Shadowman: Book Two

Shadowman (2021) #2

by Cullen Bunn, Pedro Andreo (Artist)

THE DEADSIDE WAR BEGINS...

As more and more of the nightmarish creatures of the Deadside claw their way into the world of the living, Shadowman won’t be able to stand alone against the global threat.

Master of horror Cullen Bunn (Venom) joins haunting artist Pedro Andreo (BLOODSHOT) to unleash a twisted tale in the next volume of the critically acclaimed series Comic Watch calles "the most exciting comic event in 2022!"

Collecting SHADOWMAN (2021) #5–8.

Genres: Comics

112 pages, Paperback

Published August 2, 2022

About the author

Cullen grew up in rural North Carolina, but now lives in the St. Louis area with his wife Cindy and his son Jackson. His noir/horror comic (and first collaboration with Brian Hurtt), The Damned, was published in 2007 by Oni Press. The follow-up, The Damned: Prodigal Sons, was released in 2008. In addition to The Sixth Gun, his current projects include Crooked Hills, a middle reader horror prose series from Evileye Books; The Tooth, an original graphic novel from Oni Press; and various work for Marvel and DC. Somewhere along the way, Cullen founded Undaunted Press and edited the critically acclaimed small press horror magazine, Whispers from the Shattered Forum.

All writers must pay their dues, and Cullen has worked various odd jobs, including Alien Autopsy Specialist, Rodeo Clown, Professional Wrestler Manager, and Sasquatch Wrangler.

And, yes, he has fought for his life against mountain lions and he did perform on stage as the World's Youngest Hypnotist. Buy him a drink sometime, and he'll tell you all about it.

Visit his website at www.cullenbunn.com.

Reviews

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where’s Archer and Armstrong? To be fair this is an Earth impacting impacting event which does what I always ask…show the other heroes also dealing with it…but no A&A?

I like this version seeking harmony better than the Eeoyre Shadowman.

[Thomas Maluck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong showing from Andreo and Bellaire, I just wish the story had more room to breathe.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sucker for punishment, I volunteered to read yet another Shadowman book – another collection of episodic mish-mash concerning the undead and the breaches the Dark Side or null space or whatever the heck you want to call it make to gain traction in our existence. The first episode has Shadie (as nobody calls him) duffing up some zombies, and then trying to make peace with an entire bunch of undead demon things, pointing out that if they just leave their sh*thole and invade ours, all they'll end up with is a sh*thole. True, dat.

He's at it again in the second of the four issues included here, but relief is at hand. Punk Mambo, the surprisingly successful entry to this world from this author, crops up, and the female evocation of the Deadside herself is verging on the very good, too – so much better than yet another bog standard Venom-styled demon beastie. And that's doubled when you consider how plum mediocre the art is – if this were filmed then this Shadowman would be laughed straight to DVD with a prosthetic ten times worse than the worst Ron Perlman has ever had to try out.

Of course, there's a great sense that the Big Message of Book One – that the demon things have arisen because we've been trolling each other, and bad-mouthing minorities and voting Trump (or whatever it was, I honestly forget) – doesn't quite work when there is an agency in charge of the Deadside, but coherence has never been to the fore of this character's books whatsoever. Part three here is a yacky mush, for sure, although at least it brings in the entire Valiant cast-list (yes, even Stupid Flicky Hair Girl) in subdued ways and not the "wow guys, is event even big enough a word for this stuff??!!" manner they might have been expected to employ. And by the end we actually have been entertained, in a fashion – a fashion so absent from so many Shadowman books. Bunn offers so little new, apart from his own characters, and this corner of the Valiant universe is still hooey, dodginess and on the whole boredom, but this shone in comparison. Three and a half stars.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

The woman is the embodiment of the Deadside. Believing herself more than a match for the Liveside loa gods, she doesn't want any deal with Shadowman. Her assault on the Liveside goes on.

Punk Mambo and Alyssa with her new abettors join Shadowman against the Deadside. But they are not strong enough, so Shadowman decides to change his strategy: he wants to exorcise the Deadside. He steals the power of the loa and infuses the abettors with it. Their combined power exorcises the Deadside's body - which remains on Earth and adopts the name Persephone - from the loa that is sent back home.

Shadowman knows there are rifts still open in the liveside. He and Persephone set out to find and heal them, as warriors and as priests.

[alejandro galvez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read

This series was a lot of fun. The art was beautiful. The story was good enough. This is a series worth checking out. Its short but its lots of fun. Check it for yourself.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good series, even if we did have a bit of a deus ex machina ending...in this case, literally. Shadowman is a great horror character, and I hope we get to see more of him in the future.

[Sarospice · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the character's design and the art generally. Bunn gives this character new life, acting almost like a preacher between the living and dead worlds. Can't we all get along? Let's see!