Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Back-Issue Spotlight: Night Tribes One-Shot

Happy Hump Day people

(Mind blown;)


So for today's edition of the Back-Issue Spotlight, I wanted to showcase a neat little one and done
comic titled Night Tribes by Wildstorm Comics.

Ahh Wildstorm. Back when it first started back in the early 90's, it really was typical of the current Art over story stuff that came out from Image back then. But as the the late 90's showed up, so did the stories and comic that were different and mattered. Comics like Planetary, the Ellis-revitialization of Stormwatch that led to The Authority, The revitaliztion of Wildcats under Scott Lobdell, and this one-shot that could've easily been produced by Marvel in the 70's:


Night Tribes One-Shot July 1999 by Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski and Joyce Chin.

Here's the basic premise of the story, as excellently put by Comicvine.com:

"  The monsters from Wetworks unite as a force for good to save the world from demons! A thousand years have passed since the world's monsters, the Night Tribes, were brought together in a truce in order to defend the Earth against demonic invasion. A prophecy foretold a new demon lord, against whom each of the Night Tribes would send a "Chosen One." Now the time of the prophecy has come, and only the Night Tribes can save the planet. But can the Tribes put aside their hatreds of each other and work with WetWorks' Jackson Dane and Pilgrim to defeat their common enemy?"

How could you not be interested in something like that? I ws hooked myself, despite knowing only a little about Col. Dane and his then disbanded teammates in Wetworks. I knew he was in the original Team 7, but that was it.

Still, you didn't exactly need to know the total backstory to him and his teammate Maritza.
It was and is, very new reader-friendly.

Since I couldn't find a lot of scans on this issue, I had to take pics from my phone, so sorry for the poor quality for most of these pics ahead of time.

Here's the big bad of the story, Lord Mordor:

Yeah that fucker is just that creepy. And you thought Mojo was disgusting to look at.

He's basically trying to invade our world from Hell, using a cruel piece of construction called the Arch of Sorrows. 
It's made from the bodies of at least one representiative of the Night Tribes.

These are just some of the invidiual members of our team of heroes for the story:

The Last One(basically Frankenstein)

K'runk, a Stone God(considered a child despite it's age)

 Shem-Jazza of the Kraken with the other two

Together they team up with Col. Dane and Martiza to fight off the invading demons and take the fight literally straight to hell with Lord Mordor.

In the end, the Dane and his team succeed in destroying the Arch of Sorrows and closing off the doorway from Hell, even though Lord Mordor escapes.

They then do the typical team thing, and decide to make it official and become the new Night Tribe to keep shit like what just happened from happening.

It's really not a bad story. I feel it had lots of potential as a series or mini-series. It just got kinda' lost in the shuffle of titles back then, plus the lack of buzz and known name on the book probably didn't help.

And then Jim Lee sold Wildstorm to DC, and that was the end, or the beginning of the end for an imprint that was really starting to show potential.

'Sigh'







6 comments:

karl said...

Ive heard of Wetworks but not of this Night Tribes, all that demon and heaven and hell stuff is a little too close to the bone for me. Gimme spandex-super clods any day.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@Karl: Close to the bone huh? Why's that? I thought you were a prison guard not a priest;)

I usually prefer the spendex ground as my default/go-to read(of course;) but there's also something to be said for variety like say robots or demon-hunters, or something like that.

I find it tends to make us appreciate or superheroes all the more bc of it.

karl said...

Well, its prison officer, not guard but roughly the same thing, y' know.
That whole heaven and hell thing is just in regards to death and what happens to us after we die you know, which is especially poignant to me this past year since my mum passed away. Guess when it comes down to it I don't much like to be reminded of all that. And being in the kind of occupation I am, that whole concept of good and evil and who goes where knida strikes a chord.
I use to like Image and Top Cow for their non-hero books and things liked Witchblade and the Darkness fucking rocked but the superheroes still get it big time for me; a nice dose of unreality for me goes very well with normal constructs of irrational human behaviour.
Now, Im off for some fapping.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

@Karl: My deepest condolences to you and your family on the loss of you mother. I kinda understand where you're coming from on that. Especially since my father has bladder cancer.

I guess that's why any escape, be it super-heroes who save the day, or realm of fantasy like LoTR, seems to help or at the very least distract us from the shit we're facing at the time.

As for the fapping....you do know J'onn still watching you right?
Just thought I'd remind you;)

karl said...

Thanks, man appreciated. Two weeks from now it'll be the first anniversary of my mums passing and we are all dreading it, so, you know...
best of luck and wishes to your dad too, by the way.
And fyi no-one sees me fapping, not even the Martian Manhunter, no-one - well, not unless I leave my web-cam on.

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

That raises a good question Karl. Superman can't see through lead, so is there anything J'onn can't see through? Maybe fire? And that's not even considering he can read your mind.

Hmmm.

And thank you for your well wishes as well:)

"Closing time. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here."

Well..... I kinda always knew this day would come, and it sure has. It's been a hell of a ride, but it's time to for it end. Ti...