The Good
Phil Hester's run on THE DARKNESS has been pretty great, overall.Jackie Estacado went through a substantial amount of character development over the course of one hundred issues, and issue #100might just be his biggest development, yet. Hester completely changed the way we view "the darkness" not only in that it is a separate entity from Jackie, but that it is the ruler of its own realm. It's a very interesting way of looking at a concept that started out as simply a demon who controlled Jackie Estacado. To review issue #100you have to really look at the bigger picture and the way it was executed, not just this issue. Those who have been following the story know that Jackie Estacado killed himself in order to face the essence of "the darkness" that possessed him one-on-one. Whether he succeeds I won't give away, but the idea of introducing existentialism to The Darkness is certainly an intriguing concept. Hester executes this idea very well. The question remains, though, will Estacado successfully control "the darkness"?
"Do you know, Estacado? Can you trust yourself to remain uncorrupted in my place? Can you resist accumulating an eternity of sin, letting it petrify against your skin -- letting a black, broken universe grow at your feet like an unholy Eden?"
Will he defeat it and take control of it? It's an interesting thought. This issue, and the final issue of Hester's run really does a great job demonstrating how big "the darkness" really is. This issue deals with some interesting concepts and a lot of character development. It was a great way to end a great run by Phil Hester.
The Bad
While I personally felt that the idea of "the darkness" as this void, nothingness was just brilliant, I have to say I was disappointed with the physical interpretation of "the darkness" itself. All of a sudden he turned into this giant blob, and I thought they could have been more clever about it.
The Verdict
It's hard to judge this book because there is so much that will come afterwards that we do not yet know. How will this change Estacado? What will happen to him and will he be able to maintain control of "the darkness"? The repercussions of the events in this issue are needed to fully judge the issue as a whole, but from what I read this was definitely a great way to end Phil Hester's fantastic run on the character. Almost a perfect score.