Shadowman #1 – Review
Shadowman is a supernatural horror comic book series. It’s written by Cullen Bunn with art by Jon Davis-Hunt, coloring by Jordie Bellaire and lettering by Clayton Cowles.
Synopsis:
Jack Boniface is SHADOWMAN, a powerful protector who keeps humanity safe from the demons that claw at the fabric of our reality. The forces of darkness are awakening and they are hungry for life. Will Shadowman be able to save us all, or will the darkness devour the world as we know it?
Shadowman #1 is published by Valiant Entertainment and is available through comixology and your local comic shop from the 28th April, 2021.
Shadowman #1 Story
If the above synopsis from Valiant Entertainment isn’t vague enough then pull up a seat, dear reader. For those unfamiliar, Shadowman is Jack Boniface, a New Orleans native who is the wielded of the Shadow Loa. An immensely powerful voodoo spirit which has passed down in his family from generation to generation. Jack just so happens to be the current bearer of this gift. Or curse.
Issue 1 kicks into gear with Jack taking out a monstrous creature of certain demonic qualities just before he is recruited by Baron Samedi (aka The King of Death) to infiltrate a high rollers party where the host, Elizabeth Martinique, plans a murderous demonic sacrifice.
What follows is Martinique’s demonic obsessed followers bathing themselves in blood before one of them sacrifices themselves to a mirror to another realm. After the sacrificed is spat back out, it becomes pretty clear they’re a bubonic host to hundreds of carnivorous bugs that feed on the living. A clear point of the story where Jack activates the Shadow Loa, becoming Shadowman, unleashing an unstoppable barrage of Voodoo Warrior magic, stopping the carnivorous bugs in their tracks.
Cullen Bunn’s writing takes you on a supernatural voodoo field trip where demonic forces lay await at every turn. The voice work of his characters are expertly executed. While Jack Boniface feels like a veteran hero of the underworld, his unlikely ally, Baron Samedi, reads like a bone chilling echo chamber of everything truly horrifying about this fictional world.
Bunn allows each character, whether important or insignificant, to find their own grounding. To carry the comic book forward and add momentum to the overall story. The result is a supernatural demonic thrill ride filled with equal parts splatter, gore and the evilest forms of humanity.
Shadowman #1 Art
Jon Davis-Hunt’s art is viscerally disturbing and the perfect match for Cullen Bunn’s twisted landscape of horror writing. Though it’s the explosive splatter of blood, gore and guts that will leave your jaw hanging. Hunt’s ferocious talent, combined with Jordie Bellaire’s coloring, raises the bar that Mike Manley originally established in the early 90s, to all new and previously thought unattainable levels.
Shadowman #1 Conclusion
Shadowman #1 is a vicious Halloween fun house of supernatural demons and voodoo magic that meets the action schlock horror gore of Cullen Bunn and Jon Davis-Hunt’s collective maniacal minds. The result is something imbedded deeply in the happy medium between Sandman and the many satanic minions of Spawn.
Want more ?
RELATED ARTICLES:
1. REVIEW: Scout’s Honor #3 Morphs Into Relationships in the Apocalypse
2. REVIEW: Van Helsing: Black Annis with Lush and Terrifying Artwork
3. REVIEW: Bloodshot #11 Is Superheroism on Steroids
4. REVIEW: Savage #1 Is Action Packed and Unreservedly Cinematic
