Review: The Midnight Man

After last week (finally) starting on my stash of comics from True Believers, I decided to try and get through at least one book very week.

The downside to this idea is that it takes that much longer to get through everything. However, the upside is I got to spend the whole week on this first book, and that isn't such a bad thing. The Midnight Man, written by Mo Ali and drawn by Andy Bloor, tells the story of a mysterious man as he travels back and forth through time and space, taking no prisoners, as he searches for an evil being in the search for justice.

I really enjoyed this book, and the reason for that can be drummed up in two words; 'Art' and 'Character'. Andy Bloor's artwork is really awesome, giving of a Walking Dead, sometimes V for Vendetta (in black and white) like feel. The use of shadows plays a big part here and I think they are used really well, imbuing an essence of the Batman animated series in this title (which, given BTAS' greatness, this isn't a bad thing), while there is a villain fighting montage page which is just a delight to look at.

Meanwhile, Mo Ali has really written a top notch main character who, to me, comes across as a dark amalgamation of Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly and Spider-man. Ali has always written a story within a universe which hints at deeper secrets and adventures, such as John Dee's magic and the seven sages, which really gives the character added depth, even if it isn't seen.

To be fair, the only criticism I could see when reading Midnight man was a lack of motive behind the Midnight Man's actions, with no reason (that I could see) being given beyond 'he's the bad guy'. However, to his credit, Ali does refer to this towards the end in a way adds further layers of characterisation, implying that maybe the Midnight Man follows his path based on instinct, instead of conviction. In fact, now that I think about it, if that was the plan, then it's not such a problem to me.

So, in short, I really enjoyed Midnight Man and think it showed a lot of promise as a story. I noticed that the underside of the cover mentioned this as book 1, vol. 1 which, if true, could further build upon this book, rendering any concerns I have as moot. Nonetheless, I'm glad I picked this up and hope more people do the same, because it is a fun character which deserves to be followed.