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First Time For Everything: Shadowpact #14
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Location: Blogs Atomic FalloutCritical Mass |
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| Posted by: Jake Bell |
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 10:07 AM |
 Every week, Greg Burgas, a regular contributor to Comics Should Be Good and the creator of Delenda Est Carthago, grabs a book from the new releases that he doesn't normally read to examine how "new reader-friendly" that issue is.
Shadowpact #14 ("Quitter, Part One")
By Bill Willingham, Tom Derenick, and Wayne Faucher
Published by DC.
This comic opens with a caption: "The Oblivion Bar -- a popular pocket-dimension watering hole for the supernatural set, and headquarters for the Shadowpact superhero team." Isn't that nice to know? It's unobtrusive and gives us relevant information. Could this comic be new-reader-friendly?
We begin with an angel hitting a blue guy who looks like a devil. Guess what? His name is indeed... wait for it... Blue Devil! We learn very quickly that the angel (Zauriel, although we don't learn this right away) is angry because Blue Devil sold his soul, but they're not allowed to fight in the bar, as the bartender explains. They leave the bar and Zauriel actually flies Blue Devil to the top of a mountain so they can fight with no civilians around, but Blue Devil isn't buying his rage. He says they're both superheroes, so Zauriel shouldn't have a problem. Zauriel tells him that because he has been so successful as a superhero, kids look up to him and are selling their souls too. Blue Devil hadn't realized that, so he says he'll change some things.
We also get a villainous subplot. "Doctor Gotham" is speaking to a flaming guy called the Sun King, and he's telling him that Shadowpact won't be a problem, but the Sun King isn't so sure. He tells Doctor Gotham to take care of them before "the new sunrise," when the Sun King returns. We also see a member of the team, "D.C.," who's a chimp (Detective Chimp, actually, but we never learn that). He's getting out of the hospital, and his teammate Nightshade is there to get him. But this isn't brought up again, even though both characters show up later.
Blue Devil holds a press conference to explain that he's not worthy of respect. It's a pretty nice explanation of his life. After the press conference, a lawyer offers him his card because he thinks he can sue Hell because they reneged on their deal, as Blue Devil is not a famous movie star, which is the reason he sold his soul in the first place. This is a pretty nifty idea. Doctor Gotham shows up again, using magic to capture a full school bus in order to draw the Shadowpact out. He doesn't return, though, because the rest of the issue is taken up with Blue Devil quitting the team. He says he's nothing but a criminal, and even though the team still wants him, he insists. The team is ready to fight Zauriel if he tries to kill Blue Devil, but he tells them to chill. Jim Rook tells him he's only on a leave of absence, and enlists Zauriel to replace him for the duration. The team doesn't want him, but Jim Rook is insistent. The issue ends there, rather awkwardly. Still, Willingham does a good job with the story. We learn a lot about Blue Devil--who is the star of the issue, after all--and we get enough about the rest of the team to keep up. We don't learn who Ragman or Enchantress is, but that's okay. It's not their story. It's the first issue of a story arc, so that might make it easier to get into it, but there's still plenty of information in this comic that we need, and Willingham gives it to us pretty effortlessly. We also get a villain who appears to be quite formidable, despite his limited page time. We don't get what the powers of the Shadowpact members are, but this isn't really an issue that shows off those powers.
This is a nice issue of a slightly weird superhero comic. Willingham tells a straight-forward story that doesn't demand you know anything about the characters in question. Perhaps the idea that it feels truncated will annoy people, but it's the first part of an arc, and it's a good opening chapter. It's really not that hard to make new readers interested in a comic, after all. What a shock!
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