Shadow Hunter
Created by Jenna Jameson
Story by Jenna Jameson, Christina Z
Script by Christina Z
Art by Mukesh Singh
Cover by Greg Horn
Letters by Nilesh S. Mahadik, Nilesh P. Kudale
Virgin Comics
Cover price: $2.99; Available now

There are many combinations that just boggles my brain. Smucker’s Goober Grape and Kristen Bell with Dax Shepard are some of the combos that come to mind but reading Jenna Jameson‘s Shadow Hunter, I can now place Jenna Jameson and comic books onto my list.

Shadow Hunter follows the story of Jezzerie Jaden. Jezzerie has been having visions of angels and demons wide awake for as long as she could remember. Hoping to get rid of these visions once and for all, she agrees to an experimental procedure to fix the problem but something goes wrong. Now these visions morphed into dark shadow creatures. Shadow creatures that are very real and very dangerous. Shadow creatures that apparently can only be stopped by Jezzerie.

After reading the first two issues, I was not entirely too enthusiastic about the story. It is not that the story is not interesting. It is far from it. The main problem is that the story is not that original. Finding a comic book where the protagonist is a scantily clad, butt kicking, independent woman is like throwing a rock toward an ocean and not expecting it to hit water. It has been done before and unless there is an interesting twist to it, these types of stories tend to get lost in the shuffle.

Christina Z. does her best to make this story interesting and for the most part, it works. I was never bored by the dialogue and was interested to see where this was headed but I think Christina was writing on autopilot for this. I think her years as writer on Witchblade has provided her with all the necessary tools needed to write Shadow Hunter and for the most part, she uses this to her advantage. Most of the storyline and themes, from a mysterious blade that emerges from Jezzerie’s hand, her connection to supernatural forces, and her ties to both good and evil forces, seem to have been pulled straight from the Witchblade series.

Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing. Most supernatural themed books tend to run along the same story path as Shadow Hunter. It all depends on your taste. Me, personally, I am not a huge fan of Witchblade but I know a good writer when I read one and Christina is the real deal. I hope that in future storylines, she would try to go against the norm when writing this type of book, though if the ending of issue two is any indication, I might not hold my breath on this one.

The real treat of Shadow Hunter is the artist, Mukesh Singh. His art is just gorgeous. Even the more quiet moments look dynamic and his action sequences would make any comic fanboy drool. If anyone on the Virgin art staff deserves a shot at either Marvel or DC, Mukesh would be on the top of that list.

Overall, I am on the fence with this comic. On the one hand, the art is fantastic and the story does have a lot of potential but it is not something new that you might want to look into again. I think fans of Witchblade would definitely enjoy this book and long time fans of Christina as well. She does hold her end of the comic book and produces a very interesting read. Who knows, maybe this strange duo can create a more unique read as the issues continue to roll in.