Customer Reviews

J. Michael Straczynski's Midnight Nation, Vol. 1

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

J. Michael Straczynski's Midnight Nation is a terrific and hard to put down graphic novel. If you are looking for supermodels in spandex or cat suits (Not that there's anything wrong with that!), then this is not your book. The story is original and compelling and has sufficient pacing to keep you turning the pages and staying up way past your bedtime. Occasionally, I found the story to be downright thought provoking-more than I generally ask for in a graphic novel. Although I was often left wondering how dense protagonist David Velinsky could be, I did become interested in the characters and wanted them to make out all right.

The characters penciled by Gary Frank, while being generally better looking than you and your friends, are less "cartoonish" than the usual comic action heroes. Many of the frames teemed with details, but most showed little beyond the main focus of the action. This was clearly a style choice, as the artistic team, including Gary Frank, inkers Jonathan Sibal and Jason Gorder, and colorist Matt Milla, shows what it is capable of in the beautiful collection of covers in the back of the book. With all the comics turned movies of late, watch out for Midnight Nation at a theater near you. It can't be long in coming.

A cynical, brooding cop, a beautiful and mysterious guide, busloads of green and black zombies-what more could you ask for?

Upon first reading the description of this book, I thought it was going to be another stupid irrelevant horror comic, but was I EVER WRONG!!! This book has opened my eyes to a new way of seeing things, and the author isn't in-your-face about it either though. His message is subtle weaved throughout the book until in the end you find yourself realizing what he's saying through the story.

Take for example what he says about how he watched a street corner from midday to early in the morning once. He said that during the day it was business people, parents, kids, ect and that at night just past midnight different kinds of people came out, hookers, users, bums, vagabonds, the forgotten, the thrown away, the used, the abused, one corner, two different places, same location, why the dicotomy of people/environment of one place? He goes into a lot of detail and he exaplains it A LOT more clearly but listen, if you don't buy this book, at least read it once, just once. It's a great book that will make you see things in a different light or lack thereof.

One of the best damn stories ever written with great very fitting artwork. I really cannot praise this book enough. JMS nails another one!

The afterward to this book gives a deep look into the author's life, and explains the reason this book was written. I found that was the perfect ending to a book that was about as emotional a story as I have ever read.

JMS's Midnight Nation is the story of a man who enters the 'shadow world' where the people who society ignores for long enough end up and his journey to reclaim his soul.

What happens to him is as carefully spun as a glass flower and as personal as a punch in the nose. While this can be compared to both Preacher and Sandman, in truth, there is so much going on in this book that it stands above both of these great works, not diving into venality as Preacher occasionally does, nor the quirky side trips that Gaiman is fond of. JMS's story (like the characters) marches straight toward an ending of such magnitude it feels like hammer blows falling.

The art is well done with characters drawn such that they support the story well, and remain terrifyingly real. This is hands-down the best graphic novel I have ever read. Highly recommended.

This is a fantastic trade paperback. Straczynski's writing and Frank's artwork come together with freshness and originality.

The story has a lot of great Heaven and Hell stuff, kind of like Garth Ennis' "Preacher" books with a bit of X-files thrown in. It's pretty intense, definitely not for kids. It's nice and long, so you can settle down for a good read.

And you won't see the ending coming, it's handled very well. This was a joy to read. Check it out!

A departure from the traditional superhero saves the world story. David Grey is a police Lt. who finds himself on a long walk to save his soul. The mood and setting created by the storytelling of Straczynski and the art of Frank weaves a world the reader can immerse themselves in. You could do a lot worse with the selection of other novels out there. If you are a narrative junky, you'll definitely enjoy this gem. If you are more into the traditional superhero story perhaps skip this one.

This was one of the best graphic novels I have read. Watchmen beats it out but not by much. The story line goes as follows:

A detective who is too dedicated to his job has his wife leave him. At a crime scene these ghastly things rip his soul from his body. Upon waking he finds himself in the in-between, where people and things that are forgotten are left. He then proceeds to follow a woman from LA to New York to reclaim his soul back. Upon this journey he encounters things that make both of them realize who they are.

I am not going to ruin the ending because it is so well written and so poetic that you will have to read it for yourself to understand the full meaning of this book. The art is top notch thanks to penciler Gary Frank and the writing of J. Michael Straczynski perfect. I could see this movie being made into a movie without many modifications.

It's really not uncommon for me to read an entire graphic novel in one sitting, or two or three. But largely that's due to the fact that there is a space of time that needs to be filled. I don't apply the same thinking to Midnight Nation; I didn't read this in one sitting because I had the time to, I did it because the book actually creates a desire to be read. I know, books don't create things, but one can certainly be inspired by something they read. So I'll say I was inspired to finish it.

It's honestly really hard to write about something so great without wanting to spill all the contents of its pages onto the screen. That's how good with it, I want to share it. When I was done reading it, I didn't really feel like I was OK with it being over... At all. Other customer reviews gave me an impression that this was going to be something I wanted, all wrapped up in one pretty package. I'll just try to keep the context simple.

If you like dense storylines that do not leave you with asking more questions than the ones answered, this is for you. If you have a soft spot for human compassion, and seeing the benefits of enforcing hope, this is for you. If you like to see protagonists overcome extreme adversity, not just externally but internally as well, this is for you. If you like it when your antagonist actually is someone that knows what they are talking about and makes you question the morals, methods, and ethics of the world around you, this is for you. If you like it when character stories aren't stagnant with literary decay, this is for you. If you like philosophical premises with a bit more than a tinge of religious context that isn't offensive, this is for you.

To sum it all up though. Straczynki has unveiled a marvel in this book, and has bought my attention from this day forward. This book is not for those that are interested only in the stereotypical protagonist that lives the simple life of putting the bad guy in jail, bad guy breaks out of jail, good guy puts bad guy back in jail, and then ponders over the implications of what has happened.

This book is thoroughly amazing, and I'm glad it's gotten the great ratings it deserves.

When one hears the phrase "comic book," there's the imidiate image of one-dimensional four color hero saving the day with some woman with an impossible body in what can only be described as fetish gear. I like comics, always have. They are the comfort food of my week. however, I am not your typical comic book reader so when i say i do read them, it requires some explanation. This book is the explanation I give and it's really all the explanation I need.
Purists can argue Watchmen being a deconstructionists philisophical rant of the nature of the hero. Miller's Batman, Gaiman's award winning run on Sandman, Chadwick's Concrete, these are all great and seminal works of the form, but this is something else altogether. it is a comic in form only.
What it is, truly, is a life-affirming, beautifully paced, well-drawn parable of the only true currency life has to offer: hope. This is the story we all can relate to on some level, how do ou keep your soul in a world where you can suddenly lose all that tells you who you are? Where do you find the light when you fall between the cracks?
After its initial set-up, which only takes an issue, the story unfolds like an orchid, beatifully paced and deliberate, the art showing as much emotion as the writing, as our wounded protagonist explores the world he finds himself in and encounters the answers of others who have shared his fate to prepare himself for the climax of his final answer. Each of these characters is plausible, believable, that lonely old woman on the street corner, that frail shy girl from history class. The people he meets are the people you've met. If god is in the details, then this book is a spiritual tome of discovery, of light in a world of darkness, and the faith of the broken.
i'm not going to tell you how it all unfolds. i'd be stealing from you your own discovery. And that is what this gem is, a discovery. There are countless interpretations of the ideology of the hero. There are a million yarns of titans clashing to defend the just. Buildings will aways crumble and worlds will always collide in this format. However, in the two decades I have perused the art of the graphic novel, not one bombastic battle over evil showed me the nature of good and evil as eloquently and as beautifully as the gently glowing spark of hope that is this book.
I will always be grateful for it, I know that if you read it, you will too.

Although I do not own the graphic novel, I do own all 13 (1/2 + 1-12) issues of the series and just re-read this weekend. This is more of a supernatural, thought-provoking series that has no equal in this medium. The story is very mature and focuses heavily on themes of hope, despair, morality, society, heaven, and hell. The art is very gritty but clean and easy to look at. The story is very well paced and will have you turning pages as fast as you can. The climax and ending are both suprising and well thought out; you can guess but you'll probably be wrong. And the story actually ends with sort of an epilogue. Too many stories these days, especially in comics, end with the climax and never "really" end the story; that is not the case with Midnight Nation.

Overall, from beginning to end, Midnight Nation is the most satisfing, entertaining graphic novel/comic series ever published. I can't recommend it enough.