WHEN WE WERE ULTRA: THE ENDLESS NIGHT OF JOHNNY DOMINO (NIGHT MAN V. 1, NIGHT MAN INFINITY)

Even though my childhood experienced the height of Steve Englehart's run as a Marvel writer in the 70's, I admit to being a bit ambivalent about him as a whole.  Part of that is due to his less-than-stellar work for Marvel in the 80's.

That being said, I am pretty confident in saying if it wasn't for his Marvel work in the 80's, Night Man would not have existed...and considering Night Man was arguably the most successful of the Ultraverse characters in terms of success in other media (Night Man ran for two seasons in television syndication), that's a good thing.

You see, Englehart had been tapped to become the regular writer for Daredevil after Frank Miller's legendary 'Born Again' arc.  His plans were for Matt Murdoch and Karen Page to relocate to San Francisco and join the West Coast Avengers among other things.  Reading Night Man, I could see some of what would have been an Englehart DD even though he took a much different direction as the series developed.

Johnny Domino is a well-known jazz musician who gets into a car crash with a cable car in San Francisco.  He ends up with some shrapnel in his brain that destroys his sleep center...and something else.  It turns out that cable car was the one that was hit by the Entity that jumpstarted the Ultraverse, and Johnny also finds he picks up any evil thoughts in his general vicinity.  Deprived of his capacity to slumber and having failed to save someone from a murderous being called Death Mask, Johnny becomes the Night Man to combat a variety of evil much darker than any other Ultra has encountered.

The first few issues read very much like they were salvaged and revised from potential Englehart Daredevil issues.  The villains are grotesque but grounded, and you could easily see the New Mutants subbing for Freex in the Mangle storyline.  Later on, in issue #15 ("The Night Man Before Christmas"), there's a story that could have been intended for DD villain The Jester during his Marvel run.  But the series pretty quickly tilts into supernatural territory with the introduction of Rhiannon, a Celtic sorceress who ate human organs to continue living her life and was romantically fixated on Night Man--and was brought to vibrant life by artist Kyle Hotz, who should have been the regular penciler (but we'll get to that later)--and it.  just. CLICKS.  The idea of a more or less 'baseline normal' ultra figuring his way through building an identity and making the playing field between him and actual ultras level while the supernatural world keeps intruding really worked for me, giving the book a 'Kolchak The Night Stalker In a Cape' vibe that set it apart from other Ultraverse titles.

There were other things I really enjoyed about this first run....Englehart really shows us the process that take Johnny from just a man with a peculiar ultra power to a full on hero--for example his costume and weaponry is developed over time.  I really enjoyed the relationship Johnny had with his father, who quickly figures out his secret identity.  It's oddly appealing that a major subplot that runs most issues is not about ultras but Johnny's efforts to stop a developer from raising the amusement park where his father works (and also in the later half of the series serves as his...ummm, Night Cave?).  And if we discount Strangers baddies TNTNT, who keep showing up, the villains in this series are suitably macabre.  In addition to the aforementioned Rhiannon, I particularly dug Chalk, a murdered gangbanger who possesses the chalk outline around his dead body to gain revenge.  Not only is it a strikingly weird visual, Englehart manages to use the character to link Johnny with his romantic interest for the later half of the volume, Gail Yee.

There is one peculiar thing though.  Starting with issue #9 ("Solitary"), Englehart introduces Teknight, a robotic enemy masterminded by The Strangers' J.D. Hunt.  That Teknight is disassembled pretty quickly, but a second one is created based on actual armor--and is then possessed by Theodoric, an ancient warlord in issuer #11 ("Turning On").  Englehart spends a lot of time with the Theodoric Teknight before participating in a giant crossover in the annuals for both Night Man and The Strangers.  It's a weird tangent that seems at odds with the spookier stuff the series is concerned with.

While Englehart writes all but one issue (#16 was written by R.A. Jones...and its one of the worst issues of the series*), this is a title that once again suffers from a carousel of artists.  At first we've got another Murderer's Row situation, as the initial issue is penciled by Darick Robertson, the next two by Gene Ha, and the seven after that by Kyle Hotz. Hotz' tenure is really where the book hits its stride, with his moody pencils complementing Englehart's brooding writing perfectly.  Hotz is gone partway through issue  #11**--although he will also draw the Night Man versus Wolverine one-shot--and that begins a brief round of artist roulette before John Dennis and Dean Zachary hand off issues through Infinity Issue save for issue #23's turn by Robert Ruiz.  I think that once again the constant change of artists was part of the reason Night Man was, according to its editor Roland Mann, one of the lower selling Ultraverse titles.  I would like to point out that according to Mann, Englehart wasn't upset with the artist changes, even though Zachary's credit on issue #18 is prefaced with 'Hey!  A Permanent Penciler!,' which sounds like there's a touch of exasperation.

Not surprisingly, when Marvel took over things got shaken up.  According to Mann:

"He was one of the few who were excited when I let him know Marvel had purchased the company. Like most of us on staff, he saw Potential in what Marvel ownership could mean: more eyes and higher sales."

...although there is a definite sense of chaos to the last few episodes.  The return of Chalk in issue #21 ("Chalkmark In A Rainstorm") is abruptly shoved aside for another Loki appearance where the Reality Gem splits Night Man into a number of different duplicates representing the different paths he could take.  Our hero manages to banish all of them but one, leading to a final issue with one Night Man tracking down the other...only for Rhiannon to show up, offer one of the Night Men magick and banishing the other one to what we will discover is 616....

I was taken aback by how much I enjoyed Night Man.  I really suspect that Englehart had a special affinity for this character and the mystical background, which is usually outside of his comfort zone.  There's some truly excellent art in the first half of the run, and some vivid and unusual takes on the development of a hero.  I would recommend it.

Of course, after the Infinity issue there's a whole other volume, one that Englehart intended to be a launchpad for two separate books featuring Johnny Domino.  But that volume lasted only four issues (the shortest run of all the Ultraverse second volumes), the aforementioned special guest starring Wolverine, and a miniseries guesting Gambit.  But I'll be covering all that next time!

Until then....why be meta when you can be ultra?

Thanks once again to Roland Mann for his insight and answers to my questions!

*--According to Roland Mann:

"I seem to recall Steve got so far behind we ended up giving him an option to have a fill in on Night Man or on Strangers. He did not want either, but--again, because Night Man wasn't selling well, and late books become fully returnable (and thus can cost a lot of money), the option was pick one or cancel Night Man. As the editor, I wanted the fill-in and not a canceled book. Steve opted for that option as well."

 **--Again according to Mr. Mann:

"Kyle left partly because he was unhappy with the inking and partly because he wanted to do something else."