Midnight Sun (comics)

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Midnight Sun
M'Nai battles Shang-Chi in his first appearance. Midnight Sun battles the Silver Surfer in Silver Surfer Vol. 3 #60. Art by Ron Lim, Jim Sanders III, and Tom Vincent.
Publisher Marvel Comics First appearance Special Marvel Edition #16 (February 1974) Created by Mark Gruenwald, Kieron Dwyer
Characteristics Alter ego M'Nai Affiliations Inhumans, Fu Manchu, Kang the Conqueror, Kree Abilities Expert in martial arts and stealth; superhuman strength, durability, agility, and reflexes; able to travel and survive vacuum of space

Midnight Sun (real name M'Nai) is a fictional character, a former supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. He was created by Steve Englehart, Jim Starlin, and Al Milgrom. He usually appears as an enemy of Shang-Chi or the Silver Surfer.

[edit] Background

Midnight Sun began life as M'Nai, a child in a small African village which Fu Manchu was using as his headquarters. When Sir Denis Nayland Smith attacked the village, M'Nai's entire family was killed and M'Nai was permanently scarred. Noticing that M'Nai did not cry despite his injury, Fu Manchu decided to raise the child as his own, alongside his son Shang-Chi. Taking the identity of "Midnight," M'Nai wore a mask at all times to hide his facial scar. Although he and Shang-Chi sometimes came to blows, they grew up as friends, a relationship which would end when Shang-Chi rebelled against his father and left.

Midnight continued to work as Fu Manchu's agent until he was ordered to assassinate Shang-Chi. Although he and Shang-Chi fought, neither truly wanted to kill the other. While fighting Midnight at the top of a winch, Shang-Chi dodged a powerful kick. The kick was so forceful that Midnight lost his balance and fell to his apparent death.

In reality, Midnight was plucked from the timestream by Kang the Conqueror moments before his death. Kang used Midnight as a soldier in his Legion of the Unliving, sending him to fight The Avengers. He was knocked unconscious by Mantis. After the end of the battle, Immortus returned him to his own time, where his death was allowed to take its course. Midnight's cape caught on the winch as he fell, breaking his neck.

Midnight's body was obtained by the Kree and kept in cold storage for years. When the Kree realized that they needed an agent who could defeat the Silver Surfer in combat, a Kree scientist named Kar-Sagg reanimated Midnight's brain and placed it in a cloned body which had been enhanced with superhuman powers to make him a match for the Silver Surfer. It is at this point that he was renamed "Midnight Sun."

Midnight Sun fought the Silver Surfer alongside the Kree. With the help of a light-deadening dust, he used his talent for stealth to hit the Surfer with several sneak attacks. However, the Surfer eventually detected him and used his board to trap Midnight Sun, until an assault from a Kree vessel forced him to flee. The two fought one-on-one when the Kree sent Midnight Sun to protect Hala from the Surfer, but the Surfer defeated him again. Because the Kree's alterations had left him unable to speak, Silver Surfer was never aware of Midnight Sun's name or background, and could not communicate with him. Although his powers far exceeded Midnight Sun's, the Surfer considered him a very frustrating opponent due to his stony silence and often uncertain motivations, as well as his ability to catch the Surfer off-guard with surprise attacks and skillful strikes and dodges.

Believing that Midnight Sun's memories of his former life as a warrior with a code of honor were holding him back, Kar-Sagg tried to erase them. Midnight Sun awoke during the procedure and fought off an entire squad of Kree soldiers to make hs escape. However, the procedure had been mostly successful, and Midnight Sun was left with severe amnesia.

Requiring no sustenance, Midnight Sun meditated on the moon, trying to remember his past. When he detected the Silver Surfer passing by, he confronted him, holding a vague memory that the Silver Surfer was someone from his past who might provide him with clues. Mute, and unable to communicate with the Surfer, Midnight Sun attacked the Surfer in order to force him to stay, and the Surfer defeated him again. When the Surfer removed Midnight Sun's mask in order to treat his injuries, he was surprised to discover a horribly mangled face. Enraged, Midnight Sun renewed their fight until the Inhumans intervened, offering to take him back to Atillan, their city on the moon, in order to treat his wounds and find some means to communicate with him. Midnight Sun and the Silver Surfer parted as friends.

[edit] Powers and abilities

As an agent of Fu Manchu, Midnight was a highly trained martial artist and espionage agent. He was a master of unarmed combat and many martial arts weapons, particularly daggers, nunchaku, and shuriken. His specialty was vanishing into shadows and ambushing his opponents.

When Kar-Sagg transformed him into a Kree agent, he transferred Midnight's brain into a powerful cloned body. His new body had superhuman strength, durability, agility, and reflexes. Most notably, silver discs were grafted to the palms of his hands and the soles of his feet, which allowed him to travel through space. He often used these discs to bash his enemies using his martial arts skills. His body was also modified to allow him to survive outer-space conditions, and he appears to have no need of food or rest. He is also mute. Although the exact extent of his superhuman strength, speed, and toughness are unknown, he was capable of causing pain to the Silver Surfer, and surviving repeated attacks without serious injury. His superhuman attributes were made more formidable by the fact that he retained all of his martial arts skills, even after suffering amnesia.

[edit] External links

Profile at Marvel Universe Appendix