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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 12, 2017 20:37:02 GMT -5
"Think I'll go take a walk. Why not? It's nice and dark now and I do so love the night...." By 1992 Valiant was already making great strides as a company, not only in the realm of comic book storytelling as a medium, but also through the sheer diversity of their titles. And that was about to be diversified even further with the introduction of the supernatural noir thriller, Shadow Man. Taking place in the deep south, where moss trees, swamps, and alligators paint a portrait of a place seemingly untouched by time and innovation, it tells the story a musician unknowingly thrust into the world of the macabre and split personalities. It is slow, plotting, visceral, and unrelenting in it's portrayal of the underside of life in the big easy. I know this world because, like so many other locales in the Valiant universe, it's a real place that I was very fortunate to grow up in during Shadow Man's original run even if I was not made aware of the comic until Valiant's rebirth in 2012. It is a series that I dearly love and one that I have poured over time and again, something that I have done with very few others So, come with me friends on a walk into the dark.....
**To properly settle into the mood of the "Shadow Soul", I suggest putting on Dr. John's "Shadows" from his 1994 album, "Television"**
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 12, 2017 21:08:22 GMT -5
"Jazz ought to be free-form improvisation in the dark..." Our tale begins rather simply, a mere morsel of a prologue for things to come. Jack Boniface is playing his patented soul sound for a packed house of enthused listeners. It's there that he spies a woman named Lydia, who's been a regular at the club for the past two weeks. Something about her attracts him to a night of sinful pleasures, damning him   Jack awakes the next day in a daze, faintly recalling much of anything the night prior. All he knows is that Lydia has vanished and that there's a rather foul odor coming from somewhere in her penthouse loft in the french quarter; a rotting mess of half flayed corpses in the attic. Unsure of anything, Jack strays out into the French Quarter. It's here that he notices himself beginning to change along with a baby blue mask lying next to a sewage drain on the pavement. Jack's eyes stray into an alleyway, where he spies a murderous cannibal slurping up the entrails of his hapless victim Jack and the murderer fight, but the killer darts away, with Jack soon loosing sight of him Overall, it's a very high-impact first issue that I was initially thrown off by the first time I read it. Valiant titles during Shooter's tenure had a tendency to not lead you into this new world by the hand, you were pretty much left to your own devices. Like any art form, it's an issue that commands your fullest attention
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 12, 2017 21:42:12 GMT -5
"I am something else, something stronger, something darker, I am Shadow Man..." The second issue opens with Jack going to see a doctor after inklings of more unnatural notions of animalistic savagery arise. Unable to find much of anything wrong with the saxophonist, the doctor sends Jack on his way. Back home, Jack is unable to resist his newfound carnal urges brought on by the night and soon departs In the French Quarter, he spies a hapless business man being confronted rather violently by a pair of thugs. He takes them down rather effortlessly and takes off, almost giddy from the total adrenaline rush  Jack awakes the following afternoon to the solemn, yet incredibly grating rev of a hoover vacuum. It's Nettie, his elderly housekeeper. She's all to wise as to what Jack has become  After the seemingly in direct encouragement from Nettie to not question his newfound lust for the night, Jack prowls the French Quarter yet again. His old friend the murderous cannibal has struck another blow to the tourist trap that is Bourbon street, but this time Jack has a name to put with the face; Samdei But he has other things haunting him, like Lydia. He steals away into her apartment through an open window notices that everything has seemingly vanished. Not only that, but the cops have staked the place out. He flees before he's nabbed as a suspect. Scared, he calls up an old friend to talk over beers and half naked women  The next evening, after another heart to heart with Nettie, Jack confronts Samedi in the Bayou swamplands. After a long fight, not helped by the murky waters or the pouring rain, Jack knocks Samedi unconscious and leaves him for the police Good issue, but I have qualms with some of the dialogue, mainly from Jack. I get the fact that he's slowly losing his mind and better judgment, but he's so incredibly whiney
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 13, 2017 7:25:31 GMT -5
I got a pile of Shadowman issues in a clearance sale at the LCS, and really enjoyed the title; I got aboard a little later, however, when the character was established and had started wearing a leather jacket. I had no idea Jack had had a traumatic experience right at the start of the series.
That title made me a Bob Hall fan when he started handling the art. I hadn't cared for his work on the Avengers, but with Shadowman he really shone. I don't know if it was the case, but his art suggested he was having great fun drawing the book!
I look forward to your further reviews, shadowflunk!
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 13, 2017 7:38:56 GMT -5
I got a pile of Shadowman issues in a clearance sale at the LCS, and really enjoyed the title; I got aboard a little later, however, when the character was established and had started wearing a leather jacket. I had no idea Jack had had a traumatic experience right at the start of the series. That title made me a Bob Hall fan when he started handling the art. I hadn't cared for his work on the Avengers, but with Shadowman he really shone. I don't know if it was the case, but his art suggested he was having great fun drawing the book! I look forward to your further reviews, shadowflunk! It seems like Shooter & Englehart had a rough idea of what they wanted to do with the title, but not much else. It just kind of meanders for a while with faint glimmers of greatness, then it ramps up to full intensity after Unity with Bob Hall I do agree with you that Bob Hall really makes the book something special, but I do rather like the slow burn/descent into madness take Shooter & Englehart infused it with in the very early issues |
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 13, 2017 9:24:11 GMT -5
I really love the Shadowman character.
He was really good at Valiant, and even better with Deadside at Acclaim, and I've liked the current version as well.
A Shadowman movie is a no brainer IMO.
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 13, 2017 15:16:46 GMT -5
Nu-Valiant Shadowman was good up until Milligan took over. It's been a long time since I read his run but I'm probably going to detest it even more than I did when I first read it
The only good thing I recall from it was Punk Mambo and that's about it. Still greatly prefer Nettie though, but Punk Mambo's not a bad replacement even if her origin story feels totally half baked and bogus
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Post by hondobrode on Jul 13, 2017 21:04:30 GMT -5
Milligan caught a lot of hate for his run.
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Post by Batflunkie on Jul 13, 2017 21:27:40 GMT -5
To be fair though, there are a lot of things that I utterly despised the first time I saw/read/watched them, and there's a surprising amount of Valiant books both old and new on that list
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Post by MWGallaher on Jul 16, 2017 19:59:12 GMT -5
Wow, those sample pages from the first two issues make me realize I probably could have been a "professional" comic book artist in the early 90's if I'd really wanted to.
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