Written by by Mark Millar
Art by Juanan Ramirez
Published by Millarworld /
Dark Horse Comics
Like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and a few others before him, writer Mark Millar’s very name has become a sign of quality.
Unlike any of those others, he’s managed to leverage that to the point where he became his own brand, Millarworld, and then that brand was purchased outright by Netflix.
After decades of seeing most comic book writers largely remain unknown to the public at large, it’s been kind of fun to watch.
The best part is that he’s still turning out some amazing work!
Currently at hand, we have Dark Horse’s The Night Club, collecting a six-issue mini-series.
It’s a story about vampires. I can hear you yawning, you know. I mean, sure, what is there left to say about vampires that hasn’t already been said? It would take some real creativity to come up with some new kind of vampire story.
Like I said…Mark Millar.
In The Night Club, we meet three teenage high schoolers, outsiders trying to find a profitable niche to become YouTube stars. When rooftop parkour lands Danny in the hospital with multiple injuries, his two friends fear the worst.
Suddenly, though, he’s bitten by a vampire who claims to be a police detective. He wakes up three days later, very thirsty, but with all of his injuries healed. The vampire cop tells him he’s starting to build an army by turning people who would otherwise have had no quality of life. He mentors him in his new lifestyle, showing him that the magical rules and tricks of the legends and movies are all true. He can’t cross running water, he can’t be out in the sun, he can’t enter anywhere without being invited.
They can, however, turn into mists, or bats, and have super strength and a Deadpool-like healing power.
Rather than see his new life as a curse, our hero decides it’s a chance for him to become a Spider-Man-style superhero—Starguard!
With an Amazon-ordered luchador mask and a body-covering outfit, he can even be around in the daytime. Of course, he feels the need to share all this with his two closest pals and they, too, get turned and become teenage vampire superheroes. Eventually, this gets back to the vampire detective and he is not happy. He explains to the trio why he wanted to build an army in the first place and the story proceeds down a darker path from there.
The Night Club feels almost startling original, despite the fact that it makes perfect sense that bullied and ostracized teens would do just exactly what our three protagonists do here. They want to help, yes, but mainly, they still want to monetize their exploits and become social media influencers.
Filled with swear words, Millar’s youthful dialogue comes across as accurate, and the story has a number of unexpected twists and unusual characters and character traits. The story is perfectly served by its artwork, courtesy of Juanan Ramírez. The artist’s straightforward storytelling offers up some solid uses of full-page splashes as well as creative panelwork, but never at the expense of the story being told.
Despite its realistic depictions of teens, it’s definitely adult-oriented and overall NSFW. If, however, you’re a grownup or a bullied teen who always dreamt of becoming a kick-ass superhero someday…or for that matter a blood-sucking vampire, this is the book where you can live out that fantasy vicariously.
At just under 200 pages, The Night Club is yet another page-turner. From its cool cover by Greg Capullo to a couple of cover variants at the back, I just didn’t want it to end.
Booksteve recommends!
You must be logged in to post a comment Login