The Shade #5 – Review

By: James Robinson (writer), Javier Pulido (artist), Hilary Sycamore (colorist)

The Story: Vampire pirates—you all knew it had to happen at some point, right?

The Review: Even though the current line of DC titles has a lot of variety to it, you can’t help noticing how much of the storytelling is confined to the U.S. of A.  Of course, comics across the board from every publisher tend to be America-centric, which is mostly fine by me, since I love America (wink!).  But you know, there is a whole rest-of-the-world out there, and it seems a waste for the vast bulk of titles to use it for nothing more than the occasional backdrop.

So by far the most exciting feature of The Shade has been the opportunity afforded us to not only visit different periods and countries, but actually stick around for a while and get to know the place.  What Robinson has been doing brilliantly is establishing settings outside the continental United States that feel like living, breathing, fully-realized worlds all their own, as if they’ve been in existence all along and we’re only just now dropping in to see them.

Nowhere is that more apparent than Robinson’s handling of the foreigner superheroes he’s brought into his story.  Now, it’s one thing to conceive a character, attach a few random powers, and call him/her a superhero; it’s another thing to give them depth and roundness, with enough interesting substance to make them compelling by their own rights, not just as ciphers to your protagonist.  On Batwing, Judd Winick popped out a new hero, one after another, in nearly every issue, and not a single one felt accessible or succeeded in resonating with you.  Here, within a few pages, Robinson makes La Sangre a heroine so fresh, fascinating, and just plain cool that it makes you want to search desperately to see if she has a secret ongoing feature somewhere.

The trick to a lot of this, and to the appealing nature of Robinson’s writing in general, is his particular style of world and character-building.  He doesn’t have a gift for bizarre concepts or bold personalities like Paul Cornell, nor does he go for the gut-wrenching, emotional realism that Pete Tomasi does.  Robinson has instead an extraordinary ear for detail that little by little makes the story come alive through commonplace, almost throwaway, bits of dialogue.  Shade refers dismissively to La Sangre’s previous abode, “All those candles and cobwebs.”  She snaps back coolly, “—was Gothic because such was the era.  Although the cobwebs were me being not the tidiest girl in town.  But I’ve since hired a domestic.  She’s very thorough.  Comes Tuesdays and Fridays.”  In that short exchange, you gain a deep impression of the characters and their lifestyle, all from Robinson’s choice of words and sense of speaking rhythm.

There’s a whole wealth of other things to admire and like about this issue: the intensity of emotion between Darnell Caldecott and Shade despite their veneer of civility; Shade’s casual references to Andrew Bennett (of I, Vampire fame) in discussing La Sangre’s habits; the subtle internal conflict within Shade regarding his loss of humanity and ability to feel; the quick, effective introduction of the Inquisitor (“He’d kill a murder or a rapist, a petty thief…even a liar, and see no difference.” )—it goes on and on.  If all issues were as richly written as this one is, we’d be living in an epoch of comic-book storytelling.

And if all issues were as suitably and beautifully drawn as this, we’d be living in a Renaissance.  That word seems especially appropriate given Pulido’s adeptness at portraying real, live artistic works, whether it be imitations of Picasso, a facsimile of Andy Warhol’s work featuring a broadly smiling La Sangre (a brilliant, unexpected, revealing detail in itself), or accurate renditions of Barcelona’s Antonio Gaudi architecture, from his La Peorera building to Casa Milà.  All of this gets sumptuous, hip, funky colors from Sycamore, who lends the issue a wonderful and fitting Vertigo feel.

Conclusion: I must echo the sentiments of other reviewers out there in my dismay at how poorly the sales are faring for this series, because it is one of the best things DC is putting out on a textual and artistic level.

Grade: B+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – As much fun as I like to imagine the clash of immortal personalities between the foppish Shade and the shirtless Andrew Bennett, I’d dearly love to see the sparks from a Shade-Vandal Savage meeting.