Shadowman #8

The Team
Writing Justin Jordan Art Robert De La Torre, Lewis LaRosa, Neil Edwards

This issue of the series serves as the calm before the storm. There are some pieces brewing with people like Darque and Baron Samedi here that stretch way back. The character of Jack Boniface also places quite a thick emphasis here on his lack of family, and how the first one in which he belonged to was torn apart. Some scenes that readers are hoping to get, is new information on the parents of Boniface. Which is why it is disappointing that these teases are cutaway from all too fast. This is something that readers are no doubt curious of over the past issues, as they want to see a deeper look into the origins of of Boniface and company. On the topic of family, Jack begins to refer to the supporting cast here as a family. It grounds a portion of the title in a way that has never been seen before in the modern Valiant books. The framing device setup in the beginning of this installment of the series is nicely paid off towards the end. This universe had a sense of building towards something, and in this issue we are given the slightest peek into what is happening in the background of the comic. the face the supporting cast on this title has finally started to shine, has made it a stronger Valiant book here. So many of the titles at the publisher are darker tales with no real emotional hook. This new dynamic of individuals give a wonderful sound board for Jack to play off of.

Shadowman has been wildly inconsistent for it’s first couple issues, the reason being the repeated artist switches on the title. In comics people often downplay problems with artists, or tend to forget about them. The reason why it proves so particularly problematic here is because, the visual world of the new Shadowman has not been established. Readers have a set expectation of the visual language seen in a superhero title from the big two. Here the parameters have to be established more carefully. Even though books like Harbinger and X-O Manowar have multiple artists they have fit together better than the talent here. The art here is drawn by three different people! All three have a different style that this issue attempts to justify through story purposes. Robert De La Torre and Lewis LaRosa both look quite good sharing art duties and pages. Neil Edwards sends a vastly different experience here that makes the sum of these parts extremely unsatisfying. If this style with three different people had been in place since the beginning, it would definitely be easier to stomach. Right now it makes this title seem like something the cat dragged in at the end of the day.

This issue of the title is adept from a writing standpoint thanks to Justin Jordan. The series still has not gotten the kind of art attention that it deserves among the Valiant titles. Securing an artist for this comic would make the series grow strong over the next coming months.