Melancholia
The Good: Tony Harris knows how to draw a damn cover. There's an indeterminable amount of boundless chaos lurking just beyond our perception. Recognizable for what it is, but hard to make out properly. Everything centers around a face, The Shade I may presume? Well this IS called 'The Shade.' Overall, it's visually stunning.
Cully Hamnner's art is fantastic here. Cartoony in all the right ways, his action sequences are energetic as hell, with a superb sense of flow, and the panel layouts as absolutely perfect. Nothing ridiculous and experimental, but so perfectly thought out. Each and every moment is chosen for the incredible sense of pacing this issue has.
In fact, that's one of the things this issue does best, is pacing. Things start out in a slow calm melancholy, a casual conversation that slowly drips macabre from its words. But it's interjected by nearly split seconds of a chasing desperation. Something fast is going on, spy movie chase scene fast, and full of energy.
We're introduced to two main characters, and its clear how their stories will collide. They take up a balanced amount of screen time, with Shade, as the titular character, taking up more screen time, but sitting around talking for most of it; while William Von Hammer eekes every ounce of action he can out of his shorter screen time. And after Hammer's badass action, Shade decides he can't sloudh either, and gets waylaid by a more powerful threat of the same nature. And impressive impressive threat.
We get a good grasp of The Shade's powers without anyone having to tell us outright. He also hints at his origin without telling us, letting us know there's more to it, and giving an excuse not to show it to us from the start so you can't blame the series for a lack of backstory.
I barely know any of the characters, and yet I still got a great feel for their personalities.
The Bad: Does there have to be something bad?
In Conclusion: 5/5
This is definite proof that James Robinson is a fantastic writer. His grasp of characterization and pacing are top notch, and he always seems to be able to get Tony Harris to do cover for him. What this issue made me do, is realize that I really need to read Robinson's Starman series. But I also understand that not having read Starman will not hamper your ability to enjoy The Shade at all.
