Random Happenstance

How DC's Lawyers missed this, I have no idea.

I was going to write about something else, when I stumbled across this again:

The Shroud has two things going for him: a cool name, and a better costume that he would get later with the Kali-style logo. He also has two strikes: derivative darkness powers (although, maybe they were cutting edge when he debuted, but I doubt it) and an outright-stolen origin. He's another Marvel Universe Batman-style character, like Moon Knight, the various Nighthawks, Night Thrasher, probably Black Panther and possibly Iron Fist...

Let's think about that for a moment: A Marvel Batman-analog would have martial arts training and (mostly) human-level strength, no super superpowers (the Shroud's darkness and weird vision wouldn't disqualify him, but eye lasers or something would) and usually uses gadgets and weapons, and is either a millionaire and/or had his parents killed at a young age, probably by a criminal.

So, even though he fits a lot of the above criteria, I wouldn't call Daredevil a Batman-analog, since he's not a millionaire, and since the death of his father was when he was a little older. Also, was that death in DD's origin from the start, or was that a later addition? Either way, the book didn't dwell on it overmuch at first, so I don't count Daredevil as a Batman copy here.

There's probably others, but it's interesting to see how Marvel takes different aspects of what DC had used for Batman, and exaggerates them: I've mentioned before a review from the Hurting, where Tim points out the way Moon Knight takes everything cool about Batman and throws it together. Nighthawk (and I've accidentally typed 'Nightwing' three times here already) works the bored millionaire turned crusader angle. Black Panther and the more recent Squadron Supreme Nighthawk are very much avenging sons, as is to a lesser extent Iron Fist. And the Shroud, once you get past everything else stolen from Batman, takes the insane training Batman went through, to an even more-extreme end: the monks he learned from were evil Kali-worshippers, who brand their logo on his face.

Which brings up monks in the Marvel Universe, who seemed pretty fast and loose with branding: the Shroud, Iron Fist, Doctor Doom...Doom and Fist technically did theirs on their own, but still. Then there's the Ancient One, and I'm pretty sure Baron Mordo had some of his own monk crew or whatever, and no doubt eight or nine different batches from Master of Kung Fu. How many crazy-ass monks are out there? At this point, I figure you get off the plane in Nepal or wherever, and there's neon signs all over advertising kung fu, mystic arts, and scarification. Are any part of the Seven Cities of Heaven, from the current Iron Fist storyline? I don't think so, but that's probably just as well: Chris Claremont would revisit Doom's monks in Fantastic Four, which brought us Crucible, who sucked. Fat Cobra is infinitely preferable.

Two other Shroud appearances that I know of: he has a cameo in the limited series for West Coast Avengers and declines membership, since he's working undercover as a 'crime lord.' I also have somewhere a black-and-white Marvel mag (probably Marvel Premiere featuring Moon Knight, maybe?) with a Shroud back-up drawn by Steve Ditko. Apparently, now he's dating the black costume Spider-Woman, so good for him; especially considering that in this appearance...ah, we'll come back to this one.

Geez, and I was going to talk about Namor today, but we're a ways a field of that now. Especially since I'm positive I read the Namor issues with Iron Fist, but can't remember them at all. Pages from Super-Villain Team-Up #7, "Who is...the Shroud?" Written by Steve Englehart, art by Herb Trimpe, inks by Pablo Marcos, and featuring the villainy of Dr. Doom, the Sub-Mariner, and Henry Kissinger! Wait...we'll come back to this one, we've barely scratched the surface of insanity.