DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT – @dynamitecomics
WRITER/ARTIST: Howard Chaykin
COLORS: Jesus Aburto
LETTERS: Ken Bruzenak
COVER: Howard Chaykin with Jesus Aburto
VARIANT COVERS: Howard Chaykin
The Shadow created by Walter B. Gibson
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S.
Rated T+
In the beginning, The Shadow was as a mysterious radio narrator. Then, pulp writer Walter B. Gibson fully developed the character into the iconic and mysterious crime-fighting vigilante with psychic powers. The Shadow became a pop culture icon and is no stranger to comics, having debuted in a daily newspaper comic strip in 1940 and also starring in a comic book series that ran during the 1940s, entitled Shadow Comics.
In 2012, Dynamite Entertainment returned The Shadow to comic books with a new ongoing series. However, The Shadow once prowled about DC Comics, including a stint in the mid to late 1980s. It began with The Shadow #1 (cover dated: May 1986), the first issue of a four-issue miniseries. Written and drawn by Howard Chaykin, the series (eventually known as The Shadow: Blood & Judgment), was a revamp and modernization of The Shadow for the sublimated sex and consequence-free violence that was pop culture in the 1980s.
Howard Chaykin returns to The Shadow in a new miniseries, The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow, from Dynamite Entertainment. The series features the classic Shadow, but looks at him about 20 years into his crime-fighting career.
The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow #1 (Part 1) opens in New York City, late December 1949. With the help of his agent, Jericho Druke, The Shadow stops a gold-heist masterminded by Benedict Stark, the self-proclaimed “Prince of Evil.” As the 1940s prepare to give way to the 1950s, however, Lamont Cranston/Kent Allard is ready to put The Shadow to rest. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, a plot that threatens the world begins to formulate in London.
For a time, I was a huge fan of The Shadow. I read the books that collected the old pulp stories. I read the comics. I even found a few cassette recordings of the old radio series. Last year, I read part of The Shadow: Year One, the miniseries by writer Matt Wagner and artist Wilfredo Torres that took readers back the very beginnings of The Shadow’s crime-busting career in NYC.
Chaykin’s 1980s miniseries began with a bang and lots of blood. The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow #1 is a molasses-slow setup for the series. There is nothing here that stands out except Jesus Aburto’s colors, which make even dour London seem like a hoppin’ place. The colors make the Big Apple sparkle with magic and potential. I am going to come back for the second issue.
I would probably give The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow #1 a “C” or “C+” grading. However, I will hold off because there isn’t enough here to really praise or condemn it.
Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux
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