The Darkness #7 // Review
Angels are fighting. Angelus has been hurt. War is coming the armies of light are going to need a warrior. At least one angel thinks that Angelus might not be the right person to lead the light. Of course...the angels have more to worry about than each other as the war approaches in The Darkness #7. Writer Marc Silverstri continues the reboot of the classic indie series with the art team of Raymond Gay and Augustin Padilla. Color comes to the page couresy of Arif Prianto, Mashuri and Yenny Laud. The series reaches a major turning point as it begins the second ahlf of its first year.
Jackie has the darkness. It’s not something that he wants...necessarily. He’s had a great deal of issue with the supernatural power that he has become a part of. He’s going to stare down the forces of light. A little bit later he’s going to be holding a more earthnound gentleman at gunpoint. That man isn’t going to appear to be even remotely afraid. “Kill me,” the man says, “and you’ll never be rid of the darkness.” He might just live a little bit longer after all. Things are going to be a little bit more complicated than Jackie might want.
Silvestri it's working a lot around a lot of edges with respect to Jackie. He has the opportunity to be a really truly interesting character. The fusion between supernatural horror, fantasy and street level mob crime drama. There's a lot of narrative clutter around the edges of everything that keeps it from being truly interesting, though. If Silvestri was to narrow the focus of the script, just a little bit it would be a much more powerful narrative. As it is, it's just a little bit too much going on for it to feel quite as primal as it could.
They are team does a good job of bringing the power of the supernatural to the page. All-out combat between the forces of light and darkness has its impact on the page. However, it isn't as overwhelmingly iconic as it should be. Really it just feels a lot like our combat between terrestrial opponents. It doesn't really have the air of the supernatural about it that would really elevate it. This is really bad as there's a true opportunity to do something really amazing here. Instead, it just feels like an action comic book with a little bit of drama thrown through the fact that they happen to be angels and demons is just peripheral to tha action.
That's a fun idea. I mean, everything about the premise is fun. But it's just not being framed in the way that really it takes advantage of the potential. Which is really too bad. It's a really fun concept. And there are moments that are held that are quite well executed. But for the most part, it's just not quite living up to what it could be. Silvestri needs to refine the execution just a bit.
