Night Club, Vol. 1

Night Club

by Mark Millar (Writer), Juanan Ramirez (Illustrator), Fabiana Mascolo (Colorist)

You’re 17 years old and you’ve been bitten by a vampire. Do you live in the shadows and drink human blood, or do you use your newfound gifts for the dream costumed-superhero life you’ve always wanted?

You’re bulletproof, you can crawl up walls, and you can turn to mist or bats. Why not have a little fun?

Collects NIGHT CLUB #1-6

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Horror, Vampires, Fantasy, Comic Book, Superheroes

170 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 5, 2023

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B+) 77% | Good
Notes: Fairly tame, on YouTube fame, where plans are always messed, its tacit/dangled love triangle adds well-needed zest.

*Progress updates: Preamble ◦ Issues #1-3 ◦ Issues #4-6

[Alexander Peterhans · Rating 2 out of 5]

What's Mark Millar in such a hurry for! He tries to zoom through his plot here, making me feel like I'm missing bits, like, you know, characterisation. I get that as a writer you want to quickly get through the origin story, but why show the origin at all then, except maybe in flashbacks?

If there is a standard Millar bad guy (powerful, ruthless, kind of dumb, cruel), we have a quartet of them here. It's basically a more evil version of the Near Dark vamps. And these people/creatures barely get any time to develop either (there's a thing in an aquarium that could've been actually creepy, now it just feels silly).

The idea of youngsters becoming superheroes using their vampire powers, is quite a good one, and has been done well. By rushing through it, Millar does a version that is lacking.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with a review copy through Edelweiss)

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mark Millar takes some ingredients from vampire films Near Dark and The Lost Boys and adds just enough of his own ideas to make a new IP. If the vampires becoming superheroes thing seems really familiar you might have read Chip Zdarsky's The All-Nighter which did the same thing just a year before.

This is standard Millar fare: some gore, some "shocking" turns, and not a lot of fleshed out characters or plot.

[Dan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like a mashup of Ultimate Spider-Man, Near Dark, and retardation.

[Michael J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vampires as super-heroes? Also, as one character mentions in the final issue - - a vampire story with a happy ending. Is that enough to set this apart from standard genre fare? Like a guilty pleasure, this is entertaining but not memorable.
When it comes to new works from prolific Mark Millar, the bar has been set pretty high. This is not up to his usual high standards and fell below my expectations. Still, at $1.99 per issue this is a bargain.
How is it different from other Millar fare? He has a reputation for gratuitous violence in his series, and it's toned down quite a bit here. This also features a trio of teen protagonists, but this is no KICK-ASS. The story feels like it's aimed at a young adult audience, as well as a template for a Netflix series (who bought all the rights to Millar's works). One thing in common with most of his work, the villains here (a motorcycle gang of vampires led by a Civil War veteran) are despicable. Also a nice touch was to pay a nod to the Bloody Mary urban mythology, and make her a scary vampire dangerous enough to be locked in a basement.
More like a 3.5 star rating, but Goodreads doesn't accommodate fractions.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mark Millar does vampires and it's... dumb. Night Club is definitely among the dumbest pieces of Mark Millar fiction. We're introduced to the main character as he's filmed doing "parkour" on a bike to get that sweet Youtube money (?). Like, zero backstory, just straight to dumb shit.

He breaks his neck, of course. But don't worry! A vampire sneaks into the hospital room to turn him into a vampire. (I have forgotten this character's name already, despite finishing the book like...30 minutes ago) This vampire is creating an army of superhero vampires to defeat a villanous band of vampires.

Meanwhile, MC's first idea upon learning vampire shit is, "oh sweet, I gotta turn my friends." So he does and they create their own superhero team, complete with lucha libre costumes. Then the villainous vampires come back on the scene, but don't worry (spoiler!) they're defeated in the most idiotic way.

Night Club is 100% nonsense. It's the Fast and Furious of comic books, but not even that smart. And yet, three stars? The art, for one, is terrific. And goddamn if Mark Millar doesn't know how to induce those sugar highs. You'll plow through this book at an absolute tear and shake your head at the silliness on every page. Honestly, that's not the worst thing.

[Matthew Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Millar’s best in my opinion. This is a typical vampire story with an atypical superhero twist. Characters were written very well on both antagonist and protagonist side. Definitely some Millar-isms in here, but nothing too ridiculous. I really wish there would be more to this one and that this wasn’t just a one volume story.

[Annalise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was leaning more toward a 3.5, but the ending left it on a note where I know they’re going to introduce a lame ass trope that’s just so dumb. But teenagers I guess🤷‍♀️ The graphics and art style were really good though and the story itself was a well done, standard origin story.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Às vezes acontece de eu gostar mais de um quadrinho de Mark Millar do que a grande maioria dos trabalhos dele, que acho um show de crise de meia idade e de crise de masculinidade. Este aqui não é. Ele lida com três adolescentes que acabam se tornando vampiros e resolvem ser super-heróis usando máscaras de luchadores mexicanos. Mas nada os preparava para terem de encarar uma gangue de assassinos vampíricos de onde eles mesmos acabaram se originando. Temos então uma história de origem heróica divertida. Mas o que agrada mesmo é a narrativa e os desenhos de Juanan Ramirez, que lembra bastante um Olivier Coipel no seu início de carreira. As cores do quadrinho também ajudam a trazer uma ambientação bastante lúgubre para a história, que acaba mesclando ação super-heroica com quadrinhos de terror. Espero que Ramirez continue na equipe na próxima edição (sim, o quadrinho é uma série).

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent really good comic

[Adam Fisher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danny and his friends Sam and Amy want to be YouTube famous, so they try parkour. Danny gets severely injured and while recuperating in the hospital, he is bitten and turned into a vampire. Getting crazy superhuman abilities, he offhandedly agrees to help Detective Laskaras, also a vampire, fight in his upcoming war against other vamps. When the vampcop leaves, Danny has an idea: Cover yourself head to toe, so the sun can't burn you, convert your two friends into vampires, and the 3 of you become famous by being superheroes.
Mark Millar, you are a fucking genius. Why hasn't anyone come up with this before?
AND apparently this is something on Netflix? I will be checking that out very soon.

Where is Volume 2? This is so fun!
Strong recommend. A must read.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not Millar's best. The whole vampires being superheroes but also dealing with vampire stuff but not actually dealing with any vampire stuff is just too messy to be satisfying and none of these characters leave a mark (MILLAR!!). It looks nice and is entertaining as dumb fun, but Millar has done better in that category before.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because I thought it was an interesting premise, teens turned into vampires that decide to use their vampire powers to be vigilantes for cash.

it was okay, everything felt kind of surface level and the premise feels stronger than the actual story. i don’t really understand the motivations for everyone, but I will pick up the second volume because i’m curious to see where the story goes from here and if it’ll start to feel more fleshed out.

[Johnea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gosh, this was good! I might have to switch back to reading YA graphic novels, the adult stuff is getting too gory (unnecessarily) and it isn't good anymore.

[Venus Maneater · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little romp about three stupid 2023 era teenage vampires. Or; a lesson on why a strong suspense in disbelief is very important if you want to enjoy vampire comics set in the modern era.

[Clar · Rating 3 out of 5]

VALORACIÓN: 2'5 estrellas

Un cómic normalito, sin más.

[Will Robinson Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superb. Mark Millar is writing some of the most entertaining comic books around. Night Club as all the action, grit, and edgy humor you'd expect from the writer that brought us Kick-Ass and The Magic Order. This is a very unique take on the teen gets a superhero power and has to become super responsible. Danny and his friends have enter the horror and brutal world of the vampire but instead of taking their vampirism as a curse the trio decide to become superheroes. Millar has brought something special and unique with this tale. The other star of this book is definitely the artwork by Juanan Ramirez. The action is brimming with life and is well paced. This story is great to look at as well as to read. The colors by Fabiana Mascolo fit this book like a glove. Being that this is a vampire story the night colors are radiant with the purple, blue and gray shades. I like the contrast with the warm colors when Danny and his friends are in the daylight. The luchador costumes for our heroes are perfect and hopefully Millar and his team will make some improvements in the future to make this book stand out as a superhero book. Ironically it isn't just the costumes that need to be more sketched out my small gripe is that we still don't have an idea about who Danny, Sam & Amy are on a deeper level. We are just thrusted into the story and we follow the teens as they come to grips with the world they have stepped into. I'm willing to give Millar the space to build the world and hopefully, in the next volume, we find out more about the Night Club's personal lives. This may be incredibly fleshed out given the surprising turn Sam makes by the end of the book. I also found the villains to be a one-note but that was okay as this was just an introduction to the Night Club world. I admit the Detective character was growing on me and I was a bit shocked by his fate. All in All, Night Club was very entertaining and I'm looking forward to the next volume. Mark Millar is on a roll. Here are few Millarworld books I have read and recommend: Superior (graphic novel): 1 by Mark Millar, Leinil Francis Yu (2012) Hardcover, Huck, Book 1: All-American, Starlight: the Return of Duke McQueen, Prodigy Vol. 1: The Evil Earth, & King of Spies.

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have been more forgiving and rounded up my 3.5 stars if a) the ending b) the cover claiming Millar reinvented the vampire genre. By having vampires fight crime? (Um, Vampire Knight?, Angel the series? P.N. Elrod's Jack Fleming, yes they're all private investigators/cops but is that so different from dressing as superheroes and doing the same thing?)

This suffered from being rushed, like Millar was writing for Netflix (I am not a fan of most streaming platforms idea that less is more and story telling suffers as they try to jam everything into 8-10 episodes) and he does, in fact, write for them. There isn't much in the way of character development. Even the one sided love triangle (eye roll) that the other two people in it don't know exists felt shoehorned in as an afterthought to give Sam something to do.

The character development is so slipshod that if not for Danny Garcia, the main point of view character, narrating a YouTube video I'm not sure we would have even known his two friends names and what they do. It opens with Sam (DJ) and Amy (artist) trying to talk Danny out of doing 'parkour' with his bike on the roof of a Philadelphia building. THey're chasing influencer money, which fine that fits their age bracket.

It ends as one might expect with Danny being seriously injured and he is targeted by a former undercover police detective who turns him to save his life. It goes straight along traditional vampire folklore traits (no sunlight (but they are awake in the day), heal from anything but burning/decapitation, turn into bats/mist, super strength etc). He trains Danny brutally for a little while because he's building an army to do something (unspecified)

Danny does have a few brain cells firing (after his stunt you had to wonder) and he devises a costume out of what looks like a luchador mask and head to toe clothing so he can go out. We get a few panels establishing that Sam (especially) and Amy are very bullied at school and when he offers them to die and be a vampire like him Amy jumps at it (Sam wasn't fully on board). Naturally we get them recording their antics as superheroes (which shows up on film because of clothing) as they work towards getting monetized.

This naturally gets the attention of both the detective and the bad guy vampires (sort of a white supremacists terrorist group) and it comes down to who is going to kill who and how. There is some good ideas in this. I just wish it had slowed down some an explored it. For example the female vampires (both of them) various 'conditions' were interesting but so little time is spent on anyone it feels like wasted opportunity.

It does wrap up the first major arc in this but then ends with Sam thinking of doing something so stupid I'm not sure I want to see more. Sigh. I did like the art a lot with one exception: the bully. I thought he was a street thug because he looked 30 not 17.

[Maciej · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Night Club Vol. 1” Marka Millara i Juanana Ramireza to nietypowe podejście do wampirzej mitologii, które stawia przed czytelnikami mieszankę superbohaterskiej akcji i odrobinę horroru. Komiks przedstawia losy nastoletniego Danny'ego i jego przyjaciół, Sama i Amy, którzy, chcąc zdobyć sławę na YouTube, próbują swoich sił w parkourze. W trakcie jednej z prób Danny ulega poważnemu wypadkowi, ale zyskuje szansę na nowe życie – w szpitalu zostaje przemieniony w wampira przez detektywa Laskarasa. Laskaras oferuje mu mocne w zamian za wsparcie w walce przeciwko.... Zamiast kryć się w cieniu, Danny postanawia wykorzystać swoje nowe zdolności w zgodzie ze swoimi marzeniami o byciu superbohaterem.

Millar buduje intrygę, zestawiając ze sobą tradycyjne elementy wampirzego horroru z koncepcją superhero. Fabuła momentami wydaje się przewidywalna czy nawet absurdalną, to Millar mimo wszystko zgrabnie balansuje między akcją, a komedią, zapewniając przyzwoitą rozrywkę. Juanan Ramirez w pełni oddaje dynamiczną energię komiksu, ilustrując dramatyczne starcia i emocjonalne momenty, które wciągają czytelnika w świat „Night Club”.

Narracja skupia się na dylematach Danny'ego – młodego, nowo narodzonego wampira, który staje przed decyzją, czy używać swoich mocy dla dobra, czy podążyć mroczną ścieżką, którą obrali inni przedstawiciele jego “nowego” gatunku. Wprowadzenie maskujących strojów luchadores, aby ukryć ich wrażliwość na słońce, dodaje ciekawy twist i oszadza kulturowo bohaterów. Choć fabuła bywa przewidywalna i nie osiąga standardów wyznaczonych przez inne dzieła Millara, jest to komiks, który zaskakuje czytelników wartką akcją i przyjemną oprawą graficzną. Fabiana Mascolo wzbogaca atmosferę kolorami, które oddają nocne, mroczne scenerie i pozwalają czytelnikom wczuć się w klimat.

„Night Club Vol. 1” to pełen energii komiks o wampirzych superbohaterach, oferujący szybkie tempo, świetne ilustracje i humor, co czyni go wciągającą rozrywką. Tylko czekać na zapowiedzianą część drugą.

Przyjemność 4,1/5
Styl: 3,8/5
Historia: 4,2/5

Ocena 4,2/5

[Camilo Guerra · Rating 3 out of 5]

-Eres mayor de lo que usualmente como, pero...

Un trio de adolescentes ven que son matoneados por bullys en la escuela, y no ven que vayan a conseguir trabajo en un futuro, así que la opción de convertirse en Vampiros y hacer de superhéroes no suena ve tan mal, ¿ que podría pasar?.

LO BUENO: La idea parece ser simple, pero es atractiva: Vampiros-superheroes , y uno dice:- Ah, esta canción ya me la han contado…pero no, es aca donde Millar destaca y nos mete una angustia emocional, malas decisiones, mas corazón que cerebro, porque los protagonistas son jóvenes , y el tipo hace eso muy bien, además de tomar muy bien las reglas y el lore de los vampiros. Los malos DAN MIEDO y se agradece, últimamente aparecen malos que tienen ganas de volverse buenos y no hacen mayor maldad y aca no…los enemigos dan repelus ( BLOODY MARY ) . No conocía a Juanan Ramirez pero me gustó mucho: dinámico, composición de página, te lleva de la mano y te muestra todo con un alto nivel de calidad.

LO MALO: Últimamente Millar tiene momentos en que quiere contarte muchas cosas en pocas páginas y algo que podía ser épico, se baja la calidad el solito, si alguno leyó el tomo 04 de THE MAGIC ORDER , nos mostraban el Witch King , y le falto tanto a ese enemigo…y lo tenía todo para ser épico. Acá es lo mismo, te muestra unos vampiros supermalos, ¿ no les podías regalar un par de páginas o diálogos más?. La parte final se ve venir de lejos, predecible, y sabe a qué te lo vende como que viene un próximo capitulo, pero dame un cierre cdtm.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting approach. I was expecting this to be the classic mediocre Millar over the top stuff and although there is some of it in here, on a balance level is a stereotype young story that includes vampires.

Luckily, this avoids the Twilight style to get into full action, which makes at least an entertaining ground.

The story is okay and is pretty much divided between a critic towards nowadays generation (you know, Youtube, the phone, etc) and a vampire story that as most people have pointed out, resembles Near Dark, although I will also mention here Lost Boys, as the closer movie reference.

Truth to be said, Millar has mainly two negative points within this story. First one, is the unidimensional background of the three main characters. Nothing is really mentioned in depth except the interests they have on each other, which makes more difficult to have empathy with any of them.

The second one, the group of villains is really poor. Issues 5 and 6 which mainly focus on them, doesn´t have the necessary information to see how vile they can be. In other words, our characters don´t seem to be facing really big problems.

But overall, is an entertaining read. Simple, but much better that some of the other work of the author.

And as a vampire book read, is still on an appropriate level. Respects the mythology behind them and provides a new interesting arc.

Readable.

[Grimoire_de_Cactus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le résumé m'a beaucoup tenté, j'ai trouvé l'idée super intéressante. Cela faisait des années que je n'avais pas lu de bd et j'ai retrouvé le plaisir d'en lire. Les planches sont très belle, et les dessins très bien fait. Il y'a pleins de détails, des couleurs vives et les personnages sont tous différents. Les personnages sont d'ailleurs très sympa à découvrir et l'histoire n'est pas si simple que cela. J'ai adoré l'idée de base, très 2024, de ces jeunes près à tout pour percé sur la toile. Cette bande de pote qui se prennent pour des héros vengeurs et ces méchants très méchant. Je ne devais lire que quelques pages et j'ai fini le roman en me disant que c'était super bien ! J'ai passé un très bon moment et la fin m'a donné envie de découvrir la suite.
Il y'a des rebondissements, de l'action du début à la fin, et des héros qui m'ont beaucoup plu.
Ce fut une chouette expérience que je ne peux que te recommander.

Ma note: 🌵🌵🌵🌵.5/5
Une excellente lecture, avec des beaux dessins.

[Mars Dorian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Night Club has a cool cover, which is the only aspect I enjoy about this comic book.

As with most recent Millar stories, this feels like a visualized concept for a movie deal.
Like author Mark Millar tries woo the streamers and the Hollywood suits to turn Night Club into a semi-successful IP they can milk for a couple of years.

I mean, character development is thin, enemies are in Saturday Morning Villain Mode (read: one note), and even the "cool" core idea doesn't work: making teen vampire friends behave like a DC Young Justice superhero group.

Why doesn't it work? Because the fun part of Superhero comics is the diverse superpowers and their impact on personalities. In Night Club, the "superheroes" are teen vampires, and they have the same abilities.

At least I flipped through pages in little time because Millar understands pacing. I just wish he'd spent more time on working out the pros and cons of his premises.

[Travis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why do I even bother with Mark Millar anymore?
It's going to be 'good idea, and crap everything else.'
I actually gave up on this despite most of the issues being available in my LCS cheap bin.


Characterization is paper thin, mostly a mix of 'he's a jerk, he's kind of dull, he's a cliche', the story is a lot of info dump, probably to hide the weak trope stuff that he had leftover from Kick ass.
You can feel the 'When I sell this to netflix...!' in the writing.

Nice art and the idea has potential, but I read any thing from Millar and the only happy thought is 'Thank god, he's not working for Marvel or DC anymore. Easier to ignore him'.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vampire Superhero’s?! Leave it to Mark Millar to not just come up with but pull off such a cool/crazy idea. As so often Millar surprises and entertains with avant- grade violence. If you think you know where this is going, you don’t. I told my son he is the Quentin Tarantino of comics, or vice versa. Either way it is a compliment. Highly entertaining? Yes. Sustainable? Surprisingly yes, Millar makes this look like it can expand beyond just a clever concept into something smart that last more then a miniseries worth of issues.

[Russ Spence · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of Millar's better books, this comes up with an idea that I've never seen before and really runs with it; what if a vampire, with all the traditional "gifts" of vampirism, decided to be a superhero? Not only does Millar work on this idea, but he dovetails in a lot of US High School nerds v jocks stuff as well. The baddies, as per usual, are really over the top bad, but hey, they're vampires too! The main thing in this is the theme of friendship, with the main three characters overcoming just about everything to stay together. Worth a read and the art is appropriate in a really kinetic way

[Roman Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Mark Millar, but this isn’t his best work. Don’t waste your time with this. I can only give this two stars and that’s mainly for the artwork by Juanan Ramírez, which is good. If you want a great story about vampires-turned-superheroes then read the All-Nighter by Chip Zdarsky. Similar concept, but executed better and better written. For a better Millar story, check out Old Man Logan or Superior.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Three teenagers become vampires in order to help a vampire detective take down an evil gang of vampires bent on wanton death and destruction. The teens become a force of good hiding behind Luchador masks in order to keep their skin from contact with the sun getting the notice of the detective who initially was trying to save the life of a hospitalized Danny Garcia, who screwed up on a stunt gone wild.
The Millar twist occurs at stories conclusion setting up book two.

[Dkaysup · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am enjoying the writing but the plot so far is kinda okay ish. I don’t like to judge a series by its first issue so I will continue reading. Although, without spoilers, the beginning events don’t feel like that have any connections amongst one another and needs further explanation on how they all relate.

[Sarospice · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 I like the basic concept: teens bit by vampires become luchadore superheroes! I was even intrigued by how well Millar was writing all the mistakes made in learning to be vampire luchadore superheroes. But then he just goes predictable and makes some people who were capable 90% of the series into silly dumb bad guys, easily taken out. Boo.