"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.