B.P.R.D.: NIGHT TRAIN #1
© 2003 Dark Horse Comics

Mania Grade: C-
Issue: 1
Authors: Geoff Johns, Scott Kolins, Dave Stewart
Publisher: Dark Horse
Price: $2.99

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B.P.R.D.: NIGHT TRAIN #1

Liz Sherman and Roger the Homunculus have been assigned to investigate a ghost train appearing in Alabama almost every night. The train, which was transporting scientists and troops to the Manhattan Project, was blown up by a German saboteur seventy years ago. But the ghosts still have some unfinished business with their murderer - who, despite all expectations, is still alive.

Far be it from me to suggest that Mike Mignola is the only writer capable of pulling off a good B.R.P.D. story, and even farther be it from me to suggest that Geoff Johns and Scott Kolins are incapable of doing the same. But fact of the matter is, compared to other one-shots and miniseries featuring the Bureau written by Mignola, NIGHT TRAIN is something of a disappointment. Perhaps my expectations are just too high - having experienced what these guys can do when they're at the top of their game (their run on THE FLASH comes immediately to mind), I'm surprised that this story winds up being so pedestrian, even dull.

Mind you, the interaction between Liz, a woman whose pyrokinetic abilities killed her family when she was young, and Roger, the homunculus she brought back to life with that power (which nearly killed her in the process), is engaging enough. Because this is a one-shot, however, we get about three or four pages of it max. The rest of the book is given over to the ghost train plot, which should be far more engaging even than the character developing scenes.

It isn't, and for two very good reasons. First, we're shown that the Nazi who destroyed the train in the first place is still alive after seventy years (which isn't that hard to imagine in the B.R.P.D. universe), but the ghost train has seemingly been pursuing him all this time. He evades it in this story by transferring his aura to Liz and letting the ghosts attack her. So how has he managed not to get snatched up by these ectoplasmic hooligans when Liz wasn't around? Secondly, the mission briefing the two agents are given implies that the ghost train has been showing up nightly in this Alabama town because something there is drawing it, which in turn implies that our Nazi agent has been living there for long enough to cause the train to appear. Why on Earth would anyone stay in one place for that long when a ghost train is pursuing them? And again, how has he managed to stay alive long enough to be pursued like this? Granted, the answer to that last question is suggested by what happens to Liz, but it's not a satisfactory one. I usually expect Geoff Johns' scripts to make more sense than this, and since Kolins is co-scripting it, such inconsistencies should have more easily been caught in the collaboration process. So why is this brief one-shot more riddled with holes than a Swiss cheese? And don't even get me started on the resolution - or rather, the utter lack of one.

Kolins and Dave Stewart's artwork somewhat makes up for all this messiness, but a comic book like this should not have to depend solely on the artwork to make it worth reading. Unfortunately, good artwork, some brief but nice character development, and two famous names attached to a story unworthy of either of them is all that B.R.P.D.: NIGHT TRAIN has to offer.