“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Night Man #3

“You’re buying me a new logo, pal!”

The Night Man #3

Malibu Comics/Ultraverse (December, 1993)

WRITER: Steve Englehart

CO-PLOTTER: Gerald Jones

PENCILER: Gene Ha

INKER: Andrew Pepoy

COLORING: Tim Divar & Foodhammer!

LETTERER: Dave Lanphear

EDITOR: Chris Ulm

Between the size of LA and the Break-Thru event, Night Man is having trouble finding Mangle and the Freex (continuing from issue #6 of their comic), but comes up with the idea of using pirate radio to reach them. Michael/Plug is the only one willing to listen to him and tells the hero where to find them. Learning of the Strangers’ theft of the shuttle, Mangle is sure the Hunts will be at the base, but Night Man isn’t the only thing waiting since JD had robots at his disposal. Plug works with Night Man while he tries to reach the kids, but in the end it’s Night Man alone against Mangle. Night Man manages to wound him and promises to get him to a medical facility that Hunt doesn’t control (if he can find one, according to JD). The kids escape in the confusion, but our hero still hopes to reach them.

What they got right: Points for having a Freex member I actually like, but Michael isn’t enough to get me to read the comic again outside of crossovers like this. While the story doesn’t directly tie to the Break-Thru event, it does use those events to craft the story.

What they got wrong: Wait, so the reason Night Man couldn’t sense evil thoughts on Guy is because JD has him so twisted he doesn’t believe what he’s doing is evil? Does that mean everyone else he has been able to read knew they were evil? That doesn’t quite add up. And Lewis is actually going by “Anything” as his Ultra name? I’m still not willing to call him a hero, with Plug having the only conscience I see.

What I think overall: I liked the TV series and Johnny’s guest appearance on the Ultraforce cartoon, so I’m glad I’m enjoying his original comic series thus far. Looking forward to more issues.