In reading this issue, I discovered a fact that has been there since the beginning, but I don’t think that I ever saw it until Issue #18.  That fact is this…Captain Midnight (aka Jim Albright) can’t plan an attack worth a shit.  I don’t necessarily know if that is the intention of writer Joshua Williamson or if it is just what it is. But for all of the amazing brains that Midnight has, his attack strategy sucks…consistently sucks. The guy really needs to defer to others when it comes to attacks. That above fact noted, I know that there is one thing for sure that is the intent of Joshua Williamson regarding Captain Midnight…That intent is that he kicks ass…A lot of ass…And in Issue #18, that fact is laid out there pretty prominently. Captain Midnight may not be an attack planner, but he is definitely an ass kicker to the extreme. Issue #18 gives us both the poor planning and the ass kicking.

Maybe that’s the answer to it all.  Maybe Albright knows himself that he can’t plan attacks.  But he likewise knows that he is always going to be the smartest guy in the room and that his attacks are solely based on getting there, kicking ass, and filling in the loose gaps from there. If that is the case, then I would think that Joshua Williamson should be quite proud of himself as he has popped out one seriously good issue in #18.

Action galore is everywhere here as we get the lowdown on an attack plan to invade former best friend and current enemy number one Chuck Ramsey’s virtually impenetrable jungle fortress.  This place is tough and much is unknown as the intel being provided comes from none other than one Helios who has divulged information in a bid to reestablish himself and his blinking powers.  A man of his word, Albright does exactly what he says he will do for Helios, but I don’t think it is as Helios had originally thought that it would be when he made the deal.

Second phase of this story follows the attack itself and that poor planning comes into play as half of Team Midnight gets taken down before they hardly get started.  But it’s all good and it may have been the original intent of Albright anyway to go it alone (Maybe he is not as bad of a planner as I thought….Hmmm).   What ensues is some serious Captain Midnight demonstrating his amazing ability of kick assery and his ultimate meeting up with Mr. Ramsey at the top of the fortress for a potential battle supreme.

This is a really fun issue putting Captain Midnight back into his element and delivering the action that has made this one of my favorite monthly titles.  Joshua Williams does not pull punches and he kicks the adrenaline tap to full for the whole story.  This one reads fast and ends with you wanting more.  We are headed to a final confrontation that will make the whole Fury Shark stuff look weak.  I must say that I am excited about this prospect.  This is some of the best writing  by Williamson to date on the title.

And with that super pace writing in full tilt mode, artist Francisco Dagnino has likewise brought the adrenaline flow to full.  Everything in this issue pops. And I have to give some heavy props to colorist Javier Mena who blows things up in mega colorful blasts.  Even his blowing up coloring blows up, making for a trifecta of fun.

I have been with Captain Midnight from the very beginning as I am a fan of the old Fawcett work way back in the day.  With Dark Horse’s revival/reboot, I have been very pleased and I have given a lot of good scores for much of the series.  Even with that, I have given more 4/5 than 5/5 for the most part.  For all the great things going, the title still had some missing elements to me that kept it from the top score.  Issue #18 has no such problems and it rocks out from front to back.  This one is as worthy of the perfect score as any Captain Midnight that I have read to date. Way to go guys on such a spectacular read.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Score: 5/5

Writer: Joshua Williamson Artist: Fernando Dagnino Publisher: Dark Horse Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 12/24/14 Format: Ongoing; Print/Digital