Managed to make it 3/4 of the way through before deciding I had to shelve this one. Let me start by saying I really enjoy The Shadow. I like more of the modern take but have also read some stories from decades back that were good as well. Going into this, I knew that others had either a love or hate view of the story. It's not the violence or the UZIs that bother me. This isn't a "That's not MY Batman" type if issue I have with this. In fact, going in, I tried to think of this as a sort of Elsew...

This was highly entertaining, no matter what many reviewers below say! I think one problem for many other reviewers is Chaykin's style; he's innovative, highly stylized, and he's famous for not dumbing down his stories. He says in the great interview in the back of the book how the first issue/part one is intentionally a bit confusing - and it certainly is - because he wanted to mislead the reader so we won't see the big payoff/revelation coming. It was, perhaps, too misleading, 'cause after the...

One of coolest comics ever. Imagine a pulp story from the 80s and you get this. After disappearance of more than 50 years, Shadow returns in blaze of glory, Uzi wielding angel of death, avenging deaths of his colleagues. True, the series may be a bit tough to swallow for newcomers. But intriguing plotting made it up. Add that to sympathetic Chaykin's art, grotesque violence, and always healthy and welcome dose of sexism and black humor, rife with 80s pop culture references. As I said, cool!

The Shadow a lethal two gun carrying vigilante from the Thirties and forties makes his return in the eigthies when somebody is killing his surviving paladins (people the Shadow worked with mosty after saving their lives from doom.Howard Chaykin draws this menacing figure for an mature audience mostly because of some gore when it comes to violence. This series was in 4 parts upon release and did not rekindle any fanhood for the Shadow. It became a standalone sadly.That said the Shadow does belong...

I just don't get it.The artwork is kind of messy, and could well work in a run-down grimy setting, but I don't know, it's all a little too angular for my personal taste.As Howard Chaykin himself said in an interview at the end of the series: "The Shadow himself is not very interesting to me, but the people around him are". That explains a lot. The Shadow, whoever he really is, is just a somewhat heroic vessel, too shallow to even be problematic in the way he treats his co-workers (or 'subjects',...

Chaykin (like Matt Wagner) goes with Pulp Heroes like Frank Miller with Daredevil and Walter Simonson with Thor.Chaykin adds sex and lurid violence to the old-fashioned pulp with this comic. It's a 30s chauvinist character brought to the 80s (influenced by Black Kiss, Watchmen, etc.). It's a bit regressive in some ways. It's all style (straight lines and square jaws and overproduced special effects). It's got crowded and gauche panel work that is sometimes still endearing.

Genius often times messes things up.When I watch American football, I frequently ridicule a coaching move because it was a little too fancy and failed miserably. I’m an old school football fan, I prefer a solid running game only peppered with some passes, ball and time controlled, stay in bounds with a vicious and relentless defense. A coach who calls plays that gets a little too cute and I’m calling him out. Of course, when a creative, innovative play WORKS, his genius and boldness are met with...

'Updating' a classic character into the (then) modern age made for an ok story when first printed, I guess, but it's been done so often and so much better since that it's a pale imitation even if it is original.

This one didn't knock me out. The pacing is a mess, since the villain's scheme isn't even referenced until the end of the third issue (of four). The art is neat, Chaykin doing his usual fine work, but especially for a Shadow novice like myself this was not a gripping read. When it comes to dollar bin comics, you win some, and you lose some.

It's interesting re-reading this after so long--and as a digital comic via Comixology no less. Despite the seminal place this holds in my history as a comics reader, i's clear now I had no idea what I was encountering when I was a teenager. I doubt I understood it it either for it's formal experimentation or for its more "mature" themes. It is very much of the 1980s, audacious enough to send its hero into a new wave club where he poses as a punk rock singer, shameless enough not to be even remot...

The Shadow is the vigilante Batman wants to be when he grows up. Howard Chaykin is a writer/artist I've really been getting into lately, with a hyperkinetic pulp style, all square-jawed, raised-eyebrowed heroes and slinky femmes fatales. This meeting of the two is often held to be the finest example of either, but didn't wholly work for me. Yes, when the Shadow is in action, it's excellent - in particular, the way his speech is depicted on the page, and his terrifying laugh becomes part of the l...

A fascinating dive into 1930’s misogyny transplanted into an edgy 80’s comic book adaptation. Picked up this trade paperback of the 4 issue initial 80’s run of The Shadow because it was in a dollar bin and the cover promised it was “The controversial mini-series in one complete volume”. I love a good cheap AF trade and the fact that it seems to have been printed in 1987 caught my attention. It’s a DC series but oh so dark and violent and filled with sex and S&M themes. The whole series came befo...

This was a disappointment I have fond memories of the shadow of the late 80s though I started later with the series and the "seven deadly finns" storyline maybe it's going back now at a more mature age and seeing this through different eyes or this hasn't aged very well reflecting the times certainly when high violence & mature themes were not the norm But it's novelty has certainly been worn down here reading it by 21st century standards I love some of Howard Chaykin' s stuff but this goes nowh...

Some books or Graphic Novels you buy and read because of the Writer and/or the artist.I have to confess, that's not the case for me when it comes to The Shadow. I buy them simply because I love the character so darn much!Which is not to say that I don't enjoy the writing or the art, I also happen to be a long-time Howard Chaykin fan. But I have to admit that The Shadow is a guilty pleasure that I find very difficult to pass up.

This is so incredibly stupid that I'm angry that I'm still going to read the second half. If he were to write the perfect book from here to the end -by divine intervention- it would still be turd altogether. The whole sci-fi angle is so bad that it would be an honor if I called it nerdy. I don't have the proper level of insults for the concept and the story and dialogue stink too. What the hell was he thinking? The introduction lets you know that he was writing it his way or not at all which sho...

So The Shadow's gone away for a while and his agents have all gotten old... and then he returns, in the (then) present day, ready for new adventures. Could've been good. I liked this interpretation of his backstory, and where he'd learned all that cool stuff he could do, so there was that.The rest of it wasn't nearly as good as it could have been, though. The story was a hot mess in terms of pacing and writing and villains, the old guard didn't have nearly enough to do, and the new generation wa...

Okay I'm going to be honest here, I didn't understand much of what happened in this book. Sure there's things happening but I'm not sure if it was the art, the wtiting or a combination of the two but I found this to be an incomprehensible reading experience. So I've never read The Shadow, but he has been a character that has fascinated me in recent years (plus I'm an absolute sucker for pulp fiction) but I'm not sure if this story did anything to sway me. He (along with some other supporting cha...

Blood and Judgement proved very divisive when first published in 1986 as Howard Chaykin took the essence of the violent vigilante dispensing retribution from the original 1930s pulp novels and transferred him to the 1980s.So where’s the Shadow been since he disappeared in 1949? Chaykin has a surprising answer for that, incorporates the Shadow’s origin, and moves events at a cracking pace. He even features the Shadow’s 1940s crew of assistants, now all elderly, but in a largely respectful fashion...

I read this as a 10 year old. This is not the comic that anyone should sell a 10 year old but nonetheless I loved it then. I love it today. It's great. It's one of the best comics from the late 1980s explosion in sequential storytelling. There is no one else who is more perfect to handle The Shadow than Howard Chaykin.

Great update I was introduced to the Shadow with DC’s O’Neil and Kaluta comic books. This update by Chaykin feels like it is the same character. His agents have aged and that is dealt with and that is addressed in the story, since Lamont Cranston has not aged one bit.His reappearance into modern society ties very much into his origin, which is recounted here and is integral to the story. It’s not unnecessary exposition.A very interesting and enjoyable tale that is well told and drawn.