The Darkness‘ Jackie Estacado is no ordinary superhero. According to co-creator Marc Silvestri, Jackie has only one big fear. “What Jackie is afraid of, and this is a theme I’m going to explore in the new series, is the horrifying truth that somewhere inside he’s actually a good person,” Silvestri said, referring to this new story arc as “Breaking Bad in reverse” and how Jackie lets go of how he was raised to choose his own path in life.
This is a concept that was touched upon in the original Top Cow Productions series that was released in 1996. Riding on the wave of the independent comic book boom of the ’90s, The Darkness established itself as a darker super(anti)hero title of the era – much like Todd McFarlane’s Spawn. Jackie is a mobster who becomes a vessel for the power (and curse) of the supernatural entity known as the Darkness on his 21st birthday. Considering Jackie’s violent past, all this power comes with great (ir)responsibility, and that’s part of the fun seeing how Jackie handles all this chaos.
The character proved to be no flash in the pan either, as the myth of Jackie Estacado endured and expanded beyond the realm of comics, even receiving two successful FPS video games in 2007 and 2012 respectively. As the golden era of comic book movies exploded, many expected The Darkness to follow other properties into the world of cinema – and there were rumors that a film was imminent with Underworld‘s Len Wiseman signed on as a producer. But then, the character disappeared – from video games, comics, everything. Gone. So, what happened?
“I think we had gone down a path that I think was not what The Darkness was,” Silvestri said. “It had kind of drifted towards more of a horror comic, rather than a superhero comic that happened to have supernatural elements to it.”
The plan was to take a break, regroup, and come back to the core of the series, but as Silvestri explained, this break took longer as plans changed, people got busy, and life happened. However, Silvestri believes the time away has allowed him and his collaborators to find the character’s real voice again to deliver what fans – both old and new – want from antiheroes. For Silvestri, this isn’t about rewriting Jackie’s history or changing what worked in 1996.
“Long-time readers will go, ‘Okay, this is his origin. This is a story,'” Silvestri said. “But I’m seeding in where we’re going that’s different. Like I said before, Jackie is an antihero whose greatest fear is that he’s actually a good man. I’m also going to put in things that a lot of us unfortunately can relate to: Sometimes you can’t pick your parents, and you have to fight against that. It’s like, wow, Jackie at his core has some really hardcore daddy issues, right? So, I’m going to lean into that a little bit without getting all preaching. He’s not going to go, ‘Oh, woe is me.’ That’s not who he is. I’m not going to betray that, because at the end of the day, regardless of how relatable he is, he’s still going to be a badass.”
Jackie isn’t the only character from The Darkness that’s being expanded upon. Silvestri promised deeper dives into the characterizations of the Angelus and the Darklings, while adding that the crime-centric storylines extend beyond borders and include cybercrimes. In other words, The Darkness is well and truly living in 2025.
Clearly, Silvestri holds major plans for The Darkness‘ comic book reboot, but what’s the deal with the long-gestating movie that was mooted over a decade ago? “Yeah, we did come very close a few years back to a big thing,” Silvestri said. “But it’s one of those things that happens. It happens frequently. Eleventh hour. The script didn’t deliver what it needed to deliver. And when that happens, it’s kind of a domino effect. Everyone else kind of loses interest. But we had A-list talent at a studio involved. It’s like, ‘Okay, well, the script wasn’t what we needed. So, oh, well.'”
All is not lost for those who want to see The Darkness on screen, though, as Silvestri teased possible plans for Jackie as well as Witchblade. “It’s early for me to say anything at the moment, but we have been working on something,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll have something to announce soon that is pretty cool. I think people are going to get it. We’ve been doing it for a long time, and there’s a lot of times where we just pull out of a deal simply because it’s not going the way we want it to. And we’re not going to do ourselves, or the fans, any favors by putting out something crappy that’s going to destroy the franchise. I want to be entertained as much as the people who want to see it.”
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The Darkness #1 – by Marc Silvestri, Ed Benes, Sal Regla, Matt Banning, John Livesay, Arif Prianto, and Troy Peteri – descends on December 10, 2025.
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