Punk Mambo

Creative Origins

Created by writer Peter Milligan and artist Roberto de la Torre, the young woman called "Punk Mambo" apparently takes her name from a button worn on her jacket in her first appearance in Shadowman #13 - Fear, Blood, and Shadows Part I: Sniffing Glue, the first issue in Milligan and de la Torre's run. Her punk appearance is designed to defamiliarize readers from the traditional images of voodoo mambo in pop culture. Her mohawk, bobby-pinned leather jacket, and penchant for Sid Vicious are far removed from the Afro-Caribbean crone living alone in the bayous.

Shadowman

Punk Mambo's first appearance is very revelatory with regards to details about her own life. She is British. and indicates she attended Cheltenham Ladies' College. In Shadowman #14, she is identified as "that London swamp witch." She jokes that Sid Vicious is her spirit guide.

Milligan's dialogue for her plays to both halves of her name, indicating a street-savvy British punk and the rich cultural history of voodoo. Punk Mambo does not come across as a young initiate, but as steeped in the history of her magick and is able to differentiate between loas and other spirit entities. After the death of Abettor Dox, his partner Alyssa Miles is debriefed that the Abettors are considering neutralizing Jack Boniface, To protect Jack, Alyssa refers him to Punk Mambo, who already has a reputation for "hav[ing] the gift of separation." Jack steals the requisite skull for the ritual and finds Mambo's secluded shack in the bayou. She boils the skull and pricks Jack with a bobby-pin as part of "the Rite of Separation." However, the Shadowman loa manifests and threatens to kill Punk Mambo. She repels it.

She appears to Jack next in a dream, directing him to find the houngan with the wanga to separate the Shadowman loa from Jack. Soon after, Jack recruits Punk Mambo to help him battle Tremble Loa, a malevolent spirit inhabiting a drug dealer.

Shadowman: End Times

In the first issue, Alyssa Miles takes a skull to Punk Mambo in order to enlist her help in freeing Jack of the Shadowman loa's influence. Mambo recognizes that Alyssa loves Jack, even as she recognizes that Punk Mambo is concerned for his well-being. In the following issue, Mambo helps Jack find his father, but indicates that the cost may be something precious to him: Alyssa. She also offers Jack a position as her pupil, which the Shadowman flatly refuses. Later, when Punk Mambo meets with Alyssa, the mambo reveals she sees Jack being useful to her someday.