Jacques Dominique Boniface

---

Alias: Jack Boniface
Date of death: 1999
Place of death: The Lost Land (Galyanna)


Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Other distinguishing features: Shadowman tattoo on the chest.
Race: Human


Occupation: Musician
Legal status: U.S. citizen
Marital Status: Single
Identity: Secret
Known relatives: Josiah Torrent (father, deceased)
Base of operations: New Orleans


Story: One day in March 1992, Jack was playing in a bar. He had noticed a woman coming every evening for two weeks and he decided to talk to her. The woman, Lydia, took him home to use him for her pleasure. Lydia being a spider alien, this meant killing him. She drugged him but just before killing Jack, she was teleported away. Jack woke up the following morning with a wound on his neck from a bite. He looked around in the apartment and found some of Lydia's other victims. Realizing how close he came to dying he staggered out and wandered the streets for a day trying to figure out what to do [2].

The following evening Jack went out to find Lydia. He had a sudden urge to hunt her down and take her out. While wandering the streets he found a mask from a carnival. He picked it up and took it with him thinking 'The demons can't follow you home if they don't know who you are'. Shortly after having picked up the mask he discovered a man who had just killed a woman in a back alley. Something made him put on the mask and attack the killer [2].

The bite from Lydia had infected Jack with an alien virus, and he began developing a sensitivity to light and a stronger physiology. He also got more restless at night at started patrolling the streets carrying his mask. Nettie who recognized what had happened to Jack told him about the Loa i.e. magic in him and made him a Shadowman outfit [3]. The conversion of Jack into a shadowman later turned out to have be planned by Nettie and the infection with alien virus was planned by Master Darque to make him less powerful than his predecessor Max St. James [1].

Soon after his debut as Shadowman, Jack was sent to the lost land to help in the fight against Erica Pierce. By mistaking Solar for a demon he ended up helping Pierce instead. On this trip he met Elya who worked for Erica [4]. He discovered his mistake and ended up helping in the fight against Pierce [5]. During his stay in the Lost land he and Elya fell in love. She was supposed to go with Jack to his time, but just before going thru the portal, Solar send everyone back to their own time [14]. He did find her later, but by then she had a husband and two kids [8]. He apparently found her again as he was seen with her just before she died of old age [15].

As time passed, Jack had increasingly more problems with the Shadowman powers taking over. In the end Nettie had to reveal herself as a voodoo priestess and cleanse Jack's soul to get rid of the 'mean spirit'. She didn't succeed though [6,7]. Instead Jack had to learn necromantic magic which significantly enhanced his ability to heal [10], and gave him the ability to walk the astral plane [9].

Following the chaos effect, a shadowman tattoo started appearing on Jack's chest at night [11]. With the sigil he could give off force blasts [12], and his powers had apparently increased. The magic he had learned helped him control the wildness in him but in the end everything went out of control with the police chasing him and he ended up jumping from a tall building in 1995 [13].

What happened after Jack jumped from the building is unknown. He was not seen until 1999 when he returned from his life in the future with Elya who had just died. He died fighting Alexandre Darque (i.e. Master Darque but not the one he thought it would be) as had been foretold in Elya's history books [15].


Skills & abilities: The night gives Jack the powers of a Shadowman i.e. enhanced strength and stamina and regenerative powers. Also he gained an ability to walk on the astral plane and project force blasts.


Continuity: Valiant VH-1
Publisher(s): Valiant
First app.: Shadowman (vol. 1) #1 (1992)
Creator(s): Steve Englehart
Country of origin: USA


Related links/characters:


References: 1: Shadowman (vol. 1) #0