The NightDragon #1: Enter the NightDragon by Scott Blasingame

The NightDragon #1: Enter the NightDragon by Scott Blasingame

The NightDragon: Enter the NightDragon is Scott Blasingame's tribute to both the vigilante superhero genre (like Batman and Daredevil), the kung fu superhero genre (like Shang Chi and Iron Fist) and old school kung fu movies. Fans of all three of those genres, plus fans of action in general who are tired of YA books about love triangles between zombies, vampires, werewolves, angels, devils, oppressed dystopian inhabitants and what have you should find A LOT to like in this action-packed adventure.

Set in the fictional Northern Californian town of Nocturnity, NightDragon is a black-clad kung fu master who's cleaning up the streets as the numerous local gangs are expanding their territory and brutalizing the locals. But that's not all. A trio of vicious mercenaries are up to no good at the local military base and NightDragon will soon find himself up against some truly worthy opponents. And unfortunately, unlike Batman, NightDragon doesn't have a Commissioner Gordon to keep the police off his back.

As a fan of kung fu movies more than comics, I was able to appreciate this book for its *very* detailed fight action. Numerous fighting styles get the prose treatment, from tai chi and baguazhang to tae kwon do and western boxing. It's as if Blasingame watched a bunch of classic Hong Kong movies and took notes on every single detail of the fight scenes before writing out each scuffle. To the reader who races through books like me, I had to slow down the pace so that I could truly absorb everything on the page. Blasingame does great job of escalating the difficulty of the fights, starting off with a very easy scuffle with some gangbangers and then increasing the skills and difficulty level of each successive opponent.

But Blasingame doesn't forget to give us characters that we truly care about. Chen and his two associates, Tai and Lei, are enigmatic, but likable. They work together, discuss their problems, work out their differences, and are ultimately symbols of loyalty. The major supporting players among the police, Sonya Gunn and Detective Bittern, are also charismatic, despite their efforts to want to stop NightDragon from pursuing his quest for vigilante justice. You end up really caring for these people as the story progresses.

So yeah, the book is recommended. It's lightning-paced and fun to read. But a warning: This is the first book of a series, sort of a comic series in prose, so a lot of characters are introduced and arcs are started, but the ending leaves a lot of threads unresolved. Thankfully, it would appear that Book 2 is already out, so I'm ready for another round with these people. Are you?