So, what's everyone's opinion on Dynamite "The Shadow"?

[MajorHoy]

So what if it wasn't in the pulps, this isn't the pulps.....this is Dynamite Comics in 2012. Things change, characters change, creators change, and readers change, in my opinion change isn't always a bad thing and you seem to be the only one whining about it.

At least they haven't made any of the classic pulp characters suddenly gay. (Have they? )

[Ed Love]

So what if it wasn't in the pulps, this isn't the pulps.....this is Dynamite Comics in 2012. Things change, characters change, creators change, and readers change, in my opinion change isn't always a bad thing and you seem to be the only one whining about it.

I'm of the mind, that if you are going to go through the trouble of using an existing character and banking on that recognition, then there is a reasonable expectation of fidelity to the source material. Yes, there can be some changes for different media and times, but that's not a catch-all excuse. If I decide to write a historical novel based on the Revolutionary War, I cannot just have Abraham Lincoln in it because I find him more interesting than Washington and then make him an educated black man to satisfy political correctness of the modern age.

However, the Shadow had several different and conflicting incarnations. The pulps where he was Kent Allard who borrowed the Lamont Cranston identity, had a crew of agents, and used stage magician tricks and misdirection (not ninjitsu) and guns to fight crime. The radio where he was Lamont Cranston, traveled mainly with Margo Lane, was a bit more charming and charismatic and known as a consultant on crimes and had the power to cloud men's minds and be invisible. He wasn't a particularly good shot nor used cloak and hat and shadows. The 1940s comics, he had the cloak and hat but also the power to turn invisible. The movie serial, he was Lamont Cranston and a scientist with Margo Lane as his assistant. He wore the hat and cloak and good at blending with shadows and disguise but no mental powers (his villain on the other hand had a scientific device that made him invisible). Then there's the Alec Baldwin movie that also seemed to try to blend the different elements: cloak and hat, really Lamont Cranston, had some mental abilities to turn himself invisible as well as change the look of his face.

The Dynamite series didn't particularly interest me because I didn't find the mixture they came up with particularly interesting or have that sense of fun and mystery that others did. Their Lamont Cranston/Shadow came across as a bit of a bastard. Intense but not compelling, charismatic or compassionate. Just not a guy I care to spend $3.99 a month to spend time with. The mental powers wouldn't have bothered me as much if I felt the soul of the character was in there.