Midnight Nation

Not being a big Babylon 5 fan, I was not impressed by 'from the creator of Babylon 5' typed on the cover of Midnight Nation. I've also become suspicious of anything published by Image Comics, because the high production values and impressive artwork that Image's publications always boast in all too often cover for shallow and pedantic writing and stories. Midnight Nation surpassed all my expectations, and it turned out to be one of the best graphic novels I've read in a while. What starts out as a half-baked combination of Twilight Zone and Law & Order quickly becomes a fascinating study in philosophy, morality, theology and human relations. The journey - physical, metaphysical and metaphorical - that the story's protagonist, David Grey, goes through, is an excruciating experienced for both him and the reader, and Grey, who starts out as average an everyman hero as we've grown to expect from crime stories like this one begins as, becomes one of the most interesting anti-heroes in contemporary comics, who may share some characteristics with Moore's John Constantine and Ennis's Jesse Custer, but he's an entirely original and unique character who we learn to love and care for. More than that we love and care for Laurel, who guides David in his journey, and is the single most fantastic creation in the story. At times she almost reminded me of Neil Gaiman's Death. I find special pleasure in true graphic novels - that is, stories that have a beginning and an end, and, like Alan Moore's Watchmen or V For Vendetta, although it was originally released as a mini-series due to commercial circumstances, Midnight Nation is by all means a true and complete novel perfectly structured and paced. Straczynski's writing is mature and intelligent. The artwork is first rate; despite my distaste for the over-digitalized coloring that characterizes most of Image's publications, the quality of the drawings in Midnight Nation is far above the average. More than that, the page layouts and spreads are original and smart, and the compositions are expressive and dynamic. Laurel's first appearance near the end of the first chapter is a fine example of intelligent use of the medium of comics, experimental and creative but also readable and intelligible. A fantastic addition is the short story Precious Objects, which was not a part of the original run of the series. It was drawn by the fantastic Michael Zulli, well remembered for his work on the Sandman saga. Zulli's artwork all but steals the show from Gary Frank's excellent work on the rest of the series. All around Midnight Nation is a remarkable graphic novel, a very intelligent and original creation, and a fantastic experience. Well-recommended for any lover of the medium.

Cop's soul is sttolen. Cop is not pleased. He goes for a long walk to get it back. Yes, I'm leaving out a lot of the good bits (Laurel) but I don't want to be a spoilsport. One reviewer compared this to Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" because of the "slipping between the cracks" lost people imagery. It's not a stolen idea, or if it was it was stolen from someone else a long, long time ago. It's a recurring theme in societies with large populations. There have always been and probably always will be people who just get lost. It's a frightening thing to us. My opinion: I really liked this one. It's dark, but not obscure. The darkness in this comic is not gratuitous or unnecessarily violent or just there to get some emotions stirred up in people. It's crafted and placed and worked into something that's like wrought iron. And the themes in it; the things that people in despair think, the hopelessness; those are real things. The fear, the stories about going nowhere, those are real. It's like holding two strong magnets with their oposite poles together. You see nothing but you can really feel it, like a shape made by that unseen force that has a texture. You expect your fingers to be able to touch it but there's nothing there; you can only feel how it's making the things you hold react. This story doens't put all the ideas in but you can feel them, taste them, see them by their lack. They are as clear as the patch of paper left unbleached when you take a picture off old wallpaper. There's temptation and despair and anger, and a little humor. There's the dregs of your soul and what keeps you going even when you've got nothing left. Duty, but it's never named. It really touched some feelings in me. It's real art. But like art, different people will see differnt things in it and some will see nothing at all; the art that will touch them is not the same as the art that touches me. I could say that some people will get it and others won't, but that sounds patronizing. And people throughout their lives change; someone might get it at one point and then not get it later... You see what I mean, and that's more a rant about art than about this comic in particular. My favorite part is that for all the social themes there's not a hint of patronization or holier-than-thou attitude in the tone of this book, and I can smell that bull a mile off.

Detective David Gray, LAPD, is investigating what he thinks is just another gangland murder, until he finds himself slipping into a second world beneath the world he knows. He is being pursued by brutal creatures known as "The Men" and is befriended by a group of transients and bums who, like David, have fallen between the cracks of society. It is here that David learns the horrifying truth about what has happened to him -- "The Men" have stolen his soul, and he has less than twelve months to walk from Los Angeles to New York and reclaim it, or he will become one of them. Straczynski is a brilliant storyteller and Frank was the perfect choice to illustrate this graphic novel. It shifts from scary to hauntingly beautiful without missing a beat, and the climax is nothing short of remarkable. It's truly a masterpiece of the form.

The first issue (22 pages) was paced rather quickly to try and get readers introduced to the story. But after you learn about the plot, this book travels. It takes you down into the depth of two people on a journey, and all the proverbial baggage they carry with them. The plot is involving, including a sufficient supporting cast that only lasts an issue or two each, but evolves on a storytelling level. It is isolated around a man who simply lost his soul to someone, and is introduced to a world that exists beyond ours, but home to everyone who is cast aside, thrown away, or overewhelmed with abandon. He must travel across the continent to find the person responsible and reclaim his soul before he falls victim to the fate of transforming into what he percieves as a mindless predator , enslaved to his enemy. But nothing is what it initially seems in this book, and everything you think you know halfway through will still turn upside down eventually, or come back to haunt you later. The ending is extremely appropriate and I can say this is the best graphic novel I have ever read.

Midnight Nation is a heavily allegorical comic book that draws on classic biblical themes to tell a story about people who "fall through the cracks" in life. Although it starts off as a straight-foward story about a man who journies to reclaim his soul (at least, straightfoward for JMS), it evolves simultaneously into a much bigger story, and a far more subtle one.Included is my all-time favorite single issue of any comic book, "The Devil You Know" (issue #4). JMS isn't known for having many stories with an obvious moral in them, so when he does include one, he makes sure it's good. In short, JMS uses the world he created extremely well to tell a story about the dangers of fear and not accepting responsibility for your life. (But that brief summary doesn't even begin to do this issue justice.)Although "The Devil You Know" can almost stand alone from the rest of the book, the moral in it sets the stage for the entire series, and defines what Midnight Nation all about.I highly recomend this book. Once it gets going in the later issues it you can really see it distance itself from other comic books, and presents a far more subtle and well crafted story than even JMS is typically known for.