Book of Shadows #1

[Juki]

This comic gets released today and looks like it has potential. I noticed that the new mysterious character Persephone (fighting alongside of Punk Mambo, Eternal Warrior, Dr. Mirage, and Shadowman) shares the name of an old character from the Acclaim Shadowman comic run. In Acclaim Shadowman there was a Persephone DeFilo that was a detective in the New Orleans Police Department and romantically involved with Shadowman Michael LeRoi. Could this new Persephone actually be the spirit of the old deceased Persephone from Acclaim?

I’m probably reading too much into this. This would mean someone at DMG (Cullen Bunn?) would have to be kind of “on the ball” with the past history of Shadowman comics. But, this “Deadside team up” has my interest.

[Juki]

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[Benny_Decker]

I really liked this issue! Good action and character moments. The team comes together quickly, with just a bit of attitude from Punk Mambo (great!). Despite his ghoulish looks, Exarch Fane is charismatic. He is a powerful threat, with hints of past encounters with Gilad. I really hope EF can become a recurring villain!

I made a review video of the issue if you want to check that out:

https://youtu.be/tTUkLNTlZWQ

[Juki]

I really liked this issue! Good action and character moments. The team comes together quickly, with just a bit of attitude from Punk Mambo (great!). Despite his ghoulish looks, Exarch Fane is charismatic. He is a powerful threat, with hints of past encounters with Gilad. I really hope EF can become a recurring villain!

I made a review video of the issue if you want to check that out:

https://youtu.be/tTUkLNTlZWQ

I enjoyed the positivity and enthusiasm of your review. Thanks, Benny.

I’m still wondering … Is Persephone a brand new character…or an extension from Valiant’s past? And, what are her powers?

[TheFerg714]

Tbh I didn't love it. I much prefer Bunn's more closed-off, intimate style, like in the first volume. The end of Vol. 2, and this issue, felt a little too blockbuster-y and fast-paced. It kind of feels like an MCU movie, but in the worst way.

[Benny_Decker]

I really liked this issue! Good action and character moments. The team comes together quickly, with just a bit of attitude from Punk Mambo (great!). Despite his ghoulish looks, Exarch Fane is charismatic. He is a powerful threat, with hints of past encounters with Gilad. I really hope EF can become a recurring villain!

I made a review video of the issue if you want to check that out:

https://youtu.be/tTUkLNTlZWQ

I enjoyed the positivity and enthusiasm of your review. Thanks, Benny.

I’m still wondering … Is Persephone a brand new character…or an extension from Valiant’s past? And, what are her powers?

Thanks for checking it out!

It seems like Persephone might be reusing the name, but unlikely to be an extension from the past. She is still VERY new, so she is still being fleshed out. So far, she has the ability to open portals to the deadside and has some control over demons. I'm sure we'll see more development through Book of Shadows.

[Dallow Spicer1]

Full disclosure, never been a Shadowman fan and I thought Bunn’s Punk Mambo mini was very mediocre so I came into this more in hope than expectation. Also, I’d heard Bunn’s Shadowman was decent but I haven’t read any.

This was below par. Poorly (lazy?) designed bad guys…werewolves with weird (and not in a good way) white things awkwardly protruding from the body and a C list Dracula rip off as the main bad. Dull stuff, was that the best Bunn and the artist could come up with? Talk about tropes.

Not sure why when the werewolves were attacking the people they had green blood shooting out from their bodies And what’s with the green smoke?

Lumping all of these characters into the same book felt forced and Bunn’s depiction of Eternal Warrior was very 2 dimensional.

The art was a poor choice for this book but then what genre is Shadowman supposed to be? Magic/horror/super-hero? Who knows, but the lightweight art would be better suited elsewhere.

In my view Shadowman should be a Vertigo/Hellblazer style book with gritty art..,bit like the Garth Ennis Acclaim period.

2.75/5 - had high hopes for this but was left disappointed in true DMG style

[SwiftMann]

Isn't this Persephone somehow the result of Deadside gets (stupidly) personified from the last Shadowman run?

As for this issue, so many problems. First is I'm not in for Bunn. That's my problem.

The rest is on the book itself. The inside cover intros are reused word for word halfway through the book on a splash page. Bad form. The villain's name is impossibly stupid. The villain looks impossibly stupid (GoT's Night King x The Batman Who Laughs). And the most distracting thing of all is this art. Everything is super static and looks like was traced from photos of posed action figures. A genuinely pointless comic.

[cthulhu73]

"Isn't this Persephone somehow the result of Deadside gets (stupidly) personified from the last Shadowman run?"

Yep