Teenage Kicks Right Through The Night: ‘Night Club’ #3 Advance Review
by Olly MacNamee
Summary
While Danny and his friends continue to balance their new found social ilife with their desire to become superheroes and social media stars in ‘Night Club’ #3, we also get to see what they can’t. The coming threat to their seemingly sorted lives, as more than hinted at on the front cover. But, that isn’t even the half of it. As they will soon discover.
Overall
10/10Danny, Amy and Sam continue to live their best lives in Night Club #3 as newly turned vampires keen to make money and gain likes on social media. So, just your typical modern day teenagers, but with supernatural powers. And, codenames. Because, if you’re gonna be a supe, you need a catchy codename. But, unlike other superheroes, these guys are happy to follow the lead of Power Man and Iron Fist and work for money, taking down bad guys for chump change. And, in an issue of two halves – as the cover would suggest – it’s not all about our fearless threesome having fun through the night. There has to be an enemy that rears its ugly head at some point and rear its head it does.
While the action continues to be confined to the urban landscape so favoured by superheroes, there is a sharp contrast when the villains of the piece come into the fray in the latter portion of this issue, with a suitably gothic backdrop more appropriate to a tale of vampirism. And while the final page of this issue is something of a shocker, what Mark Millar also hints at is an enemy steeped in the traditions of horror and ancient evils. So far we’ve had a fun twisted take on the teen superhero genre, but now we get the promise of a nightmarish reckoning that, no doubt, will test our young, naive vampires, who really don’t know what’s coming.
Artist Juanan Ramírez is at home in both worlds, whether portraying the elegance and agility of young heroes pumped up on life (even if they are undead) or delivering the more gory horrors of a particularly American gothicism. While Fabiana Mascolo’s colour work also helps set the tone too, establishing a grimy green backdrop evocative of those parts of America you don’t want to find yourselves trapped in. The backwaters of the States where murder and mayhem are easily covered up, and rarely found out.
The kids may be thinking of ways to cover up from their absence from school, and take steps to cover their new found super strength, but all of this pales into insignificance with what’s about to come next. After the events set up in this issue, the reader may well be forewarned, but not our young heroes.
Night Club #3 is out Wednesday 15th February from Image Comics
