Shadowman, Vol. 1: Fear of the Dark

In the long-awaited but disappointing return of the Shadowman series, magic-user Alyssa travels into the bayou to track down the source of a curse. In a subsequent battle with the mammoth “grinder of bones,” she accidentally rescues Jack Boniface, the Shadowman, from an alternate reality called the deadside. In the exposition-laden pages that follow, the energetic and skillful artwork doesn’t quite make up for the fact that the story has begun to drag, even for newcomers to the series. More at issue is the caricature of Jack as a black man being painted by the narrative: violent, dangerous, and out of control. Alyssa steals the show as she’s forced to counterbalance Jack’s incapacity, using her magic to interrogate “voodoo spirits” and her intellect to guide him when he’s impulsive or short-sighted (“Gotta do every thing my damn self,” she sighs). The inherited series tropes aren’t given fresh enough perspective to sell this revamp. Though the artwork is admirable, the mishmash of inaccurately portrayed spiritual traditions and stereotyped main characters makes it a missable entry in the genre. (July)