This comic is apparently based on the unfilmed 13th episode of the excellent Middleman TV series. The comic wraps up the series and answers questions such as:
- What is the future for Wendy and her boyfriend Tyler?
- Will Lacey get it together with the sexy boss man?
- Who is the Middleman’s secret love?
- What is Manservant Neville’s evil plan?
- Why didn’t we get to see Natalie Morales dressed as a slave girl?
- Who will pay the Ultimate Sacrifice?
The book is fairly short (at 64 pages) and published in an unusual mini format (14 x 21.5cm) that does not particularly sit well on the bookshelf – its size, combined with its slimness, mean that it is swamped by the books around it.
The art by Armando Zanker is in a nice cartoony stylebut slightly strange in that the characters are not drawn to resemble the characters in the original comic series or in the TV series.
The story is fairly fluffy with the Middleman saving the world (again) from a preposterous threat but it is filled with the usual in-jokes and pop culture references – which are expanded upon at the back of the book. Somehow the dialogue doesn’t sparkle as much as it did in the TV series – there was a cast read through of the script at a convention once. (It would be interesting to hear that read through to see if the script is different from the comic text and whether the great cast can make it come more alive.) [Here is part one on youTube – it covers the first four pages of the comic and is word for word so far.]
Probably not a book for the casual fan but it does provide some closure for the much missed (by me at least) TV series.
First published on RevolutionSF on Friday Sep 03, 2010
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