The Darkness (comics)

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The Darkness

The Darkness . Art by Marc Silvestri
Publication information
Publisher Top Cow Productions
First appearance Witchblade #10 (1996)
Created by David Wohl
Marc Silvestri
Garth Ennis
In story information
Alter ego Jackie Estacado
Team affiliations Franchetti Family (Mafia)
Abilities The power of The Darkness, an ancient unholy power that allows him to create virtually anything, including living, sentient beings, out of darkness; skilled fighter and marksman.

The Darkness is a series of American comic books produced by Top Cow Productions. The comic first appeared in 1996 and enjoyed an initial period of relative success during the Top Cow/Image Comics boom of the late 1990s. However, Top Cow was forced to "re-launch" the comic in 2002 after sales began to drop. The Darkness has sold over 1 million copies worldwide.

The series was created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl. Other noted writers, including Paul Jenkins, have also worked on The Darkness.

Contents

[edit] The Darkness

The comic's central theme is the power known as The Darkness and its wielders. The Darkness is an ageless power dating back beyond human history. It is linked with the Angelus and the Witchblade. The Darkness is passed down a family line from father to son, leaving the previous user (and taking his life) as his first child is conceived. The power then manifests in the child on his 21st birthday.

Darkness users can create anything they desire with The Darkness, even sentient beings, but anything they make will crumble to dust in the light. The Darkness is quite deadly, allowing the user to call forth darkling minions to aid them, and even survive gunshots. The power can also be used to maul and feed on people.

The Darkness does not function unless it is dark, but some users can also manipulate this by creating their own shadows/darkness (e.g. smoke grenades), being underground, turning off lights in a room, etc.

[edit] Jackie Estacado

Jackie Estacado is the current wielder of The Darkness and hitman for the Franchetti Family mob. He is a very violent and sexual man who, until gaining the powers of The Darkness, lived life in the fast lane. Of course, because of the possibility of impregnating a woman causing his own death through the mysterious ways of The Darkness, Jackie tries to refrain from sex, to his great frustration. Though Jackie lives life on the wrong side of the law and can kill without remorse, he has a set of morals he follows and always tries to protect those he cares about.

Jackie joined the mob at a very early age, after being recruited by a mafia don named Frankie "Kill-the-children-too" Franchetti. He was picked up at the orphanage after Frankie was prompted by a mysterious stranger named Sonatine, who told Frankie that having Jackie around would bring him tremendous power. Jackie came to the mafia life easily, losing his virginity to a female police officer over the interrogation desk at age 14. He grew up, or more accurately matured, very quickly, and soon enjoyed the life of sex and violence. However, when he turned 21, his dark powers awakened and he learned of his evil inheritance. At first, this power was a blessing, allowing his job as a professional hitman to run more smoothly and work in more novel ways. However, with this power came many enemies.

Early on, Jackie spent much of his time escaping from or fighting the Angelus (who wants to kill him), and Sonatine and his Brotherhood of The Darkness (who wish to capture him and steal his powers). Eventually, Jackie chose to quit the mob, but found it easier said than done. Jackie had turned on his adoptive father, Don Frankie Franchetti, to get a clean slate and exit from his life of crime after a meeting with Batman. (Batman/Darkness crossover) However, after Jackie's "uncle" Frankie kidnapped Jenny, a childhood friend of Jackie's, Frankie killed her and sent a videotape to Jackie in revenge. Jackie could not take this and called out Frenchetti's mob, leading them to an abandoned warehouse covered in gasoline. When the crew arrived to kill Estacado, Jackie threw down his lighter and blew the place, and all its occupants, to bits. (Darkness (vol. 1) #40) Over the course of this series, Jackie makes uneasy alliances with Sara Pezzini and the most recent incarnation of The Magdalena.

Jackie spent two days (or what seemed to him like 'a million years') afterward wandering around Hell, searching for Jenny, until Tom Judge came and gave him hope, a gift that allows men to exit Hell. (Universe #3) Jackie's body was then reconstructed by The Darkness. (Darkness (vol. 2) #1)

Jackie returned to find the Franchetti mob taken over by Frankie's cousin, Paulie. Paulie was able to discover Jackie's secret as well as a long-lost sister of Jenny's. Using this information, Paulie blackmailed Jackie into doing hits for him. Along the way, Jackie learned how to construct a gun out of The Darkness. Later, Jackie discovered the identity of the hitman following Jenny's sister, killed him, and took his revenge on Paulie as well. This led to Jackie taking control of the Franchetti family. Since taking control of the Franchetti family, Jackie has vastly expanded his mafia, taken on the Triads, and fought the Russian Mafia in Atlantic City. Being the Don of the Italian Mafia in New York did not last long however. In search for the revenge the new Angelus once again confronts Jackie(Witchblade First Born #1 - 3)and with the help of Patience the Magdalena, as well as Witchblade wielder Danielle, Estacado manages to crush her, losing everything he had gained. That makes him to take a decision to flee to Sierra Muñoz in hope for establishing a new empire there.(Darkness Vol.3 #1) Jackie Estacado is also a father of Hope Pezzini, Sara Pezzini's mystical child. He himself could not explain it properly apart from saying that it had to with 'Darkness wanting to tip balance'. The Darkness itself confirms it to Patience (Witchblade #110) by saying that it used Jackie as a raw material to reside the matter with Angelus once and for all. Recently, (Darkness Vol. 3.# 1-2)Jackie has established a drug cartel in Sierra Muñoz with a narcotic made from his own bodily fluids thanks to the help of a demented, but brilliant scientist named Professor Kirchner. With the Darkness, Jackie is able to take control of the small tropical republic, build himself an impenetrable fortress, an army and eventually, even a lover he calls 'Elle'. Most of these come at a price since the residents of Sierra Muñoz don't take very kindly to him. To express their distaste, they perform various acts of guerrilla warfare and in their struggle for liberation; they have found themselves a sponsor in their struggle- The United States.

[edit] Enemies and allies

[edit] The Angelus

The Light and the constant enemy of The Darkness, the Angelus is one of Jackie's most serious of threats, and truly his mortal enemy. Possessing many spirits of women, she has led many crusades against Jackie, and seeks to rid the world of The Darkness. The Angelus commands many spirits and minions to do her bidding, and has recently found a new host in Celestine after leaving the catatonic Lauren Franchetti. In the First Born event, the Angelus and her warriors believe Jackie is responsible for tipping the balance of power and begins planning her retaliation.

The powers of the Angelus are slightly similar to the powers of The Darkness as both have the ability to create sentient beings (with the Angelus having several hundred years of experience doing it) but with one major difference. While The Darkness cannot function at all in the light the Angelus CAN function in the dark but only for short periods of time as it drains her power.

[edit] The Magdalena

The Magdalena was first introduced to Top Cow in The Darkness series, and has appeared a few times in the comic during her reign. Descended from Mary Magdalene, the first Magdalena we are introduced to was Sister Mariella, the daughter of Sister Rosalia. Mariella was prematurely sent to battle Jackie, and since she was brought up in a twisted sect of the church, was a wild fanatic who did not know right from wrong. She was left for dead, but recovered, only to battle with the Angelus and again be left for dead. Mariella hasn't been seen since.

Afterwards, Patience, the current Magdalena, is sent out to attack The Darkness, and Jackie mistakes her for Mariella, as does the Angelus. After explaining the situation to him, they end up teaming up against the Angelus, and Patience is possessed by her spirit. Jackie saves her, and the Angelus flees. Their future relationship is yet to be known.

[edit] The Witchblade

Each generation one woman is chosen to wield The Witchblade, a mystical, symbiotic artifact of enormous power. This generation's wielder is Sara Pezzini, a New York City detective. Sara teamed up with Jackie first in the Family Ties crossover, and again later to fight the Necrobi. Sara has also hassled Jackie about mafia activity in the second run of the comic. The Witchblade sees The Darkness as an enemy (it's feelings on The Angelus are unknown), but Sara often seems sympathetic and friendly toward Jackie.

[edit] Appolonia Franchetti

The daughter of Don Frank, and the vengeful child of the catatonic Lauren Franchetti, who watched as her father murdered her mother's lover, which caused her to go into a coma. Responsible for the Angelus' return, and unsuccessfully trying to overthrow the Franchetti family, Appolonia is left in a coma. But she is brought back to life with a fragment from the Spear of Destiny, the Magdalena's weapon, and branches out into her own side of The Darkness herself. After being banished by The Angelus she mysteriously reappears on the anniversary of her parents marriage. She is generally happy to see Jackie and is terrified of her mother (as she feels there is nothing remaining of her). Appolonia appears to be in league with The Angelus, setting up Jackie, but in reality betrays The Angelus when she is about to kill Magdalena & Jackie. Appolonia kills her mother with the Spear of Destiny, ending her mother's suffering. Lauren dies with tears of joy and is happy to see both Jackie and her daughter. Appolonia's current whereabouts are unknown.

[edit] Powers and abilities

Jackie wields the powers of The Darkness, a universal force of chaos and creation. This allows him the ability to work an amazing number of effects, from increasing his own strength and durability to creating sentient life (commonly in the form of Darklings, small, foul-mouthed imps that do his bidding). Jackie most commonly uses The Darkness to craft a suit of mystical body armor about himself, as well as creating shadowy, fanged tentacles and clawed Darklings to eviscerate his opponents.

The limit of The Darkness's power is unknown, though it does not function at all in strong light, which turns anything it created into dust. Jackie would appear to have some limited prescience, and has, on a few occasions, seen how individuals will die. (The Darkness vol. 2, Issues #1-3)

Throughout the series when Jackie goes to South America and becomes a drug lord his powers evolve from the goblin like darklings to larger hulking more malevolent forms

On top of his mystical abilities, Jackie is a top-notch mafia hitman and is a master marksman (with a preference for dual 9mm handguns) as well as being a formidable hand-to-hand fighter.

[edit] Other users

The Darkness has been around for at least a few millennia, and thus has been used by many men. A lot of these other users can be seen in the mini-series, Tales of The Darkness.[1] In one instance, the powers of The Darkness were siphoned from Jackie by Ian Nottingham. One of the most well known users outside of Jackie has been the pirate Captain Miguel Estacado, who was the main character of Ron Marz's The Darkness: Black Sails.[2]

In the one-shot comic Darkness Infinity,[3] present-day Earth is destroyed by The Darkness, and in the distant future, an alien race discovers the remains of the planet, and a space shuttle on the moon, which, according to the shuttle's records, was in orbit of Earth when the planet was destroyed. Apparently, after Earth was destroyed, The Darkness began looking for a new host, and found the crew of the shuttle, which it possessed, until the crew killed each other.

The alien newcomers were the first to discover Earth, and therefore the first opportunity The Darkness had to inhabit a new host. The comic ends with The Darkness possessing the crew leaving the captain of the ship all alone, and taking off to cause destruction throughout the galaxy, as The Darkness has done for millennia, on thousands of inhabited planets.

[edit] Other appearances

Jackie has appeared in crossover story lines involving Lara Croft, Sara Pezzini, Jane Vasko, Bruce Banner, Johnny Blaze, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, the xenomorphs, the Yautja, Eva, and Logan. The first two exist in a shared continuity with The Darkness. The rest are non-canonical for the crossover heroes, but at least the Wayne crossover is canonical for The Darkness, as the events in this crossover are later referred to and have repercussions in The Darkness comic. The Darkness also appeared in a Top Cow Universe wide crossover - First Born #1.

[edit] Collections

The series has been collected into a series of trade paperbacks:

  • Volume 1 (1996-2001):
    • Coming of Age (176 pages, collects Preview and The Darkness #1-6, 1998, ISBN 1582400326)
    • Ultimate Collection (352 pages, collects The Darkness Volume 1 issues #1-6 and #40, Volume 2 issues #1-6, 2007, ISBN 1582407800)
    • Heart of Darkness (144 pages, collects The Darkness #7-8, 11-14, 2001, ISBN 1582402051)
    • Spear of Destiny (106 pages, collects The Darkness #15-18, 2000, ISBN 1582401470)
    • Original Sin (166 pages, collects The Darkness #15-25, 2005, ISBN 1582404593)
    • Flesh and Blood (464 pages, collects The Darkness #26-39, October 2005, ISBN 1582405387)
    • Compendium (1288 pages, collects The Darkness#1-40, Tales of the Darkness #1-4 and Darkness: Wanted Dead, December 2006, ISBN 158240643X, November 2007, ISBN 1582408017)
  • Volume 2 (2002-2005):
    • Resurrection (176 pages, collects The Darkness Volume 1 #40, Volume 2 #1-6, 2004, ISBN 158240349X)
    • Demon Inside (272 pages, collects The Darkness #7-16 and Darkness: Wanted Dead, January 2007, ISBN 1582406464)
    • Depths Of Hell (224 pages, collects The Darkness #17-24, September 2007, ISBN 1582407959)

[edit] Other media

Over the years adaptations into other media have been proposed.

[edit] Film

In December 2004, Dimension Films paid an undisclosed six-figure sum to develop a possible movie based on the comic, planned for release in 2008. The comic was pitched as a similar movie to The Crow, which was also produced by Dimension.[citation needed]

[edit] Video game

In March 2005, "The Darkness" was licensed by Majesco for a console game to be developed by Starbreeze Studios. 2K Games later obtained the rights to the game, and the first-person shooter was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 console systems on June 25, 2007 in the United States and on June 29, 2007 in the EU (Xbox 360 only - PS3 version was released on July 20) .

To promote the video game a five-issue mini-series was released, with each issue chronicled a chapter of the game. In June 2007 it was collected into a trade paperback (ISBN 1582407975).[4]

The game is mostly based on the events of the first volume of the Darkness comics, however it does alter some key elements such as having Paulie being the one that adopts Jackie.

Marc Silvestri noted in an interview that a sequel to the first game is already in the works.

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Tales of The Darkness at the Comic Book DB
  2. ^ The Darkness: Black Sails at the Comic Book DB
  3. ^ The Darkness: Infinity at the Comic Book DB
  4. ^ The Darkness: Levels at the Comic Book DB