The second comic to launch from the Valiant Beyond line, which reimagines the characters of Valiant Comics for a new generation, is Tales of the Shadowman. This followed after Bloodshot #1, which was good fun save for a jarring, disappointing metaphor which seemed to be passing awfully unsubtle digs at the trans community.

There’s no such issue with Tales of the Shadowman #1, which takes us on an extended tour of The Deadside, meeting a colorful cast of characters as we go. We head into some very dark territory with the villain of the piece, with a particularly horrific few panels which seem to be headed a certain way before the reveal. It’s very effective; of course a horror-themed comic should horrify, and it definitely does.

The artwork has a really grainy, grim and stylised look; it’s a really good aesthetic that suits the character and his world(s) down to the ground.

The only thing I took issue with was the cliffhanger, which references something straight out of classic Shadowman continuity sans context; it seems a bit of a bizarre move, given how Valiant Beyond is supposed to be an accessible jumping on point even for newcomers.

I suppose there’s worse things I could have a problem with (hello, Bloodshot #1!), and so far Tales of the Shadowman seems to be pressing pretty much all of the right buttons with its surreal, unique supernatural ambience.

Having been familiar with Shadowman thanks to his 90s series from Valiant and Acclaim (as well as the video game published by the latter, which I was a huge fan of back in the day), this was the Valiant Beyond series I was most looking forward to, and it didn’t disappoint.

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