Book Review: Shaman

Book: Shaman (issues #1-5) by Ben Khan with illustrations by Bruno Hildago

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

In the never-ending battle between good and evil, not even death is permanent. The Shaman, a mysterious mage with a trick permanently up his sleeve and the ability to restore life, has tasked himself with raising those on both sides of the battle from the grave.

Working alongside a foul-mouthed teenage sorceress and a retired superhero bored with the life in tights, the Shaman and his adoptive family fight monsters, demons, and even the odd astronaut or two if that’s what gets the job done.


Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I love finding something fun to read. These five issues centers around a necromancer called Shaman, his daughter LL, who is a sorceress and Zachary Wu, a former superhero called the Vanisher.

In the first issue, Shaman and LL were trying to figure out a way to fix a resurrection he botched. When he tried to bring back Ran Wu, the original superhero the Vanisher, something went wrong. Now he had a vindictive skeleton going after him. They needed the current Vanisher, Zachary Wu (who is also the grandson of the original Vanisher) for help in fixing the problem.

A fantastic magical showdown finally gave them a chance to fully restore Ran. Now that his grandfather was back, Zachary in an interesting twist decided to join up with Shaman and his daughter.


Issues #2 and #3 found Zachary still getting used to being a part of the team. But when Shaman is about to resurrect the villain Kahle Behan a.k.a. The Invader it caused a bit of tension within the team. Zachary being a former hero doesn't think Shaman should bring her back to life but as Shaman explained it's not up to him who is resurrected. Zachary still upset contacted the Cosmic Guardians and informed them about what Shaman was about to do.

As soon as the Guardians showed up a huge fight ensued, it was also revealed that one of the Cosmic Guardians was responsible for the death of The Invader. Shaman's plan to resurrect The Invader was rather clever but the only thing that I didn't like was how they sort of tricked Zach into reacting to bring about the resurrection.


In the fourth issue, Boston was being terrorized by the Green Monster and the only way to save the city was to resurrect Babe Ruth. He was the one who cursed the monster the first time and trapped it in Fenway Park. Once the Red Sox won the World Series it broke the curse. To stop the monster, Babe Ruth will have to curse the monster again, the only problem is it will cause the Red Sox to never win the World Series again.


The last issue has the group celebrating the 4th of July. Every year Shaman host a party and invites all the neighbors but this year a few issues pop up. First, for LL an old friend who is completely obnoxious tries too hard to flirt with Zach and second Gigaman, a superhero who is an old friend of Shaman's brings a woman to the party who was seeking Shaman's help. The woman had recently lost her son and wanted Shaman to bring him back but he can't because it's not his call who is resurrected. But some words of comfort from Zach's grandfather just might be what the woman needed the most. I like this issue because you get to see another side to not only Shaman but LL and Zach. Out of the five issues, this was more of a quiet one yet it was still an interesting story.


I really like this book, it's filled with tons of humor, good action and great group of stories and characters. I hope this is or will be an on-going series because I would love to read more from this.