Midnighter #1

By Steve Orlando, ACO and Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Many characters become the most popular member of a giant super team. This happens all the time, but being able to sustain your own monthly title after being on a super team can be a little more challenging. Characters from Cyclops to Red Tornado have had their shot at solos and they generally always end up the same. MidnightWith that, we are treated to Midnighter #1 this week. He’s definitely the coolest member of The Authority, but is he worthy of a monthly ongoing?

The Midnighter is a character that has been around for quite some time and he really shined in The Authority. Steve Orlando has the task of making him interesting enough to make him likable to the mass amount of people who are unaware he exists. Orlando doesn’t overdo it with action in this first issue, but takes some time to let us see where the Midnighter is in his life. He’s fresh off a break up with Apollo and ready to get back to dating. Orlando writes a very witty script and many of the characters have slick dialogue. Steve allows us to see a man who is trying to put himself back together emotionally after a huge break up. The Midnighter comes off very cool in this issue and you shouldn’t miss the other members of the team. Steve Orlando writes a very good first issue that should bring in new readers for The Authority.

The pencils this issue are handled by ACO, with colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr. The pencils are very good in this first issue. ACO’S panel set up is very similar to something Andrea Sorrentino would do. There are a ton of small panels on many of the pages that ultimately give us a rich visual. The only downside to something like this is that there can be too many and we get overloaded. This happens once or twice in this issue and you really have to stare at the panels. That aside, character faces and bodies look great and ACO draws a couple of nice battle scenes. The colors by Romulo Fajardo Jr. work very well with ACO’S art. He uses some cool blues in a panel where Midnighter get a message from the Gardener. Fajardo Jr. adds some richness to the pencils laid down by ACO, which really makes this art pop.

 Midnighter #1 was surprisingly very good. Sometimes these first solo issues can be a bit rough, but Steve Orlando wrote a very good script. The art had a couple of confusing panels, but overall the pencils and colors added to the enjoyment of the book. If issue 2 is this good, this could a hit with critics and fanboys alike.