Writer: Matt Wagner
Artist: Wilfredo Torres
Publication Date: February 20, 2013
Price: $3.99
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
UPC: 72513020219201011
The origin of The Shadow as told by Matt Wagner (Grendel, Batman) starts this week in an eight issue limited series from Dynamite Entertainment.
The book opens in Cambodia with The Shadow investigating the crimes of The White Tiger, and meting out justice on his own, all the while hiding behind a red scarf. Months later, alter ego Lamont Cranston disembarks from a cruise ship with seven large valets in tow, piquing the interest of a Clark Kent-looking newspaper man. Close by, a newsie hawks of Black Tuesday and the market crash.
Seems like The Shadow returns to the States just in time to secure his assets and protect the night!
The action builds up quickly in New York City as gangster Guiseppe ‘Joe’ Massaretti is overwhelmed by a mysterious voice in his head commanding that he take advantage of the banks being in turmoil and to rein in the city’s rival gangs. This momentary hallucination weighs on his mind as his goons chauffeur him around town.
Guiseppe isn’t the only one wobbly by voices in his head! At a Prohibition Era homecoming party, Cranston unprovoked declares, “The weed of crime..takes root EVERYWHERE, I dare say.”
Easy, pal. Someone get him a bathtub Tom Collins!
Joe’s extravagant gal pal Margo Lane is also at the party to make the acquaintance of Lamont Cranston and to continue a quarrel she had earlier with the mobster. Conveniently, The Shadow knows when he sees trouble spark up and makes his presence known to the bad guys.
This is a really fun start to the origin of a character so important to comics and pop culture that I for one had no familiarity with, besides last December’s Masks title from Dynamite and also the 1994 Alec Baldwin feature film.
We’re cranking through episodes of Boardwalk Empire, and it’s great to catch some familiar references to the Volstead Act and to imagine The Shadow existing somehow in the same romantic fantasy timeline.
Wilfredo Torres’ art is clean and fits the era, fans of Chris Samnee’s work on Daredevil and Spider-Man will enjoy the artwork.
Overall a very fun pulp origin that I’d like to ‘know’, for fear of being asked at a convention if I’m familiar with Lamont Cranston/Kent Allard. With this series under my belt, I’ll at least be able to fake it!
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