A New Era Unfolds in Milestone Universe’s The Shadow Cabinet #1

The bold storytelling of Joseph Illidge in The Shadow Cabinet #1 is centering on Rocket, a character whose resilience and moral complexity anchor the narrative. When Icon decides to leave the planet Earth, Rocket is lost in a very dangerous void. Rocket struggles to collaborate with Hardware, showing fractures in their “allilance”, but at the same time highlights the determination to rebuild and build their future together after the conflicts. Illidge masterfully contrasts action with introspection in his writing, portraying Rocket as a leader who wrestles with her own doubts while facing new challenges. Her development is set to be an intriguing journey, particularly as she considers a life-changing opportunity connected to the Shadow Cabinet.

The Shadow Cabinet is a powerful player in this matter, too. Illidge skillfully introduces other key figures, in particular Anansi and the Iron Butterfly who make great entrances almost radiating a sense that adds fire to the storyline. Anansi’s encounter is both eye-catching and moving due to large and dramatical illustrations of him on the full page. With Iron Butterfly comes a certain tension, an evident tone change that leads to the fact that there is a power game that exists within the framework of the Cabinet. Alva’s plots develop also in this context, providing a backbone to the episodic narrative in a quite clever way. Her o­ffensive strategies occupy the place of S.Y.S.T.E.M. in the hierarchy, which makes the developments more interesting because they are bound to come back with more complex surprises in the subsequent issues.