‘Spirit of the Shadows’ Review: Death, Resurrection, and Learning to Let Go

I thought I knew what kind of afterlife comic I was getting when Spirit of the Shadows opened with Erik Leroux already dead and waiting to be judged. I was wrong.

The Spirit Realm is not dark, gray, or particularly hellish in the way we usually picture these places. It is bright, loud, full of impossible creatures and colors that look like somebody turned a blacklight on inside a nightmare. It almost looks fun until you understand what happens to the people who get stuck there.

And Erik is very much in danger of getting stuck there.

Erik was a musician in life and wakes in the afterlife desperate to reunite with Katrina, the woman he loved. She is already waiting for him in the peaceful Sacred Realm, but before Erik can stay there, he has to be judged.

For that, he needs the book of his life, basically the record of everything he did while alive. Easy!

Then a monster rips it apart. Oops.

Erik ends up searching the Spirit Realm for the missing pages with Elizabeth, another dead soul whose own book is gone. She has already been trapped there long enough that she is slowly transforming into one of the strange creatures roaming the realm. If they cannot complete their judgment, that is eventually Erik’s future too.

So finding those pages suddenly feels a little more urgent.

This Afterlife Looks Incredible

Nick Cagnetti makes this book look unlike almost anything else I have read recently. The Spirit Realm is intense and almost neon, while the Sacred Realm feels softer and dreamlike. The real world is more subdued, and the flashbacks have their own flatter palette.

There is so much happening inside some panels. Creatures in the background, strange architecture, spirits moving around, shapes that probably should not exist. Normally that much visual information could get exhausting, but here I kept wanting to stop and look around.

The colors also do a lot of work keeping the story readable because Spirit of the Shadows jumps constantly between places and time periods. Before you even fully process what is happening, the palette helps tell you whether you are in the living world, a memory, the Spirit Realm, or somewhere much nicer.

If you liked the way Yuletide wrapped darker supernatural ideas in gorgeous art, this gives you a much stranger and more psychedelic version of that.

Erik’s Past Changes the Whole Story

The smartest part of the missing-page idea is that Erik is basically rebuilding his own history at the same time we are.

At first, he is easy to understand. He loved Katrina, he died, and now he wants to get back to her. Very romantic. Very tragic.

Then those pages start filling in some fairly important details.

Erik has actually died before. After his first death, Dr. Hyde Perkins resurrected him through experiments that leave Erik changed and give him the abilities that eventually turn him into the Spirit of the Shadows. Perkins was working for Katrina’s father, Lord Laemmle, whose own grief had pushed him toward finding a way to bring the dead back.

That already complicates things, but the biggest shift comes when Erik’s history connects directly to Elizabeth. After Katrina later dies, Erik becomes so desperate to restore her that other people end up paying the price, including the woman now helping him navigate the afterlife.

Suddenly Elizabeth is not just his new friend. She is part of the reason Erik may not deserve the happy reunion he is fighting so hard to reach.

I liked that a lot because it changes how we look at him without turning the whole book into “surprise, our hero was evil.” Erik did horrible things, but they came from grief, obsession, and his inability to accept what he had lost. That does not excuse them, obviously, but it makes his judgment much more interesting.

Everyone Here Is Grieving Badly

This is where the book became much more interesting to me than the supernatural setup alone. Almost everyone is doing something because they cannot accept losing someone.

Erik wants Katrina back. Elizabeth’s sister Helena wants revenge for what happened to her. Lord Laemmle pushes resurrection experiments because he cannot accept his wife’s death. Again and again, someone sees a tiny possibility of reversing loss and decides they have to take it, no matter what it costs. And honestly, that made me think. If someone told me there was actually a way to bring back somebody I loved, how far would I go before admitting I was making things worse?

It is easy to say, “Obviously do not resurrect the corpse.” Very reasonable advice. Grief is not exactly famous for making people reasonable. Under all the ghosts, monsters, witches, and superhero stuff, Spirit of the Shadows is really about people refusing to let go and the damage that can come from confusing love with the need to keep someone.

For another comic where very messy feelings become something supernatural, Orla! goes somewhere completely different, but that emotional chaos is definitely familiar.

Sometimes There Is Just Too Much Happening

My biggest issue with Spirit of the Shadows is that I wish it gave itself more room. Five issues have to cover the Spirit Realm, Erik and Elizabeth collecting the pages, Erik’s first resurrection, Katrina, Helena, Dr. Perkins, Lord Laemmle, multiple timelines, and everything happening back on Earth. It is a lot.

Most of those pieces are interesting, but sometimes a major reveal would land and I barely had time to process it before the story had already moved somewhere else. I definitely had moments where I stopped and reread a page, not because the story was badly explained, but because so many pieces were moving at once.

Maybe Let the Dead Stay Dead

By the end, Spirit of the Shadows becomes much less about whether Erik can physically reach Katrina and much more about whether he has learned anything from everything that happened while trying to hold onto her. That is what made the story work for me. The trade paperback of Spirit of the Shadows collects all five issues and will be released by Oni Press on November 17, 2026.

It is colorful, strange, romantic, occasionally overwhelming, and much more thoughtful about grief than I expected from the neon afterlife and superhero setup. Also, if comics have taught me anything lately, maybe we should all just agree to stop resurrecting people. It never goes well.

FAQ

What is Spirit of the Shadows about?
Spirit of the Shadows follows Erik Leroux, a dead musician searching for the missing pages of his life’s book so he can face judgment and reunite with his lost love, Katrina.

Who created Spirit of the Shadows?
The series is written by Nick Cagnetti and Daniel Ziegler, with art and colors by Cagnetti and lettering by Ferran Delgado.

How many issues is Spirit of the Shadows?
It is a five-issue miniseries published by Oni Press.

When is the Spirit of the Shadows trade paperback released?
The collected edition will be released by Oni Press on November 17, 2026.

Is Spirit of the Shadows a horror comic?
It mixes supernatural horror with fantasy, superhero storytelling, romance, grief, resurrection, and mystery.

Is Spirit of the Shadows a standalone series?
Yes. The complete story can be read without any previous comics.