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Shadowman (2012) (Collected Editions) #2

Shadowman Vol. 2: La vengeance de Darque

Jack Boniface a survécu aux horreurs du Monde des Morts et tente maintenant d'en savoir davantage sur l'héritage de Shadowman. Et s'il n'était pas le seul à avoir rejoint la Terre ? Il va réaliser qu'il y a un prix à payer pour être Shadowman et que Maître Darque récupère toujours son dû...

Suite des aventures de Shadowman, par Justin Jordan (Luther Strode), Patrick Zircher (Captain America, Green Arrow, Futures End), Lee Garbett (Loki, X-O Manowar) et Neil Edwards (Dark Avengers).

132 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 13, 2013

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About the author

Justin Jordan

498 books101 followers
Justin Jordan is an American comic book writer. He is known for writing and co-creating The Strange Talent of Luther Strode, Spread, Dead Body Road, Deep State, Dark Gods and Savage Things. He has also written Green Lantern: New Guardians, Superboy, Deathstroke and Team 7 for DC Comics and the relaunch of Shadowman for Valiant Entertainment.

In 2012, he was nominated for the Harvey Award for Most Promising New Talent.

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5 stars
41 (10%)
4 stars
140 (36%)
3 stars
156 (40%)
2 stars
40 (10%)
1 star
4 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
Profile Image for Anne.
4,964 reviews71.7k followers
January 10, 2020
Decent story.
Nothing really amazing here, but it was interesting enough that I decided to go ahead and download the last 2 volumes.

description

Master Darque is the main baddie with Mr. Twist a close second, and then some villains in suits and ties who look to be some sort of corporation of EVIL. <--not sure what they are but I guess they work for Darque.

description

I like magic stuff and tend to cut even the most dull stories a lot of slack, but you aren't actively seeking out comics with a paranormal twist? This may not be your jam.
Profile Image for Sam Quixote.
4,882 reviews13.5k followers
March 11, 2017
Deadman cosplayer Master Darque wants to (sigh) take over the world – Shadowman to the rescue! …

Shadowman, Volume 2: Darque Reckoning loses the momentum set by the really good first book, instead delivering a vague and uninteresting story.

It doesn’t help that Shadowman himself is a pretty boring main character. He’s interesting visually but Jack Boniface doesn’t have much of a personality and what little he learns about his character’s legacy in this book ain’t gripping. Darque comes across as vastly more interesting though he’s reduced to playing the clichéd cackling evil sorcerer here, while Baron Samedi is equally compelling, particularly as he’s an anti-hero than a straight villain, but he’s also given a limited role. Doctor Mirage has a pointless cameo but Jaunty, a Mike Mignola-esque talking monkey demon from the Deadside, is a cool character.

The story is sketchy and unengaging. Darque wants to come to Earth for undefined reasons; Baron Samedi is being used by Darque but he knows he’s being used and he wants to help Shadowman defeat Darque; Darque’s building a big soul tower that’s meant to do something… err…

It’d have also been better if Shadowman/Darque’s powers and the Deadside had been explained. As it is, two magical characters fight and I never knew whether it was close or uneven, what their weaknesses were, why Shadowman can pass between Earth and the Deadside and Darque can’t. That’s the problem with magic stories: because magic is rarely quantified or defined it always comes off as contrived, there to suit whatever the plot demands. The ending is rushed and abrupt too.

I really enjoyed Roberto de la Torre’s Deadside artwork – it’s scratchy but immediately eye-catching, dramatic and appropriately gothic. Jaunty and Darque look very unsettling and I loved Samedi’s imposing Manse Ghede home. Patrick Zircher and a roster of artists including Lee Garbett also draw some decent pages that unfortunately pale in comparison to de la Torre’s.

If you liked the first Shadowman, don’t get your hopes up with its sequel – Darque Reckoning is a tiresome, uninspired follow-up. Shame because this title has some great characters like Darque and Samedi – hopefully we’ll one day get an awesome Shadowman series from Valiant.
Profile Image for Chad.
11.2k reviews1,108 followers
September 6, 2016
Master Darque has taken over the Deadside and is trying to bring down the barrier between our dimensions. I would have loved to see the rules of magic further defined. However the writer keeps the rules nebulous so that magic can do whatever he wants it to. It's my problem with magic based comics in general.
Profile Image for Cheese.
530 reviews93 followers
May 31, 2017
Jordan writes the shit out of this character. Loving it.
Profile Image for Judah Radd.
1,098 reviews15 followers
July 9, 2020
To see my interview with the writer, Justin Jordan, go here: https://youtu.be/kZfmHL7CsKU

This is like the movie Insidious combined with Spawn combined with Doctor Strange combined with some other crazy shit.

It’s fucking dope, and the art is top notch.

So much action and demonic evil awesomeness. Darque is a terrifying villain, Samedi is cool af, and there are so many badass scenes. Like zombies? We got zombies. Guns, scythes, one liners, suspense... it’s just so much cool packed into such a short volume. I absolutely must keep reading this run. It’s just a blast.

Hell yeah!!! 🤘🏼💀🤘🏼
Profile Image for Chris Lemmerman.
Author 8 books128 followers
December 29, 2016
Shadowman's first big story arc concludes in the five issues collected here as Jack tries to deal with Master Darque, now trapped in the Deadside and literally one dimension away from ruling the planet. As he warps the Deadside to his own whim, Jack has to deal with Baron Samedi, the voodoo lord of the dead who possesses a serial killer and decides to murder his way across New Orleans too.

There's so much that works well in this volume; the stakes are high, there are a lot of moving parts, and it all feels very dramatic. It almost feels like an event comic, which is what a lot of bigger storylines used to feel like all the time before event comics became a thing, and it's nice to be able to get these executed better and more often rather than blown out of proportion. This was meant to be a Shadowman review, not a Marvel rant. Whoops.

What drags this volume down is the artwork, which I think is the first Valiant book I have to complain about the artwork with. There are a lot of artists on this volume, and I mean a lot. Each issue has at least three artists, and none of them seem to fit each other's tone. There's always one straight forward artist like Neil Edwards, paired with more scratchy artists like Roberto De La Torre, and despite trying to make it work by having the scratchy artists on the Deadside storyline, but it's so visually inconsistent that it really got on my nerves by the time I got to the third or fourth issue of the five.
Profile Image for F. P..
330 reviews2 followers
September 24, 2026
Shadowman is supposed to be a young mixed-race guy who appears to be more black than white, then suddenly in one issue in this, he appears to have turned into a middle-aged white guy behind his mask; Dox is supposed to have very short legs, but then suddenly for several panels, his legs look normal length; Saturday is a normal-framed fit black guy, but then he becomes a big block-framed more muscular black guy.

The art styles and renderings are all over the place in this--maybe because there are multiple artists. Well, just like there can be too many cooks in a kitchen, there can be too many artists in a comic!

Maybe this was made when Valiant started falling apart? And maybe the artists were rushed to meet a deadline?

When the latter’s the case in general with comics, I wish the publishers wouldn’t have such strict deadlines and would just let the artists take at least a little more time to do a good job. This volume isn’t like the Cloud Atlas movie, wherein the actors play other races and sexes--that was done well, in my opinion. The art in this comic collection too often looks like a rush job.

Here’s an idea: if comics are too long for artists to maintain character consistency over a whole story, make shorter stories! Instead, so many comics get the huge-tome treatment.

Also, at one point in this second volume, Alyssa’s kind of upside down, and it looks like her b00bs are going to pop right out of her top; I wish the women in these Shadowman and Shadowman-related comics had more clothes on in general. It’s very aggravating to me, as usual with too many comics.

Finally, I read most of this, but didn’t go all the way because of something with an animal--one thing after another with this volume!

I’m just going to stop here and not bother going on with this particular series.
Profile Image for Trike.
2,096 reviews196 followers
June 9, 2018
This was not as good as the previous volume. Jack Boniface (Shadowman) comes across as a whiny twit and when he eventually comes back around it feels abrupt and unearned.

I didn’t like the fact they fridged the waitress, either. This book came out within the last 5 years, so there’s no excuse to use that lazy and insulting trope in the second decade of the 21st century. Surely there is another way to motivate your hero than killing the girlfriend.

Having the various characters playing each other and knowing they’re playing each other is a solid idea in theory but it doesn’t play out as well in this execution. After a while it becomes rather like those silly “I know you know” exchanges from sitcoms:

“I know you know.”
“I know you know I know.”
“I know you know I know you know”
“I know you know I know you know, you know?”
“No, I don’t think I do!”
[laugh track]

The better version of this is Constantine playing the heroes off one another in Injustice: Gods Among Us - Year Three. In that one, even though Constantine actually tells Batman from the get-go he’s not down with the cause, it still comes as a delight when he screws everyone over. Here this same idea just sort of sits there while Shadowman does the usual superhero thing.

It doesn’t help that the artwork is all over the place on this one, with a seemingly endless parade of artists through each issue, with somewhat incoherent and definitely inconsistent results.

All in all it’s not terrible, it’s just ordinary, and not living up to the promise of the first volume.
Profile Image for Cale.
3,997 reviews26 followers
January 19, 2015
This volume ups the conflict from the first volume, as the two antagonists and Shadowman form a shaky conflict triangle with the stakes being ownership of Deadside and the living realm itself. Aside from perhaps not explaining Deadside well enough, the conflict is well formed and plays out strongly, building to a massive climax, with unexpected betrayals and significant repercussions. My biggest complaint is that it seems like the majority of the conflict takes place between the panels - we see the dialogue and some of the battle between Shadowman and Darque, but the third front only gets mentioned rather than revealed. But that's a minor quibble for a major plot arc. Overall, pretty strong.
Profile Image for Phil.
840 reviews8 followers
December 12, 2017
Sometimes it's nice to read a comic book where the main character struggles. Jack has a lot getting thrown at him and it's easy to write him off because he has a hard time dealing with it. I felt there was a decent amount of growth for the character considering he just recently learned about these powers that he has and the seemingly involved history that comes with them. One of the things that struck me about this book is how Jack tries to go back to living a normal life and the consequences that come from it.

This book, more than anything else, is a way to flesh out a niche corner of the Valiant universe. This title is focused on magic and the supernatural. I thought it made perfect sense to bring in Dr. Mirage to show that there is more out there than just Shadowman and Master Darque. The Deadside provides a cool backdrop to these mystical elements and every time I see it I want more.

The art is good for the most part. I recall some panels where the perspective seemed odd. But that mostly happened early on and there are some cool images near the end of the book that make up for it.
Profile Image for Wing Kee.
2,091 reviews39 followers
April 10, 2017
Aight...zzz...Papa Midnite.

World: The art is okay, it was a bit too scratchy in parts but overall it was good. The world building was a bit choppy (like the story) and cliché. Yes we've read this book before and this world before, so yeah...

Story: In currently reading Seeley's 'Revival' and what he's done is taken a premise and world what has been done so many times and with great writing and characters created something special. Here, it's just familiar. Yes Papa Midnite is in the book and yes evil sorcerer wants to take over the world, zzz. This arc just furthers that story and it's just aight. It's been done better elsewhere.

Characters: Still moving super fast so the emotions and depth that readers want from the book is missing. This seems to be a Valiant Universe thing as I've read quite a bit and I'm finding this issue throughout. We need quiet character development issues to make us care. 4 issues arcs are not leaving a lot of time for that. Everyone is paper thin.

Aight.

Onward to the next book!
Profile Image for Dr Rashmit Mishra.
918 reviews94 followers
December 24, 2016
So the Big baddie Lord Darque finally meets the Shadowman , they have a very confusing battle , in a very confusing land of the dead , with a british talking monkey , useless secondary character , no details about the strengths of both the Hero and the Villain ... Basically this sucked big time , only redeeming factor is the art , The Art is simply stunning . Unsure whether I should continue with this series or not .
Profile Image for Julio Bonilla.
Author 14 books40 followers
September 11, 2017
Great artwork! Great story!

Ending is similar to Ghost.

Except for Jack Boniface, who looks more Latino in this volume . . .
Profile Image for Adam Stone.
2,063 reviews32 followers
January 18, 2021
This series reads like the outline to a better story. The pieces are there, but the dialog is flat, you have to really squint to even make out the second dimension of the characters, and the writer seems to be figuring out the story as he tells it.

There is no rhyme or reason given to anything in this series. A dull guy in a cool costume, who is sort of an orphan, becomes magic, instantly knows how to use his power, loses a possible mentor almost right out of the gate, and battles a bunch of supposedly frightening bad guys, none of whom seem to have a plan or even really a motivation.

It's difficult to notice the art because the story keeps putting me to sleep.

If I had to compare it to a series, I'd have to say it's like Spawn, in that it's a frustatingly bad comic with a near-intriguing premise, and character design that's much better thought out on the visual spectrum than in the personality/backstory spectrum.

Many of the other Valiant series I read when they relaunched, made me want to go back and see what their 90s predecessors were like. Not this one. The mediocre Ennis/Wood/Jenkins runs were disappointing enough. I get the feeling that, while Shadowman could be a fun part of a team book, not enough thought has gone into the character to warrant his own series.
Profile Image for Anchorpete.
759 reviews6 followers
November 25, 2014
This was pretty good. It really all comes together when we are introduced to Mister Darque's backstory in the next trade. The Baron Samedi aspect of the story is both welcome and unsuspecting. Adding Samedi and Doctor Mirage is important to the ongoing success of this book, because the character of Shadowman is pretty flat. He isn't as much an interesting hero, as he is an eyepiece into this horrific supernatural world.
Profile Image for Shannon Appelcline.
Author 32 books172 followers
November 24, 2014
Darque Reckoning (5-9). Building on the previous arc, this one offers a nice confrontation with Master Darque. It's also got great artwork and more interesting cosmology. But I just didn't love something about it. I think he characters were too distant, and the story was too focused on the plot, making the result just OK [6/10].
Profile Image for Quentin Wallace.
Author 35 books181 followers
June 23, 2018
Shadowman battles Master Darque in Deadside, and Baron Samedi is along for the ride. I really like this series. Actually, I've liked all of the new Valiant material I've read.

This series manages to be truly creepy with moody art and an authentic "weird" vibe. I still feel like the series has only scratched the surface of it's potential so I'm curious to see where things go from here.
Profile Image for Soso.
39 reviews2 followers
December 31, 2016
Of all the Valiant titles, specifically those in Act 1. Shadowman seems to be the least recommended or talked about but It's continued to be one of my favorite from the Valiant relaunch.
Profile Image for Roman Colombo.
Author 4 books35 followers
January 23, 2017
I read the first volume of this quite a long time ago, and it wasn't that easy to jump back in. The story was OK--but the art was really good. Especially in the Deadside.
Profile Image for Mohamed Ahmed.
274 reviews25 followers
September 17, 2019
another great volume.
Darque goes to deadside and make a deal with samde lord of the dead to Go against Shadowman.
the art was amazing for this story
Profile Image for Patrick.
2,163 reviews21 followers
September 24, 2017
Volume One was a 3 and this is a 4. And a solid 4, at that.

Why? Character development and world building. I didn't care much for the seemingly pointless cameo from Dr. Mirage (I hope that was her name), but based on the adds in the back on the volume she had a book out and probably wanted some cross-exposure. Other than that, everyone got to grow a little bit. Not a lot. Just enough. And this series isn't saturated with meaningless characters. There isn't a roster of 10 sitting around waiting to look cool in an action scene.

The plot is tight and neat. The art is unique and fits the motif.

I'm not sure I like Shadowman more than Bloodshot yet, but there are a couple more volumes in this run. Let's find out.
Profile Image for Lokita.
343 reviews
December 8, 2023
This is the only Shadowman comic in my whole library system, so I had to jump in the deep end and try to learn my way around fast.

...dang, that's dark. I don't know if this is normal for Valiant comics, but this story leaned so hard into the horror I felt genuine disgust. I like these characters and felt for the struggles. And while the mentor character dying is a hero's journey trope, I can't remember ever seeing the hero have to kill the mentor. That was intense. The art was gorgeous. I am seriously considering breaking my personal rule and buying the rest of the series sight unseen. I like this Jack Boniface guy. I want to see what he does next.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Reed Benson.
159 reviews
October 2, 2017
Shadowman is my least favorite of the Valiant books because I'm not into the whole messing with God's domain" kind of story, especially when the villain is overcome without the explicit help of God Himself. Not that I would like to see what the creators would do with any attempt at writing God in as a character.
1,759 reviews8 followers
May 8, 2017
I generally like Valiant books, but I was a little confused about the ending of this one. A lot of stuff seemed to happen at once without much of an explanation.
Profile Image for Tomas.
481 reviews9 followers
July 31, 2017
Profile Image for Ratorrice Moore.
55 reviews
February 20, 2020
My new favorite character

Volume 2 didn’t disappoint. Shadowman may just be my favorite hero from Valiant now. I implore every comic book fan to check him out
277 reviews3 followers
May 5, 2022
It was okay. Doesn't seem to be a lot of rules when it comes to the supernatural part of the Valiant universe. $hit just kinda happens.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews