The spirit of revolution.
Creative Staff:
Story: Adam Christopher, Chuck Wendig
Art: Drew Johnson
Colors: Kelly Fitzpatrick
What They Say:
Since the dawn of the republic, whenever her country faces its blackest days, she returns: a spirit of the revolution sent to fight for what is right. But when she reappears for the first time in a generation with no memories—not even of her own identity—and encounters an evil force expecting her arrival, all the Shield can do is… run!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sometimes a book just hits all the right feelings for the reader and while it may not be an out of the park experience, it does things in such a compelling way that you get caught up in it. Having read past iterations of the Shield character and liking them, and getting a different tone here from other Dark Circle books, I was pretty interested in seeing what the team here would do. Patriotic based characters can be difficult in the best of times to be compelling and even more so when there’s that downbeat sense about things. What’s done here is to smartly pull back from what we have in the now and look at the bigger picture, giving it a grander scope from the start all while digging into the smaller and more personal.
The opening issue is one that is frustrating for me in only one way and that’s that we don’t get our lead character’s name until the last page. She spends the issue doing a range of things and having a dialogue, internal and external, but no name until given on. That makes for a frustrating and obvious element for me even if it works within the context of the story. What we get in the present day is a young woman, confused and with no memories of herself, that beat someone to within an inch of their life after they tried to steal her purse. That kind of brutality got the attention of a lot of government types, though she’s mostly just in the hands of the DC Metropolitan Police. Which is good, because the office there is looking out for her and seems to know more about her, which gives our lead a chance to flee for the time being.
While answers are not forthcoming just yet, there’s a lot you can take away from this book because of what our young woman does remember. In a familiar form, she has flashbacks to 1776 as a daughter of the revolution, a shield on the battlefield, to help bring about change to the country. It’s a fantastic use of costume and design, along with the mask that’s brought out, to make it distinctive but historical. At the same time, we see how her life ended there – and in multiple other times over major wars where she fought. So we instantly get this connective element where she remembers pieces of these past lives, and their deaths, and that she’s here for a reason. Just a moment in the World War II memorial brings that clarity to her – and understandably so. While we don’t know much about who she is in general, we can take a lot away.
Even less is known about those that are hunting her, beyond the government reach possibly as well, but there’s a sense of power and mysticism about that as well which works nicely. It sets up what’s to come with implied threat without having to truly follow up on it. The only downside is that it’s the least compelling material, both story wise and visual. Johnson brings out some fantastic designs for the historical moments and we even get some great layouts and movement and flow from panel to panel in the present when she’s on the run. It has a great sense of space about it that really connects, particularly with the additional weight that Fitzpatrick’s colors brings to the whole thing. I’ve been mixed for the most part on the art style of a lot of Dark Circle books, but this book just knocks it out of the park with its artwork across the board.
In Summary:
While my mind instantly went the Sleepy Hollow TV series route here with some of the initial foundations laid down, it looks like the book wants to play bigger than that with the time scale. That offers up all sorts of potential. But that initial piece and the lack of a character name started me off not quite on the wrong foot yet not exactly on board. But as the issue progresses and everything comes together, The Shield essentially nails it. It has a lot of work to do, a lot to set up and a lot of characters that are likely to become a part of it, but this opening installment has given me what I think is my first must-read Dark Circle book so far. Solid scripting and pacing, great color work and some absolutely fantastic artwork makes this a winner with a whole lot of potential ahead of it.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Circle Comics
Release Date: October 21st, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
