Radiant Comics

I’m back from the comic shop this week and I got six new comics:

And now for a review of something I’ve read recently.

”Night Force (Volume 3)” Issues 1-7 by Marv Wolfman and Tom Mandrake

I bought the original run of “Night Force” back in the early 80s. It ran fourteen issues. I still have them on my shelf (I’ll have to reread those) but I looked up on the internet how many issues it ran and found out there was a four issue volume two in the 90s. I don’t remember that one. I may have read it I may have not. Who knows?

I was surprised to see DC Comics brought this series back. It isn’t well known and though I liked volume one it isn’t considered a cult classic or anything. Just some solid mainstream horror comics from Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan.

“Night Force” centers around a man called Baron Winters. He’s some kind of magic guy who lives in this big mysterious house with his leopard Merlin. He talks to Merlin as if he’s a sentient being but Merlin doesn’t talk back. The house has all sorts of magical properties that allow people to travel through time and space. At various times over the decades Winters gathers up agents to work for him fight the forces of evil. A lot of his agents have gotten killed over the years and that doesn’t sit well with Winters or the agents who know him. He’s a jaded and aloof person.

This is not your average DC Comic. There are no super heroes to be found and the story gets muddled and confusing (but the story telling doesn’t). It’s that way on purpose because Winters doesn’t know what’s going on and neither do the agents. It takes the whole seven issues to straighten things out. Winters is fighting some ages old cult that’s been breeding people to make some sort of perfect monster. Or something like that. There’s travel through time and space plus demons and monsters. The plot is too complicated to sum up concisely but this comic is about the characters who are along for the ride in the plot. The Baron and his agents.

I haven’t seen anything drawn by Tom Mandrake in a while but here he is really influenced by Gene Colan’s original “Night Force” run. He’s doing layout’s reminiscent of Colan’s and keeping the drawing loose and shadowy as Gene always did. I wouldn’t say he’s imitating Colan but the influence is obvious. It was a good job.

I liked “Night Force” but it’s quirky and different so I’m not sure who I’d recommend it to. Fans of Wolfman and Colan’s older work certainly might like it but it’s not in-your-face gory like today’s horror comics nor is it hyper-real super hero stuff that make up a lot of current comics. If you’re a fan of comics in general and have an open mind towards them then give this book a read.