Midnighter #3 Review

Written by: Steve Orlando
Art by: Aco, Hugo Petrus and Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 6, 2015

Stranger Danger

Midnighter came out of the gates kicking ass and taking names.  Steve Orlando put the focus of the book squarely on the character and let him loose in this world of hi-tech craziness and I loved it.  I was a little disappointed when the second issue shifted that focus a bit, but it fleshed out the story so I was good with it.  While the idea of the stolen God Tech is cool, I liked seeing the man behind the mask even more.  I can't wait to see the perfect blend of action and character that both issues teased, but didn't quite get.  Is this the issue that does it?  Let's find out...

The issue starts with a different angled view of last month's cliff hanger and if you were waiting to see Multiplex and Midnighter duke it out, you won't be disappointed by the carnage, but the length may not be to your liking.  Thankfully, it wasn't the main event.

Before we get to that, Steve Orlando gives us another little peek at Midnighter the man.  He may not dance, but he's pretty damn funny.  After the first issue, I hoped that we'd get more interaction with Tony and this issue shows why.  They are great together and their playful back and forth almost covers the fact that they've seen some serious shit go down together.

Midnighter finally gets down to business and visits a mother whose daughter has been kidnapped.  You can guess that it involves God Tech (which it does) and count on Midnighter to make it alright.  What I didn't count on was the clunky dialogue.  Maybe I'm wrong, but this mother didn't strike me as someone who recently lost her daughter.  The scene just felt wrong and even Midnighter's parts were off.

Midnighter goes off to "press flesh" and "ask some fist questions" and while it looked cool, it was overly confusing and...well, just not that good.  I know that we are going to get a full arc of Midnighter chasing down God Tech, but I hope it gets better than this.  By the way, he gets the girl back to her mother, but it never reaches the emotional impact that it could have.

The last part of the issue had Midnighter hanging out with his new boy toy and instead of going on and on about Apollo, Steve Orlando shows us the last moments of their relationship.  Again, it fell flat and did nothing to further the story or the character.  I love Apollo, but unless he's coming back, I don't care if I see him in this book ever again.  The issue ends with a cliffhanger that came out of nowhere and while I love the characters involved, it just combined with everything else in this issue to make me shake my head in disbelief.

I may seem overly negative, but Midnighter was one of my top three new books in the DC You and I don't know what happened to it.  How can such a smart and mature book devolve into this confusing mess this quickly?  I'm not saying that Steve Orlando can't turn it around quickly, I'm just hoping he does.

Aco is back on art and that was something that didn't dissapoint.  While he got a little too clever with the panel layout at times, his character models (especially Midnighter) were top notch and I loved the action scenes.

Bits and Pieces:

If you asked me before this issue what I thought of Midnighter, I would have sung it's praises.  I'm not singing any more.  I know it's only three issues old, but my enthusiasm has gone down with each one and I am on the edge of the cliff after this one.  While I liked Aco's art, the confusing and uninteresting story of this issue has me really worried about this book going forward.

5.5/10