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In recent months, Top Cow has become one of the hottest companies in the comic book industry. Top Cow was founded by comic book veteran Marc Silvestri, and is published under the Image banner. (If anyone were interested, I'd be happy to do an explanation of how Image publishes comics.)
This is the first issue of "Darkness" I have read. I thought it was interesting that Marc Silvestri was the artist in the first half of the comic, and another artist penciled the last half. Marc's pencils are excellent. The story was typical 'me and you with 'Everyone against us' stuff. Throw in one 'age-old' opponent and one 'I need information/gain' opponent. One love interest. That's about it. I thought it was interesting that the main character is a hitman, and embodied with the powers of Darkness, but can still be a decent, likable guy who goes around helping people. And, because of his chosen 'lifestyle', the people he helps can't stick around long. Hey, it's way too dangerous. And the guy simply won't quit his day job! I thought the unusual story element of a man who has all the powers of Darkness going around helping people works well in an "informal - arms length" era of personal relationships of the 90's. It gives him the "I'm cool, my job is important, but I don't understand why no one wants to hang" kind of feel. Marc should be commended for a truly interesting concept and main character. Also, Marc's artwork is excellent. On the other hand, the artwork that was not done by Marc suffers by comparison. Also, backgrounds suffered, partly from the stylized artwork, and partly from ....... the time crunch maybe? The story was overly simple in order to not get in the way of the artwork and cool concept. This approach creates not only an overly simple story, but one that is bound to be poor. The story and dialogue drag down the overall quality of the comic. My biggest complaint is that the comic was "short". This book has only 21 pages of actual art and story, where most comic books have 24 pages of story. The remaining three pages are filled with previews and self-promotion. Hey, I have nothing against self-promotion, but don't cut pages in order to do it. In conclusion, the lack of pages, weak story, and substitute artist for half the book drag down an otherwise enjoyable comic. I give it a final rating of *** out of ***** , or Good.
The copyright of the article Review of Darkness #6 and Witchblade #15 in Comic Books is owned by Robert Smithers. Permission to republish Review of Darkness #6 and Witchblade #15 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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