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SIMON DARK #6(2008).
© DC

Grade: A
Series: Simon Dark
Issue: 6
Authors: Steve Niles, Scott Hampton
Publisher: DC
Price: $2.99

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SIMON DARK #6

Steve Niles and Scott Hampton continue their saga of Gotham City’s other late-night protector. Simon Dark lives underground and periodically emerges to protect the innocent with unrestrained violence. Batman leaves criminals tied up for the cops. Simon Dark leaves their heads somewhere near their bodies. In the first issue, he interrupted a ritual sacrifice by a white collar cult called Geo-Populus. The bodies left in his wake have puzzled both the cult and, Beth Granger, a medical examiner for the Gotham City Coroner’s Office. Granger often finds herself working alongside Detective Tom Kirk, who wants to know her more than just professionally. In fact, the feeling’s mutual, but she doesn’t date coworkers—for now, anyway. To make matters more interesting, young Rachel Dodds has just moved to Gotham from the country with her father. She befriends Beth, and ultimately faces the mystery of Simon Dark alongside her. Niles skillfully tightens the circle of relationships that surround Dark, closing in around both him and the mystery of Geo-Populus. This issue feels typical—and not in any negative sense—in that it lays the groundwork for stark revelations later in the series. Geo-Populus’s motives remain unclear, but the reader learns something nasty after they replace a shipment of Mendo Soap with something creepy-crawly. At the same time, Dark finally locates the place where his “father” created him using science and black magic. Though the revelations will initially confound the reader, it becomes clearer with each issue that Niles intends to assemble a puzzle with a bleakly satisfying conclusion.

Simon Dark stands as Niles revision of Frankenstein, set in Gotham City in a world populated by superheroes and their villainous counterparts. Though he frequently pays tribute to the James Whale film—the one with Boris Karloff that cemented the monster’s image in the public mind—he draws greater influence from Mary Shelley’s original character. Like the monster of the book, Dark is a sensitive soul that both loves and fears humanity. His morality borders on the childlike. He protects the innocent and punishes evildoers, but he also never fails to pay for the groceries he quickly takes in the cashier’s absence. He has to feed his cat, after all. He steals a collection of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories from Rachel and replaces it with a dollar. But, guilt consumes him and he returns the book. However, his sensitivity comes with a propensity for great violence. Similar to Tim Burton’s own Frankenstein tribute, Edward Scissorhands, Dark wants to love and be loved, but woe to those that stand in his way when he lashes out. But, the real beauty of Simon Dark is that Niles never loses sight of the relationships that ultimately bring his cast together. Though macabre twists and turns certainly wait ahead, this series focuses on more timeless themes—loneliness, friendship, unrequited love, and the difficulty in overcoming the differences in others.

Scott Hampton provides his excellent art, which practically views the world through a lens of mud. Chris Chuckry provides the murky, ashen colors that have become inseparable from this series. They remind the reader that no amount of vigilante justice will ever cleanse the dark heart of the Gotham. Simon Dark is a bleak, unflinching story, but the writer’s focus on his characters’ inner lives suggests that redemption may wait at the end.

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