Midnight Tiger: Origins is a comic written by Ray-Anthony Height & DeWayne Feenstra with art primarily by Ray-Anthony Height, Paul Little, and seven other people. A frustrated high school student receives superpowers and immediately puts them to use. This is a superhero comic with science fiction and supernatural elements starring a bunch of younger people. The leading lad for this tale is Gavin Shaw, he is a high school student that is sick of the violence and danger in his part of town that affects innocent people. He lives with his dad and has two close friends named Dex and Ryan. There many other superheroes and supervillains that make an appearance with some playing major roles. This story really gets underway as Gavin head home from his friend’s house when he gets notified about something involving superfolk nearby. He goes to check it out and this leads to some interesting events. The city this takes place in is called Apollo Bay and it seems to be on the East Coast. The theme here is the classic “young hero learning the ropes while a major threat looms” which is common for an origin story. The action here is bloody though the more gruesome and gory shots aren’t shown. The pacing overall is steady with a combination of both fast and slow moments. The tone goes from lighthearted to serious with the intensity going up when situations turn violent. The dialogue is mostly conversational with plenty of slang from the younger people and mid-battle quips. There are more than word-heavy pages and thick text bubbles. This is a graphic novel that shows the life of a teenager and the origins of a superhero in a world full of drama and danger.

            The art here is sharp, detailed, and drawn in a modern style with good shading and lighting. Near the end there is an art shift where everything is softer-looking. The color range here is huge and realistic with the average page having a good mix. Though some scenes take place in a tree-filled, grassy park the majority of the scenery we’ll see is of the inner city with tall buildings and tight alleyways. There isn’t a main location as this story moves around frequently with some areas visited multiple times like the school, the park, rooftops, and different streets. Pre-art shift the backgrounds nearly always show the scene which is great for adding impact to moments but post-art shift the background is frequently spotty color gradients. The expression level here is around average as these characters don’t always show how they’re feeling. The range is primarily anger with some additional aggressive looks as well as somber and sad emotions, happiness is rare. The faces are very detailed and show each expression well but they tend to default to stoic a lot of the time. There is some slight face sameness here. The violence here is hard-hitting, gruesome, and bloody. There isn’t any visible gore but it is implied. The action scenes are spread throughout this comic and are of varying length with good flow being the standard.

“Is this worth reading?”

Yes.

“Would I like this?”

If you like superhero stories with supernatural and science fiction elements that star a black teenager dealing with his newfound powers in a story with violence and drama then this is for you.

“What would this comic’s film rating be?”

R. Blood, violence.

“Could I get a quote from the comic?”

“The only language some people speak is violence.”

 

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/midnighttiger-origin/midnight-tiger-the-complete-origin/description

***IN-DEPTH COMIC STATS BELOW***

Probably Contains Spoilers

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Actual Pages(not counting covers and credits): 79

Violent Pages: 17, for 22% of the comic

Sexy Pages: 0, for 0% of the comic

 

**The levels below aren’t necessarily maintained throughout the whole comic, but they were definitely reached**

 

Violence Level – 4

“Wasn’t no tussling at all.”

“Sometimes you gotta hit somebody.”

“I’m getting charged with how many counts of assault?”

“This was a tournament arc.”

“All my life I had to fight.”

 

Gore Level – 3

“The only thing leaking out your face is tears.”

“Looks like somebody spilled some ketchup.”

“Might need to soak that up with a bath towel.”

“That isn’t supposed to be outside the body.”

“This is a slaughterhouse.”

 

Death Level – 2

“And everybody lived happily ever after.”

“We might have gone to a couple funerals.”

“It just LOOKS like a serial killer was here.”

“Yeah this was a tragedy.”

“Think Gettysburg.”

 

Porn Level – 1

“Everybody kept their clothes on.”

“I guess it was too hot for a bra.”

“Sometimes you got to let everything air out.”

“This is like late night Cinemax in the early 2000’s.”

“Oh. This is porn.”