Comic Review: Shadow Service #1

Shadow Service #1

Vault Comics

Writer: Cavan Scott

Artist: Corin Howell & Triona Farrell

Letters: Andworld Design

Welcome to an all-new comic series from Vault Comics. Author Cavan Scott teams up with able artist and colorist, Corin Howell and Triona Farrell for a supernatural detective romp. Any many ways Shadow Service seemed cut in the mold of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but without the high school romance, and small-town intrigue. Rather, Shadow Service offers up a graphically stunning debut set in an altogether grittier world than other works of the genre. So, how does Shadow Service set itself apart? Let’s start from he bringing.

First, the opening scenes of this #1 can feel a bit contrived. The protagonist Gina does a lot of explaining through captions of who she is, what she does as a private investigator. While her explanations make her sound ordinary, the line “I never wanted to be a private detective. Just sort of fell into the job,” rings a bit hollow. I don’t think anyone, even someone who isn’t a witch, just “fell into. . .” being a private detective. That’s a job that takes some know-how, or in Gina’s case, some witchcraft.

When Gina enters a tavern, she sees a man hit a woman. For a moment Gina is young again, and witness to her past. Now, it’s important for comics and literature and movies to address social issues like toxic masculinity and violence toward women. However, the blasé way in which this #1 addresses this subject matter, doesn’t give full weight to a societal abomination. The issue isn’t the depiction. The issue is Gina is a witch, she’s a detective, she’s an interesting and provocative character in her own way–I mean, her best friend is a talking rat. There is a lot of cool stuff in this first issue that sets Gina up as an interesting character. However, a big focus of what defines Gina in this issue isn’t all of these interesting aspects of who she is. Rather, the fact that her past is marred by domestic abuse, and that violence toward women is a trigger for her becomes a defining characteristic. To deny this has happened in Gina’s past would be a disservice, but so too is reducing the character to this feels like a literary trope.

Despite this unfortunate flashback, there’s still a ton to like about this comic. The introduction to the world is intriguing, the magic interesting, and the conclusion, an absolute cliffhanger.

In terms of art, Howell and Farrell make a great duet of lines and colors. The monsters in this piece are great, the magic creepy and costly and powerful, all at once. The whole issue has a dark and mysterious tone to it, which works perfectly with the content as reads will be treated to a plot that will certainly thicken overtime. It’s as though the shadows and lines and colors, mirror the murky depths of magic this series will deal with. Andworld Design has done an able job in lettering as well. Everything from the dialogue and captions, to the magical commands and talking rat have their own style of speech balloons. Overall, despite its problems in addressing weighted content, this is a solid #1.

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Read Shadow Service #1 on Comixology