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The Darkness Compendium #1
The Darkness Compendium Volume 1
Rare book
1248 pages, Paperback
First published December 20, 2006
41 people are currently reading
244 people want to read
About the author
Marc Silvestri
606 books68 followersMarc Silvestri is an American comic book artist, creator and publisher. He currently acts as the CEO for Top Cow Productions.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
September 18, 2011
the best i can say for this mess is that it probably made many 14 year-old boys pretty happy in its heyday (and probably still does!). between the scantily clad women, the ridiculous posturing splash pages, the potty humor, gratuitous violence, and an awkward subplot about the main character being an angsty sex addict who can't have sex or he will die...well, what else is there to say?
sometimes silvestri produces a nice picture or two. sometimes the writer makes me laugh (unintentionally too, now and then). this is hands-down ennis's worst work (and just to put that in perspective, i absolutely hated his Ghost Rider reboot).
it's a pretty book ~ nice colors, glossy pages. the smell of it helped boost it to two stars. that's kind of weird, huh?
major problems: too many missing crossover issues (Withblade, Batman, etc.) half the time i was playing catch up or just completely baffled as to what had occurred before (and yet i feel like every other issue was reminding me that Jackie Estacado had inherited the Darkness on his 21st birthday ~ ugh). also, major continuity problems even without the missing crossovers. just hellaciously bad. this volume also ended on a cliff-hanger, so boo: if i bother to get the second volume of this behemoth, it'll be through inter-library loan like i did with this one.
sometimes silvestri produces a nice picture or two. sometimes the writer makes me laugh (unintentionally too, now and then). this is hands-down ennis's worst work (and just to put that in perspective, i absolutely hated his Ghost Rider reboot).
it's a pretty book ~ nice colors, glossy pages. the smell of it helped boost it to two stars. that's kind of weird, huh?
major problems: too many missing crossover issues (Withblade, Batman, etc.) half the time i was playing catch up or just completely baffled as to what had occurred before (and yet i feel like every other issue was reminding me that Jackie Estacado had inherited the Darkness on his 21st birthday ~ ugh). also, major continuity problems even without the missing crossovers. just hellaciously bad. this volume also ended on a cliff-hanger, so boo: if i bother to get the second volume of this behemoth, it'll be through inter-library loan like i did with this one.
November 12, 2018
This first volume took me over a year to read. At first I couldn’t put it down. I had begun with Witchblade and fell in love with the characters from ‘The Darkness’ reading the first ‘ Witchblade’ compendium.
I often found myself reading back and forth trying to find a similar timeline within the two books.
It became too taxing.
At that point, I finished reading ‘Witchblade’ then took a hiatus and returned to ‘The Darkness’.
It’s a true Jen of stunning artwork and brilliant writing, the sheer amount of talent, work and dedication that went into its creation is amazing and worth the read.
The physical copy was amazing!
It may take me awhile before I’m reading fir the secondcompendium, but it won’t be a long wait.
The story and plot are simply that terrific and fast paced. The derailed art more than keeps up with the writing. It on,y enhances the effect!
I often found myself reading back and forth trying to find a similar timeline within the two books.
It became too taxing.
At that point, I finished reading ‘Witchblade’ then took a hiatus and returned to ‘The Darkness’.
It’s a true Jen of stunning artwork and brilliant writing, the sheer amount of talent, work and dedication that went into its creation is amazing and worth the read.
The physical copy was amazing!
It may take me awhile before I’m reading fir the secondcompendium, but it won’t be a long wait.
The story and plot are simply that terrific and fast paced. The derailed art more than keeps up with the writing. It on,y enhances the effect!
May 12, 2017
3.5 Stars
This wasn't a bad volume, especially considering comics in general weren't at their best when these were originally published.
The series started out really strong, with Garth Ennis writing and Silvestri art. Then it became inconsistent, ranging from good to not so good. The story arc with The Darkness vs. The Magdalena read like it had been written by a teenage boy going through puberty. The art was fairly strong throughout, and sexy women are in no short supply here.
Overall a strong showing from Image that showed some of their books back then were about more than pretty pictures.
This wasn't a bad volume, especially considering comics in general weren't at their best when these were originally published.
The series started out really strong, with Garth Ennis writing and Silvestri art. Then it became inconsistent, ranging from good to not so good. The story arc with The Darkness vs. The Magdalena read like it had been written by a teenage boy going through puberty. The art was fairly strong throughout, and sexy women are in no short supply here.
Overall a strong showing from Image that showed some of their books back then were about more than pretty pictures.
March 28, 2021
The best thing about this title were the illustrations. They were beautifully well done and many of the characters seemed to come to life on the page. The size of the book (large pages) also made the illustrations stand out more because you can see all the little details in the images. If you enjoy looking at art this book is a must see. The storyline however was another thing. The book seems to be a compilation of all the stories about the main character Jackie Estacado. Jackie wakes up one day with the "darkness" in him which is a mystical superpower that makes him a killing machine. However, the twist is Jackie kinda becomes a good guy because deep down he doesn't really like hurting people but knows he has to do it to protect himself and his uncle. However, after reading more than half of the book, I realized that was the plot line for each story. Someone was always trying to kill Jackie and honestly it became boring. The other characters including Jackie really did not develop much past what was introduced about them in the first couple of chapters. The worst character was the Angellus. It was so repetitive that I started making up my own stories about the Angellus. Great illustrations but wanted more from the writing aspect.
November 27, 2017
Další príbeh zo sveta artefaktov. Tento raz o mafiánskom vymáhačovy. Witchblade ma bavila viac.
January 15, 2017
A rare case where I didn't bother to finish a book. It has interesting premise but between missing issues, blatant sexism, annoying stereotype gay, and "Batman syndrome" where they feel compelled to reexplain his backstory over and over I lost all interest in finishing this massive tome. I can see from the other reviews that I haven't missed much by quitting halfway. A skip on the comic reader list.
November 8, 2010
This book suffers from a frequent change of writers, the best part is written by Garth Ennis, no doubt about it. Still, awesome compendium, just slightly worse than Witchblade. Or maybe I prefer looking at Sarah's boobs rather than Jackie's muscles.. ;-)
February 16, 2014
I love the darkness! Jackie estacado is one cool dude. He's the hero-villain sometimes has a heart but mostly not
November 2, 2007
not a bad value for it's price... 40++ issues.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews