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| From Airship 27, cover by Mike Fyles |
Recently I had the honor of being Ric Croxton's guest co-host on episode 77 of his Ric's Comics podcast.
You can listen to that here, and the topic of discussion was The Shadow Legion: New Roads to Hell by Thomas Deja.
While the podcast was spoiler free, what did I actually think of the book?
Well...
In her final days, a woman makes a desperate bid to survive and becomes a growing menace to innocents and criminals alike. Now the criminal Rose Red, she will obtain her goals and stay alive, no matter how high the body count rises.
In his debut novel, Thomas Deja brings together a diverse quartet of mysterious beings to combat a threat to the city of Nocturne, Florida.
While the Black Talon was already an active character at the start of the novel, his girlfriend reluctantly uses the code name Dream Catcher when in public; because she does not really consider herself a crime fighter. However Night Breaker was just a character on a radio show and the person who becomes The Ferry Man had no heroic aspirations at all when the story begins.
Yet these four people wind up being the only ones who are able to stop Rose Red and restore order in Nocturne, although their adventures are far from over at the end of the first book.
Out of all the characters within the tale, the Ferry Man bears watching, and I felt sorry for poor Isaiah Copper even before the cataclysmic events that dragged him into the battle with Rose Red. The villainess her self was unique not only for the pre-World War Two time period the first adventure is set in, but her initial choice of weapons (her 'thorns') was totally appropriate.
As revealed in the podcast, Deja has long term plans for the characters. While most media today is a combination of both words and pictures, he does an excellent job of not only conveying the action and drama in just straight prose, yet delves into social situations that unfortunately existed back then, but are hopefully better today. Overall, a good and recommended read for people looking for something different with their superheroes, or mystery men and women.
I look forward to future installments and adventures of the Shadow Legion.
Published by Airship 27. Cover art by Mike Fyles. Interior illustrations by Chris Kempler. Available through Amazon or the publisher.
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