DCU Comic Book Reviews

SHADOWPACT #2

Pentacle

August 2006

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Bill Willingham

Inks by Wayne Faucher

Cover by Bill Willingham

Synopsis

Outside of Riverrock, Wyoming, the Phantom Stranger and a rotating group of magical guards keep watch on the bubble in which Shadowpact disappeared nearly a year ago.  One year earlier, Nightshade encounters on member of the Pentacle, Sister Shadow.  In the skies above the town, the two duel with shadow monsters.  Meanwhile, the leader of Pentacle, Strega, senses the intrusion.  She magically convinces Nightshade to split up Shadowpact and then sends her group to find them.  Sister Shadow captures Nigthshade, White Rabbit captures Nightshade, Kanrevil captures Detective Chimp, Jack of Fire finds Blue Devil (who he claims is his brother), Bagman captures Ragman, and Strega captures Enchantress.  The members of Pentacle remark how each team member of their group is mirrored by a similar team member in Pentacle.  Strega tells Enchantress they are creating a spell to free to lord of light and they will need human sacrifices.  After Shadowpact has been detained, Sister Shadow and Jack of Fire go to recruit the first victim.  Meanwhile, Karnevil is ready to torture Detective Chimp.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“First they dress me up in a ‘tactical action’ suit with no pockets to hold my smokes, now we split up.  Lousy decisions all around.”

I am uncertain about this issue, except to say that I did enjoy reading it and I am eagerly awaiting the next issue.  Yet, I say this in a reserved way.  Part of the problem is that a lot of this issue (and the first issue as well) focused more on Pentacle and their dastardly plan than on Shadowpact.  And in this issue, we have a chance to see the group fight and they fail.  They fail!  I am not all that confident this a good way to start off a new series.  One, you are not showing the characters in the best light.  Two, we all know the very next issue, Shadowpact will fight back and win.  In fact, you could skip this issue and read #3 and you would not miss much.  Yet, I like what I am reading and the plot development of the mirror image groups presents itself with an interesting twist.  I’ve got think that more will be made of this and will be tied into the spell Strega is trying to concoct.  Add into the fact that the characters themselves are commenting on the strange occurrence makes me further believe that this is an important detail that will affect the plot in some way.  And finally, it looks as if Detective Chimp may be put into the situation where he will have to save the day.  Any story where a talking chimp is the hero is always a winner in my book.

ïPREVIOUS	Main		Page	NEXTð

Home ●  Blog ● Who Are We? ● Site News
Alive and Well since April 16, 2006

 DC Universe Reviews.  All Rights Reserved
  Characters, trademarks, brands are property of DC Comics

For problems or questions regarding this website, please contact our kindly webmaster.
Last updated: 08/06/11.