Shadowpact # 7
DC COMICS
WRITER: Bill Willingham
ARTIST/COVER: Tom Derenick, Wayne Faucher

The Shadowpact faces the latest ina series of magical hit-men in the form of a seemingly inexhaustible army of fanatics known as the Congregation. It is standard superhero tale-- fairly entertaining with lots of flashy, pleasing visuals. In fact, just take out all the references to "magic" and replace them with the words "metahuman" or "extra-dimensional," and this book would look just like a regular superhero title. The Pact was suppose to be a team that haunts the dark, supernatural fringes of the DC universe but so far, their exploits are pretty much the stuff that the "Thunderbolts" or the "New Teen Titans" might be involved in. This is further reinforced by the use of Derenick as the new artist as his style is right out of Silver-Age Marvel comics. The creative team does try to play up the mystical aspects but they just end up looking like Marvel's failed attempts to copy "Vertigo." The bad guys in this title look like standard super-villains and Ragman, who is suppose to look frightening and unearthly, looks like a goofy harlequin. Oddly, despite its "shadowy" name, this comic book is actually more light-hearted, action-packed and straight-forward than most other DC team books out right now.