The Shadow/Batman #1

The Shadow and Batman join forces again in the new crossover miniseries from Dynamite and DC Comics.
Writer: Steve Orlando
Artist: Giovanni Timpano
Published by: Dynamite Entertainment/ DC Comics  

It’s midnight: New Year’s Eve in New York City.

Professor Pyg and his army of Dollotrons have gone on a recruitment drive for more members of his gang. Thankfully, Batman has arrived from Gotham City to stop the psychotic menace. But the Dark Knight is quickly overwhelmed. If it wasn’t for the unexpected appearance of the Damian Wayne Robin, Batman would have become one of Pyg’s minions.

Upon Pyg’s capture, Batman and Robin are alerted to a forgotten evil known as the Silent Seven: a group of super villains long believed to have stopped operating sometime in the 1940s. The knowledge Professor Pyg obtains is a source of division between the Dynamic Duo. But for the champion of the Big Apple, the Shadow, it’s information that chills him to his very core.

The opening salvo in the Shadow/Batman crossover is very unusual.

The storyline doesn’t follow the established rules for a crossover. Generally, the first issue is balanced 50/50 between the two stars as they slowly merge to work the same case or adventure coming together by the final panel of the opening chapter. Here, the Shadow only appears in 5 pages. This premier issue is all Batman and Robin.

I’m not really sure where Steve Orlando (Justice League of America) is going with this miniseries. A crossover typically provides equal amounts of coverage for the two parties being brought together. If Orlando is going to follow this formula, then the next issue is going to be all about the Shadow. We’ll just all have to way and see what the writer has up his sleeve for issue #2.

Now let’s talk about the art.

I loved it! Italian artist Giovanni Timpano’s style is very similar to another Batman favorite of mine- Frank Quitely. The Lone Ranger/Green Hornet crossover artist, like Quitely, pays exhaustive detail to the tiniest of things, like the refuse on a snowy New York sidewalk or the banner logo for a 1930s newspaper in the background of the Batcave. Timpano’s art is really top shelf stuff!

At the heart of this Shadow/Batman miniseries is a mystery. The Silent Seven are foes of the Shadow. For someone like myself who is not really familiar with that character, I’m at a loss as to why these guys scare the bejeezus out of the Shadow among other things.

Will we see further Batman villains pop up in this series? Is the Shadow going to finally interact with the Dark Knight? Why is Damian Wayne playing such a large part in this story at odds with his father? I really can’t tell you because Steve Orlando isn’t playing by the rules of crossover story writing. But I think that’s okay. Compared to other team-ups, I feel more interested in knowing what happens next in this miniseries though I am clueless as to what’s going on for a large portion of this story thus far.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.