Thursday, February 20, 2020

Way better than that "MARTHA!? WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME!?" business.


I may have read more Ghost comics than Shadow comics when this came out; but there may have been more issues of Ghost than Shadow had at that point. (No. Not even close. Super wrong.) From 1995, Ghost and the Shadow, written by Doug Moench, pencils by H. M. Baker, inks by Bernard Kolle.

It's going to be a run on .45 ammo in Arcadia, after a commando team storms a Tibetan monastery, killing the monks and stealing a large jade idol. A message is sent to the aged Harry Vincent, who then revives Lamont Cranston from suspended animation. Cranston is momentary taken aback that his old operative is so old, and then his other assistants had "passed on," including Margo Lane. The message reads, "Tulpa Arcadia," and the Shadow is on his way; after a momentary joke about where that city is. The Shadow blows up a couple people before we even get to his guest-star, Ghost, and her sister Margo: the commandos attack and kidnap Margo, leaving a message to lure her to a sleazy Club Hell.

Ghost is nearly trapped in a jade net--jade was her Kryptonite, she couldn't pass through it--but the Shadow saves her, and gives her the exposition; without eyeballing the heroine like every other man she had run across in her book. Ghost goes along with him, to rescue Margo; the name striking a chord with the Shadow. He doesn't get all Batman v. Superman about it, though. Margo is freed and the bad guys killed off, although with less shot in the face than I'd expect from either character.

This feels like it was maybe hoping for a modern Shadow relaunch, set in the present, which would've been fine: 40's or 90's, he would've been blazing away with those .45's either way. I'll have to get to the Ghost/Hellboy crossover sometime as well.

1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Oh cool! I didn't even know this happened, but definitely a very natural pairing. They could've easily put out more team-up issues like this.