Shadowman End Times #1

By Peter Milligan, Valentine De Landro & David Baron

There comes a point in every person’s life where we die. This is an unavoidable fact. However, things get complicated when the entity that shares your body has the ability to kill you as well. Enter Shadowman End Times, where Jack Boniface is truly his own worst enemy.

Peter Milligan has done some good things on this title, which wasn’t easy to take over after Justin Jordan left. He’s made it a point to flesh out and strengthen the bond between Jack and Alyssa and it has been working well for the story. We also get a nice glimpse into the inner turmoil that Jack faces as Shadowman tries to force him to do what he wants. It’s also cool to see a little bit more information and background about Josiah, as we see him in several flashbacks in the book. Milligan manages to gives us an interesting first issue filled with internal struggle and character depth for several main players.

There is a bit of an inconsistency in the art department this issue. Some panels are drawn very well, while others seem a bit rushed and lack detail. There is a certain side to De Landro’s art that is gritty; this is demonstrated in Jack’s dream sequence, where De Landro shines. Each panel is very stylistic and cool, almost as if it came out of a Sin City comic. While De Landro does have some sweet images, there is something to his minimalist approach that can take the reader out of the book in spots. We can chalk this up to getting used to drawing the characters, but the art could use a boost.

This was a decent first issue from Milligan and De Landro. The setup seems to be leading to an interesting chapter for Jack Boniface, and Milligan has shown he has a good grasp on the character. Valentine De Landro is a talented artist who can spice up a book with his style, but he will need to add a little more detail for this title to compete with the previous issues in the Shadowman series.