DCU Comic Book Reviews

SHADOWPACT #4

Blue Devil:  A Night In The Life

October 2006

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Steve Scott

Inks by Wayne Faucher

Cover by Steve Scott & Wayne Faucher

Synopsis

In Metropolis at sundown, an elderly lady calls out to Dan Cassidy (aka Blue Devil) to come rescue her kitten, who is stuck underneath a truck.  After helping the neighbors, Blue Devil heads out into the night to find the doorway to the Oblivion Bar.  Following him are two demons sent to bring Blue Devil back to Hell.  As he crosses Metropolis, Blue Devil stops a mugging of woman.  When he asks why she was in a dark alley, she tells him it was to avoid the big dragon in the middle of the street.  Blue Devil attacks the dragon, using his trident but all it does is just annoy the dragon as it knocks Blue Devil around, sending him flying across the street.  Just as Blue Devil gets back to his feet, the demons attack him.  Blue Devil fights back, but doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere, so he calls fro his trident, which happens to be stuck to the dragon.  The demons think Blue Devil called in the dragon, so they decide to kill it. After the dragon is defeated, Blue Devil uses his trident to send the demons back to hell.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Sure.  Blame me.  I just called for my trident.  Who knew the dragon would come with it?”

This easily the best issue of Shadowpact I have read to date and while I realize that this only the fourth issue, I just can not stress how much I really, really liked this issue.  This is nothing more than the day in the life of Blue Devil (as stated on the cover and the title), but it was enjoyable from start to finish.  I am not really sure what else I can say about this issue.  It didn’t attempt to do anything other than just tell a light-hearted romp with several of the laughs coming at the expense of Blue Devil, although I was personally amused by the stilted dialogue of the two demons. 

It would have been really neat to have the byline for the story in the Daily Planet to be Clark Kent, but the text is too small to read, if there are actual words. 

I wonder how long the Phantom Stranger is going to appear at the beginning of this series to explain the concept of the Shadowpact or the changes in magic since the Day Of Vengeance mini-series.

Interesting note on the title page:  “This adventure takes place after Day Of Vengeance and Infinite Crisis, but before the events of the first issue of Shadowpact.”  One of the things I mentioned in the first issue is the confused timeline of events between that and other things going on in the DCU.  I think I have even read that Willingham realizes he messed up the continuity as well.  I wonder if this is part of the way to address this situation.