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MIDNIGHT, MASS: HERE THERE BE MONSTERS #1
"Part 1: Arturo"
Recommended (8/10)
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DC Comics/Vertigo imprint
Writer: John Rozum
Artist: Paul Lee
Colors: Sherri Van Valkenburgh
Letters: Janice Chiang
Editor: Zachary Rau
Price: $2.95 US/$4.50 CAN |
The first Midnight, Mass series started off interesting, but somewhere along the way, I sort of lost interest, so I don't know how everything turned out. Here There Be Monsters follows the same lead characters and even the same villain, so it feels in some ways like a continuation of that series, but even someone like me who has only read one or two issues of the first series had no trouble keeping up with this issue. I had thought that Midnight, Mass was going to be a somewhat tongue-in-cheek story about monsters and monster hunters, but while Rozum does have a sense of humor about the whole thing, the tone of this book is pretty dark. The Kadmons, husband and wife monster hunters, make a significant appearance in this issue, but the really interesting story is told about the monsters, setting up their motivations, goals and personalities and simultaneously making them more three-dimensional and yet still monstrous and wicked.
What's weird about this book is that the book starts out somewhat light-hearted, even goofy. The scenes of Richard and Julia Kadmon going in to stake some vampires, treating it not as a quest against evil but drudgework, is hilariously funny. The way the two of them treat this as a fairly mundane job, joking about their gardening and bantering between themselves, not only establishes very quickly just what kind of life the Kadmons have but serves as a light and funny introduction to the series.
While there is some dark humor in the rest of the book, that is about as light as the story gets. Magellan's plan to infiltrate and slaughter a human community and take it over is chilling, especially when we see a preview of it at the end of this issue. At the same time, however, it gives the monsters depth, and a reason to exist and kill people beyond the simplistic "because they're evil." The notion of wanting to earn a better life for your community is actually fairly human, and though Magellan's way of going about it are despicable, it's actually pretty easy to relate to his goals, or to the envy that the younger monsters like Arturo feel about the society that humans have built up.
Rozum actually packs quite a bit of story into this first issue. We see the Kadmons at their best, fighting monsters with confidence and ease, and then we see them facing the difficulties of that life and wishing for a little more normalcy. We see Magellan rallying his troops and Arturo struggling with that problem of youth, patience. We see the Kadmons' assistant, Jenny, falling into a pattern similar to the one her employers are worrying about and see a possible escape for her as well. Rozum has plenty of intriguing potential stories here, but they all intersect in having the theme of changing your life or making sure you're living the life you want to.
I've really enjoyed Paul Lee's artwork on horror stories like Devil's Footprints or his occasional Buffy tales, and he does a really great job here. His take on Jenny is one of believable beauty, and indeed all of his work on the normal folks stands out as realistic and engaging. In order to work on the level of making us care about the characters and really selling the horror of the final sequence, we have to believe in the reality of these settings, and Lee sells that reality perfectly. Arturo and his friends appear otherworldly, like they don't quite belong in the world they're in, and the bloody, brutal actions of Arturo are disturbing, especially when we see the little girl's tears or the horror on the face of her mother. In fact, the last sequence borders on being too disturbing for me, which is something I rarely get out of horror comics.
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