Shadow War: Alpha #1

Wow.

Shadow War: Alpha has it all: logic, great narrative connective tissue, action, intrigue, and one hell of a hook. With writer Joshua Williamson masterminding all three key books – Batman, Deathstroke, and Robin – it only makes sense that he find a slick way to tie all three books together. And that he does, with enough lethal execution to make me wish this crossover were to be just a little longer, in fact. The plot is simplicity in and of itself: Ra’s al Ghul has decided, after a thousand years of living, that maybe his methods aren’t the best for protecting humanity for itself, and decides to turn himself (and daughter Talia) in and share the restorative secrets of the Lazarus Pits with the world at large. Well, maybe… this is Ra’s, after all, who always has multiple contingencies and angles.

Too bad he’s assassinated by Deathstroke just as he’s turning himself in…

From there, it’s all hands on deck. Naturally, Batman is involved because he’s Batman, and Damian Wayne is involved because it’s his mother and grandfather making this life-altering decision, which of course impacts him. With the key players in place, it’s all hands on deck the moment Ra’s falls, with enough mystery and intrigue to shake a Robin at.

Where Williamson succeeds so well with Shadow War: Alpha is the organic way in which all the various puzzle pieces fall into place. Nothing feels forced; the mysteries at play work themselves naturally into the narrative and everything that stems from them falls like dominoes in a believable way. The two key mysteries are a) What (if any) game is Ra’s actually playing? and b) Was it actually Deathstroke who pulled the trigger, or is he being set up? Again, with Williamson pulling all the strings, every aspect is as tight as can be. Most crossovers feature a multitude of writers with varying voices and degrees of narrative control; Shadow War bucks that trend entirely by placing the story squarely on one person’s shoulders. The results, at least in this opening installment, speak for themselves.

Williamson clearly understands his quintet of core characters, too. Batman refuses to believe the news that Ra’s and Talia are turning themselves in. Damian’s youth betrays his lifetime training, and he responds in kind to witnessing his grandfather’s death (a refreshingly human response for him). Talia is at first incredulous regarding her father’s new perspective, waiting for the other shoe to drop (making her at least in part a surrogate for readers). Deathstroke gets the least amount of page time (for now), but his response to the whole affair is resplendently in-character and suggests readers are about to be in for a Deathstroke with very little to lose – which means he’ll be at his most dangerous.

It definitely doesn’t hurt that penciller Victor Bogdanovich brings his A-game, and with an ink assist from Miguel Henriques, barely misses a beat. Bogdanovich honed his skills inking Greg Capullo, and while there’s a definite Capullo vibe happening with his pencils, he’s successfully graduated to being out of the former’s shadow. Bogdanovich’s page layouts don’t miss a step, and artfully convey a dramatic and exemplary sense of pacing. My one complaint is that his Ra’s and Damian look a bit off-model; chalk it up to artistic license if you like, but neither of them feels quite “right” to me. Ra’s in particular is supposed to have an appearance that defies nationality or ethnicity; here he just looks like yet another older white guy. So it goes; these are minor complaints in the grand scheme of an otherwise stellar comic experience. (As an aside, I’m unsure why Bogdanovich didn’t draw the main cover; Jonboy Meyers’ art feels rushed and cluttered, not to mention fairly standard in group composition that doesn’t exactly stand out in the crowd.)

For comparison, Shadow War: Alpha reminds me of the first chapter of the classic X-Men crossover “X-Cutioner’s Song,” which opened with the attempted assassination of Charles Xavier (Uncanny X-Men #294). That comic did a remarkable job of aligning all the key players, setting the stakes, and was narratively tight as a drum. This comic does the same. If that level of praise is any indication as to how great Shadow War could prove to be, fans are in for a raucous time.