DCU Comic Book Reviews

SHADOWPACT #1

Death In A Small Town

July 2006

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Bill Willingham

Inks by Bill Willingham

Cover by Bill Willingham

Synopsis

The ninth age of magic is gone.  The tenth age of magic is upon us.  All manner of dark forces are loose in the world again.  One year ago, Superman comes across a giant red bubble that completely encases Riverrock, Wyoming.  He can’t find a way to break into it, so he goes for help.  Inside the bubble, Strega and her group are going to perform a magical ritual to raise the dead.  It will require a sacrifice from which they will randomly drawn names from the townspeople.  Outside the bubble, Green Lantern and Superman determine the bubble is made of blood.  Phantom Stranger tells them it is a long-forgotten magic and the best way to deal with it is with other magic users:  Shadowpact.  Phantom Stranger opens a portal and Shadowpact heads inside and are gone for at least a year.  Inside, Nightshade goes to find any information, but she runs into one Strega’s group:  Sister Shadow, who turns into a giant gorilla and attacks Nightshade.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“I can tell this isn’t going to be pleasant.  So, we better go now, before I lose my nerve.”

This was a good, solid start to this new series.  Not much really happens, but a lot of this issue was spent to reintroduce the characters and set up the upcoming conflict.  Willingham has changed or updated the looks of most of the characters and all of them are a welcome change, especially with Nightshade.  The only downside to the issue is that the Detective Chimp was not as funny as I was hoping, but this is only the beginning and I hold out hope we will get some witty zingers real soon.  Despite that one complaint, I like this issue.  It will be interesting to see what happens with Strega’s group inside the bubble.  Her group seems to correlate very nicely with Shadowpact, with each member having a rough mirror image of each other.  I must also comment on how nice and gentle Strega acted when she told the townsfolk what was going to happen to them.  To me this suggests that her group may not be completely evil, although with a name like Karnevil I guess that is not correct. 

The entire one year later, one year ago situation will probably drive people nuts.  Since this issue occurs in the midst of the big “One Year Later” event.  But Superman lost his powers at the beginning of the missing year, so this must’ve have happened before then, except Shadowpact was seen in the first issue of 52 when Superman had lost his powers.  The Superman appearance could’ve been post-One Year Later after he regained his powers.  However, Kid Devil has been in constant contact with his uncle Blue Devil post-One Year Later, so how is that possible unless cell phones work inside the bubble.  As you can see, confusing.

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