The Darkness Volume 1: Coming Of Age [Paperback]

Jackie Estacado is a mob hitman for his uncle, a powerful mob boss Frankie Franchetti. Jackie picks up a woman in a bar and takes her back to his place for what he describes as his favorite past time. But at midnight, Jackie's life is about to change forever. He finds himself under attack by some winged, angelic-like creatures when suddenly his body is gripped by a tremendous power...the power of "The Darkness". Jackie uses it to destroy the creatures and finds he can use it to create armor, razor-sharp tendril, and even demonic creatures with this new power. He finds himself drawn to the Statue of Liberty where he comes in contact with the Brotherhood of Darkness and their leader Lord Sonatine.

Sonatine explains that The Darkness is an ancient power much like the Witchblade and the Rapture and Sonatine has been waiting for the power to manifest itself in Jackie for years. We later find out that the Darkness is passed from father to son at the moment of conception, and that the father dies on the spot. To his horror Jackie learns that this essentially means no sex...at least NO unprotected sex. He also learns of The Darkness' ancient enemy, The Magdalene who will stop at nothing to destroy what is essentially her complete opposite. Jackie learns that it was Sonatine who convinced Frankie Francetti to adopt Jackie when he was just seven years old, knowing that the mobsters influence would be beneficial to Jackie. Jackie wants nothing to do with Sonatine or his Brotherhood. To force his hand, Sonatine has kidnapped Jackie's long-time friend Jenny, and now he finds himself caught between Sonatine, and the forces of the Magdalene.

This trade collects the first six issues of the on-going series. The Darkness was written by Garth Ennis who received such critical acclaim for his long run on DC Comics' Vertigo series The Preacher as well as his run on Marvel's The Punisher. Ennis' hallmark had been a style that was gritty, violent and infused with subtle, black humor. You do get that in "The Darkness" but the humor isn't so subtle as much as it seems forced. It is violent, as Jackie uses his powers for some very clever and gruesome ways to dispatch his enemies. Unfortunately there isn't quite the development, at least so far, of character and background that we've come to expect from Ennis. As such the first volume of "The Darkness" seems to clearly go for more style than substance. On that level it certainly succeeds with gorgeous art by Marc Silvestri and Batt, but I want to see the kind of character-driven stories that Ennis does so well.

Yes it is violent, yes it is a bit obvious, yes it does have sexual gratuity in it. And???

Its interesting, its funny and the character is an anti-hero interested in neither good nor evil but really just in his own self interests and the people he cares about. Some people will love it, some people will think it stupid. I think its great fun.

What more could you ask for? I love this series, and Ennis and Silvestri do a great job with it.

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