Shadowman #14

Writing Peter Milligan Artist Roberto De La Torre

 

Introduction

 

Peter Milligan brought Shadowman out of the light in issue #13. The scribe brought a sense of clarity to the series that was sorely lacking from some of the other installments. Jack Boniface has a renewed sense of purpose, and his supporting cast has a new set of motivations in order to follow. Artist Roberto De La Torre also brought some unique pencilling to the book, that felt like a fresh coat of paint on an older series. The surreal imagery populating the last installment felt truly visceral. Hellish landscape draped in stark shadow brought something that was lacking artwise from some of the other installments of the comic. Milligan has built on what came before, which means that his run can instantly got to some interesting places and not have to deal with setup. While Constantine comparisons can easily be made, the setting of New Orleans and populace of minority characters more than make up with the similarities.

 

Writing

 

Milligan is tearing the Shadowman universe apart in a manner that feels uninspired in this installment. This issue quickly writes away the very interesting Punk Mambo and heads down a Born Again influenced direction. It makes little sense why Milligan chooses to go down this path now, and not in his first issue. The supporting cast is also not written with conviction here, they seem to float by adding slight plot points here and there, but are generally bland. The next issue has the potential to get things headed towards the right direction, but this is the wrong step for the series in general. The reliance on some of the past events in the series are also making certain plot points more dull to newer readers.

 

Art

 

This book looks like hell thanks to Torre. The artist renders some truly dangerous landscapes in New Orleans that should really shock readers. Colorist David Baron has an interesting approach to color that smears multiple hues on each page. The effect seems experimental in a manner that some might not expect a book by Valiant to take. Different moods are captured on pages with one glance thanks to all of the different colors. At times, the approach feels scattered, and ends up lacking a sense of focus that may have been necessary in a title like this. Torre’s style seems slightly choppy here which may or may not be because of the strange amount of coloring. The opening and middle pages look like they were drawn by multiple artists. It is hard to tell what exactly went wrong here. While experimentation is good, hopefully next issue a more static color scheme will be evoked in the pages of Shadowman.

 

Conclusion

This issue of Shadowman did not work on multiple levels. The art looks choppy and imprecise, Jack is taken a weird direction that thrusted this into a dull setup issue. It is also disappointing to not see the supporting cast developed further under the pen of Milligan.