This is the first comic I’ve ever read put out by a mainstream comic publisher (Marvel/DC) where one of the characters talks about his wife wanting an open marriage. Welcome to Night Force, one of the weirdest comics I’ve ever read.
Night Force is a horror comic put out by DC in the early 1980’s. It lasted fourteen issues before it got canceled. It’s written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gene Colan, a creative team with impressive credentials. Despite some issues, Tomb of Dracula is a classic. Unfortunately, Night Force is not a classic.
The plot: Baron Winters lives in a grand old mansion in Georgetown. The Baron has a pet cheetah and can’t leave his house, because reasons. However, his house has portals that allow him to travel into the past. We never find out why, because the book gets canceled and I don’t really care anyway. BTW, Georgetown is also the setting of The Exorcist. Vanessa Van Helsing, one of the characters in Night Force, is about the age Regan MacNeil would be in the early 1980’s.
Vanessa is a physical medium who can channel evil. She’s been institutionalized ever since she was a child, and spends most of this graphic novel getting beat up, kidnapped, and jabbed with hypodermic needles. She has absolutely no agency at all. Her only purpose is to be rescued, so she’s a damsel in distress on steroids.
The Russians want to kidnap Vanessa and channel her psychic powers. Baron Winters, who is Vanessa’s guardian (again: because reasons) assembles his Night Force to counter the Russkies. So who’s on the team? Jack Gold is a writer who can’t keep a job. His marriage is finito. Spurred on by the Baron, he takes a liking to Vanessa. They have sex. Since this title exists under the auspices of the Comic Code Authority, they only show the aftermath. One other thing: Vanessa is twenty years old, while Jack is at least twice that age.
Donovan Caine, the second member of Night Force, is a parapsychologist. He’s doing experiments on Vanessa for the CIA. This involves having his graduate students dress up in black robes, draw pentagrams on the ground, and perform pretend Satanic rituals. Caine wants to help Vanessa channel evil, and boy oh boy does he succeed. Unfortunately, that evil kills his wife.
Donovan Caine is important, not because he does anything (in some ways he’s as much a damsel in distress as Vanessa), but because he’s the only person in this comic who has any agency that makes sense. Caine blames the Russians for his wife’s death. He’s wrong about that. Picture this: say you know a person who can manifest evil in physical form. Say you start performing Satanic rituals to summon that evil, which indeed starts manifesting. Does that sound safe to you? Maybe you’d ask, what are your safety protocols? What, you say you don’t have any? Okaaaay.
When Vanessa is kidnapped and sent to Siberia, Caine and Gold try to bring her back. Caine hates Gold so much it’s comical, even though Gold saves his life three times (at least). The first storyline lasts seven issues and still feels truncated to me. The twist at the end is good, but also reinforces the unpleasantness of the characters.
There are two other storylines after this one. The second, which involves a criminal fighting a walking garbage mound that imprisons a bunch of people in a brownstone, is pretty good. The third and final storyline makes no sense.
My guess is that this was an experimental comic. The stuff about manifesting evil and psychic powers is interesting, but the characters are mostly unpleasant assholes, which makes it difficult to care. They’re led by the biggest asshole of all, Baron Winters. So I can honestly say I’m not sure what to make of this comic.
Abandoned Places 