PREVIEW: The Shadow #7

[jsf]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then. In any event, your claims in number (1) actually undercut everything you subsequently say, especially when you say you like the film version of the character. How can you make those allowances but then rip what Dynamite's doing? (And I'm not really asking, I'm just pointing out the way making an exception like that -- any exception actually -- undercuts your ability to argue that there is a "valid" iteration of the character. Whatever reasons you have for allowing the movie, or serial, or radio version of the character to be considered genuine can be used to justify the comic version by someone else. So you make an exception for the movie, while I make an exception for the comic -- and neither of us can say anything about the "validity" of the character as he originally appeared, because in making the exceptions it's shown that validity is less authoritative or important than initially stated.)

[Jon Clark]

Anyone else wonder if the mugging that starts the Shadow on this arc is supposed to be an implied Batman tie-in? It just made me think of a few Batman homages I've seen and I half expected a pay-off where we learned that the Shadow's "power loss" actually might have been fated so that Batman was born (though without any concrete details DC could litigate of course).

[jsf]

Anyone else wonder if the mugging that starts the Shadow on this arc is supposed to be an implied Batman tie-in? It just made me think of a few Batman homages I've seen and I half expected a pay-off where we learned that the Shadow's "power loss" actually might have been fated so that Batman was born (though without any concrete details DC could litigate of course).

I thought the same thing. Batman was born because of a mishap by the Shadow -- intriguing suggestion.

On another note, I really loved the art. I think Jack Herbert may be one of the best kept secrets in the industry. Very bold, clean style.

Didn't mind the story, although I prefer a little less 1st person narration from the Shadow. It seems to lessen the aura of mystique around him.

[Michael24]

Finally got it this morning, and honestly, I found this standalone #7 more entertaining than the whole first six-issue arc. It was a tight little story that still delivered some good character beats, so if Victor Gischler is also writer of the next arc, I have high hopes for it being better than Ennis's story.