The Shadow: Blood and Judgment TPB
This four-issue miniseries came out from DC in the mid-to-late 1980s, with writing AND art by Howard Chaykin, who I love from American Flagg!. It was one of DC’s earliest “mature readers” titles, which were all collected under the Vertigo imprint around 1992 or '93. Blood and Judgment was later collected in a TPB that is currently out of print, but I scored this one on eBay.
I was expecting a nice, gritty, sexy Shadow story set in the '30s, a la American Century, but Chaykin set this one in present day (the '80s). Someone is murdering the Shadow’s old allies and agents, and the Shadow himself makes a dramatic return on the last page of the first issue, having not aged a single day since his disappearance 35 years prior. The second issue is the standout, explaining the Shadow’s convoluted origin and multiple identities, and also where he’s been for so long and why he doesn’t look a day older. Hint: both of those have to do with “the technologically-advanced mythical city of Shambala.” After that, he establishes a new network of agents, takes on a VERY old enemy, and saves New York from a nuclear disaster. Fear not, there is just enough sordid sex and misogyny (Chaykin trademarks) to garner the “mature readers” warning.
This miniseries led directly up to the ongoing Shadow series written by Andy Helfer and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz (and later Kyle Baker). I have read most of these comics in order, and they make a lot more sense now with Chaykin’s story before them. The Helfer issues were full of violent mayhem and dark comedy at the same time–perfect Vertigo fare. They focused more on the Shadow’s wacky agents than the man himself, including two characters Todd McFarlane TOTALLY ripped off when he created Sam and Twitch. Read the issues and you’ll have no doubt of this.
Conde Nast Publications owns The Shadow, and they revoked their license from DC after reading the Helfer/Baker series, including a story where the Shadow’s sons accidentally cut his head off and reattached it to a robot body. They didn’t like their character being treated that way, I guess. After DC tried a more traditional series set in the '30s and '40s, The Shadow Strikes! by writer Gerard Jones, Conde Nast took their toy with them and went home. I believe Dark Horse was the last to publish a Shadow comic, probably around 1994, when the Alec Baldwin movie came out.
I guess I like the IDEA of The Shadow more than any of the actual recent comics. A vigilante who wore a black fedora and trench coat, scared criminals with a creepy laugh, “clouded men’s minds” with hypnosis, kept a vast network of loyal undercover agents, disguised himself with multiple secret identities, and dispensed blazing justice with twin .45s is a cool idea, even cooler when you think about how his pulp novels and radio show predated Batman and almost every comic book superhero. But in the end, the Helfer/Sienkiewicz/Baker comics left me pretty cold, and this Chaykin series that immediately preceded them didn’t knock my socks off either. The art was good enough (with that super-bright '80s-style coloring) and Chaykin’s layouts were of course excellent. But I wouldn’t recommend people go out and spend big bucks on this out-of-print TPB. I paid around $6 for it and I’m not disappointed in that, but I was expecting “American Century-meets-Sandman Mystery Theatre,” and my enthusiasm was quickly dashed.
Cable & Deadpool #1
I really enjoyed Cable & Deadpool #1, much more than any of the other “nostalgia” books I’ve sampled over the past few years: G.I. Joe by Devil’s Due, Transformers by Dreamwave, and even more than Formerly Known As the Justice League.
The plot seems simple enough: Deadpool is hired by a cult to retrieve some McGuffin-like object, and Cable shows up there too. They don’t even meet until the final page, but you know the hijinx are about to ensue. Fabian Nicieza has a very good handle on writing Deadpool–definitely a wacky, funny guy, but also someone who can kick ass when he needs to. I never read Joe Kelly’s famous run, but Fabian co-created him and wrote that first miniseries, so I think Deadpool will be in good hands.
As for Cable, he seems to have matured a lot since the early issues of his own series, which was the last time I paid attention. He’s dropped the giant shoulder pads and picked up telepathy and telekinesis, and seems to be out to find peaceful solutions to problems, rather than running in with abnormally large guns a-blazing. I’m sure he will play the straight man to Deadpool’s dark comedian in the relationship.
Mark Brooks’ art is beautiful, made even better by the amazing coloring. It’s a shame he’s leaving after only two issues. The cover is by Rob Liefeld, and while he draws the characters the same way he did back in 1991, readers shouldn’t panic–these are the modern versions of Cable and Deadpool in the comic; they haven’t regressed back to the Liefeld X-Force days. Still, Liefeld’s art is a guilty pleasure for me. I truly feel bad for the guy for the horrendous reputation he has now, although to his credit, he has gotten better. I was pleased to note this first issue was sold out at the first shop I went to, and the buzz is good so far. Marvel has already announced an X-Force miniseries in the works, written by Nicieza with Liefeld handling ALL the art chores, but I’ll believe that when I see it. I guess '80s nostalgia is over, and now is the time for early '90s nostalgia. I wonder… do my plaid Skidz pants still fit?
Wildcats series 2, issues 8-28 (Joe Casey’s entire run, with art by Sean Phillips and Steve Dillon).
These grew on me, and I like them more now than after I first read them. The generic team of X-Men ripoffs you remember from the early days of Image Comics is gone. Casey (following in the footsteps of James Robinson and Alan Moore) has turned Wildcats into a thinking person’s superhero comic, with very few costumes, powers, and fights. So what good is that, you ask? This is new. This is the future.
While teams like the Authority spew catch-phrases about creating a “finer world,” Jack Marlowe, the Wildcat formerly known as Spartan, finally has a plan to do something about it that doesn’t involve mass murder and major collateral damage. The days of slugfests with the villain-of-the-week are over. Marlowe will use the HALO Corporation and a mysterious energy source to truly make the world a better place. While some of the events in these comics were disturbing and could be interpreted as misogynistic, I really like the direction Joe Casey took the remaining characters in. Now I’m ready to pick up the TPBs of Wildcats series 3.0!
By the way, #8-28 are reprinted in three TPBs, Vicious Circles, Serial Boxes, and Battery Park, but I bought all 21 of the singles because together, they only came out to about $15. Major bargain! (And I heard #1-7, by writer Scott Lobdell, are totally skippable.)
