Night Club Volume 1 – review

Author: Mark Millar

Artist: Juanan Ramirez

First published: 2023 (tpb)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: You're 17 years old and you've been bitten by a vampire. Do you live in the shadows and drink human blood or use your newfound gifts for the dream life of a costumed superhero like you always wanted? You're bulletproof, you can crawl up walls, turn to mist, bats or even a wolf. Why not have a little fun? Collecting the first six issues of the smash hit NETFLIX series.

The review: The first thing to note is when the blurb connects this to Netflix, it is actually the comics the streaming service is behind, and it is not an adaptation filmed for the service. The book was interesting, but it needs noting that, despite vampiric imagery, this is not a horror comic, rather it is a superhero origin story hiding behind a vampire’s façade. Given that author Mark Millar is best known for Marvel’s Civil War as well as writing for DC, 2000 AD and indie superhero (or even Villain) titles such as Kick-Ass and Wanted.

The premise sees three misfit teens, Sam Huxley, Amy Chen and Danny Garcia, who want to do something to elevate themselves and make money. Danny decides that being YouTubers is the way forward and they should film him doing bicycle parkour. He, almost immediately, comes a cropper and breaks his spine in three places. Paralysed in hospital he is visited by Detective Nick Laskaras, erstwhile cop and vampire. Laskaras turns him – hypnotising hospital staff and family alike to allay suspicions when he takes Danny’s body and waits the three days it takes to come back.

Laskaras is in the process of building an army (he’s at the start of that journey) and leaves the turned Danny to his own devices (after training him to use his new powers, which includes animal control, speed, strength and shape shifting) with the warning to stay out of the sun. Danny ignores the last by covering up, including wearing a wrestling mask. Soon he has turned his two friends and they start the YouTube malarkey again but this time as superheroes Thundercloud, Yellowbird and Starguard from the team called The Night Club – though it is not all altruism and they charge commission for retrieving stolen goods.

However there are other vampires out there and not all are on the side of law and order. In particular there is a gang of bloodthirsty vampires lead by Gunner John. Interestingly, one of their number is Sadie Buckets who has been pregnant for eighty years (from before she was turned) and her baby is still “alive” in the womb.

I rather enjoyed this as a ragtag superhero story. Millar likes to draw the superhero genre off kilter – as demonstrated by Kick Ass and especially Wanted (where we follow the Supervillain rulers of the world) and does so in this. The art works and the volume is set up for a sequel. 7 out of 10.

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK