Preview: The Shadow Year One by Matt Wagner and Wilfredo Torres

[Rich Johnston]

Printed ahead to accomodate the retailer original sketch covers, it is likely that this one will sell out fast. The Shadow: Year One written by Matt Wagner....

THE SHADOW is a character that has lasted through decades on the pages of pulp magazines, over the radio airwaves, thru the silver screen, and in the panels of comic books.?* Shrouded in mystery, his origins have been explored and hinted at over the years?but never fully revealed.?* Much is known of Kent Allard/Lamont Cranston?s years spent in the Orient and Central America?wherein he gains his powers and purpose?but not how he first developedhis persona as the Master of Darkness.?*?* Eisner Award-winning author, Matt Wagner is joined by artist Wilfredo Torres in an exhilarating 8-issue limited series that will explore the dynamic events that first drew Cranston back to the States, how he first met his companion and lover, Margo Lane, how he began to assemble his vast network of agents and how he first adopted the famous black hat and cloak as his alter-ego's disguise?all secrets that, up until now?only The Shadow knew!

[MicroZone]

To be honest, I'd rather see Wagner doing more Green Hornet. Year Two maybe? I'll try this anyway because of Wagner. I haven't liked the Shadow comics from Dynamite all that much so far.

With Garth Ennis' flair for psychotic violence, he seemed ill suited for the main Shadow book's first arc. He'd have been better suited for the action-movie insanity of the Spider. Some of those 30s pulps read like a Michael Bay movie after drinking a gallon of Red Bull and doing a mile line of coke. Norvell Page actually went a little bit insane just writing them every month.

[Eric Sean]

Didn't care for the regular series. This, I'm excited to see. Loved Wagner's GREEN HORNET: YEAR ONE.