“Check out my invisible clarinet!”
NiGHTS Into Dreams #3
Archie Comics (April, 1998)
“Flight To The Finish”
PLOT: Dan Slott
WRITER/COLORIST: Karl Bollers
PENCILERS: Pat Spaz & Marry Galan
INKER: Harvo
LETTERER: Jeff Powell
EDITOR: J. Freddy Gabrie
With Claris giving up her dream energy she’s also given up her dream of being a singer and it shows. Elliot has forgotten about his time in Nightopia (no, I don’t know why), leaving NiGHTS returned to the Ideya Palace after being beaten by Reala, who is still charged by Roger’s dream energy. Elliot is brought into Nightopia where his dream energy is stolen by Reala. Snuze reaches Napp’s good side and together they reclaim the Perfect Dream energy and bring Elliot and Claris together to rescue NiGHTS. As Wiseman has already started merging the waking and nightmare worlds, NiGHTS splits his power between the Dreamers, allowing him/them to defeat Wiseman, but leaves NiGHTS drained. Only by fulfilling their dreams (Claris has her singing back and overcomes her stage fright, while Elliot manages to score against Roger in basketball) can NiGHTS not only be restored as a dream, but actually becomes real, now protecting Twin Seeds in the waking world.
Outside of the horrible accents and overexaggerated rubbery facial expressions on the German show director, the big problem with this issue is the one I’ve had with this miniseries since the first issue, and both Slott (who wrote the first issue and plotted the other two) and Bollers are guilty of this. There are some great ideas, even to someone like me who has never played the game. However, everything is rushed, like parts of the story are missing and just given the briefest of exposition. It makes it hard to enjoy the story and if it wasn’t for the next storyline I’d probably be adding this to the purge pile. I really want to like this comic, but it’s like there are issues worth of story missing, at least two, that just ruins it. As to whether or not you should look for it, wait until we look at the next one, an original tale instead of a straight-up adaptation to see if it’s worth it, if only as a refresher or synopsis of the story in the video game.
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