In Helfer & Baker’s Shadow
‘It didn’t last long; true-blue Shadow fans (and, apparently, the owners of The Shadow trademark) didn’t care for Helfer and Baker’s smart-ass approach, especially when they killed the character off and resurrected him as a killer cyborg. It’s not surprising that happened to also be their final issue.’ –Robot 6
The Shadow (1987-89) was my favorite comic book series.
It was a sequel to a Howard Chaykin-penned 1986 update to the classic radio program, pulp novel character The Shadow, ‘What evil lurks in the hearts of men . . . The Shadow knows!’
Chaykin had brought the character into the 1980s, with uzis instead of .45s, ‘for mature readers’ emblazoned on the cover. And unlike the rest of his crew (Margo Lane and others had aged), Shadow alter-ego Lamont Cranston was still a rather youngish, dapper guy – ready to take on the New York of the Miami Vice era.
A monthly series followed – and after a few artist changes, writer Andy Helfer and artist Kyle Baker made it something else entirely.
Helfer and Baker’s take on The Shadow became a crazy whirlwind tour of Sopranos-like mobsters, wickedly dark humor, extreme violence, unexpected plot twists and in issue 13, they killed off the main character. Then his sons lost his body and with every successive chapter, one could not predict what would happen next. [Read more →]
