The Good
Ever since Top Cow decided to give their Universe a "Rebirth," the stories have been accessible to both new and old readers. After the events in THE ARTIFACTS, Jackie Estacado had to destroy and then rebuild the world. Of course he would take the opportunity to make some minor tweaks so things would go in his favor. This is one of the things that separates Jackie from the typical comic book hero. Most characters are completely selfless and always do the right thing. That's not the case with Jackie.
It's not like Jackie completely abused his position to get everything he wanted. He just made a couple adjustments so that his childhood girlfriend, Jenny Romano, didn't get killed and they are now married along with Hope being their child. Jackie had an empire to rule over and his family had everything they wanted. Jenny soon started getting irritable. Jackie tried exorcising the Darkness from him but that resulted in a doppelgänger being formed and Hope has been acting a little odd as well. It all goes to "you can't always get what you want." Seeing how Jenny is starting to be affected by everything and the mention of her memories is really pushing the story forward.
Reading through the pages, you almost get an uncomfortable uneasy feeling seeing Jackie's world slowly start to crumble. You can see it's all going to come to an explosive conclusion. Only we have no idea where this is going. David Hine is in a great position in that he has the ability to pretty much do whatever he wants with the characters. Rebirth has given them a clean slate in taking the familiar characters and giving them new directions.
The Bad
You can almost feel for Jackie and understand what he tried to do. Jackie has been a hero before and it's understandable that he would be tempted to try to make the perfect life for himself. But Jackie seems a little oblivious to what's going on. Everything is falling apart and it seems like he just can't see it.
I feel like I'm waiting for Gleason and Baptiste to meet up with Jackie. During their investigation, it just didn't seem right that they'd be perplexed as to what could have caused the death of the victims in the morgue. Surely in this world, even in the Rebirth world, they've seen their share of bizarre events. And why did Jackie's tweaks make these two partners?
The Verdict
It's a great time to start reading THE DARKNESS. While we're four issues in, new readers can still get a handle on what's going on, especially with the first page giving a detailed summary of what's been going on. We are witnessing a train wreck about occur. Jackie had to destroy and rebuild the world but took the opportunity to make some adjustments to get what he wanted, specifically bringing his childhood sweetheart back from the dead. Messing with these sort of events must come with a price and we're slowly seeing Jackie's world crumbling around him. The clean slate that writer David Hine has been given allows him to do as he pleases with the characters and we have no idea what could or will happen to everyone. It's rare for a comic to make you a little uncomfortable in a way that you can't help but know something bad is going to happen. THE DARKNESS will easily suck you in each month as you wait to see what could possibly happen next.