DCU Comic Book Reviews

SHADOWPACT #9

Three Laws Safe:  Part One Of The Demon Triptych

March 2007

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Tom Derenick

Inks by Wayne Faucher

Cover by Tom Derenick and Wayne Faucher

Synopsis

Somewhere in Metropolis, Shadowpact gives a press conference to proclaim their Three Universal Laws of Superheroics.  In Budapest, Jason Blood is confronted by the demon Vortigar, who delivers a message that Etrigan was promoted out of the rhyming class of demons and has decided to put someone in Etrigan’s place and Etrigan will help find that demon.  Meanwhile, Shadowpact finishes the press conference and prepares to return to the Oblivion Bar, but somehow end up in Budapest.  They notice something wrong in a nearby church and go investigate.  They also notice that Blue Devil is speaking everything in Rhymes.  Suddenly, Etrigans attacks, knocking Detective Chimp and Nightshade unconscious and plunging Nightmaster’s sword into his chest.  Etrigan then defeats Blue Devil, stealing his trident before disappearing.   

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Triptych -- in ancient times, a set of three writing tablets hinged or tied together

Normally, the three tablets or whatever they are tied together so that when they are folded the middle one disappears.  Unless I am totally off base (and I may be) usually the first and third parts should be mirror images of each other.  In this case, it means the final issue will feature the face off between Etrigan and Shadowpact in which Shadowpact wins the battle. Actually, I hope I'm right because the battle in this issue was pretty good, so I would like to see a return battle to show Shadowpact's prowess. 

As for this issue, I enjoyed it very much and I look forward to the next two issues.  As one of the few people that actually read Blood Of The Demon, it was nice seeing Jason Blood back in action.  Let’s hope that at the end of this storyline, he remains one of the good guys.

What I liked about the three laws as described in this issue, is that these laws are pretty much the same laws that most heroes follow, even if they don’t realize it.  Actually, Detective Chimp states this as well, within the story. 

I am always glad when a writer answers a question that I was asking myself, such as:  why the hell was Detective Chimp speaking for the team?  Why wouldn’t Nightmaster be the one to speak?  While I understand the reasons given in the story, I am not one hundred percent sold on it.  As much as I love Detective Chimp, he is still a monkey.  Do you really want the team represented by a talkign monkey, no matter how smart or erudite he may be?

Where does Strega and Doctor Gotham fit into al lof this? At what point will Willingham finally have Shadowpact confront these two and defeat them?  I like the idea of letting things simmer for a number of issues, but at this point (besides sending out the assassins) we don’t even knwo what the evil doers really want to accomplish.  For them to work as the villain, we need to get a sense of their evil deeds, otherwise, there is no threat to destroy and thus no heroics. 

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