Middle Man has a concept that sounds a lot like Men in Black expanded a little bit, as it features a mysterious man working for a mysterious agency dealing with mad scientists, mobster gorillas and other "comic book" villains without letting the rest of the world know that they exist. Truthfully, the fact that Men in Black did it first does take a bit of the edge off of Middle Man's originality, but strong writing, a clever sense of humor and good artwork makes it an enjoyable read anyway. Grillo-Marxuach's story follows the standard pattern of rebellious newbie recruit meeting polished veteran and dealing with some big problem, but while the structure doesn't offer up much that hasn't been seen before, the moment-to-moment writing has quite a few chuckle-worthy moments, and certainly one could apply the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" model to the somewhat traditional story structure.
There are two big selling points to Middle Man. The first is Grillo-Marxuach's way with dialogue and interesting characters. Wendy Watson, our point-of-view character, is defined largely by her cynical detachment, but this character trait never crosses over to annoying, instead making her seem intelligent and somewhat endearing. It's easy to see from the start that the ease with which she absorbs change makes her a perfect fit for her new job, and though she does have violent tendencies (as shown in the scene between Wendy and her boyfriend in #2), they're always directed at the proper target. The book is at its best when Wendy is having a verbal throwdown with equally cynical and detached Ida, although I also really enjoy that his mystery man is more like Dudley Do-Right than James Bond. There are several dialogue exchanges in the course of Middle Man that gave me a chuckle.
The other big selling point is the artwork by Les McClaine, whose work has elements of Viper Comics golden boy Josh Howard as well as underrated talent Steve Rolston. There's a great, cartoonish vibe to the work, but there's also just a ton of detail, most evident in his design for the mutated monster in the opening pages of issue one or the real look of Ida. McClaine does have a tendency to get a little too zip-a-tone happy for my tastes, but the general look of the book is great, and his character designs and comedic timing are dead-on.
The Middle Man has a central plot that is completely telegraphed, but I don't believe that it was really intended to be much of a mystery. Instead, Grillo-Marxuach is just setting up the main villains of the piece alongside the necessary exposition, and it's a balance that works. There's a sense of a larger plot as well as the sense that we're reading an origin comic, and so there's a nice balance between too much information, not enough information, too much action and not enough action. Middle Man is just fast-paced enough without forgetting to bring the reader along for the ride.
I have to admit, since Grillo-Marxuach's name in the credits of Lost is one of the reasons Middle Man drew my attention in the first place, I was surprised to find that the book has some of the "out there" fantasy elements of Lost but is more conventional in approach and leans a lot closer to the humorous scale of action-adventure. If you're a fan of Men in Black or someone with a fondness for comic book cliches like talking gorillas and mutated monsters, Middle Man is well worth a look.
