity, a technique he's used against Shuma-Gorath and Captain Universe. He's a founder of the Midnight Sons in the comics, and undoubtedly central to the game's world.
Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes)
The Ghost Riders are a team of Spirits of Vengeance with mysterious origins. The most common interpretation is that they are typically benevolent beings who protect humanity as exemplars of divine power and wrath (though it's been sometimes posited that they may derive their powers from Mephisto and serve his will — it's complicated). There have been many Ghost Riders over the years, given that it's more of a position than a person, but each has near-godlike supernatural power. One of the more well-known iterations of the character is former stuntman Johnny Blaze, but the current version (and the one who appears in the game) is Robbie Reyes, a young man who was burned alive in his car by criminals before becoming possessed and emerging as a Ghost Rider.
While transformed into the Ghost Rider, they each have strength, speed, and durability that rival even the toughest heroes, as well as regeneration, pyrokinesis (specifically mystical Hellfire that burns souls as well as physical bodies), supernatural chains, and a Penance Stare that provokes its target to feel all the pain and suffering they've caused innocents. Ghost Riders typically also have supernaturally possessed vehicles, like Johnny Blaze's Hell Cycle and Robbie Reyes' Hell-Charger. Ghost Riders were pivotal in the foundation of the Midnight Sons as some of the most important supernatural entities in the Marvel Universe.
Nico Minoru
In "Runaways," a group of teenagers discover that their superpowered parents are part of "the Pride," an evil criminal organization, and they band together in an attempt to thwart the group's evil plans. After an initial betrayal, the group comes to be led by Nico Minoru, the daughter of dark wizards. While her technologies change over her comics history, Nico has an odd ability ... whenever she bleeds, a weapon called the Staff of One appears to allow her to bend magic and cast almost any spell imaginable. She's an extremely powerful mage, with powers deriving from dark magic as evidenced by her background (and the purple color of the magic in use).
Nico hasn't historically been a member of the Midnight Sons (her first appearance was in 2003's "Runaways 1," so that would have been impossible) but she's a great member of the team, deeply connected to the magical arts (and from a uniquely dark source) as well as extremely powerful. It's no accident that in the trailer, the Hunter reemerges from the combined magical abilities of Doctor Strange, Nico, and the Ghost Rider: it takes adept and powerful magic, and Nico has that and more.
Wolverine
One of the most resilient superpowered beings, Wolverine is the alias of James Howlett, who later adopted the moniker Logan. Born in 19th century Canada, Logan has claws in each hand, keen animalistic senses, and a regenerative healing factor that renders him almost entirely immune to damage. Wolverine's famous temper is an unfortunate side effect of his combination of powers, as every time he uses his claws, they rip through newly healed skin and cause him extensive pain. His essential invulnerability was further augmented when the Weapon X program affixed the nigh-indestructible metal Adamantium to his bones, making the already invincible man even more impervious to damage.
While Wolverine is nearly invulnerable, he's not traditionally associated with opposing mystical combatants and certainly isn't a traditional member of the Midnight Sons. He's not unfamiliar with magical terrain, however, having served on the X-Men with Magik and the Scarlet Witch. In the trailer he's clearly augmented with runes and other magically adapted properties, and we see him fight as a powerhouse against Lilith's foot soldiers (likely the Lilin), so we'll undoubtedly get a lot of the mutant who stands as "the best at what he does."
The Hunter
While the "Midnight Suns" game will include a dozen Marvel heroes that range from the popular (Wolverine, Captain America, Captain Marvel) to the less well-known (Nico, etc), the game is also notable for creating a customizable original character with a backstory deeply connected to Lilith and her dark plans: the Hunter. The long-hibernating daughter of Lilith, the Mother of Demons, she's an original creation with an axe to grind against her apocalypse-demanding mother. The trailer sees our Midnight Suns heroes casting an apparently difficult, powerful spell to release the Hunter as part of their strategy to stop Lilith's plans to unleash the deadly Chthon against the world.
It's up to the Hunter to bring balance, and according to the creator of "Marvel's Midnight Suns," the Hunter's attributes will be highly customizable: she'll have over 40 powers and abilities to choose from. She'll fight alongside Marvel titans like Iron Man, Captain America, and Doctor Strange, and boasts a strong pedigree for a new character as the daughter of one of the Marvel Universe's more powerful foes.
Chthon
The Marvel Universe is known for a wide host of powerful villains, from tyrants like Thanos and Doctor Doom to entities like Dormammu, Mephisto, and Shuma-Gorath. One of the most dangerous of these threats is Chthon, an Elder God billions of years old who became the universe's first black magician in his lust for understanding the universe's magical forces. While the Elder Gods of the universe engaged in war a billion years ago or more, Chthon escaped by creating another dimension. He left one extremely notable artifact in this realm: a text of his magical discoveries, known as the Darkhold.
Upon leaving, Chthon became trapped in his dimension, still able to influence Earth's events through individuals who found the Darkhold — but unable to escape and conquer. He spawned a variety of races, including the Goblins, the Wolf-men of Valusia, the Harpies, and others, and the first Marvel vampires were created using his power. In the game, according to Firaxis, "Lilith will stop at nothing to complete an ancient prophecy and summon her evil master, Chthon." We're certain to see the higher stakes of Chthon's potential catastrophic emergence, but it seems that Lilith will be the Big Bad this round.
Lilith, Mother of Demons
Lilith is a powerful and ancient entity with a history that predates humanity (although like most ancient, fearsome entities, her origin story has changed more than once). Lilith reportedly was pivotal in early human development, seducing Adam, the first man, and becoming his first wife before abandoning him and their children, the Mazikim. Her children were murdered, and Lilith vowed revenge against our species. One of her earlier re-emergences was in Atlantis 20,000 years ago, where she opposed the original Order of the Midnight Sons. She has a long history of joining pantheons, ruling kingdoms, and causing chaos, and she has a huge array of powers to do so. Her attributes sometimes vary, but she's always a formidable sorceress whose powers include green energy blasts, protective walls, teleportation, and other skills.
Most notably, Lilith can spawn a variety of demons known as Lilin, powerful creatures who are typically extremely loyal to her — and she also gains more power relative to the number of them on Earth. In the original Midnight Sons comics the organization forms in order to combat Lilith and her plans on Earth, so the game seems to be a fairly straightforward adaptation on that front. There are a number of other villains shown in the trailer, and these are most likely going to be explained as Lilin of some variety.
Blade
Blade, also known as Eric Brooks, is perhaps the most famous literary Dhampir (half-human, half-vampire). His mother was killed by Deacon Frost, and certain vampire traits were passed along in the womb without transforming him into a full-fledged vampire. Blade spends his life at war against vampires, particularly against their predations on and plans against humanity. Originally in the comics, Blade had no real superhuman abilities other than a resistance to being turned by a vampire (and possible resistance against vampire hypnosis). Once bitten by Morbius the Living Vampire, he became far closer to a true Dhampir, with a healing ability and other superhuman traits.
Blade is a scourge to vampires, but not widely known for his adeptness wielding the magical arts. That said, he's been a pivotal member of the Midnight Sons team before. The "Nightstalkers," Blade, Frank Drake, and Hannibal King, were all key members, and from the trailer it looks like Blade will get some substantial combat duty here. The trailer sees him involved in major plot elements like the awakening of the Hunter as well as serving as a key combatant in the later large battle scenes.
Magik
Illiyana Rasputina, also known as Magik, is one of Marvel's mutants (she's Colossus' sister, actually) who is capable of teleporting over space and time. She was kidnapped at the age of six by Belasco, an ancient demonic sorcerer who worships the Elder Gods, and taken to Limbo for a long period of time. Eventually she manifests the Soulsword, allowing her to defeat Belasco. Her use of the Soulsword makes it more powerful, and she becomes covered with an Eldritch armor that gets stronger over time. What's more, she absorbs mystical knowledge from Belasco, Orora Munroe, and even Doctor Strange, becoming the Sorceress Supreme of the Limbo dimension — and one of the more powerful sorcerers in the Marvel Universe.
Magik shows off her teleportation powers in the trailer and sports a fantastically mystical set of Eldritch Armor in the final scene: gold, horned, and powerful with a flaming Soulsword. No word yet if we'll spend any time in Limbo, but certainly Magik will stand out as one of the more interesting members of the Midnight Suns, a deeply mystical character without a Midnight Sons background but one who still fits the bill swimmingly.