Shadowpact: The Pentacle Plot, Vol. 1 (DC) [collects #1-6]
w. Bill Willingham; a. Various
| Writing |  | New reader? |  |
| Art | | Non-comics reader? |  |
Shadowpact was introduced during the recent “Day of Vengeance” event in the DCU (yawn), but Willingham is rarely dull, and he embues a series of second-string mystical characters — and their opponents — with nice bits of personality that carry through, with humor (interspersed with horror) the plot their worked through.
In this case, the Shadowpact is invited to find out what’s going on in a small town that’s completely enveloped in a mystical shell. They go in — and vanish for a year, as they deal with their evil(er) counterparts inside. Afterwards, the person who started the whole ball rolling — a newly arisen sorcerer who takes on the name Doctor Gotham — comes up with various ways to distract an already somewhat flighty and unfocused team. It’s good stuff — nothing to win Eisners, but a reasonable amount of fun.
Shanna the She-Devil (Marvel) [collects #1-7]
w/a. Frank Cho
| Writing | | New reader? | |
| Art |  | Non-comics reader? | |
Frank Cho can draw women. And he can draw dinosaurs. So drawing a non-continuity tale of a group of soldiers who (when) land on an island with a secret Nazi lab — and a lot of dinosaurs — and find some sort of experimental (?) superwoman … well, the plot doesn’t really matter. You buy this book to see Frank Cho draw dinosaurs, and a very buxom babe fighting them.
It really is quite nice. My only quibble (aside from academic concerns over cantilevering and the like) is that Shanna is actually an established character in the Marvel Universe (she lives in the Savage Land with Ka-Zar, as I recall, and is actually the more civilized of the two). Why the editors decided to use the name non-canonically like this, I’m not sure.
But that’s a minor quibble. Yes, it’s cheesecake — but it’s good cheesecake. So there.
(listening to: Original Broadway Cast, “Javert at the Barricade / Little People & The First Attack” from Les Misérables (Broadway))
(listening to: Spice Girls, “Wannabe” from First Generation – Virgin 25 Years)
(listening to: Hogwood & AAM, “The Lord Gave the Word” from Messiah)
(listening to: Mancini, Henry, “Arabesque” from Crime Jazz (Music in The Second Degree))
(listening to: Monty Norman Orchestra, “James Bond Theme” from Best of James Bond – 30th Anniversary Limited Edition)
(listening to: Bernstein & the NY Philharmonic, “Appalachian Spring: Very Slowly” from Aaron Copland Royal Edition)