Broken Frontier

The Darkness returns in a brand new series, which for some reason already feels rather dated.

The Darkness was never a series I was terribly into as it rose to popularity several years ago. The whole anti-hero fighting an inner evil feels incredibly old and trodden in my opinion. Almost a 1990’s Image Comics cliché to be sure… however, The Darkness seems to have grown past that and has proven its longevity.

This first issue does a suitable job of introducing new readers to the world of the Darkness’s host, Jackie Estacado, while giving a brief yet informative couple of pages of “catch-up” material for current, lapsed and new fans alike. There are several elements to this issue that were a bit intriguing, but for the most part it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

Phil Hester is a fantastic creator whose work I’ve enjoyed since his The Coffin series for Oni Press several years back, not to mention his wonderful art talents. His dialogue here is great, though the story—at least the opening MacGuffin—feels quite old and worn out. There are only so many times we can meander down the road of “super powered narcotics” without getting burnt out on it… heck, there was a time at Marvel Comics a few years back where there were three story arcs telling different stories of “super powered narcotics” concurrently.

This is a series that fans of The Darkness should enjoy, including those brought into the fold by the recent X-Box 360 video game. The art is amazing despite the differing thickness in Jackie’s beard every few panels, and a few look-alike faces towards the end of the issue. Still, the overall quality of the book is very nice. Definitely recommended for fans, however, newcomers may not be convinced by the merits of this issue alone.