Midnight Nation
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Midnight Nation is a 12-issue limited series, religious-themed comic book by J. Michael Straczynski about a man who is killed, in a sense, and is on a journey to save his soul. It was released under the now-defunct Joe's Comics imprint published by Top Cow.
Los Angeles police officer Lieutenant David Grey encounters a brutal murder. When he tracks down a possible lead he encounters strange, goblin-like men who attack him. When he awakes he is in a hospital and finds that those around him have become translucent and can no longer see him. It is explained to him by his mysterious guide Laurel that he has lost his soul and he has now been plunged into a shadow world that runs parallel to our own. Here is where all the abandoned and forgotten people and things go.
David is told that without his soul he will slowly become like "the Walkers", the monstrous people he encountered who attacked him. David must travel on foot to New York where "The Other Guy" (who is essentially Satan) holds his soul. Laurel has led many others in David's position before but none have ever made it.
Along the way David encounters various tests, such as fighting these Walkers, meeting his future self, slowly losing his mind and his sense of self, and finally falling in love with Laurel, who is not in fact human. He also saves his ex-wife (who had walked out on him years earlier due to his unwavering dedication to his job as a police officer) from the Walkers. This had already caused him to lose hope even before his soul was stolen, and it wasn't until he met Laurel that he felt a reason to live once again.
When David finally reaches New York, the Other Guy begins to lecture him on things such as life, hope, God, and humanity. He tells him that hope is a lie and that he intends to increase misery around the world until all of humanity becomes like the abandoned and forgotten people he met on his trip through the parallel world. When that it is done, he can recreate the world as he sees fit. He then forces David to feel all the suffering humanity has felt over its existence, which causes him to go crazy and run through the streets as one of his Walkers.
Meanwhile, Laurel has surrendered herself to the Other Guy like she always does: it is in the rules, written by God Himself, that she must follow. He asks her to rebel against God as he did, but she refuses, never giving up hope. As David runs through the streets of New York, he sees a mannequin that resembles Laurel in a shop window. He remembers his humanity and his love for Laurel and returns to Satan's lair where he finds Laurel being nailed to a circular wooden board.
The Other Guy tells him that Laurel was lying to him about his soul. Only if he takes it will he become one of the Walkers; if he doesn't, he'll cease to belong to either world. Satan also informs him that if he gives his soul to Laurel, she will cease to be an agent of God (for that is what she truly is) and be freed from her endless cycle of guiding humans to regain their souls, being reborn as a human. If he gives his soul to her, he'll prove hope exists to all those who have fallen into the nether-realm. Out of his love for Laurel and his own tireless dedication to the forces of good, David does the unthinkable and sacrifices his soul to Laurel.
Years later, David has moved on with his life, becoming a source of hope for those who have fallen through the cracks in society.
The comic ran for 12 issues, along with one one-shot story (a Wizard #1/2 edition), and was collected as a softcover tradepaperback lateron.
[edit] See also
- J. Michael Straczynski
- The Book of Lost Souls, a Marvel/Icon title in which Straczynski explores themes similar to those of Midnight Nation's.
