Crossing Midnight discussion

TwilightEL

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I could've sworn there was already a thread on this series. In fact, I think I remember starting it. Was it in the wrong place, or am I just totally insane?

Crossing Midnight is the story of a Japanese couple who pray to the gods that their son will be safely delivered in exchange for an offering. Two twins are successfully born... the brother, before midnight, his sister (who no one knew existed) is born after midnight, hence the title. When they're growing up, the girl discovers she can't be cut (it's unclear whether she can be harmed in other ways, like being burned or drowned). Anything with an edge bends or breaks rather than pierce her skin.

Also when the two are kids, they're playing near a broken shrine with a friend, when the shrine suddenly becomes a complete pathway to another world. They go to investigate, but the more cautious brother (no, I can't remember any of the characters' names, why do you ask?) makes his sister come back with him. Their friend is left behind accidentally and the shrine turns back into a broken shrine. He disappears forever.

When the two are teenagers, their father is going through stress at work. I'm not sure what he does, but it's obvious that some accounts aren't matching up, and his business is either being embezzled from or is involved in organized crime.

One night, a mysterious man surrounded by a storm of swirling blades appears before them and demands the sister enter his service. She is the offering he is claiming. She refuses and he kills her dog. When the brother touches one of the swirling swords, it stops moving and drops to the ground. A mysterious police officer investigates the death of the dog and implies that he thinks the brother did it and is a raving psychopath.

On his way home from school, the brother sees the old friend who disappeared at the shrine in a storm drain. He reads a poem the friend (who hasn't aged at all) gives him and is transported to the home of a strange, shadow-dragon like creature. It tells him that his sister is being recruited by the lord of the blades, and that he will come to her three times in all, and if she refuses three times the lord of the blades can't have her. The shadow-dragon wants her to refuse. The friend takes the brother home and tells him that even after he leaves the service of the shadow-dragon, he won't go back home.

The brother encounters the police officer again and the officer (or detective, my memory's vague) gives him a doodle of a clock whose hands are pointing at midnight, with boy and girl stick figures on the left and right sides of the hands.

The blade-guy comes again and kills their mom by cutting her into pieces. The sister enters his service because he promises to put her together again. She is taken to his magical palace, where another of his servants gives her strange advice about boundaries. The blade-guy swings at the sister twice with a sword, and the blade passes straight through her without injuring her, instead of refusing to cut her flesh. He tells her he has cut off her past and future and she now lives in a moment, which he may allow to pass at his whim.

Back on earth, the mother is recovered (with some weird new scars) but she won't wake up. The brother is waiting by her side. He sees some weird goblin creatures bending over her and chases them off, but runs into a big nest of goblins. They tell him something about how they can kill him now without him being able to touch him, but a weird lady shows up. The goblins tell her she has no scavenger's rights because she's not sworn to anyone and she butchers them, then talks to the brother. She says she is the lady of the needle and that he was born before midnight, but he still has power. (She uses the word "puissant", and judging by the boy's non-reaction, he has no idea what she's talking about.) The lady of the needle makes him promise to enter her service if she stitches his mother's soul back together (that's what the goblins were doing, eating the shreds of her soul) and saves his father, who will shortly shoot someone and be shot if they don't do anything. The latest issue ends as the lady of the needle takes the brother to save his father.

Sorry about the crappy summary. I really like this title: A- so far, or four out of five stars. Between the boy touching the blade and it dropping, and him scaring off the goblins, I think he has the power to nullify magic. It seems like a big theme of the magical world is allegiances and treaties. All of the kids who were involved in it were immediately snatched up by demon/magic lords.

I recorded the events in roughly chronological order, but they're a little different in the four or so issues that are out so far.
 
its not bad, i'll see how it goes with the 2nd arc. and then decide if i want to drop it or not.
 
Y'know, I like this book, but all I can think of whenever I'm reading it is "Damn. I wish they'd animate this".
 
I like it so far.


Carey is my favorite horror/magic writer.



His Lucifer and Hellblazer runs are some of the comics ever written.
 
I was kind of iffy on the latest issue. On one hand, I really liked the bit with the man whose words shortened his lifespan. On the other hand, the part with the sister was really predictable and cliche. I'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.
 

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