Shadowman
writer- Justin Jordan
artist- Patrick Zircher
Don't be surprised to find that your
local comic shop doesn't carry anything produced by Valiant. Valiant
puts out a great line of comics that is every bit the quality of the
books put out by any of the larger companies. But for some reason,
this incarnation of the Valiant line is somewhat under appreciated.
I picked up a couple issues of one of
my old Valiant favorites recently, and I was more than pleasantly
surprised to find that I liked the reboot even better than the books
I read back in the 1990's.
Shadowman is about a legacy handed down
through generations. It's about a man who has the power to travel
back and forth between our plane of existence and what is called the
Deadside. Jack Boniface is that man. He never asked for the power
of Shadowman, but while trying to uncover the secrets of his past, he
discovered that the power was the only that could save his life.
Shadowman is full of New Orleans magic. Demons, ghosts, sorcerers,
and good ol' voodoo magic, and Boniface gets thrust into having to
defend himself from all of them.
It looks like Valiant liked all the
hype they were hearing about DC's New 52 reboot, and did the right
thing by starting over from square one. This line of comics begins
back at #1 and none of the history Valiant created in the past comes
into play with what they're doing now. They've re-introduced the
characters I love and left the the history up to whatever happens
next. With writing and art having gone through a sort of evolution
over the past 20 years, everything they are doing now is completely
fresh and far better. Justin Jordan and Patrick Zircher shared the
writing until issue #6. Once the first story arc in the book was
finished, Jordan took on the storytelling solo, but Zircher remained
creating that beautiful art for one more issue.
I love Zircher's art. I think it's
clean and perfect for the mood of a good New Orleans based
horror/mystery like Shadowman. Patrick Zircher's flesh demons are
grotesque, but they don't compare
to the clean cut corporate big wigs
that serve as the real monsters in the book. I'm almost certain that
their look comes from the influence of a more classic style of art.
Something, like his human bad guys, very clean and elegant. Oh, and
his rendering of my favorite comic bad guy, Master Darque, is
terrifyingly awesome.
I've read up to issue #8 so far, and
I'm positive that writer, Justin Jordan knows the plots for at least
the next 30 issues. Every story is so well planned out and executed,
that it's hard to come up with another writer in current comics, that
I like as well. I'm loving the spooky trips to the Deadside and all
of that New Orleans lore, and I'm enjoying the mounting terror
brought on by the fact that Master Darque will escape his
otherworldly prison, only to destroy as much of the planet as he can.
It's really good stuff, this Shadowman.
I didn't review one specific issue, because it's all worth reading
and worth reading in order. So, if you don't have Valiant's
Shadowman yet, make it your goal to find all the issues you can.
They're only up to #8 so far, with a #0, and I'm sure you can get
them at a fairly reasonable price. When you're done reading them,
come back and fill me in on how much you loved them and were
convinced to pick up other Valiant titles that are undoubtedly just
as well written and well illustrated as Shadowman.
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This review was written by Eblison Grun of Comic Reviews Outside The Cube on July 25th and posted by "Big Bob" Hefler on July 26th, 2013.
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