May 7 is this year's Free Comic Book Day, the annual event when fans all around the country crowd into comic book stores for free promotional minicomics (and agoraphobic readers put off picking up their subscriptions).

In observance of this ritual, Top Cow Productions is releasing a free The Darkness comic book that is intended to act as a prequel to the upcoming The Darkness 2 game in the works at Digital Extremes. Although we'd argue that if you really want a prequel to The Darkness 2, you could check out The Darkness -- or the comic book series that ran from 1996 to 2005. But those wouldn't be free!