Midnight Society: The Black Lake #1

by RobertJCross on June 11, 2015

Written by: Drew Johnson
Art by: Drew Johnson

So I actually wrote this review earlier today but I hit backspace on the lovely text editor that we have on the site and it erased my entire review...so this is being written in Microsoft Notepad and will be copy/pasted into the text editor when I am finished. This comic was purty good! It's a new franchise from Johnson, who previously worked on Wonder Woman. That much is clear in that the main character Matilda of the strong female variety. But we don't meet her until about 3/4 into this issue. The majority of it is taken up by two scientists, one whom is good and ethical and one whom is good and unethical. They work to try and find a cave with fairies in it. They do and there is a decision which leads to an open ended bit of story for another issue. However, decades later, the unethical scientist gets lost on Loch Ness. So the ethical one sends Matilda to go and find him...thus ends the issue. A lot to take it and 28 pages of such.

Johnson is an alright writer. Early on I would have wanted him to point out that everyone is British because I only got it near the end of the issue. Without that information, they were speaking with American accents in my head. It was weird having to transition when I realized they were Brits. Regardless, the dialogue was solid enough for me to somewhat forgive that mistake. The plot is pretty solid so far as well, especially since there was so much going on. Fairies, monsters, Loch Ness, scientists, Ant-Man like abilities and suits,...etc. It was pretty original, I dug it.

Where Johnson's strength is however is in his art. It reminded me a lot of the John Carter: Warlord of Mars comics I've been reading recently. It's raw art that is unfiltered with master strokes that aren't inked over like most. As much as I love Alex Ross and menton3, this guy's work is pretty impressive further down the totem pole. I'm sure he has more surprises in store.

Pick it up!

Our Score:

8/10

A Look Inside