Since 2012, Dynamite has had the rights to do The Shadow comics. Since then in addition to an on-going series (now ended), they have had several mini-series and one-shots with The Shadow. This is the third of four articles looking at what they have produced, here focusing on the several one-shots.
The one-shots are The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Shadow Annuals 2012 & 2013, The Shadow Special, The Shadow Special 2014, The Shadow #0 (One-Shot) 2014, and The Shadow #100. There is also Altered States: The Shadow, which I covered in another posting, as I did for the 2014 one-shot.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth has The Shadow along with Margo Lane in fog-bound Innsmouth, after they landed their seaplane there. After getting a tale told them of Captain Marsh, the South Seas, the Deep Ones, and more, they discover that it’s just a cover to scare people off from a major bootlegging operation that even includes a submarine. But The Shadow makes short work of it. The coda at the end has H.P. Lovecraft hearing the same tale, which we assume is the source of his story, “A Shadow Over Innsouth.”
The first Shadow Annual came out in 2012.
A second annual came out in 2013. This one has The Shadow in Las Vegas in 1947 were he runs into a woman he knew when he was a pilot in WWI. The woman hasn’t aged a bit. He discovers the reason, and puts an end to her and Bugsy Siegel.
The Shadow Special came out in 2012.
The Shadow Special 2014 is titled “Death Factory.” The Shadow and his agents look into a car manufacturer that is run by a former German ace that The Dark Eagle went up against in WWI. The ace has a scheme to attack America by fomenting racial unrest, and is helped by a man in a mechanical suit. Several of The Shadow’s agents are involved, with Jericho Druke having the largest part.
The Shadow #100 issue is interesting, as it has six separate short stories. One is done by Francesco Francavilla, another by Howard Chaykin (who works in a character based on DC founder Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson), another by Michael Uslan (which works in a node to Batman and has The Shadow met Orson Wells), another by Chris Roberson (which has The Shadow recruiting a new agent from the underworld), and one from Matt Wagner that is more of an illustrated story.
Unfortunately at this time, none of these have been collected in trade paperback. So you’ll need to hunt them down in the back issue bins.
