The Darkness (Jackie Estacado) is a superhero created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl, who first appeared in Witchblade #10 (Nov. 1996), published by Top Cow Productions (an imprint of Image Comics).

Sometime after this, the Darkness begins inhabiting human vessels – the sons of its chosen bloodline; the father passing the curse to his child at the moment of conception, dying as the force leaves his body.

[1] The son of notorious mob associate Danny Estacado and an unnamed prostitute, Jackie is taken in by Saint Gerald's Orphanage, where he is frequently abused by the orderlies.

Despite his criminal lifestyle, Jackie follows a strict moral code of trust in those who earn it and fierce loyalty to family and allies.

Life in the mob provides Jackie with a home and as a sense of safety and family, but also makes him more violent and prone to illegal activity.

Losing his virginity at age fourteen to a female police officer during an interrogation, he disregards the law and develops a sex habit.

Jackie turns on Paulie and takes control of the Franchetti family, fighting the Russian mafia in Atlantic City, where he is seduced by a woman created by his own unconscious.

Jackie and Danielle Baptiste, the new bearer of the Witchblade, defend Sara from an attack by the Angelus's army and get her to a safe house in a cavern.

Jackie usurps the power in the fictional banana republic of Sierra Muñoz, South America, in hopes of establishing a new empire.

Jackie establishes a drug cartel in Sierra Muñoz with a narcotic made from his own bodily fluids, builds an impenetrable fortress, forms an army, and takes a lover, not knowing Kirchner is controlling her.

Jackie fulfills the Sovereign's demands, killing a possessed nun, an immortal drug dealer, and a 10-year-old African warlord.

[10] The new bearer of the Glacier Stone, and of another artifact, the Sword of Blood, is Michael Finnigan, an Irish mobster Jackie hired to watch over Sara and Hope.

Ignoring the Foreigner, Jackie follows the woman and faces a resurrected djinn created by a shaman to kill Darkness wielders.

Aram disappears and Jackie realizes the Sovereign's manipulations and intent on revenge with full control of his powers.

He has to escape from a team of government killers with the help of an army officer who decides that Jackie's abilities should not be replicated.

He walks into a trap that a Russian mafioso built with the help of a traitor on his team, which lures him with images of his sister Capris; he escapes from a machine that feeds on his magic energy.

In the last confrontation with the Sovereign, Jackie and his team, ensnared in illusion spells, win because of Leonard Kim's sacrifice.

Darklings have also exhibited the ability to easily adhere to sheer surfaces as well as teleport through shadows with their bearer and produce corrosive chemicals through their saliva or excrement.

When a wielder is injured, the shadows surrounding them are absorbed into their body to regenerate cells at unnatural rates, even to regrow lost limbs.

Darkness bearers are typically hardened individuals whose lives have endowed them with considerable fighting prowess and survival skills.

[15] At Comic-Con 2009, Top Cow president Matt Hawkins revealed that a live-action The Darkness film was in development, with Scott Stuber Productions attached as the producer for the project.

[18][19] A sequel, titled The Darkness II, was released for the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 on February 7, 2012, developed by Digital Extremes and published by 2K Games.