I'm doing this post on a Thursday rather than a Wednesday (when I normally do comic book reviews) because this actually isn't a review of a comic book story.
For years, comic books often included a short text story to take advantage of different postal rates. Two pages of text were required to qualify a comic as a magazine and thus get lower rates.
So today we are going to look at the Shadow text stories that appeared in the eight issues of Archie Comics Shadow comic book, published for eight issues in 1964 and 1965. The comic book stories themselves are considered an abomination by most Shadow fans. Despite a fairly accurate depiction of him on the cover of the 1st issue, the stories within were essentially about a completely different character.
But the eight-part text story--one part per issue--that was published during the comics' run was actually pretty good. It's an Alternate Universe Shadow, taking elements from both the pulp and the radio version of the character, resulting in a unique but viable take on the character.
In this version, Lamont Cranston is filthy rich, but bored with his life running the Cranston Corporation. So he leaves that life behind and randomly chooses Cairo as a destination at which he'll try to find adventure.
Well, he finds it. First, he runs into a hypnotist that performs a street act. Then he out-hypnotises the hypnotist, discovering a natural ability that allows him to control the minds of others.
He sails for Greece. Aboard ship, he sees a trio of thugs attempting to murder someone. On a whim, he cuts a poncho-like costume out of the canvas covering a lifeboat. Using this to blend in with the dark, he then uses boxing skills to surprise and take out the thugs. Of course, they weren't the most efficient thugs, what with their murder attempt (trying to shove their victim overboard) taking long enough for Cranston to make a costume.
In Greece, Cranston continues to run into trouble. One night, someone comes diving through the glass window of a bistro, pursued by three armed men. Here's where the story gets pretty cool. Using his hypnotic powers, he get the armed men to drop their guns by convincing them the weapons are red-hot. Then he tells them to fight each other. While they are busy pummelling each other, Cranston questions their intended victim. I love this image--Cranston and the guy he saved calmly talking to one another while three criminals beat the snot out of each other right next to them.
That guy turns out to be Weston, but in this universe he's the head of the American Secret Service, not the New York police commissioner (as he was in both the radio and pulp universes). He's currently working with an organization called C.H.I.E.F., an U.N.C.L.E.-like group that uses agents from various countries to take on extraordinary threats to the world.
Because of the timing of these stories (coming out the same year as the TV series premiered), I think the simularity to U.N.C.L.E is just a coincidence, but I'm not sure.
Anyway, Cranston discovers the thugs have been programmed NOT to give away the name of their boss or what the upcoming plot against the world might be. He does manage to flatter them into giving away their boss's name anyways by convincing them he's the Devil and telling them what a great job they've done being evil.
The name of their boss? Shiwan Khan--the pulp Shadow's arch enemy!
All this takes up seven chapters over the first seven issues of the comic book. Sadly, the eighth chapter presents us with a cliffhanger that will be forever unresolved when Shiwan Khan captures Weston and Cranston. After issue #8, the comic book was cancelled.
So if anyone ever invents interdimensional travel and visits this particular Shadow universe, please find out what happened to that particular Shadow. His story wasn't Walter Gibson-quality, but it was still fun and was the only good thing to come out of that particular comic book. It is sad we never got to finish his story.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment