Every time I talk about Nights (which is it’s whenever I can, to almost anyone), I feel a little crazy. I love the book so much, and while I know it has its fans, I just can’t understand why everyone isn’t as obsessively dedicated. Sure, I think maybe I’m too close to it in some ways, having been immersed since day one. But it really is that important of a book, and maybe it just needs something big to truly and finally click.
Like, how about a g-d arc-ending finale for the flippin’ ages?
After a few months of waiting, Nights #12 wraps up the series’ debut arc, and it’s a conclusion of the first season that delivers on every single level. The long and short of it is that, after the madness of the last year (Gray’s journey of self discovery, Vince and Gray sorting out being a couple, Ivory coming to terms as the Roggenwolf, etc.), it’s time for everyone to say goodbye. Matt is moving to Tokyo after trying to finally live his afterlife, Molly and Ivory are starting over in California, and Vince is graduating high school.
But amid that overarching farewell, there’s a veritable cornucopia of developments. Too many to name, in fact, but here’s the juiciest highlights:
- Sam returns, and he wreaks havoc on the gang’s farewell at a theme park that’s totally not Disneyland.
- Gray has to give into her “passenger” to save the day.
- Molly has a secret that’s less monstrous and more transformative for both her and Ivory.
- Ivory still has a secret for Matt (that he killed him as the Roggenwolf), and Ivory may or may not tell his good pal.
- Vince undergoes a kind of transformation, and it’ll certainly complicate his college plans.
- We start to learn the very nature of Chimera, and how Gray and Sam are basically tied to the apocalypse and what that means for the future of humanity.
I’m really just scratching the surface here, and this issue of Nights is bigger than average to make room for some of the most important character and story developments of this entire series. And, yeah, you should come out of this issue feeling like a weepy, slack-jawed mess (in the very best ways), but there’s something deeper still. There’s aspects of this issue that, aside from just being massively important to the story, feel notably novel. As if they begin to shift the book’s overarching feel and trajectory in some important and compelling ways.
One such is that there seems to be more exposition than usual. That includes a great scene with Ivory visiting the grave of his aunt (Vince’s mom) and having this really profound moment, and another where we’re greeted with more robust explanations about the demonic threat of this book. Both instances are seemingly the longest this book has gone without making a joke, and it takes a bit of the momentum away from this zany sitcom. But it’s such a perfect “shift” for Nights as it shows 1) some growth and increasing comfort by writer Wyatt Kennedy to cut down on the references and hijinks and 2) it lets some moments just marinate for what they are.
It’s as if we can have a moment or two that just bring us right down, make us connect the dots and suss things out, and generally let the story be something even more gut-wrenching than the sugary ride it often is (again, in a good way). It felt like a response not only to the somber moments of this finale and everyone saying goodbye, but that the creators had earned a chance to branch out in a way that made more deliberate moments. That’s not to say Nights hasn’t been emotional until now (I’ve almost cried like 11 times), but that the instances here just resonated a little more and they weren’t afraid to take a beat to make us feel the layers of these developments.
Courtesy of Image Comics.
Something similar happens visually (courtesy of artist Luigi Formisano, colorists Francesco Segala and Gloria Martinelli, and letterer Maria Letizia Mirabella). Across the first 11 issues, Nights hasn’t been this truly extraordinary display of robust world-building, visual gags galore, epic action, and a unique take on horror, sci-fi, and fantasy. And all of that’s true here: the Sam-Gray fight is raw and unwavering in its scope and power (and it even earned a pseudo-commercial break); we get some great gags both at the graduation-escrow-going away party and the so-not-Disney; and the body horror and monster stuff is repped in full thanks to scenes with Sam-Chimera, more Roggenwolf, and some neat vampire bits.
But, again, it’s just a little different. It’s about being more strategic with these gags, or layering them in a way that the humor is more effective. Or, keeping the action tight and compact (again, that “commercial break” is genius for our engagement) to make us realign our relationship and expectations. And even finding ways to streamline some big moments, like the “Vince transformation,” to make them land, keep the story moving, and make us feel like not only is there so much more happening (and how exciting that is), but that we’re part of this ever larger world that’s growing in wild ways. In that last way, especially, it feels like the art is helping Nights achieve a speed and pace that’s not only thematically relevant (this was a huge issue of massive changes), but that it’s setting us up for a different book with new goals and themes and energies.
Does that mean we’re somehow leaving what made Nights so successful in the first place? Yes and no. We get a hint at what might be coming for issue #13 in late February — let’s just say it’s a very specific origin that we’re going to need to understand for the future. So, that will likely be different in some key ways, including the cast, the setting, the tone (think more vaguely serious spy stuff, basically), and even just the timeframe. But while those things are important in giving “season two” its own identity, Nights is keeping what matters but improving on it in some key ways. It’s about making the humor just as irreverent but balancing it with heavier concepts and keeping it from overwhelming the story proper.
It’s also about making this book big and exciting but also showing us that it will always be this intimate affair, like Friends meets Buffy on speed. And it’s certainly about making good on those many goodbyes by allowing characters a chance to connect with these emotions, do a little growing up, and try and reconcile who they are with who they’re becoming. Goodbyes are always bittersweet, but Nights handles its own farewells in such a way that things are different as they need to be and more resonant and familiar than ever before.
So, yeah, maybe I am crazy, but Nights is the best dang book out there. If you see what I see — this profoundly human story about how we try to live despite the world’s madness and our personal shortcomings — then maybe you’d feel just as connected and involved.
And if you aren’t already, then just read issue #12. You’ll howl at the moon, scream-cry at strangers, and feel what it’s like when a great story burrows its way into your head and heart.
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