Midnight Suns: Why the XCOM Devs Chose to Explore Marvel's Mystical Side

Marvel's Midnight Suns seems to be going in a much different direction compared to many other video games that are associate with the Marvel brand. Not only is it going to forgo real-time gameplay in favor of a more strategic approach, but it's also going to tell a unique story that is very much focused on the mystical aspects of the Marvel universe. Now, the team behind the upcoming 2022 release has opened up more about why it wanted to take the game down this route.

In a recent interview with ComicBook.com, Firaxis Games' designer Jake Solomon talked more of how the mystical elements of Marvel's Midnight Suns came to be. For the most part, Solomon said that it came from his own personal love of certain aspects of the Marvel world. "Marvel's got an enormous toy chest, and I think that we reached for some of the shiny ones and some of the dusty ones in the back," Solomon said of wanting to toy around with some of the lesser-known aspects of Marvel. "I grew up obviously reading Marvel Comics, but for me [...] the golden era was the early '90s and I was very big into anti-heroes. And there were a bunch of anti-heroes to choose from in the early '90s. And so I and my narrative director on this game, we both loved Ghost Rider. And then the Spirits of Vengeance run in the early '90s, it sort of culminated in this event called Rise of the Midnight Sons, which he and I both loved."

While Ghost Rider, in particular, proved to be a major point of inspiration for Solomon and the team at Firaxis, it was primarily his love of this long-forgotten storyline that really helped Midnight Suns become what it currently is. "And so very, very quickly we hit on Midnight Suns. We were very passionate about those characters and it felt like, 'Hey, this is a story that hasn't been told in a while.' But it's a story, the people who do love the original Rise of the Midnight Sons, it does stick with people," Solomon explained.

He went on to say that the excitement he has seen from fans who recognize the comic book arc that the game is based on is something that has made him quite pleased in the wake of the title's announcement. "It's very cool, and it's fun because Marvel has all these stories. And to me, Rise of the Midnight Sons, that's as cool a story as any other," he said. "And so it's very fun to say, 'Well, we get to introduce you to your next favorite Marvel story, which is Midnight Suns.'"

Marvel's Midnight Suns still doesn't have an exact launch date, but it's planned to come to PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC platforms in March 2022. If you're looking to learn more about the game, you can head to our dedicated coverage hub right here.