Night Force #1

Night Force
Story by Marv Wolfman and Art by Tom Mandrake

I picked up Night Force simply because Marv Wolfman (creator of numerous characters like Blade and Timothy Drake) has written some of my all time favorite stories. A reboot of the late 80’s Night Force, this mini-series also deals with sorcerer Baron Winters, who honestly looks like a suited up Criss Angel with a leopard as a pet who can’t leave his opulent mansion. That’s not an insult to Mandrake but jeebs, can he look any more smarmy? Anyway, an officer, Jim Duffy, receives a call about a beach mugging and he saves a blonde girl from being strangled. As a doctor requests her identification, Zoe is wheeled from her hospital bed through a door and end up in Baron’s mansion who offers no explanations, other than his name and he’s been waiting for them. Creepy. Seargant Duffy and Zoe are attacked by shadows, weird FBI agents appear, and a serial killer’s body is found in the mansion in just a few short pages.

Tom Mandrake relies heavily on dramatic lighting to make this comic spooky. I like the old school mystery theater feel to the comic a lot but the tackiness acommpanying Baron Winter’s style and home bother me immensely to the point where I can’t enjoy the comic. It’s so much of a caricature, it’s lame. It does not flow smoothly and I finished the issue thoroughly confused.

I didn’t care for Night Force one bit but maybe you’ll like it.