One of the enduring attractions of comic books and graphic novels is the ease with which they explain the universe. Evil is identifiable, external and fairly simple to vanquish with the application of the appropriate superpowers.
And sometimes, as in the case of ABC Family's new comic-based series "The Middleman," evil is downright funny.
In "Middleman's" first episode, a slimy, many-eyed, multitentacled creature erupts in a DNA laboratory. Later, evil's personification is a mobster ape with a machine gun.
"The Middleman" — written as a graphic novel by Javier Grillo-Marxuach, who has also written for the series "Lost" and "Medium" — stars Matt Keeslar in the title role, a straight-arrow, milk-drinking former member of the Navy SEALs who stands between us and horrors we're not even aware of, fighting evil "so you don't have to." Early on, he explains the world to his protégé.
"You know how in comic books there's all kinds of mad scientists and aliens and androids and monsters who want to either take over or destroy the world?" he asks. "Well, it really does work like that."
This is news to Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales), an art-school graduate and temp secretary whose calm in the face of the multitentacled slime creature — she stabs it with a letter opener — inspires the Middleman to recruit her.
"You're good under pressure," he says.
She asks, "Are you hitting on me?" There is some sexual tension, but you hope it won't become a big part of the story; there's much more interesting material here. "Middleman" is full of hilarious throwaways, as when our hero, preparing to drink a glass of "cool, refreshing milk" with some bad guys, empties his pockets — of grenades, flamethrowers and a crossbow.
"Middleman" skillfully incorporates real-life details. Its characters live the kinds of lives that people read comic books to escape from.
"Did I get any calls?" Wendy asks her roommate.
Roommate: "Yeah. Your mom called to ask if you're a lesbian."
That would be the mom whom Wendy describes as "on me 24/7 to quit painting, move back to Orlando, meet a good man, eat fried foods, swell up like a tick and start squeezing out calves like Elsie mainlining fertility drugs."
Then there's the motive of the mad scientist who created the gun-toting ape; she's just trying to compensate for federal cuts to her research grants. Saving the world is easy; making a world as complex and funny as this one is the real feat of "Middleman."
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