A string of missing people has the authorities on the lookout, while a small-town psychic does his best to just make it through the day.  Your Major Spoilers review of Midstate #1, awaits!

MIDSTATE #1

Writer: Lee Loughridge
Artist: Mack Chater
Colorist: Lee Loughridge
Letterer: Rob Tweedie
Editor: Will Dennis
Publisher: Comixology Originals / Zylonol Studio
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: March 13th, 2024

Previously in Midstate: Paul Rinaldi claims that he has abilities, or gifts, as he likes to call them, unfortunately, no one else in his small town believes him and they are more than happy to let him know that.  Elsewhere, people have been going missing and no one seems to know where they’re ending up.

RIDING THAT TRAIN

Midstate #1 opens with a strange and surreal series of images with a narrator talking about the nature of the soul.  Afterwards, things move to Fort Arlington, Virginia where Paul is trying to make his way to a café to get some breakfast.  Along the way he’s harassed by a couple guys, once he gets inside it doesn’t get any better as the town sheriff joins in on the fun.  Paul eventually leaves and goes to his mother’s bookstore where she shares in the town’s skepticism of his ability to see visions.  He tries to take a nap but ends up having one of his visions which causes him to run out of the store and right into a woman pushing a man in a wheelchair.  They have a strange interaction before moving on.  At the police station a newly transplanted deputy named Abi receives notice that another person has gone missing, last seen riding a train.  She leaves the station to go to the bookstore in hopes of finding a book on people who ride trains.  While there she meets Paul who suggests she takes a train ride herself to get a feel for it.  She agrees and asks him to tag along.  While on the train he gives her his backstory, while back in town the woman pushing the man in the wheelchair reveals her intentions.

TOO MUCH ESTABLISHING, NOT ENOUGH STORYTELLING

Midstate #1 is a fine introduction into the small town of Ft. Arlington, Virginia, it doesn’t waste any time giving the reader a sense of what the people are like and the type of town it is.  It also does a great job in introducing us to the main characters and some mysterious things lurking around the periphery.  The problem is that it then doesn’t do anything with them.  With the exception of the last three pages, there’s not a lot of forward momentum in this issue.  We get plenty of setup regarding how much the town hates Paul and a convoluted setup to get him and Abi together, just so he can tell his backstory, which was already hinted at.  The funny thing is, that the little glimpses we get into the out-of-the-ordinary elements going on, leaves no doubt there’s some meat to this story that will be interesting to see, we just don’t get any of that here. This issue feels like little more than a cold open to the first episode of a new series.  This is one of those situations where the merits of this issue will probably change as the rest of the series comes out, but on its own it doesn’t hold up.

WHAT’S UP WITH THE OUTLINES?

The art in Midstate #1 ranges from pretty good to stellar.  In particular, all of the stuff going on in the “real world” looks good, the characters are well put together, they have a realness to them without losing a sense of unique style.  Where things get kicked up a notch though, is in the dream state.  The mixture of graphic design and surrealism creates a pretty cool effect that manages to keep this issue at least intriguing, while some other parts of it can’t say the same.  The one thing that struck me as a little off putting was the thick outline around all the characters.  It’s not a big deal, but it does make it feel like the characters are kind of floating above the setting, like stick puppets on a flat background.

BOTTOM LINE:  I WOULD HOLD OFF ON THIS

Midstate #1 isn’t a bad comic by any means, but its also not a very interesting one.  There’s a lot of time spent establishing a town’s relationship with just one person and when you finally learn the specifics of why everyone is the way they are, it hardly feels worth it.  There are some cool things happening around the edges here, but they don’t get to shine in this issue.  The good news is that it’s a ComiXology Original, so if you have the right type of subscription, you might be able to read it for free. 2 out of 5 stars.

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Midstate #1

53%

53%

Too Slow of a Burn

Midstate #1 suffers in the way a lot of first issues do, it takes too much time setting things up and not enough time presenting a reason why the reader should care about that set up.

• Writing

  4
• Art

  6
• Coloring

  6
• User Ratings (0 Votes)
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