Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2013
As always there is spoilers in this review, continue with this in mind...
What got me back into reading Valiant when it was announced for a relaunch wasn't Harbinger (which I enjoyed the original pre-unity/unity issues, I wasn't too fond of the later run up to and past #25) or fan favorite X-O Manowar (I did enjoy the series until Birthquake), Bloodshot (great character who never realized his full potential) or even the "Square pegs in a Round World" duo of Archer and Armstrong (who after 12 issues, never found their way back to the greatness that Barry Windsor Smith established), even with those books being launched I was apathetic toward the line, wished them luck and paid a little attention, but not a great amount...so back to my original question after my long winded intro, what did bring me back to valiant after all of this time? One answer...Shadowman.
As per my other Vol. 1 releases, let me go back and talk about the original series a bit and why Shadowman is my favorite character. I'll be the first to admit, Valiant in the early 90's went way past my radar, I'm usually not the first person to check out a new book unless there is a creator or concept I like behind it. So my first experience with Shadowman was issue #8 as it was a hot book in Wizard and my friend was heavily into speculating at the time (he like to read them, but he was always on the lookout to make a quick buck, and as a result of that, I got to read things I normally wouldn't have picked up since unlike him I didn't get an allowance and had to work summer jobs for my spending money) So after looking through his box of hot books, he had picked up some of these new Valiant books, and the one I gravitated to most was Shadowman (I was always a bigger fan of darker books, like Ostrander and Mandrake's Spectre or Mackie and Texiera on Ghost Rider) so after flipping through this issue of Shadowman and one or two more, I was hooked, this was just when Bob Hall had taken over writing duties on the book and the character had not found his voice yet (sounds like a trend that continues to this day with certain new VEI properties) and was still ripe for development without too much baggage. Other than the Lost Land, Unity and Elya, Jack was a blank slate to work with, and did Bob Hall ever take that concept and run with it. Throughout it's all too short 43 issue run (45 counting yearbook and zero issue and related stories in Secrets of the Valiant Universe #2 and the Chaos Effect, and guest appearances elsewhere) Jack was pretty much written by one man Bob Hall, when this happened something happened to the character, instead of being a Jazz musician influenced by unknown events and forces into donning a mask at night and being shadowman, he instead talked like a new yorker, had a different tone and character and had a voice, I would infer the voice of Bob Hall. This was a voice that you knew was not there for fill-in issues by guest writers notably in Shadowman #25 and #36, written by Tony Bedard and Mike Baron (respectively) I knew it was not Bob's work, nor in Jack's voice, as that essential something was missing. So in essense Bob Hall was Jack Boniface vis-a-vis Shadowman.
The book focused on one man who was given a strange power by a voodoo coven to fight the terrors of the night and most especially the most evil villian Master Darque (in his most impressive incarnation so far) a Necromancer who wants to control life, death and everything who will stop and nothing and has no boundaries he will not cross to accomplish his goals, Darque was being setup as one of the main villians in the Valiant Universe as he crossed paths with the Eternal Warrior, X-O Manowar, Archer and Armstrong, Dr. Mirage, Solar, and had affected most every one in the valiant universe at some point, his reach was that immense and machinations that wide that he did in fact reach that stature of being Valiant's big bad guy. Sadly, due to internal politics, poor planning, etc. the character basically languished in the supernatural section of valiant, and he really could have been so much more. However with that, Bob Hall was given carte blanche to use the character as he saw fit and shaped him as he needed him for use in stories and story arcs that Jack given his limited, yet expanding abilities a challenge, tested him as a hero and almost managed to kill him time and again. By the end of the run, valiant as an entity was falling apart due to Acclaim's aquisition of the company, the book was getting uncerimoniously cancelled and Bob Hall wasn't having any of it, his last definant act was to have Jack leap to his death as the sun rose on the horizon with a big ? in the last panel. When Acclaimed relaunched Shadowman Jack was back, but this wasn't Shadowman how I remember him or how I wanted him. Garth Ennis had essentially took the basic framework from the original series and cut everything else away and trashed it. The new Shadowman was Zero a amnesiatic assassin, who would eventually regain his memory, be able to go into a place called the Deadside and fight evil. Well to say the least, I hated it, read about four issues and ignored the series and the rest of Acclaim's Valiant until it died when Unity 2000 was released and I completed my collection of the original valiant titles.
So that brings us to 2012 and the relaunch of Shadowman by Justin Jordan and Patrick Zircher. Jordan took an alternate approach to Ennis take on Shadowman and that was to take both old series smash them together and keep the best bits from both series. So while Shadowman is again, Jack Boniface, he also gets Deadside, a Master Darque who looks like the real deal, plus a overhaul and refresh of the character twenty years hence. However we do loose a few things, no Jazz, saxaphone, Jack's house keeper Nettie (which is the biggest loss to me), and no pony tail, which I understand it was a 90's thing, but it worked for the character. So is it any good? Mostly yes, but some no, here's why.
We start out the story by meeting Jack's parents (the current Shadowman and his pregnant wife) he goes off to fight Darque from bringing the Deadside to Earth, and she leaves him to keep their unborn child safe as she cannot deal with this life anymore. Fast forward 20 years and Jack is trying to find out who he is, (which wasn't unusal from the original story) but more than that, Jordan is trying to find a voice for Jack too, gone is the fast talking, Jazz playing saxaphonist Boniface, replaced by a self proclaimed Jack-of-all-trades drifter coming back to where he was born trying to find his roots. Jordan and Zircher collaborated on creating this character and you can see the potential in him, but like X-O Jordan seems to be focusing on the overall story arc, and getting all of the key figures into place before we worry about actual you know characterizing them. (which other VEI titles have no issues with, only X-O and Shadowman it seems) We know Jack is the good guy, we know Master Darque is the big baddie, but we know more about Mr. Twist in this volume and have a better feel for the arbitors who seem to have taken the place of Nettie and her mysterious Voodoo cult that creates the Shadowmen. The art is great to look at as Zircher (who sadly left the book not too long after this arc for greener pastures at DC) has a good feel for the dark and supernatual feel of the Shadowman mythos and had a hand in the main creation of the new look for Jack and Darque and most, if not all of the other characters in the series. The story goes between the past of how things started, to the present and Jack looking for answers to who he is and where he came from, and leads to his becoming Shadowman (the Loa is a living entity this time) and basically knowing what he has to do, even though he's been thrown into the zany and weird world all in one night. By the end of the first arc, Twist has allowed Darque access to the Deadside, Jack and the abitors are preparing for battle and we are wondering what's coming next.
Again I think this is a 3.5 star title, but I am giving it four stars unlike X-O Manowar Vol. 1 it has deeper characterization of the secondary cast unlike that book, but I still think the main character needs a few issues of development time so we know who Jack is and we know who he is when he's Shadowman and the difference between both of them. One personal gripe is with the introduction of Master Darque, I would have been happier if he would have been more of a behind the scenes villian as in the original series and only finally introduced when Jack became too much of a nusicance for him to ignore any longer and for him to squash before he got out of hand. Instead we get a full introduction within the first few pages, armageddon already upon us and Darque manipulating Jack's father into becoming a portal to where Darque wants to go for more knowledge. It was probably a well thought out idea by VEI's editorial staff, Jordan and Zircher, but so far what has been shown it seems to be a misstep for what I've already mentioned with one of Valiant's preeminant villians. Hopefully Jordan will not be against using the best concepts from VH1 (Valiant Heroes 1) and building his mythology with some of those connections in mind (Armstrong, Eternal Warrior) to not have New Orleans and Shadowman feel so isolated this time in this brave new world, and this new VEI universe.
