Shadowman Classic Omnibus Volume 1

Shadowman Classic Omnibus Volume 1 by Bob Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Shadowman Classic Omnibus Volume 1 collects Shadowman #0-24, Doctor Mirage #5, Secret Weapons #1-2, and Darque Passages.

Like a lot of comics readers in the 1990s, I dipped into the Valiant books. The one that I latched onto was Shadowman so I snapped this up when it was part of Amazon's 3 for 2 deals a while back.

Jack Boniface is a sax player who finds a mask in an alley and fights crime after dark as Shadowman in the Big Easy. His chief foe is Master Darque, an albino necromancer bent on acquiring magical power at any cost. That's a broad overview but it's sufficient for our purposes.

There's a varied creative team in the early issues, with such heavy hitters as Steve Englehart, David Lapham, Steve Ditko, and Jim Shooter but the book really takes off for me when Bob Hall takes on the writing and the art chores. The coloring on the book makes me think they used the original color files for this or they scanned actual comics. It's authentic to the original presentation.

I'm happy to say these stories held up better than I expected. Jack battles mundane street crime and corrupt politicians as well as the machinations of Master Darque, with detours to the Lost Land and through time along the way. And there's an Aerosmith crossover. Archer and Armstrong guest star in a couple issues and Secret Weapons features a majority of the Valiant characters from the time period.

The mysteries of the series are at least as interesting as Jack himself, like what's Nettie's deal and who is the woman who bit Jack way back in Shadowman #1? The New Orleans setting is pretty important to the book. Jack is Creole so he's tied to the setting as well. It didn't occur to me as a kid that Shadowman is pretty much the Daredevil of early Valiant comics, a guy that's frequently outgunned but keeps pushing forward.

Shadowman Classic Omnibus Volume 1 proves that maybe I didn't have terrible taste in comics as a teenager. 4 out of 5 stars. Everyone should buy it so Volume 2 eventually gets released.

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