The day before I picked up a ton of recent Shadow comics, somebody on Twitter pointed out Batman: Year One is all about Batman (and Gordon) trying to get their footing and figure out how things are going to work, while in the Shadow's Year One book, he pretty much has his game plan set by issue #2. The only notes were "maybe a cloak?" But, we'll be checking out a Shadow well further along in his career today: from 2014, the Shadow: Midnight in Moscow #4, story and art by Howard Chaykin.

Spoiler: the Shadow doesn't even get to Moscow until the tailend of this issue! This was set in December, 1959; and after almost two decades the Shadow was starting to lose some ground in his war on crime. But, after he stops a crime boss's gold heist, he finds mysteriously shrunken bars of gold, then the boss turns up alive later, but a few inches shorter? And while the Shadow himself is still inscrutable, his longtime companion Margo Lane wonders how long they could keep up the life: neither of them were getting any younger. Surprisingly, the Shadow may agree with her, and announces his retirement; which is more of an excuse for a trip than anything.

Chaykin has always had an eye for the past, but in a rather sullen way here: sure, the suits were nice, but New York sucks, London sucks, Paris sucks, Berlin sucks, and Moscow extra sucks. Rampant corruption, willful blindness, and bad food almost all the way down. The Shadown and Margo are one step behind a British agent and his Texan honeypot, who are blackmailing a nuclear scientist, but there may be more to them. Still, after the plot was wrapped up, the last two pages of the series surprised me, as cold even for the Shadow; although maybe fitting into what passes for 'continuity' for him. Read more!

"The End" Week: the Shadow #25!

This may or may not count as a last issue; I kind of wish it didn't, since I could've used "Shadow of the Living Dead" for the post title. From 2014, the Shadow #25, written by Chris Roberson, art by Giovanni Timpano.

All of the set-up was probably done the previous issue, as we open with the Shadow's communications agent, Burbank, trying to puzzle out the horror: starting in Chinatown and spreading across the rest of New York, the unburied dead were rising to feed upon the living. The ghouls are even giving the Shadow trouble, partly because he doesn't seem to just be shooting them in the head, but is still putting like ten bullets in each one. He's forced to escape via autogyro, to try and come up with a plan.

The previous issue apparently began with the investigation of stolen laundry soap, which was the first step in the Tong's plan, to then use an "adulterated" soap filled with pufferfish poison to "kill" victims, who would return in a suggestible, controlled state. So, the Shadow probably gunned down some innocent victims, but he's an eggs/omelet kind of guy. Mobilizing an army of his operatives, the Shadow has the Tong's soap deliveries stopped, and the zombified victims treated and cured. A slug in the head of the Tong boss lady, and that's that. 

There was a #0 issue after this, but one of the covers of #25 has "Final Issue!" on it, so here we go. Next up from Dynamite would be the six-issue Midnight in Moscow, Howard Chaykin's return to the Shadow.

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"The End" Week: The Shadow #19!

I'll buy a last issue whenever I come across it in the bins, even if a lot of times I don't necessarily think I'll use it in this feature. I know I have the last issue of the Exterminators in the box, and it probably won't get blogged unless it gets turned into a series or something. (So, never?) And then sometimes Bully brings up an issue, and of course I've gotta go dig it up...! From 1989, the Shadow #19, "Body and Soul, part 6: Full Metal Shadow" Written by Andy Helfer, art by Kyle Baker.

The Shadow was dead, and had been since the end of the last storyline, when one of his agents had perhaps misguidedly tried to save a murderer that had saved him, and said murderer poisoned the Shadow. While his agents struggled to find purpose and guidance without their 'Master,' the Shadow's sons Hsu Tei and Chang brought his body back to the hidden city of Shamballa...after a series of misadventures, wherein they lost the rest of his body and only had the head left. (While the boys had some training, they were nowhere near as intense as their father; and were usually shown as good-natured slackers perhaps a bit too enamored with Western culture.) Still, no harm done: the scientist Rudra cheerfully tells the Shadow he'll be back on his cloned feet in a few weeks. But, they might have a prototype cyborg around here somewhere, left by a specialist that had left to find his fortune in the west...

Hsi Tei and Chang are feeling a little guilty about their perceived failures--their father's ring was also stolen out from under them--but they did manage to save a number of children, from a town called Malice. (I didn't hear this song until maybe the last year or so, but that had to be a reference to the Jam!) Malice was an enclave of criminals and cheats, but their innocent children were finding a new home in Shambala and learning to function as productive members of society. Except for maybe advanced troublemaker Bart...  

While picking up a new hat, the Shadow lets the kids know they need to finish their training, they weren't ready to tackle crime-fighting. But crime was ready to tackle Shambala, as the citizens of Malice attack, and make a mess of the much-vaunted 'paladins." The Shadow has Rudra put his head on the prototype cyborg, which is jam-packed with weapons, and he makes quick work of Malice's citizens. Later, he leaves his sons, to train and protect Shambala, as the new breed of paladins; while taking his new armored body, new anti-grav ride, and new driver--Bart--back to New York City. Meanwhile, back in the city, the aforementioned cybernetic specialist has just made a sale--to the Shadow's old, and presumed dead, enemy, Shiwan Khan!

Is some of this issue a little silly? Probably! There's the return of a running gag about "no post offices in Shamballa," for one. The Shadow's hat shopping is delightfully insane as well. I really feel like Helfer and Baker might have been trying to make a book interesting to them, but the licensors may not have been fond of it, and may have pulled the plug. I don't think they minded a modern Shadow, but they might've preferred a more traditional action book in the vein of the Punisher, maybe. Oddly, the checklist in this very issue lists the Shadow #20, which would never happen. 

But they must have made up: less than a year later, DC would have a new series for him, the Shadow Strikes! It was a period piece and probably much more traditional. (It will also almost certainly never be reprinted because of the writer, and we will not feature it here.) Helfer would continue to edit a number of books, Baker went on to a ton of cool things, and the Shadow has returned more than once. So, all's swell that ends swell...unless you were holding out to see Robo-Shadow vs. Cyber-Khan.

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This one had bigger names in the creative team, but I liked the Ghost/Shadow crossover better. From 1994, the Shadow and the Mysterious 3, story and breakdowns by Michael Kaluta, additional script by Joel Goss, finishes by Stan Manoukian and Vince Roucher.

This issue featured three Shadow shorts, first using a junkie wife-killer to bring down a heroin smuggler that kept the goods in manequins. "Cold Day in Hell" is a clockwork-style scheme: a bunch of mobsters in a snow-covered cabin are going to divy up their loot, until the Shadow turns them against each other. Which seems overly clever for him; I'm used to him just gunning down everyone in the area and calling it a day.

"Ceiling Zero" has another elaborate scheme, this time a mobster returning for revenge on his betrayers, by stealing their assets on a plane, D.B. Cooper style? No, his scam runs deeper than that! There's a fake plane, the Shadow in disguise, and a loose bolt in a fire escape...I'm not sure the latter was planned, or just a lucky break. The stories weren't given enough space here; and I'm still surprised to see the Shadow work that hard at something that's not just pulling triggers. Still, I guess not every weed of crime has deep roots. Read more!

I had to look it up, and Prohibition ended in 1933; so most of this series took place maybe a year prior. Most of it, anyway. From 2014, Grendel vs. the Shadow #1-3, story and art by Matt Wagner.

I've only read the Batman/Grendel crossover issues, so I'm not real up on the character; but this was the original Hunter Rose version: a suave, refined criminal; also ruthless and seemingly unstoppable. After helping himself to a mysterious Chinese burial urn, he reads from the scroll within and inadvertently casts himself back to the past; which to Hunter Rose wasn't just a golden age of crime to play in, but also of literacy: he quickly establishes himself in New York's literary scene, with a novel set to be published shortly. Meanwhile, with his usual brutality and knowledge of the future, Grendel begins consolidating the mobs and preparing to diversify away from alcohol and invest in war materials. That might barely be a challenge for him; but the Shadow might be!

For his part, while Grendel may in fact be a more superior breed of criminal than usual, the Shadow is not impressed. He is wrapped up in the case, though, seemingly too busy to notice his longtime agent Margo Lane considering her future with him, as she comes into money with a rich uncle's death. The Shadow manages to take Grendel's weapon but come away with a broken nose as one point; and Grendel eventually realizes he may have been looking at the past through rose-colored glasses.

I don't think I had seen this one before finding all three issues in the quarter bin, but I know Wagner had done some other Shadow work. And while I'm not positive about Hunter Rose's fate, there seems to be more than a bit of foreshadowing for what's already happened to him.

Even though I got this for less than half the price of one issue (!) I like it too much to wedge into the scanner! The page above is from "Dark Horse's website.

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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.
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Ever see Prometheus? The sort-of but-not-really yet-totally-is Alien prequel? It's enjoyable in spots, aggravatingly stupid in others. It's also a couple years old, so no spoiler alert! There's a scene where two pilots, bridge crew guys, obligingly agree to go down with the ship and their captain; rather than making a break for the escape pods. In-movie, it doesn't make a lot of sense, save that they were loyal guys. Viewed from outside though, flying your ship into an alien ship bent on destroying earth and dying in a massive explosion, beats the hell out of trying to escape and getting eaten or worse by some alien monster. Sometimes, an escape route just looks like procrastinating your fate, not avoiding it. Like today's book! The Shadow #20, written by Chris Roberson, art by Giovanni Timpano.

In a Russian gulag, life is cruel and hard enough without seemingly random murders. An old prisoner, who notes the Bolsheviks that sent him to the gulag have since themselves arrived there, receives a mysterious and surprising visitor from his past: the man now mostly known as the Shadow.

Before he was the Shadow, he received his ring, the girasol, from the tsar; and was now on the trail of whoever sent a similar ring (and attached finger) as a message. The prisoner doesn't have the information the Shadow needs, and also recognizes that he was a scary individual even back when he knew him.

Still, the Shadow isn't about to leave a murderer be, and gets the clues he needed from him. Before he leaves, he offers to free the prisoner, and to get him wherever he wanted to go. Surprisingly, the prisoner declines. Death was going to find him, in the gulag, on a beach, wherever he might go. I kind of thought it might be nice to wait for death somewhere where my toes weren't going to freeze and fall off, but I'm not Russian. Or clinically depressed.

Geez, the one time the Shadow tries to do something nice for someone...In the prisoner's defense, though, it's pretty common for the Shadow to do you a solid, then expect like ten solids back. And for people around him to get violently murdered.

Anyway, like a lot of Dynamite Entertainment's books, this one has like three variant covers. Cover price was $3.99, which I don't see happening around here: I got it, and three other issues, ninety-nine cents each at Hastings. Four for the price of one! (Better than that, even: The Shadow Annual 2013 was $4.99.) I did get another book or two in that pile...that I'll have to look around for now.
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It's always night of the something...

Looking up the cover for this issue, I noticed most of the covers for DC's 1973 Shadow series were "Night of" something: the Ninja, the Mummy, the Three-Bean Salad, whatever. The cover for this issue didn't follow suit, but the interior did: The Shadow #11, "The Night of the Avenger!" Written by Michael Uslan, art by E.R. Cruz.

While the Avenger's men attack the Shadow's crew, Margo Lane betrays the Shadow and gives the Avenger the location of his secret base. The Shadow doesn't stand still for that, and soon it's war between the two. But the Shadow recognizes Richard Benson, the Avenger, from "reports...of a crime-fighter...with a face that is malleable like clay!" With a brief truce, the Shadow discovers Margo and the Avenger's man have been hypnotized, used by Shiwan Khan to play the two against each other.

Khan, somewhat unwisely, attacks both groups; and is seemingly killed when the Avenger throws a grenade into a submarine (seemingly not especially caring if he got the Shadow as well) but the Shadow doubts it. Although neither man seems to trust or care much for the other, they go their separate ways in the end.

I've read a few issues of Dynamite's new Shadow series and enjoyed them, but I don't know if they've played up the crew of operatives the Shadow traditionally employed. I've only read another comic or two with the Avenger, but really need to remember to try and find the old Justice, Inc. prestige two-issue series, with Kyle Baker art.
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There's leveling the playing field, then there are bulldozers...

...and Garth Ennis's Shadow is a bulldozer, driven by a cackling sociopath with a pair of .45's.

I got the first issue of Dynamite's new Shadow series a bit ago (art by Aaron Campbell) and was both impressed and slightly dismayed I hadn't been buying it on the regular. It may be a bit similar to another current book from Ennis, Fury MAX (a book that is just killing it for my tastes) but I'm OK with that. (CBR's recent preview of #6 has Cranston, the Shadow, working with American intelligence, like Fury; in the role of "bastard getting things done.")

But the Shadow seems to be at the top of his game from the first page: he's got his network of operatives, including Margo Lane. He's got the mysterious Eastern techniques like hypnosis, clouding the minds of the weak, speaking with the newly dead, and catching glimpses of the future. The only apparent reason that this Shadow hasn't wiped crime out of New York, is that bullets are expensive...

...of course, if you don't put four in every thug, you can stretch your budget accordingly.

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Who knows what evil lurks...um, well, you know.

Not unlike the Green Hornet, I have at best a passing familarity with the Shadow, actually. I liked the 1994 movie with Alex Baldwin, although that may be because I wasn't particularly attached to the character. And I did enjoy what little I've seen of his comics: the Howard Chaykin version, which is probably more Howard Chaykin than Shadow; and the weirdness of the occasional 1987 series story that I've read. The latter series featured art by Bill Sienkiewicz, Kyle Baker, and Marshall Rogers; if you see them.

By contrast, today's book, 1975's the Shadow #10, "The Night of the Killers!" is a more traditional pulp story. Two of the Shadow's operatives stumble across a kidnapping and get shot up a bit; so the Shadow decides it's time he took an interest in the gang. While there's more to it than would appear on the surface, the Shadow picks them apart one by one.


It's funny: even though I never read Chuck Dixon's revival of pulp character the Spider, he had a line that while the Spider was legitimately crazy and enjoyed the hell out of crimefighting (that is to say, shooting the hell out of thugs...) the Shadow always seemed to be putting on an act. Like his laugh was just a part of his plan, and he did always seem to have everything precisely planned out.

Still, when I find something like this in the quarter box, of course I'm going to grab it. "The Night of the Killers!" Written by Denny O'Neil, art by E.R. Cruz.

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