Roberson and Dynamite Crossover Pulp Heroes in "Masks"

[RockyBanks]

Just finished reading The Shadow #1-2 and enjoyed them both. I agree with the other posters who would like to see The Spider with his "traditional" look, but I understand that with both he and The Shadow in the same book, it's probably better to keep them as distinctive as possible. It's going to be AWESOME to have The Shadow and Green Hornet together in the same book! Not to mention Kato and Zorro! Very excited.

Absolutely agreed. The Spider's traditional look would be cool, but he'd be easily confused with The Shadow.

I recently picked up The Shadow #1 and loved it. I'll definitely be following this book in the future, and I'd love to read Masks.

[Ed Love]

Absolutely agreed. The Spider's traditional look would be cool, but he'd be easily confused with The Shadow.

I recently picked up The Shadow #1 and loved it. I'll definitely be following this book in the future, and I'd love to read Masks.

I don't mind the serial look for The Spider. Mainly because his "traditional" look isn't really all that consistent. In the first story he doesn't wear a costume. Sometimes, his Spider disguise is with a hump, sometimes not. The hump seems to be part of another identity that the populace seem to accept as being the identity of the Spider. Sometimes, there's a wig. He goes whole adventures as just Wentworth or in disguise (not costume), since he tends to not leave witnesses, it's not a big deal. On the covers, he often was just a masked man in black suit, hat and cape. A few showed him with the wig and vampire teeth. I tend to picture him as he was on the covers more often than not.

Now, I think a talented artist would be able to easily differentiate the two. They wear different style hats, the Shadow has flashes of color, different faces. The Shadow might be leaner.

[Alton]

This for the most part looks a lot more focused than Prophecy which I decided not to follow,but I think we are throwing in far too many characters. Let's focus on the main 3 Hornet,Shadow,and Spider first and forget about the rest until the next arc. I am disappointed ,however, that like DC's First Wave there is no Phantom although given the setting I don't see a part for the character.Quite frankly an updated Zorro makes even less sense and Miss Fury seems to be there just to be politically correct. It would make more sense to upgrade Margot's role.Another thing I'd like to see dumped is Black Bat because of the Batman connection. Batman in First Wave really brought the whole tone of First Wave down in my opinion. The last thing we need is another Batman title right now.That being said whatever they come up with this looks like fun.

[Ed Love]

This for the most part looks a lot more focused than Prophecy which I decided not to follow,but I think we are throwing in far too many characters. Let's focus on the main 3 Hornet,Shadow,and Spider first and forget about the rest until the next arc. I am disappointed ,however, that like DC's First Wave there is no Phantom although given the setting I don't see a part for the character.Quite frankly an updated Zorro makes even less sense and Miss Fury seems to be there just to be politically correct. It would make more sense to upgrade Margot's role.Another thing I'd like to see dumped is Black Bat because of the Batman connection. Batman in First Wave really brought the whole tone of First Wave down in my opinion. The last thing we need is another Batman title right now.That being said whatever they come up with this looks like fun.

I don't really have a problem with a Zorro-esque character per se. There's precedent with the films and serials: Don Q, Zorro's Black Whip, Son of Zorro, Ghost of Zorro and even the two Antonio Banderas films. All movies concerning the legacy of Zorro, a masked man who rose to protect the innocent and fight against corruption. This particular pulp story easily fits the criteria that could lead to a new Zorro and considering that it's a character Dynamite already is publishing, I can see them taking advantage of that.

Despite the similarities in name and outfit, the Black Bat is no more Batman than the Shadow and the Spider are. If written correctly, you shouldn't really get a Batman vibe (though his backstory will seem familiar ala Dr. Mid-nite and Two-Face who lifted the origin almost verbatim). Being crowded is a concern, especially since the Black Bat, the Shadow and the Spider come with distinctive and important supporting cast who they use in their fights against crime. I don't know enough about Miss Fury to judge but she does seem the odd character out. But, so are the Green Hornet and Kato who generally used non-lethal methods to fight crime, especially compared to the others here (and the Green Hornet is the only one not wearing almost all black so I guess he's the one the crooks will be aiming at... might be funny if there is a running gag that he's the one who gets the most blame for things going wrong as he's the only one that is seen).