5 out of 5

See, he just had to get his zombie robot dracula jokes out of his system.  And it’s possible we’ll get that again at some point – an entire story structured just to get to one punchline – but for Night Powers, we’re back on the upward trajectory that was experienced from book one to two, amplified to as-perfect-as-can-be.  The plot has the ridiculous but paced charm that marked McNinja as an original webcomic out of the gag-a-day formats, and Chris has just continued to get better and better as an artist, all the more impressive considering he’s scripting himself and he never limits what can happen in a scene – driving a motorcycle through three exploding helicopters?  Sure! – by any self-perceived artistic limitations.  It’s a tricky play, but it’s paid off in spades: by setting the bar continually high, he’s forced himself to learn to jump higher, his art now occupying its own unique niche of compressed action.  It’s not Marvel- or DC-sized widescreen stuff, but Hastings has nailed the visual balance required for a webcomic to keep things fluid and light and yet exciting.

On the writing side, the step-by-step antics are conceptually hilarious.  An island where the government sneaks in a tennis pro to play an annual game to save the world; King Radical, announced by horn and the roar of his motorcycle, fiendishly plotting more radness for all; a motorcycle with Lisa Frank stripes painted on the side, gifting the rider with madness.  It’s all pulled off without the self-aware tongue-waggling to the reader that could ruin such delicious randomness, and Chris has established Doc as such a likeable and grounded lead – and Bendito, and McNinja’s family – that the story is always anchored just enough.

And lest I forget… color!  The introduction of gray tones in volume 2 took a while to hash out, and then they dumped ’em at the end of volume three anyway, but there’s no such learning curve with colors: Carly Mondardo steps in and knocks it out of the park, the colors bright and clear but warm enough to not betray the digital nature of the format.

There’s another Benito Cereno extra, and his writing style continues to… not impress.  It’s the ungrounded randomness that Hastings avoids.  The art by Les McClaine is pretty rockin’ though.  I’m a little concerned for the binding on this collection, as the pages are pretty floppy, allowing the book to lay flat… which is great, but may lead to unglued pages down the road.  But it’s a substantial collection of work for $20, and the best showing of McNinja yet.