Brand New: MIDNIGHT TIGER # 1 REVIEW

MIDNIGHT TIGER # 1
Written by Ray-Anthony Height & DeWayne Feenstra
Art by Ray-Anthony Height & Paul John Little
Action Lab Entertainment

This will be a spoiler free review.

                Our new book opens with a homeless man … with powers of manipulating fire attacking people in a bar. We got to our main hero, who was stops a somewhat familiar family from being robbed then does his homework.
                A school confrontation seems to hit Gavin personally … as well as have connections to a mysterious gangsta named P- Stone.


ART:

                Height creates one of the most visually appealing and detailed works in his career. There is a great amount of detail and variety of characters. Backgrounds are also filled in nicely, not skimping on them. Gavin’s got a great look for a young teen and a hero that is believable and striking.  Little helps breath a lot of life and color into Height’s work as they knock it out of the park with this first issue visually. We see different angles, different perspectives and great movements with the action.  Just the uses of side angles and over the shoulder perspectives were really entertaining this issue.  There is a richness in the line work and coloring as they do a great job with the light source and color of this book … particularly during the mugging/battle. I really enjoyed it and found it extremely well done. 

WRITING:

                Height and Feenstra jump us into some action while also developing Gavin as a character and his world in one swift shot. We get a quick retelling of his origin (which was done in the FCBD issue) while blasting off into the present with Gavin had taken time to become Midnight Tiger. While he’s fairly new, you can see that he’s had some experience with this by now and Feenstra and Height display that. Gavin comes off really believable and multi-faceted right away as we see him butt heads with a “friend”, deal with his father and his over all beliefs compared to those he cares about around him. Our hero is a good guy but definitely flawed … in a good way. I applaud the writers for doing that right off the back … allowing readers to relate to the character and feel more invested.  And while we got some great world building, Height and Feenstra did enough to really leave some open plots for upcoming issues of the series. The current main plot is already hitting close to home for Gavin and our writers make sure you are in. Plus, what we see of Gavin’s inner circle seems to be interesting right off the bat as we have him disagreeing with not only his father, but with some friends as well. It is definitely a different direction from many other super hero solo titles where the friends seem to be fully behind our hero while parent (s) is not. Great, solid writing that makes me want more. 

FINAL VERDICT:

                The art was amazing. The story was superb. The characters are interesting and varied. And there are some great Easter Eggs for comic books fans in the issue that just make you smile. I am all in on this book. I give Midnight Tiger # 1 a solid 5 … out of 5.