Preview: Simon Dark #1
This week, I picked New Avengers for our Book of Doom. I guess I was skittish because most the new books we tried in the past ended up sucking. Had I gone with a new book, it would’ve been Simon Dark, the new effort by Steve Niles. After wading through the absolute atrocity that was Niles’ City of Others, I was even more skittish.
DC was nice enough to send a review copy, though, so I couldn’t avoid it. And, while this book isn’t a contender for debut of the year, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The book starts with some goons wearing masks about to sacrifice some dude in the grounds of a destroyed church in Gotham City. Suddenly, a weirdo who looks like Madman meets Edward Scissorhands meets The Crow shows up, does some acrobatics and slices off the head of a bad guy. Ouch! Thing is, this new hero, aka Simon Dark, knows his name but has no clue who he is or where he came from. The rest of the book is mostly scenes of everyday life in Gotham, with Simon off at the edges, the dispassionate observer.
Judging from Niles previous work, I expected a full horror book, but this is more creepy and haunted than terrifying and grotesque. It’s understated, which is a welcome 180 from City of Others. Though there are a few slow moments and some character introductions that show no importance here but obviously will become crucial later on, this first issue effectively establishes the framework of the series: This weird cult of hooded bad guys are actually from the city’s upper crust, and they’re planning more sacrifices and killing Simon.
I didn’t read Gotham County Line, which was the previous team-up between Niles and artist Scott Hampton, but Hampton’s work is a good fit for this. He uses the same gritty, realistic style that’s been done perfectly for a while now in Marvel books Daredevil and Captain America, and to a lesser extent in Boom! Studio’s books.
One thing that seems like a bad choice for establishing this new character is setting him in Gotham City. Batman overshadows everything there, not to mention all the other heroes calling the city home. It’ll only distract from Simon’s story if readers are constantly wondering whether Batman or The Question or Robin will show up. Of course, if sales of Simon Dark don’t meet expectations, they probably will.