Captain Midnight #8

Released by: Dark Horse Comics
Released on: February 26, 2014

Captain Midnight - fresh from being “lost” for nearly 50 years - finally reunites with his lost love, Joyce Ryan. She's also grandmother to one of his current team who's sort of bent on making this reunion happen, whether Captain wants it to or not…

The two quickly catch up, though, both very aware of their present reality - that it's been quite some time for Joyce while, for Midnight, it's only been “like two weeks.” He queries her on their former team, leaving his old best friend, Chuck Ramsey, to the last and it's his story that Joyce is hesitant to relate but knows she must.

The story heads back now, to the mid-80s, in a Mexican jungle. The fight against their main nemesis, Fury Shark, continued after Midnight's disappearance so Joyce is hunting down Shark's latest efforts when she runs into Chuck in this jungle, bent on doing the same thing. But Chuck seems more determined and has hired a noted mercenary-assassin named Helios to assist him with finally dispatching Shark once and for all.

Joyce doesn't care for Helios at all, though, and mistrusts the relationship he has with Chuck, thinking Chuck has just replaced being the sidekick of one bulking hero for another. And, she notes, Helios is clearly utilizing some of that special Captain Midnight tech that no one else is supposed to have. But before she can get any answers they find Shark and her minions in the deep of the jungle, excavating for some artifact of some kind.

A massive firefight ensues but, at its end, Joyce and Chuck are cornered by Shark and her forces. Chuck, speaking to some “ace in the hole” he can play, talks separately with Shark and she decides to release Joyce and Helios but keeps Chuck with her. Joyce is incredulous at all of this but never hears from any of them again. Back to the present, she relates to Midnight that she tracked them only as far as Albright Industries (Midnight's old company) but couldn't penetrate that corporation. And, now, enraged by this news of what he feels is the abduction of his old friend, Midnight suits up and decides to take Shark head on, once and for all.

This series keeps a healthy reverence for the original weekly serial strip while giving it a good modern twist. The action comes hard and heavy and both Joshua Williamson's script and Fernando Dagnino's artwork keep up with it all rather breathlessly. Another excellent entry in this very well-rebooted series.