Writer- Steve Orlando

Artist- Aco

 

Confession time. I am not the biggest fan of DC since the New 52 started a few years ago. Honestly, I have liked much less than I thought was outright bad. I was a big fan of The Authority during their Wildstorm run and was excited to see several of the characters, including Midnighter, would be appearing in a New 52 title, Stormwatch. I WAS excited. As I read the first few issues of that title, it just did not have that spark that I had enjoyed. Or the good writing. I dropped it early on, and like so many characters that I had once cared about from DC, I figured I wouldn’t read about the Midnighter again.

So, here we stand intrepid readers, at a new point in DC history. We are officially post Convergence, and to be honest, other than a slew of new number ones coming out, I don’t have the time or energy to try to explain what that really means. From what I gather, the multiverse is back following the ending of Convergence, and stories can be written in any of those realities. Unfortunately instead of using the version of the Midnighter that I preferred,from the Wildstorm Earth, it seems this new title is using the New 52 version. The book opens with a raid on The God Garden and it’s steward, the Gardener. The Midnighter is summoned to the God Garden to find the person responsible for nearly killing the Gardener, his creator. In between the opening attack and his visit with the Gardener in the last pages we get a look at our hero’s daily life, as he attempts to have a date with a man he met online. As they eat and flirt, the restaurant is laid to siege by an alien force looking for traitors amongst the crowd. The action kicks into high gear as readers are given a crash course into Midnighter’s power set, and how he uses them to take on a well armed, much larger force. At fights end, halfway through the book, we get the title card, which was a great exclamation point to that scene.

Writer Steve Orlando does a good job of balancing what will fuel the arc’s main plot, the assault on the Gardener, with good character moments for Midnighter, delving into his recent romantic woes as he embarks on a new life as a single guy. The art by Aco is quite detailed and the action scenes are full of energy and motion. A panel of a character being thrown through a teleportation door into open space is breathtaking. The use of small panels depicting different enemy injuries in an X Ray image during fight scenes was very cool, but a similar effect was used during Andrea Sorrentino’s run on Green Arrow, so it felt a bit derivative.

In the end, a solid issue was put forth by this creative team, and despite my discomfort with DC and the overall direction they have been moving their stories in, I was intrigued enough to want to read the next installment of this series. It may not be my Midnighter, but it will do in a pinch.

 

3.5 Doors of 5

 

Reviewed by: John Amenta