My love of Shadowman

As a teenager I would often frequent the small comic shop down the street from my house.  At the time said comic shop was transitioning to games because they couldn't compete with the far superior comic shop on the other side of town across from the mall, so they were selling off all their comics for cheap.  I remember perusing their back issues when I came across a comic of a superhero I knew nothing about.  What caught my eye was the fact that the cover had this superhero on stage facing down Steven Tyler from Aerosmith with the band in the background.

That superhero was Shadowman and the issue was Shadowman #19.

I don't know what caused me to pick up that issue.  Maybe it was the fact that I was just getting into music.  Maybe because it was cheap.  Maybe because it was a comic.  Maybe because it was a cheap comic. (I'd go with that one.)  But I picked it up, went home and read it.

Shadowman was a completely new concept to me at least.  He was a superhero whose powers were based on voodoo.  Jack Boniface was given the powers of the Shadowman to battle those who did evil with voodoo.  It sounds like a weird concept, but it worked.

Now my experience with celebrity guest stars in comics has not been very good.  The special guest star is used to sell comics, but they usually have nothing to offer.  The plots aren't very good. The guest star ends up having superpowers or helps the hero fight crime.  It does nothing for the hero or storyline of the comic.

That's where Shadowman #19 was different.

The plot of the issue centered around Shadowman's main villain  Master Darque, using an obsessed fan to get to Shadowman.  Shadowman's alter ego happened to be a musician and had been jamming with the band before a show due to his ties with one of the band members.  Darque used the obsessed fan to bring Steven Tyler to him and then used Tyler's life to persuaded Shadowman to perform a favor for him.

It worked because that's something Darque had been trying to do for quite some time.  The band was nothing more than the band.  They didn't secretly have superpowers or help Shadowman fight crime.  They were just there to further the story in a very unique way.  It was cool in my opinion.

From there I began buying and eating up any issue of Shadowman I could find.  Eventually Valiant Comics was sold to Acclaim, the video game company.  Shadowman was changed to fit more into something that could be transitioned into a video game.  I hated it instantly.  Eventually Acclaim went under and Shadowman, along with all of Valiant's other characters, sat in limbo.

Fast forward to last year.  It was announced that Valiant had been bought and many of it's characters where going to be revamped and relaunched.  I was excited to see a good company get new life, but on the initial list of comics, no Shadowman. 

Patiently I waited. 

Finally it was announced that Shadowman would be relaunched.  It would be different and would incorporate the most loved aspects from both runs of Shadowman.  I couldn't help but be excited and leery at the same time.  Shadowman was returning, but would it be the same?

Turns out it's not, but it's just as good anyway.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the four issues that have come out.  It's added new aspects to the character of Shadowman that keep me waiting for the next issue.

Now it's too early to see if the momentum that it's carrying will continue, but when it comes to comics that's always an issue. (Pun partially intended)  Whose to say if it continue to amaze or fizzle out like the second run did.  (I admit it, I didn't like the character of Zero)  All I can do is continue reading and hope I continue to get that same feeling I did when I picked up the adventure where Shadowman saved Steven Tyler's life.