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Down But Not Out

by Drew Clements westofmiskatonic@gmail.com

We're going to take a bit of departure this week from the norm--I'm going to actually talk about a comic not from Marvel Comics (well, at least this issue isn't); it's not from DC Comics either. Image? Nope. Dark Horse? Uh-uh Valiant? Nah. Who else is left? Malibu Comics and the Ultraverse! The Night Man #1 Original Release Date: October 1993 Writer: Steve Englehart Penciller: Darick Robertson Inker: Andrew Pepoy Letterer: Dave Lanphear Color Designer: Paul Mounts Interior Colorists: FOODHAMMER! Editors: ULM & Kanalz With a great leap, a figure dressed in black makes his way to a nearby rooftop. On it he has spotted two men pulling items up from a skylight; items that do not belong to them. There are just seconds to go before his feet touch the roof--time enough to reflect on how he got here and the reasons why. Days ago, jazz musician Johnny Domino was in an accident. A runaway cable car had struck his car and he had been injured; a piece of metal had lodged itself between the lobes of his brain. Fortunately Johnny had a strong desire to live and therefore was able to overcome his serious condition. He had thanked the doctors, but they had just told him that it was his will that brought about the recovery. It wasn't a complete recovery though--his eyes would forever be dilated, which was a rather strange condition to have to live with, but not one that would hurt his ability to live. As Johnny leaves the hospital, he hears a rather malicious and loud statement, "Saturday night, she dies! Slowly... screaming...!" It's not exactly a comforting or normal thing for a person walking down the street to be mumbling about, well especially since the man was clearly not mumbling, but rather, shouting! Turning to the direction of the voice, Johnny spots a man walking in the opposite direction. Something becomes very clear to Johnny as he looks around: the man was not shouting; he wasn't even speaking! No, Johnny had somehow--unbelievably--heard the man's thoughts! But how? Could that piece of metal lodged in his brain effected him in such a way? If so, how could he not be hearing the other people's thoughts that were walking by him? Clearly there are more questions than answers, but there is one question that rages more than the rest--what should he do? If a woman is in danger and he's the only one that knows about it, shouldn't he give it some attention? Throwing everything to the wind, Johnny decides to follow the man. When the object of pursuit stops by a knife store, Johnny decides to explain things to two police officers walking by. Unfortunately he finds it a bit difficult to explain himself and the cops pass him off as little more than a nut on the sidewalk. Seeing that he isn't going to get any help from anyone else, Johnny continues his pursuit as the man leaves the knife store and jumps into a cab. Soon, our jazz hero finds himself on the beach, just outside the patio of a restaurant. The object of his attention is sitting at a table, having an innocent chat with the waitress. Actually, it's a little more than innocent, as the man, who we find out goes by the name of Victor Omar, asks the waitress, Ginger, out on a date for Saturday evening. Johnny, being a bit overzealous, attempts to get a little closer to the two, but draws attention to himself when he makes an unexpected noise by stepping on a crisp twig. Victor turns and spots Johnny, who is now running in the opposite direction. Looking over his shoulder, Johnny is amazed to see Victor, an older and fairly unhealthy-looking chap, leap over the side of the patio railing to the beach below. Finding the tables turned and himself being pursued, Johnny grabs the nearest cab when he reaches the road; the man watches as the yellow car speeds away. Later that evening we find our hero relaxing at home. Well, he's trying to relax, but finds it nearly impossible to get the events off his mind. He's still unsure whether or not he should actually be pursuing the man in the first place. Is he crazy? Why should he even care in the first place? It would just be one more dead person in a world filled with a lot of live people. Suddenly all these thoughts disappear as his window explodes, sending shards of glass everywhere. Diving behind his couch, Johnny pulls the plug on the only light in the room. Eventually he gets up and realizes that maybe he's not so crazy after all. Now we're back to the present. Our darkly garbed hero has landed on the rooftop, but before he can announce his presence, one of the burglars spots him. Before Sammy, the armed thief, can point his gun, Johnny has already pointed his and put a bullet into the criminal's hand. The man's companion attacks in a blind rage and successfully lands a few blows on the vigilante. Johnny is a bit surprised, but handles himself well when he downs his attacker. In the confusion, the injured Sammy makes his way from the roof to the street below. Following his foe, Johnny anchors his grappling hook and leaps. Unfortunately the hook tears loose under his weight and he drops. Emerging, costume torn to bits, Johnny Domino is determined to find Sammy. The fall had left him with one infrared lens, so it took very little time to spot the crook and when he does, it's on! Sammy proves to be a bit more difficult to handle than Johnny had predicted; he is new to this whole crime fighting game though, but he wonders how he can even consider taking on a killer when he's having trouble with two-bit hoods. Landing one final blow, Johnny puts Sammy down for the count and, right on time, the police arrive; it's time for him to make his exit. Saturday finally arrives and Johnny tries a different tactic to prevent Ginger's murder--he asks her out. Sitting at a table on the patio of the same restaurant where he had been spying on Victor Omar just the day before, Johnny asks Ginger to accompany him to Kimball's. Ginger declines, sighting her later date with Victor as the reason for not accepting. She had recognized Johnny for the famous jazz musician that he is and proceeds to tell him that he could call on her any other time for a date. Later that afternoon, Johnny buys a motorcycle and takes it to "Playland-At-The-Beach", a rundown amusement park where his father works as a security officer. The two have a short conversation about nothing in particular before they are soon interrupted by Russel Peters, a man with intentions to buy the park to add as his west coast estate. After some back-and-forth between Johnny's father and Russel about the importance of the park, Russel leaves, sporting a smug look on his face. Corporate America? Johnny's dad leaves to make his rounds and Johnny jumps on the computer to get his father's password to the state police net. At home that evening, Johnny logs on to the police net and finds that Victor Omar is listed as a missing person. Interesting. Minutes later Johnny is perched on top of a cement fence, dressed in his new costume, which is vastly different from the ninja-like one from the night before. This one has an open top, which his long hair falls from, two different kinds of infrared lenses, and most importantly... pads! It's 8:35pm and our hero is watching the rear door to the restaurant that Ginger works at. In just twenty-five minutes, Victor will be here to pick her up. Surprisingly, the door opens and Ginger walks about a bit early. Leaping down from his spot, Johnny calls out to Ginger and warns her that he believes she is in danger. Something strange occurs, as our hero is suddenly aware of very evil thoughts. As her approaches the waitress, she reveals herself to not actually be HERself at all, but rather Deathmask! The strange man, sporting Ginger's face and skirt, leaps at Johnny; the two tussle for a short while before Johnny is knocked down to the beach and comes face-to-not-a-face-anymore with Ginger's body! Beside it, Johnny spots Victor Omar's face and it finally hits Johnny like a ton of bricks--Deathmask cuts the faces off of people and assumes their identities! After overcoming the shock, our hero spots Deathmask escaping on a speedboat. Reaching the pier, Johnny grabs another boat and pursues the monster. Eventually he catches up and gets on the villain's boat. They fight again, but this time it's Deathmask that takes the fall--right into the dark waters of the ocean; the villain is pulled under the water by a shark! "Never" to be seen again! Deciding that his gift for hearing evil is too important to waste, Johnny decides to take on the mantle of The Night Man and protect others from the likes of the evil he had witnessed tonight. He also decides that he wants a cape... And thus ends your introduction to The Night Man (or maybe you know him from that crappy TV show?)! It's quite a good and original story that wasn't exactly cookie-cutter for its time. Okay, sure it was about a guy with a super power that decides to use it for good instead of evil, so it does fall into that mold. Night Man is one of those relatable characters, kind of like Spider-Man; other than the ability to hear evil thoughts, which is very cool and somewhat original, Johnny is just a normal guy. His mental dilemma over whether or not to follow the man is written in a way that makes the whole thing seem like something any of us would go through if put in the same position. It's also refreshing (and humorous) to see him on his first night out as a super hero and the mistakes he makes; like the mental conversation he has with himself over his pursuit, it's a very "real" moment. And really, what's better than a character you can relate to? To me, that's always a very important quality in comic book characters; the more human they are, they more I can really get into their stories. Congrats to Steve Englehart, a person that was not new to comics at the time, for creating a cool character. All of the above commentary on Night Man is nothing but praise for him. At the other side of things, Darick Robertson does a good job here. The first page in the book is outstanding; it has Johnny in his first costume (black ninja-like outfit with red lenses for eyes) falling toward the reader with the moon in the background. Darick has quickly become one of my favorite current artists. I'd seen his art before, but his work on Wolverine (volume 3, the current one) is really what put him in my line of sight. A lot of people though, are more familiar with his stuff on the Vertigo title, Transmetropolitan, which he co-created with Warren Ellis. No matter how you know him, Darick is a great artist. If you're interested in a cool super hero that exists outside of the larger companies (yeah, Marvel did buy Malibu, but that was later on), then by all means, please check this out. Oh, and please do not let that damn TV show (which occasionally reruns on WGN) taint you. The Night Man of the comics is ten times cooler than the candyass of the TV show. Interested? Hopefully so. None of the Malibu books are really hard to find, but you better grab 'em up, because a lot of people are discovering the Ultraverse every day--and they love it. Next week? Another departure from the norm? More than likely...