I must admit, ever since first reading Spawn somewhere during the height of its popularity, I never really took to Image comics. Yes, the McFarlane-led, computer coloured artwork was undoubtedly slick, but for some reason it just didn’t grab me. I wanted to like them, I tried to like them…yet I just couldn’t like them. And the more I read, the less convinced I became. So I kinda gave up on Image and figured they just weren’t for me. Fast forward a few years, Top Cow split from Image and take Witchblade with them, which soon becomes almost as popular as Spawn with its own TV series (and even an anime!), yet still I can’t generate enough interest in these characters to really care much.
Which should make me a good critic of these comics, at least in theory. But after reading Top Cow’s compendium of Witchblade sister story The Darkness, I feel more foolish admitting the above.
That said, the first story in the 'Ultimate Collection’ of The Darkness does little to challenge my opinions back when I first read Spawn. Penned by Garth Ennis, this is a classic genesis tale and a fairly good introduction the character of Jackie Estacado, the top mob hitman who finds himself cursed with a dark power on his 21st birthday. Full of witty one liners and funny dialogue, it’s fairly typical of Ennis in that respect. The dark themes are still in keeping with Top Cow’s Witchblade universe, and the story which involves plenty of angels, devils and talk of the apocalypse is par for the course also. It’s a fun read thanks to Ennis’ injection of light-hearted humour, but in reality it does nothing to change my opinion Image or Top Cow.
The second story, however, fares much better. Originally appearing some 40-odd issues after Ennis’ original during the second volume of the comic (the first volume is also available in one massive tome from Top Cow) and written by Paul Jenkins (who you may know had a hand in the videogame adaptation, review linked above), this is a story which has a very different atmosphere to the first. Although there’s still a few jokes now and again to lighten the tone, the emphasis has moved very much from the battle between light and dark to the more down to earth fued between Jackie and his mobster ‘family’. As it turns out, Jackie ratted on his mob boss and now his ‘dear uncle’ Frankie is out for revenge. Which would be a pretty stupid thing to do considering Jackie can summon bloodthirsty demons at will, but Frankie and his newly instated cousin Paulie aren’t entirely unaware of this fact and begin to use it their advantage.
It’s a smart twist on the character’s usual heaven and hell theatrics and takes as much from The Sopranos as it does the bible (actually, The Sopranos even gets a quick mention, one character noting that they’re starting to feel like cliché’s right out of the TV series). And Jackie as a character gets a lot more attention, his struggle between the dark powers that urge him to kill and trying to be a good person and do the right thing are brought to the fore as he’s thrown in to a moral dilemma.
Apart from the manic Paulie who’s very much in the Joe Pesci in Goodfellas mould, secondary characters aren’t given much panel space, as much of the dialogue is spent on Jackie’s brooding monologues. These give the comic a film noir-esque feel not dissimilar to Frank Miller’s Sin City, which is either a good or bad thing depending on your tastes. I’d err towards the good personally. I think it suits the New York mob setting perfectly, something which was captured very well in the videogame too.
And a review of The Darkness wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the excellent artwork on show. The first story is very much typical of Image/Top Cow comics of the time, sporting the kind of oddly soulless computer coloured artwork that turned me off in the first place. You know, it’s all very slick and all but there’s just something about it I never quite liked. Still, the second story more than makes up for it with some beautifully hand coloured (actually, I’m not even sure if it is hand coloured, though if it’s not they’ve certainly improved their techniques over the years…looks great at any rate) artwork that changes style every few pages. It might seem odd at first, but it really works well.
So, it’s a comic of two halves. Luckily the second more than makes up for the first. This doesn’t quite make me want to go back and catch up on all that stuff I’d missed, but it does make me want to keep an eye on Top Cow in the future.
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