NIGHTSIDE #1
"Ikkyu's Skull, Part 1: Hostile Takeover"
Recommended (7/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Robert Weinberg
Artist: Tom Derenick
Colors: Avalon Studios
Letters: Jon Babcock
Editor: Mark Powers
Price: $2.99 US/$4.50 CAN |
Nightside is far from one of the most original comic-book concepts I've seen, but I can't deny it's fun. Weinberg has included some strong, entertaining personalities in this new title, and it also features what is easily the best work I've seen from occasional X-Men penciller Tom Derenick. I'm also pleased to see Marvel taking a shot with a non-super-hero title that has no connection to its established continuities.
There are those who live among us who are not like us. They are vampires, werewolves and other creatures. They call the lives we lead and the world in which we live them the Dayside, while they exist in the Nightside. It seems some key crime figures from the Nightside have turned up dead recently, and the sexy and skilled Sydney Taine -- along with her partner, the brawny, brainy Ape Largo -- is investigating.
Nightside is The Avengers (the 1960s TV show, not the super-hero comic book) meets Vampire the Masquerade. It will seem almost derivative to those familiar with the latter role-playing game (which had a brief life as a primetime Fox TV show called The Kindred), but even so, it works. Aside from Sydney's stereotypical cheesecake appearance, one finds oneself on her side because she's a human holding her own in a world of powerful weirdos. And as for Ape Largo, he's the seemingly dumb brute who's really smarter than everyone else. One can't help but cheer them on.
Derenick's art here is far more textured than it's been in the past, and therefore, much stronger as well. Some of the credit seems to be due to Avalon Studios colors as well. Those colors establish the mood of the book nicely, and they grant a slightly greater degree of realism to the visuals as well.
Weinberg is treading some thoroughly familiar territory here, but in the end, he provides a fun read, though not a particularly challenging one. I was surprised that in this time of more permissive editorial policies at Marvel Comics that the writer didn't choose to present an edgier script, as it would have suited the darker tone of the characters and story nicely.
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