A new storyline gets underway – without restarting with a first issue!
Creative Staff:
Story: Cavan Scott
Art: Corin Howell
Colors: Triona Farell
Letterer: Andworld Design
What They Say:
From New York Times bestseller Cavan Scott (Star Wars: The High Republic) and Corin Howell (Wonder Woman) comes the start of a thrilling new chapter of the supernatural spy saga Shadow Service!
All over the world, secret agents are being murdered by monstrous folk horrors, and not even MI666 is safe. Gina Meyer faces tragedy as a teammate turns enemy. But what of the quest to find out the truth about her past and powers?
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The second storyline of the series drew to a close back in July 2021 and I was hoping we’d get more, and am glad that it’s arrived. And surprised once again that Vault hasn’t just launched each story arc as its own series to generate interest. I can definitely appreciate it as an old-school fan as I like numerical consistency as it shows long-term interest in a property. Cavan Scott has moved the storyline along well with the first two arcs and has provided growth, change, and plenty of chaos, so we’re keen on more. As I’ve talked about with this series, Corin Howell has been a favorite for a while now when it comes to the artwork as I’ve liked several of their books in the last few years. With this one focusing more on action, they keep things tight but accessible and with a good flow to follow rather than too many quick cuts that don’t tell the tale, which goes a long way for me.
With this storyline, things have moved forward a bit and we get to see a few pages at the start that hints at a bigger story, with one of the MI666 agents sending an urgent message and being killed by a pretty intense demon. It’s fun for the visual aspect of it and it has a classic 007 film start kind of feeling about it as well, just supernatural. Where it wants to spend most of its focus here is on Gina’s perspective now that she’s thrown in fully with MI666 as an agent. She is working things to figure out her past more and is using Quill in ghost form to track down leads, which is what causes problems along the way here as he shows up mid-stake out and starts talking to her. It’s good to see she hasn’t dropped that thread of investigation because you know it’s going to have an impact at some point on things with her powers and her true origin.
What the focus is on in the present is that her fellow agent Coyle is being sent to meet up with his Russian equivalent about a kind of crossing over to the other side, which Crabb never thought Coyle would do. It’s all part of a chance to turn Crabb from the Russian side and it’s a classic setup with a bench meet as Gina is watching from a short distance and Asshi has her sniper’s rifle trained on Crabb. The dialogue between Crabb and Coyle is a lot of fun to watch play out and then to see Gina screw it all up because of Quill, who she’s trying to hide his very existence, turns it into chaos that results in things not going well at all. The MI666 team takes some real hits here and it’s good to see Gina’s emotions still being a factor as she’s not fallen completely into the spycraft model and eliminating that aspect of things, especially after Asshi had just made her first joke ever before being gutted.
In Summary:
While it’s almost been a year since the previous issue, Shadow Service is easy to get back into. Vault has a good recap page at the start that helps and Scott’s scrip makes it easy to catch up quickly. And it helps that between the dialogue and a fresh storyline that we get that it feels so accessible. Howell’s artwork makes for a lot of fun with the demons at the start but just the overall presentation of the characters and how it all comes together. There’s a lot to like with what we get in this issue and I love that it builds on what’s come before but is as accessible as it is to new readers.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: Vault Comics
Release Date: April 27th, 2022
MSRP: $3.99
