Captain Midnight 1
was recommended to me by the clerk at a local comic shop. It’s a beautiful piece and it did manage to
get me involved with the story. But that
was as far as it went. I remember there
being parts of it that I liked and parts that I didn’t but they are gone
now. In a moment I’ll start flipping
through it to find some points to reference, but for now, I can’t remember much
that redeems or condemns it, and that alone is after something to condemn it.
The title suffers from all the things that make a modern
comic good and all the things that make one bad. I’m sure that if I’d read the other issues
(don’t let the big #1 on the cover fool you, this is far from the beginning of
the story. A recently released issue 0
reprints Captain Midnight’s previous appearances, but I haven’t read it), the
complex and largely unexplained back story would make more sense, but as I
haven’t there are several gaps in my understanding of things. Now don’t over read that last bit, I was able
to follow the story for what it was, but this isn’t what I’d call a great
jumping on point. Not a big seller for a
first issue (again, had a known about issue 0 before things might have been
different, so we’ll give that one a slide).
The hero suffers from Post-Watchmen syndrome. He is human.
Something I expect my superheroes to be more than. For example, in the opening WWII-era
sequence, Captain Midnight’s actions put a villain in danger. And Midnight, stands back and lets him die,
saying “this isn’t what I wanted…but I wasn’t going to risk my life for a
criminal like him.” Can you imagine Spider-Man or Superman saying that?
Don’t get me wrong, I’ll give Watchmen its due. It’s a
great comic. So are The Dark Knight Returns and a dozen others of their ilk. And the modern Hero can be dark and
violent. Wolverine is a wonderful
example. Dark Horse, in fact, has done
it very well with several of their characters.
X and Ghost stand out as fine examples to me. But looking at this comic, I wasn’t expecting
gruff and violent. And maybe that is
Joshua Williamson and Fernando Dagnino’s point: a juxtaposed look at the “bright
shinny hero” behaving like the dark and mysterious. A real world guy. But I ask you do we need another real world
guy in comics? Watchmen, Frank Miller’s Batverse and Sin City, Comics Greatest World, Ultimate Marvel, Astro City (which I openly admit to
loving)… What does Captain Midnight add
to the genre that these books don’t already fulfill?
Too many comics nowadays are either staring “heroes” no
better than the villains (many worse than the villains of the sixties and
seventies. A good example of this, as
pointed out recently to me by my good friend RA Jones, is Henry Pym, a hero,
who – among other things – stuck his wife while suffering a mental breakdown;
something the character has yet to live down over thirty years later). I ask again, do we need another violent
hero?
But enough of the bad, what about the good?
As I said before, the book is beautiful. The cover art is just that, Art. The interiors are standard quality, on par
with most everything coming out of Marvel and DC, maybe even better than most,
though far from the best I’ve seen in the last few years.
The supporting characters (and villains) stand out more to
me than the titular hero (perhaps because he was only on 8 of the 22 pages and
on two of those only barely). The first
up is 1940s villain Ivan Shark, he is a very standard Nazi villain, reminiscent
of the Red Skull, Vandal Savage, and their kind, but while he is something of a
standard baddie, he is well executed and his disappearance from the story is
felt. But the emergence of true big bad Fury
Shark shows much promise; she had less screen time than Midnight (four pages)
but is far more interesting and memorable.
Finally, Montoya…I mean, Maj. Charlotte Ryan is the standard tough as
nails cop soldier. Charlotte was
by far the star of the issue (with 14 pages) and is shaping up to be the reader’s
loyal (the character their allegiance is firmly placed with).
Rounding out the cast are Joyce Ryan (Charlotte’s
grandmother) who was one of Midnight’s sidekicks in the 40s, Agent Jones and
Officer Rick Marshall (Marshall is Charlotte’s ex-husband) the two main
government agents on Midnights trail, and several of Fury Shark’s lackies who
could rise to more prominence or simply disappear.
Overall, the art – especially at its grandest moments such
as Charlotte’s rock climbing scene and the establishing shots of Secret
Squadron HQ and the Nazi base at the North Pole – coupled with a somewhat
gripping story and a few standout characters, isn’t enough to save the book for
me. Much like a lot of creator owned
comics from the 90s, this book is a mediocre story in beautiful packaging.
2.5/5 stars. Average
Jumping on Point Unrated but Violent
Until next time, Nerd is the New Cool, signing off
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