By Zack Quaintance — Shadow War Alpha #1 feels like both a beginning and a culmination. Obviously, as the title implies in two ways — with alpha and with #1 — this marks the start of a new crossover story, one that will appear in the pages of Batman, Robin, and Deathstroke, Inc. At the same time, this first issue feels like the culmination of a number plot threads writer Josh Williamson and his collaborators have been exploring in the pages of both Robin and Deathstroke, Inc.

It’s also aware of these things, seeming very much interested in being both new reader friendly and loaded with rewarding moments for folks who’ve read the 15 or so comics in those other series that have brought us to this point. As someone who has been keeping up with all the involved books, I enjoyed this story quite a bit. It understands really well where readers of all those stories are coming from, lingering on the big reunions, bigger reveals, and other set pieces that feel like they’ve been expertly seeded in other stories, the way monthly periodical chapters as a medium are uniquely positioned to do. It also goes out of its way to draw in pieces of other adjacent stories that weren’t penned by Williamson, specifically Leviathan, which at this point feels like a deep cut but, again, is something I appreciated having invested time in all those books, too.

Past that, though, I think this comic works well as a fast-paced, standalone action-heavy superhero story, one that makes the right use of many (if not all) of its included characters. The lead in this issue is perhaps Damian Wayne, who — and this may be considered a spoiler — decided after Robin #10 to give his mother as well as the rest of her side of the family, a new chance to be an integral and productive part of his life. Coming into this book, he was closer to her while still remaining estranged with his father, Batman. At the same time, his maternal grandfather Ra’s Al Ghul is trying to be become benevolent, to start working to save the planet publicly by sharing the secrets and powers of the Lazarus Pit.

This sort of speaks to a building idea in the culture writ large that some of the most powerful folks among us should have an increased responsibility to help, if not financially than be using their resources to help stem the increasingly damaging effects of climate change. Playing to these issues is an effective way to really sell Ra’s turn as a good guy in this one — but also this is superhero comics so that turn lasts for about five pages before he gets shot in the head and blown the #*@& up.

That’s sort of where the real concept of this story becomes clear, and it’s a Very Good premise for a Batman-Deathstroke-Robin crossover event. Deathstroke has blown up and murdered Ra’s Al Ghul (who, c’mon, will be back…that’s sort of his thing). But it’s actually not Deathstroke. Or not the one from this earth and continuity anyway. It’s a poser of an unclear nature (another Earth? time travel hijinx? a clone made by Lex Luthor, who’s been in another Williamson comic of late, the Batman main title?), yet his actions are still being hung on the Deathstroke we know. A Deathstroke, mind you, who in his own title has just assembled a massive army of B and C-tier villains.

In this way, our titular shadow war starts to make more sense. It’s not a war that pits the Bat-family against anyone, not directly, but rather one that pits the Al Ghul’s League of Assassins against the villain army Deathstroke has assembled with the truth of what happened tumbling around somewhere in between, known to exactly no one involved, except for us as the reader (I LOVE when creators pull of something like that, it’s just such a great source of narrative momentum and tension).

The artwork in this book is done by Viktor Bogdanovic with inks by Daniel Henriques, colors by Mike Spicer, and letterer Troy Peteri. Bogdanovic, whose career highlight is likely collaborating on the excellent series New Super-Man with writer Gene Luen Yang, is heavily influenced by Greg Capullo, and he and his work wears this pretty proudly on its sleeve, so to speak. The storytelling chops aren’t as intense or hard-hitting as Capullo, but this isn’t an ugly comic, with the art doing an especially good job of conveying the several big set pieces, including an assassination, a high-stakes explosion, an army going to war, and more.

All told, this to me leads to an intriguing event that I’m excited to follow through the pages of the other involved comics, and one that I can strongly recommend to folks like myself who are all the way caught up on DC Comics. Readers who have big interest in Damian Wayne and Slade Wilson or Talia Al Ghul will also find quite a bit to like here, too.

Overall: Shadow War Alpha #1 probably functions best for readers who have invested time in Robin and Deathstroke, Inc., the two series this crossover spins most directly out of. But it’s still a strong, action-heavy and fast-paced read regardless of whether you know the deeper context or not. 8.0/10

REVIEW: Shadow War Alpha #1

Shadow War Alpha #1
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Viktor Bogdanovic
Inker: Bogdanovic and Daniel Henriques
Colorist: Mike Spicer
Letterer: Troy Peteri
Publisher: DC Comics
When Deathstroke assassinates Ra's al Ghul, Talia al Ghul demands revenge and sends her League of Shadows to kill Deathstroke and Deathstroke Inc.! Batman and Robin must team up to track down Deathstroke and bring him to justice...but do they? Expect over-the-top fights, action, mystery, and betrayal as this crossover event creates a major impact on the DCU!
The action continues in April with Batman #122!
Price: $5.99
Buy Shadow War Alpha #1: Digital

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.