Comic 1115 - Midnight Blue, Page 38
9th Nov 2021, 11:00 PM
in Midnight Blue
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Author Notes:
First off like Adam mentioned, if you didn't see the Wright as Rayne filler we are starting up a third comic soon, Militant Gold. I'll be writing and drawing it with Adam just doing the layouts and having creative input, but tonally I'd say it's going to be a lot closer to Blues than to WaR so if you're interested in seeing another team-up comic in this universe maybe get a look when it gets underway?
As for this page.... I do think this chapter's in some way been a victim of pacing issues due to the schedule around it and kind of just having a ton of ground to cover, but I do think this is a pretty good note to send the Night Terror out on. Like Adam said, initially he was going to be a recurring side villain and then got promoted in importance to this point. For a long time the plan even then was for him to get banished or something but ultimately, no, he's dead. Even if that doesn't seem like it'll actually necessarily stop him...
Not sure how much longer we have to go in this chapter but probably not too long. The next one's set to have a lot in the way of follow-through and cleanup, sort of simultaneously putting a bow on this story arc while also setting up the next one, so it should be interesting to get to when we can.
Wonder what it is that the Night Terror's saying while dying that seems to have Jake so confused.
Comments:
Wolfintina
10th Nov 2021, 12:16 AM
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Given what Everett did in the filler before he and Megan showed up in WaR I don't think it's necessary for them to show up in the Blues filler, The Night Terror was a big improvement over MM.
Onasaki
10th Nov 2021, 6:17 PM
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Adam C.
12th Nov 2021, 3:20 AM
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Aaaand there we go. The Night Terror's been officially vanquished. This was an... interesting arc villain for the comic....
Hm. I'm starting to realize I'm not awake enough to talk about this. Didn't get a lot of sleep before a physically exhausting day at work, so bit worn out typing this... Will try and soldier on....
Him being so magnanemous in death was actually foreshadowed. When the Night Terror took over the filler arc, he ended it by admitting that he could potentially die in-story and just asked the reader to not forget about him. I guess he knows his place and is happy to just have what he did. Also he's mentioned (in French) that he's died at least once before, so that probably takes the sting out of it a little bit.
The Night Terror was, like Marvelous Man, planned for the comic from the beginning (Look at how far back the Fontainebleu pages started). I actually remember specifically how it happened; just in an unrelated conversation with Martin I somehow mentioned the Boogeyman, then had a moment of realization that a boogeyman-type-villain would be appropriate for the series, as it stars children. From there the Night Terror set on for being this possibly-make-believe monster who eats children, though the original plan would be that the Night Terror would be a recurring villain who the kids could never quite get rid of, but who kept coming back because Blue Blood tasted so impossibly good that he couldn't bear to eat red-blooded children anymore. Thus he'd randomly just show up in other fights as a major element of danger, suddenly just having to be dealt with over everything else. Be a very immediate "shows up, everything is super dangerous" villain, almost like Ridley from Metroid.
Somewhere along the line he wound up being an Arc Villain like Marvelous Man.... I think it was a result of us having built him up so much and for so long that he couldn't be anything else at this point. He had to be a pretty huge deal. Plus after Marvelous Man was such a spotlight hog who needed slots of story-telling devoted to his rise and fall, it made sense to have a shapeshifter who operates unseen in the background as the follow-up. It nicely put the attention on the kids. I also remember pitching a few different ideas for Arc Villain after MM, particularly ideas that would've taken advantage of Jake being out of the picture, but nothing quite felt as natural.
Because of how seat-of-the-pants this chapter wound up being, we ultimately didn't see much of the guy at the climax, but I do hope it left an impact, especially when it started randomly pulling new powers and abilities out of nowhere that still all tied back to the Nightmare theme. I think a lot of questions were delightfully unexplored, which given this guy's supposed to be scary, probably isn't the worst thing.
Like with Marvelous Man, I can safely say The Night Terror won't be a major-focus arc-villain again, but I think there's at least a chance it'll show back up, even if it's just a cameo. Coming back to life seems like a longshot, I get the feeling a LOT of stuff has to happen for it to pull that off, but it's not entirely ruled out. Even if it went out with a grin, I doubt it'd pass up the opportunity for an encore.
Thoughts on The Night Terror in the end? Especially compared to Marvelous Man? Are some things I really liked about one but not so much the other speaking as the author. Is there anything you'd like to see in future arc villains? Do you want to keep in the running idea where they hijack the filler before the climax?
Any of these questions would be lovely to get answers to.... Either here or on the discord. Which, if I'm gonna be plugging it....
https://discord.com/invite/yP9ECdN