Written by: Aly Fell
Art by: Aly Fell
Published by: Dark Horse Comics
The Shadow Glass is a series that tries to hit that spark of occult, lovecraft theming in an Elizabethan (Tudor) setting. The story follows Rosalind a young woman who has just found out that the man who cared for her since a young age wasn’t her legitimate father. Rosalind has struck out to find out about her real biological father, who has been involved in some unknown mystic arts with her tutor, Dr. Dee.
The series so far has had a slow pace, which is usually a winner in my book, but although Fell does try to put this to use by building up the feeling that there’s more going on than Rosalind knows, the scenes where this is best implemented are few and far between. For example, the period where Dr. Dee, Thomas Hughes (Rosalind’s real father), and Hughe’s guest are discussing the shadow glass as Rosalind spies on them, is very good and leaves just enough gaps in our knowledge to keep us guessing…or at least it would have if the prologue in the first issue hadn’t given so much away. Ayone who has read a similar story will see where this is all going.
While that’s really just a minor nitpick by itself, everything else in the book is just as long and drawn out as that scene, and the extra time given by slow plot progression isn’t used effectively to flesh out characters or build world.
‘Well, what did happen in this issue?’ Is the main question I’d expect to hear if I was talking to you face to face,
‘Oh! Uhhhh… ,’ I’d say, ‘Thomas Hughes can’t know about Rosalind and might be a bad man apparently? Although you should know that by now because it seems to be the only thing people want to tell Rosalind and because almost anytime he’s in view he’s giving evil looks to the reader… Oh! and Rosalind doesn’t like to be told what to do.’
And with that not-so-smooth segway, we come onto my main problem with the series: Rosalind, who is as boring and bland as a bowl of water for dessert. I don’t know how I would describe her character except that ‘she’s not like other Elizabethan women’ which she shows off by wearing men’s clothes. This isn’t something I mind–the design is very cool–but the fact that they point this out makes me groan.
Having your female character wear male clothing in a period and setting where that’s abnormal seems to me to be almost as cliche a way of making them appear strong-willed and independent as writing them to be incredibly good at large-scale business management and economics. What annoys me about Rosalind most is that she acts in a manner that is very immature. Qhile I’m sure that this is intentional and is meant to be part of her arc, it is still very grating and makes her hard to like as she says lines such as, ‘stop calling me “child”‘.
The art is pretty fantastic, the scenery and settings really do come to life with Fell’s artistic talent, and the character designs stay at a high quality. Problems with the art revolve around the lack of variety in people’s expressions and the fact that Rosalind constantly has her mouth slightly open so she looks a little dumbstruck and vacant at everything.
Overall I would say that if the occult and Elizabethan setting intrigues you enough then give The Shadow Glass a go, but otherwise its weak central characters and slow plot stops me from fully recommending this.
