The Shadow #0

The Shadow #0Although the timing of the one-shot seems odd with Howard Chaykin‘s mini-series (and that crappy current-day comic) being Dynamite’s only current titles involving The Shadow, The Shadow #0 offers us an one-shot at the opposite end of the spectrum of Chaykin’s tale be giving us a peek at the vigilante’s earlier days and his ties to an escape artist named Harry Houdini.

Although we get a brief flashback with Lamont Cranston training with the magician, the main focus of writer Cullen Bunn’s story involves Houdini’s competitors targeting the man’s wife after the magician’s death. Knowing what evil lurks in the hearts of men, and with a substantial debt to pay, The Shadow steps in to make things right.

Although the final interaction between The Shadow and the widow is a bit clunky, the use of a secret cabal of magicians as bad guys with all kinds of tricks up their sleeves is an intriguing idea that is left open-ended when the villains manage to allude the vigilante’s usual swift justice. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]

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