Shadowpact #12

Shadowpact #12
In the immortal words of Elliott Smith, oh well, OKAY. This issue is a pretty good jumping on point for newcomers to the title, but for those of us who've been with it for a while now, it's merely a "Secret Origin of Nightmaster", which, don't get me wrong, is a good thing to have, and even better that it's written by Willingham. The real problem is that DC truly did the "Secret Origins" thing to death, by having a Secret Origin one-shot for everybody, their mother, and their mother's dog. Plus, they very rarely coordinated these one shots with the writers of the titles which they were meant to be back-ups for. And then they bulked the issues out with stupid stats pages that nobody read. There's a reason they're not published anymore. But yet, there remains a need for them to be done correctly. This issue is a case in point. We get a short version of the Nightmaster's origin, with a huuuge retcon thrown in. The only thing that actually happens in this issue though, is that Jim wakes up from his "death", pulls his sword out of his body, and then the Shadowpact, old and new, have a one page party. That's it. See? Now you see why this needed to be in a Secret Origins? We could have had an origin of each of the original members of the Shadowpact, plus one for each of the new characters, and even a quick one-page recap of Day of Vengeance. With Willingham writing it, and good artists working on it, it'd make for a good issue. Say, 48 pages, maybe? Perhaps 60? But this? It just feels like I opened this issue of Shadowpact hoping for some furtherance of the story and plot, and instead got nothing. I've come to expect that from other writers. But not from Willingham. Still, the story, what story there is, remains competently executed, so, oh well, OKAY.
I have no reason for quoting Elliott Smith, other than that upon completion of this book, the song started playing in my head. I'm a believer in synchronicity. So there you have it.