EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: Ennis' "The Shadow" #1

[Libaax]

I read the Midnighter ongoing, and that's basically what it was. Speaking of whom, Warren Ellis described Midnighter as "Shadow by the way of John Woo." I bet Ennis has a similar understanding of the Shadow.

Blame Midnigther series on the guy who actually created him. Sure it was basically mostly on bloodbath in that series. It was Ellis who made Midnigther have that rep.

[Subotai]

Hopefully he means old school John Woo.

And hopefully he puts some of his wonderful narrative and dialogue in this.

[Mr. Holmes]

Blame Midnigther series on the guy who actually created him. Sure it was basically mostly on bloodbath in that series. It was Ellis who made Midnigther have that rep.

I get the impression from that quote that he means Midnighter is Shadow who uses violent martial arts instead of guns. But Midnighter is basically a killing machine plot device, so we better not get that here.

[thwhtGuardian]

I thought it was a pretty darn good read. It had its share of gore but it didn't seem to be over used, but the speculations here that the gore was just in the mind of one of the thugs was off the mark as it was an actual blood bath with only one man surviving.

The dialog was really good though, it felt true o the Shadow. The only hiccup in the book was a coloring mistake half way through in which the character Pat was confused for Lamont Cranston. It took me a second to make sense of it, but other wise it was a near perfect first issue.

[emb021]

I thought it was a pretty darn good read. It had its share of gore but it didn't seem to be over used, but the speculations here that the gore was just in the mind of one of the thugs was off the mark as it was an actual blood bath with only one man surviving.

The dialog was really good though, it felt true o the Shadow. The only hiccup in the book was a coloring mistake half way through in which the character Pat was confused for Lamont Cranston. It took me a second to make sense of it, but other wise it was a near perfect first issue.

Well, at least with the violence he gave the bad guys a chance to step aside to get who he wanted. Wasn't like he waded in, which is what the preview seemed (without dialogue).

I didn't care for the scene in the middle of the book, where he predicted what would happen to a kid in 5 years. Sorry, but he doesn't have such abilities. He can't glimpse the future.

I see they used Shrevnitz the cabbie and Margo Lane. But I wish Ennis had made use of other of the Shadow's agents, rather then create new characters.

[une]

Outside of the 90's movie, I don't have any experience with the Shadow. But, I enjoyed this issue. I'm sure that Ennis' version of the Shadow is very different than the classic version of the character, but I really enjoyed Ennis' take on the character. The Shadow had a kind of aura about him that I found interesting. It's hard to explain, but he came off almost like a force of nature, beyond mortal men. I thought it was interesting and different than Ennis' usual protagonist.

The Shadow seems to have some new powers, the precognition, but I don't mind that. Precognition is still in the same general of "psychic powers" so I don't mind that addition. Overall, I just really enjoyed this issue and will definitely check out the next issue.

I reall

[thwhtGuardian]

Well, at least with the violence he gave the bad guys a chance to step aside to get who he wanted. Wasn't like he waded in, which is what the preview seemed (without dialogue).

I didn't care for the scene in the middle of the book, where he predicted what would happen to a kid in 5 years. Sorry, but he doesn't have such abilities. He can't glimpse the future.

I see they used Shrevnitz the cabbie and Margo Lane. But I wish Ennis had made use of other of the Shadow's agents, rather then create new characters.

Seeing the kid's fate seemed like an odd occurance, but I doubt it will come up much in the future so I'm okay with it. It seemed like a one off kind of line to help illustrate the difference between Lamont Cranston and the Shadow personas.

[Moriarty]

thought this was a pretty good first issue. its just great to have the Shadow back in comics form.

[emb021]

Outside of the 90's movie, I don't have any experience with the Shadow. But, I enjoyed this issue. I'm sure that Ennis' version of the Shadow is very different than the classic version of the character, but I really enjoyed Ennis' take on the character. The Shadow had a kind of aura about him that I found interesting. It's hard to explain, but he came off almost like a force of nature, beyond mortal men. I thought it was interesting and different than Ennis' usual protagonist.

The Shadow seems to have some new powers, the precognition, but I don't mind that. Precognition is still in the same general of "psychic powers" so I don't mind that addition. Overall, I just really enjoyed this issue and will definitely check out the next issue.

If this version is "very different", then its not the Shadow, is it?

And the point is, the Shadow doesn't HAVE powers. That was nonsense added to the radio show version. The original character (in the pulps, which you can easily read from the many volumes published by Sanctum Books) was more of a spymaster who used stage magician tricks.

[thwhtGuardian]

If this version is "very different", then its not the Shadow, is it?

And the point is, the Shadow doesn't HAVE powers. That was nonsense added to the radio show version. The original character (in the pulps, which you can easily read from the many volumes published by Sanctum Books) was more of a spymaster who used stage magician tricks.

I don't really understand why variances aren't allowed in different interpretations of characters over time. Batman has changed a dozen times since he was first created, that doesn't mean the new version isn't Batman because he's not written the same way he was 60 years ago and its the same here.

[crossbones]

liked it well enough, i'm on board for the first arc, at least.

[Ed Love]

I don't really understand why variances aren't allowed in different interpretations of characters over time. Batman has changed a dozen times since he was first created, that doesn't mean the new version isn't Batman because he's not written the same way he was 60 years ago and its the same here.

Because that character (and others) were in continuous publication and so changed slowly over the course of the stories. While looking back on who the character is now and who he was originally, yes it's a big change. But, month to month, the changes were small and added up over time. The demarcations seeming significant mostly in hindsight. Until the last couple of years, it's not easy to pinpoint a particular point and say, this is where the character is now as opposed to last month and the year preceding. And, it's not like Batman currently has super powers.

Whereas, the Shadow, all we have are the original stories and radio broadcasts, many of the pulps being reprinted and easily and affordably available to readers for the first time in decades. Thus, the comic doesn't have 60 plus years of history by dozens of creators to serve as source material but an amazingly small handful. While it's been 60 years since their original publication, with the great gap in time between appearances, his last appearance may as well have been a couple of months ago.

However, it is important to keep in mind that from the onset, the Shadow has TWO very different models, the pulp and the radio versions. And, considering his dual origins and how the two fed each other and their relative popularity, both are viable versions to consider. The movie was actually amazingly on-model in incorporating elements of both, drawing equally from both sources and coming up with a viable and enjoyable compromise.

[une]

If this version is "very different", then its not the Shadow, is it?

And the point is, the Shadow doesn't HAVE powers. That was nonsense added to the radio show version. The original character (in the pulps, which you can easily read from the many volumes published by Sanctum Books) was more of a spymaster who used stage magician tricks.

It's definitely not the pulp version of the Shadow, but I think that's a good thing. I think it's great that Garth Ennis is taking some of the basic ideas and concepts of the Shadow and making something that is new, but at the same time still the Shadow. This kind of reinvention keeps properties fresh and relevant. I would of course prefer for someone like Garth Ennis to make something totally new, but with the realities of the American comic book industry, that is probably not going to happen. So this kind of re-imagining is really the next best thing.

The pulp version of the character will still exist in the original pulp books, but now we have a new version that might better appeal to modern sensibilities and tastes. In my opinion, for a fan of the pulps, the absolute worst that could happen is that this version becomes so popular that it usurps the role of the pulp stories as the iconic version of the character. Which won't affect the existence of the original pulps at all and will only make their reprinting more likely. So it's really a win-win for Shadow fans.

[Manga4life]

I like the fact that it's not the exact Pulp version of The Shadow, I think they need to twist things up a bit instead of just doing a carbon copy of what's come before and I'm very happy with how Dynamite has handled almost all of their characters, especially the Pulp heroes. I've read so many complain about this character or that character and how it's nothing like the comics they grew up with and blah blah blah, I'm just glad that Dynamite has the balls to tweak things up and try something original from time to time.

As for The Shadow #1, it was well worth the wait! Amazing art and a fun and easy to follow story led this bad boy into "fun" status with me, probably my favorite Ennis since Hitman back in the 90's, but then again I wasn't a fan of a lot of Ennis' work back then.

[thwhtGuardian]

I like the fact that it's not the exact Pulp version of The Shadow, I think they need to twist things up a bit instead of just doing a carbon copy of what's come before and I'm very happy with how Dynamite has handled almost all of their characters, especially the Pulp heroes. I've read so many complain about this character or that character and how it's nothing like the comics they grew up with and blah blah blah, I'm just glad that Dynamite has the balls to tweak things up and try something original from time to time.

As for The Shadow #1, it was well worth the wait! Amazing art and a fun and easy to follow story led this bad boy into "fun" status with me, probably my favorite Ennis since Hitman back in the 90's, but then again I wasn't a fan of a lot of Ennis' work back then.

This is my feeling exactly, I'm a big fan of the pulps by Gibson but for a new ongoing I think something different was needed and this was it.