I find it quite difficult to keep reviewing this series. I was hopeful at first that there would be something to make this not feel like Captain America (take a shot), but the more that it goes on, the less hope I have for that. Captain Midnight #2 (written by Joshua Williamson, illustrated by Fernando Dagnino) is making me regret the initial enthusiasm I had for the series, which I want to be good but just isn’t.
This issue starts off with Captain Midnight getting the back story to Fury Shark that we already knew. It’s not the greatest start to an issue – even his reaction to it adds nothing new to anything (pseudo-Captain America (take a shot) thinks that having a Nazi be a prominent figure in the United States is scandalous? You don’t say!), so we start off on a redundant foot already. I almost feel like it’s there to try and introduce the character to people who are just picking up the series in this issue, but that’s not a good enough excuse for it to be so clumsy. It’s a great idea if they pull it off without the clumsiness, since most comics don’t do enough to try and get new readers in without backtracking, but it’s still not well done.
The worst part is that they just end up seeming to copy Captain America (take a shot) in far too many ways. I understood it early on, when it worked as a way to get me into what the character is basically all about, but it’s starting to get ridiculous at this point. Displaced in time from World War II? Okay, sure, you can tell a different enough story from the same premise. He’s not just a soldier, but also somewhat of a technology expert? Interesting and different – they stretch it with him being able to work modern technology in minutes and being able to improve on it, but I can take that. His love interest from the war being an old woman now who still misses him? I’ll take that – unless you want her to have died and cut off story possibilities, you’ll have to do that. Have her remarkably similar looking granddaughter find and befriend him as some sort of government/military agent and hint towards starting some sort of relationship going that way? Take more than just a shot. They’ve gone past just trying to set up the premise – now is the time for you to show me what’s so different from him that I want to read this instead of Captain America, not continue to bring out all those similarities.
The art is, well, the art. I kind of had my expectations set high by the #0 issue, which while not having the most inventive art overall, had a visual gag that I absolutely loved. Somehow, the series has lost the sense of humor already (or it’s just the fact that neither of the artists for that issue continued on to the next issues), and I’m left to just look at the art itself. The thing that sticks out to me is Fury Shark, who is shown in a firefight wearing a leather bodysuit that, while obviously showing off her breasts, makes her stomach look like it was drawn by Rob Liefeld. Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration, but the costume looks like it was designed for a muscular man, then thinned down and had breasts added. Did I mention she had high heels as well? In the middle of a firefight? This is just confusing me at this point. It’s 20 years too late to try and bring back a character in the 1990s style, especially in a way this confusing. It’s not like bringing 1990s characters back in the current style — that’s working pretty well so far elsewhere.
I don’t recommend this issue, in case I left any doubt in your mind. I thought that there was potential back in the #0 issue, but it’s not lived up to it and doesn’t feel like it’s going to any time soon. There are better books out there to spend $2.99 on until and unless this one starts to live up to its potential. It’s not even a spectacular, interesting to tear apart failure – just a mediocre book that doesn’t do anything interesting. I might pick it up again in a while to see if it’s gotten better, but for now, I’m not even interested enough to keep reading for the time being.
Zac Kandell (known mostly on the internet as Mischlings) had fun tearing this issue apart, but unless it becomes a different kind of bad soon, there’s nothing left to say. If you find what he says interesting, follow him on Twitter at @Mischlings for more, shorter thoughts.
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