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Shadow, The - The Death Of Margo Lane #3
Released by: Dynamite Entertainment
Released on: August 3rd, 2016.
Written And Illustrated by: Matt Wagner
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When we last left The Shadow, things ended badly for he and his team. The fight with the Tongs erupted in violence and the loss of life on both sides - and left The Shadow with more questions than answers. When this third issue begins, The Shadow intends to get some of those answers as the story opens with a scene where he attempts to interrogate Anthony Genovese. He wants to know more about his ties to the Red Empress. The mobster's bodyguards open fire but are made short work of. Genovese pretends not to know anything, but The Shadow is smarter than that and once he raises a .45 to the mobster's forehead, he drops the tough guy act and offers up everything he knows about their drug smuggling operation.
Later that night at the illustrious Cobalt Club, Lamont Cranston approaches Commissioner Weston where he learns that the mayor won't let the cops cleanup the Tongs in Chinatown so long as he's trying to improve race relations in the neighborhood. Later still that same night, in New York's Chinatown, The Shadow's henchmen, Harry Vincent, Jericho Duke and Myra Reldon infiltrate the club known as The Shanghai Café, the Tongs' base of operations. They kill the power just in time for their boss to arrive in hopes of finding the illusive Red Empress herself!
“Run home boy, before the corpse-beetle that is crime burrows into your gut! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!â€
Proving once again that the weed of crime really does bear bitter fruit, Matt Wagner's most recent take on The Shadow continues to kick no small amount of serious ass. Those familiar with his art style already know that he does art deco better than anyone else in the business, and the period setting for this storyline gives him the chance to really run with that. This is a ridiculously stylish book, it's absolutely beautiful to look at and it features some fantastic 'old New York' backdrops all rendered perfectly by Wagner's pencils. The characters are also nicely designed, with The Shadow himself looking particularly fierce and intimidating in this incarnation. Again, as with the first two issues, the coloring work from Brennan Wagner is the icing on the cake - the artwork is top notch.
As to the storyline? Again, Wagner knows what he is doing. His take on The Shadow is pure, there's no need for updating or for revisionism, and with that comes period detail not just in the cadence of the dialogue but in the slang used. There are less than subtle elements of racism evident with certain characters, which again, is part of the era in which this is all set, but it's handled with maturity. The plot itself is quite interesting. With Margo missing, The Shadow seems more Hell-bent than ever on seeing that justice is served, no matter how violent it might get. When he and his team are sent into action in this third issue's finale, the results are positively ruthless. The Shadow is, in Wagner's hands, more of an unstoppable supernatural force than anything else - and it's perfect.
