Image Comics releases another old-school comic that is so similar to Witchblade which is The Complete The Darkness the graphic novel on its first volume. 
To be honest, I didn’t expect that Image comics comes up to bring back one of the classics as one of the deluxe editions of every comic I’ve come across. This comic however has the same setting as the Witchblade comics with the same place that took place in New York City and this comic is more of a vigilante setting just like Spawn. And just like Witchblade deluxe review, this one I’ve never even heard of this series before, just until I understood the artist’s method which is Marc Silvestri. I’m gonna give you the short version because I’m not going through the whole thing until I know the plot. So there are a lot of New York-themed stories, and many of them are focused on superhero genres, but this comic is way more demonic badass than Witchblade. The series follows another superhero comic starting with a guy named Jackie who is a New York Mafioso who inherited the curse of the darkness after turning 21. He’s depicted as a brutalized version of an anti-hero, however, that’s actually what he does because his demon blood runs in his veins. Unlike any biological human beings, some fictional characters tend to have these kinds of powers to use to protect or to destroy. As I mentioned, this comic is created by Marc Silvestri and David Whol who worked to create Witchblade and another creator by Garth Ennis. The whole comic has been running since November 1996, where the character first appeared in Witchblade #10, and it was ongoing ever since. It was spawned later to have a movie adaptation in 2005, and a video game based on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2007, and its sequel released for the PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 in 2012. This whole thing is comic from Marc Silverstri’s work, just like Witchblade.
So the front cover is mostly what the deluxe editions would look like if you’re getting a lot of Image Comic classics, but there are a lot of front covers that came out since the 90s, so I’m gonna focus on this book’s front cover. Here we have Jakie who is suited up as Darkness and he’s preparing for battle against the enemy. The design of his transformation suit looks more than I witnessed than I went through the gauntlet of the Witchblade. Here, Jackie is dressed up more like Venom, and the whole background shows some of the ink work of the comic that was drawn by Marc Silverstri. Since this is a large graphic novel to follow up the story, but I’m not going to do that, because I have unfinished business with the illustrator, and I also want to bring up the theory of New York-themed stories.
So unlike Witchblade, Marc Silvestri created one of the sickest stories that made humanly possible and all of these took place in New York. However, the story is similar because both of those stories focus on occultic events where every relic of darkness existed in this world today. The Darkness, in this comic shows, that the whole theory is like that the power of darkness is like a cosmic entity predating recorded history. It’s the embodiment of the void and chaos which existed prior to God’s light. So the story goes, whenever I get to watch Yu-Gi-Oh!, from my childhood with those kinds of relics of darkness that founded in ancient Egypt, aka the Millenium Items, even though Kazuki Takahashi the creator of Yu-Gi-Oh, somehow came up with a lot of references, including The Darkness for an inspiration to create that story. This comic takes more of this cosmic theory and develops the power of darkness to have it to its host. Meaning that the darkness started to inhabit human vessels to inherit the power through the sons of its chosen bloodline, and that’s where Jakie came in to take the power of darkness to fight for justice, just like Batman. So once you understand where all this came from… IT’S REALLY MINDBLOWING AF.
Now coming back to the plot, and this comic is similar to Witchblade because this story is a battle against the light and darkness around the city. Jackie inherited those power after turning 21, the only thing that he got involved is a battle against the Angelus and some other demons that he had to face. Right until there is some turn of events that changed him forever because the power of darkness actually haunts him, he tried to quit the mob, but the mafia’s boss kidnapped and killed Jenny just to provoke him to fight to the death. There are some other types of demons that he faced, he met Sara Pezzini, former bearer of that gauntlet, who is pregnant and Jackie is the father of the unborn baby. It’s strange but that’s how the story works that way because Jackie had sex with her. There are some other theories of this comic that I don’t know, but his powers as the darkness develop some super strength, power, and stamina coming from his armor, his abilities is their accessing of an otherworldly dimension through the shadows.
The story is amazing and quite similar to Witchblade because the story is all dark story-oriented superhero genre. This is something that is more than you collect. However, I didn’t go through the story so I’m going to figure it out sooner or later.
Newsdesk