Welcome to the Darkness

Only Garth Ennis could have penned the story of “The Darkness,” which tells the tale of Jackie Estacado, a sex-crazed mob assassin who acquires super natural powers. Gritty, sexy and blood-filled, “The Darkness” is a well-rounded series that consistently manages to surprise readers, with both drama and action.

Way before he cemented his spot in the industry on the Punisher series, Ennis strutted his stuff here and showed the universe just how wacky, off the wall and damn serious he could be, all at the same time. Available in trade paperback form, “The Darkness: Origins: Volume 1” collects the first six issues of the series and is obviously a great place to start for anyone new to it.

For those who have only begun to hear the name of this series over the past few years, here’s some news: it’s not just a great video game. It’s a great comic book series that inspired an equally as great video game.

Throwing standard comic book convention out the window, Ennis creates Estacado in the image of a villain, as he possesses good looks, charisma, money and doesn’t mind killing people to get his way. Nevertheless, there is something so inescapably intriguing about the character that you’ll feel forced to turn the page and see where his crazy powers take him. From dealing with not being able to have sex anymore to simply losing people in his life, Estacado is an amazing character who, in spite of his bizarre situation, is a good guy, but for all the wrong reasons.

Much like an anti-hero like Deadpool, Estacado is ruthless, but doesn’t forget to be a wise-ass at the same time. However, even Deadpool himself would be a bit grossed out with the ways Estacado takes care of his enemies.

Stay away from toilet bowls.

When this dude is combined with the mystical and deep story behind the origin of his powers, you end up with a story that has no real genre. Part sci-fi, part crime-drama, part soap opera, “The Darkness” has something for everyone.

That sentiment is furthered even more after the art work of Marc Silvestri is put into play.

A true talent that can not only draw a sexy, sultry female, Silvestri matches the tone set by Ennis and make his words pop off the page. Finding a way to mix action-packed splash pages with facial expression panels and quick-spot scenes that induce a breakneck pace, Silvestri and Ennis form a tag team that is something truly special.

With top-notch writing and visuals, “The Darkness: Origins: Volume 1” is a must own trade for any comic book fan that missed the series when it first came out and is a testament to the overall talent of Ennis and Silvestri.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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