Zombipanda
My Boom-Boom's mostly gay
Is Shadowpact deserving it's own topic? Who knows? But I just read it, and I figured it deserved talking about, if only because I have a question or two. But to start with, let me summarize for anyone who hasn't picked it up.
It's a nice premise for a comic's start. Willingham presents a pretty wicked group of villains, with what seems to be good foils for every character. There's potential for each character to really complement a character of Shadowpact without coming across as a bizarro version of them. The premise is interesting. The bad guys trap this town where no one can get to them and set up a lottery to decide who will get murd for a necromantic ritual. It reminds me of that old story The Lottery and I think it works, because I haven't seen it in a comic before. It also provides an interesting twist on tthe typical hostage situation because there's always the odds that, even if they don't act up, they might get butchered. Rex The Wonder Dog is always awesome, although he seems to have a weird hard on for Detective Chimp here.
The art's pretty good overall. It reminds me of Golden Age style comics. I think it works for the line. It's colorful enough, and makes things clear that it's not a superhero comic, and it's intended to be fun. It comes across thematically as kind of a throwback, and I think that works well. My only real problem with the art is Detective Chimp. The way Billingham draws him, he looks like a pre-pubescent sidekick. And his new costume is awful.
With that out of the way, I think there's a major mistake in continuity. The story is framed. Superman discovers the town, and the Shadowpact goes into it and gets trapped. And they're locked away in the bubble for a year. The status of the team at the start of the comic seems to insist that this takes place after Crisis, but Superman still has his powers when he discovers the bubble. Presumably they're supposed to come out of the bubble at the end of this arc, and then they'll be thrown into One Year Later continuity, but if that's the case, then Superman should have been depowered when he found the bubble. Am I missing something in the timeline here? Or is this just a big continuity error?
Either way, what does everyone else think of the first ish?
It's a nice premise for a comic's start. Willingham presents a pretty wicked group of villains, with what seems to be good foils for every character. There's potential for each character to really complement a character of Shadowpact without coming across as a bizarro version of them. The premise is interesting. The bad guys trap this town where no one can get to them and set up a lottery to decide who will get murd for a necromantic ritual. It reminds me of that old story The Lottery and I think it works, because I haven't seen it in a comic before. It also provides an interesting twist on tthe typical hostage situation because there's always the odds that, even if they don't act up, they might get butchered. Rex The Wonder Dog is always awesome, although he seems to have a weird hard on for Detective Chimp here.
The art's pretty good overall. It reminds me of Golden Age style comics. I think it works for the line. It's colorful enough, and makes things clear that it's not a superhero comic, and it's intended to be fun. It comes across thematically as kind of a throwback, and I think that works well. My only real problem with the art is Detective Chimp. The way Billingham draws him, he looks like a pre-pubescent sidekick. And his new costume is awful.
With that out of the way, I think there's a major mistake in continuity. The story is framed. Superman discovers the town, and the Shadowpact goes into it and gets trapped. And they're locked away in the bubble for a year. The status of the team at the start of the comic seems to insist that this takes place after Crisis, but Superman still has his powers when he discovers the bubble. Presumably they're supposed to come out of the bubble at the end of this arc, and then they'll be thrown into One Year Later continuity, but if that's the case, then Superman should have been depowered when he found the bubble. Am I missing something in the timeline here? Or is this just a big continuity error?
Either way, what does everyone else think of the first ish?
