WARNING: The following contains spoilers for a story in Marvel #1 by Alex Ross & Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Whenever Marvel has needed a cosmically aware host to introduce stories from around the Marvel Universe, the publisher has usually turned to Uatu the Watcher. And while this now-dead cosmic being led readers in tales from across the multiverse in What If... for years, he's not the host of Marvel's new anthology.
Instead, Marvel #1 features a far darker, more sinister kind of host: the dark dream god Nightmare. And with his new role, Nightmare has essentially become Marvel's answer to the Cryptkeeper from Tales from the Crypt.
Although the Cryptkeeper first started as a figure who introduced one-off scary stories in EC Comics' Tales from the Crypt in the '50s, he became a recognizable pop culture figure in the '90s when he played the same role on HBO's live-action Tales from the Crypt In the show and its cinematic spinoffs, the Cryptkeeper was a decrepit corpse who brought his gleeful and ghoulish sense of humor to the horror anthology. The Cryptkeeper helped provide a sense of continuity between the disparate stories while making morbid puns to entertain the viewer.
And in Marvel, Nightmare does the exact same thing.
The issue opens with Nightmare seemingly addressing the reader directly, monologuing about his recent triumph in the mortal world. As he speaks, his inky black tendrils feed into countless sleeping people and serve as fuel lines between their weary minds and Nightmare's own power. The sleeping bodies coat Times Square itself, and it looks like Nightmare has finally managed to finally gain the power he's wanted for so long.
While Nightmare's dark victory might seem like enough of a narrative thrust to drive the whole series, it's merely an introduction to what Marvel is really about: giving writers and artists a showcase to tell short stories free from any obligations to continuity. For instance, Frank Espinosa and Sajan Saini's story sees married Spider-Man and Mary Jane argue over the cost of his web-fluid, and in Kurt Busiek and Steve Rude's story depicts a fight between the Hulk and the newly formed Avengers.
While it's not clear if these are meant to be dreams, alternate realities or flashbacks, the issue reveals that Nightmare hasn't been addressing readers at all. Instead, he's been speaking to his longtime nemesis and current prisoner Doctor Strange, With the Sorcerer Supreme's astral form tied to a mystical tree, Nightmare thanks the hero for granting him the new dominion he presently enjoys.
Nightmare calls it "a dream come true," with a macabre note that highlights the similarities to the Cryptkeeper vibe possible. Both anthology hosts bookend their stories with villainous glee and groan-worthy puns, but it still seems like Nightmare may be involved in a larger overarching plot over subsequent issues. While it's still too early to tell what that plot might be, Nightmare seems perfectly content to tell tales from Marvel's crypt for the time being.