Midnight Sons
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The Midnight Sons was a short-lived team of supernatural heroes in the Marvel Comics universe. They appeared in several 1990s multi-issue crossovers of Marvel's supernatural titles. The first, "Rise of the Midnight Sons," launched several books in the Midnight Sons line. The group was also at one point stated to be the successors to an earlier group, which was never actually seen except in occasional flashbacks, and thus can be considered the second group to be named as the Order of the Midnight Sons.
The team was formed by the Ghost Rider and Johnny Blaze after Ghost Rider received a vision in which he learned that Lilith, Mother of Demons (not Dracula's daughter, another Marvel character of the same name) was being resurrected and posed a great threat. She planned to use her demon children, the Lilin, to take over Earth. Though Lilith had many children, she had four children who were very loyal to her. Their names were Pilgrim, Nakota, Meatmarket, and the most powerful of the four, Blackout, Ghost Rider's old enemy. (Blackout was not an actual child of Lilith originally, but rather a grandchild. He was later killed and Lilith gave birth to Blackout along with her other children, thus indeed making him one of her actual children.) Though she would have a lot more children help her, the rest had forsaken Lilith. After she was imprisoned, many of the Lilin were either scattered or killed. Those who were scattered forgot the ways of Lilith and moved on with their lives, except Lilith's most faithful servants.
The team consisted of the Nightstalkers (Blade, Frank Drake and Hannibal King), as well as Morbius the Living Vampire, Dan Ketch (Ghost Rider), Johnny Blaze, Michael Badilino/Vengeance, Sam Buchanean, Victoria Montesi, Louise Hastings, and finally Doctor Strange. (Strange has been mislabelled as having brought the group together, when it was in fact Ghost Rider who sought out and brought together almost the entirety of the team alongside his descendant, Johnny Blaze.) Dr. Strange seemingly vanished for a time at the inception of the group, replaced by a masked version of himself, apparenly a component piece of his soul and with a seeming mastery over the Black Arts. This alternate Strange, along with most of the team, sans Frank Drake and the Ghost Rider himself, who had been killed in battle with Zarathos and then seemingly obliterated when Zarathos was slain, in an issue of Midnight Sons, actually became the successors to a group who is stated to have been the original 'Order of the Midnight Sons', and bore a brand that resembled a flaming dagger. This brand was placed on the arms of all the members of the new team aside from Frank Drake, a member of the Nightstalkers and a human descendant of Dracula, and as stated, the Ghost Rider.
Frank Drake was not allowed to take the brand of the Midnight Sons because most of the others felt that aside from being a distant descendant of Dracula (via one of Dracula's marriages before he became a vampire), he was normal in every other aspect and thus could have a normal life if he chose. This was in contrast to all of the others who were supernaturally afflicted and would thus always be outsiders. He was, however, accepted as an associate member.
The Ghost Rider eventually returned, but it seems Marvel never intended to reveal whether or not the Rider had accepted the brand. The brand acted in a similar manner to the Dark Mark as it has been described in the Harry Potter series. However, the key difference is that the brand appears and causes pain to the bearer of the brand whenever there is great danger to the world, and the brand would continue to cause pain until the bearers of the brand answered the summons. With the disappearance of Noble Kale (Ghost Rider), as well as Michael Badilino (Vengeance), it seemed the idea was dropped entirely and no other mentionings of the Midnight sons has been made. Interestingly enough, most of the members of the team have since faded back into obscurity.
Originally consisting of "The Nine," (and once referred to as "The Circle of Nine") mystical characters necessary to maintain the magical borders between realms, the team stopped Lilith and became what was to be the Marvel Universe's primary line of defense against magical and mystical threats. Lilith is still at large, though she has only been seen once (in Witches), since the apparent demise of Zarathos. At one point, she claimed to be pregnant with a child of Zarathos himself, but her single subsequent appearance showed no signs of this pregnancy. However, even when claiming to be pregnant with Zarathos' child, she did not show signs of the pregnancy. So she may still be pregnant, or may have already given birth. Lilith may appear in the new Ghost Rider series recently launched by Marvel, so her and Zarathos' child are not to be considered as complete write-offs just yet in terms of future appearances.
Although it has never been officially stated by Marvel, the motto or perhaps credo of the group was 'to bring light to the darkness', as said by the mysterious Caretaker, a member of an ancient race called The Blood. Caretaker is apparently phenomenally old and may or may not have known the original Order of the Midnight Sons, as he claims "The Order has a long history. Not all of it clean. But always on the right side." He also claimed to have known an older version of the Ghost Rider, and for all we know this could indicate that he is Pastor Kale, the man who was, in large part, responsible for the transformation of Noble Kale into the version of Ghost Rider that later was bonded to Danny Ketch. (Pastor Kale was also Noble Kale's father and had trafficked with Mehpisto for years before he was discovered by Kale's wife Magdelena, which in turn caused the events that birthed the new Ghost Rider.)
It is clear that he was obviously not speaking of Zarathos, so the Kale version is likely the most logical version to assume he knew, possibly from before the Rider's memories were sealed away, or perhaps just after it, as he claims the Ghost Rider he knew was much more powerful than the one that was active at that period of time. Kale did grow in power towards the end of the series in which he starred, as he began to remember older powers he possessed (such as those that could affect the undead), which can be viewed as lending support to the idea that it was in fact this version of the Rider whom Caretaker claimed to have known.
