The Shadow: Year One #1
Written by Matt Wagner
Art by Wilfredo Torres
Colors by Brennan Wagner
Letters by Simon Bowland
Covers by Matt Wagner, Alex Ross, Chris Samnee & Howard Chaykin
Dynamite Entertainment
Release Date: February 20, 2013
Cover Price: $3.99

The Shadow Year One #1 is the first part of the untold origin of The Shadow. Kind of. What I was expecting and what this book delivered are two VERY different things.

Author Matt Wagner is legendary in the comic book business, and rightfully so. His list of credentials are WAY too long for me to list here, and let’s face it, you know who he is. Thankfully, he’s his awesome self writing this book. When I first hear about this series, I pictured something much different. I was looking for a great story about how LaMont Cranston BECAME The Shadow: his training, his reasons for doing so, etc., sort of like a Batman Begins type story for this character. Instead, what we have is a Batman Year One type story. Cranston returns home from abroad to New York, and that’s where the book starts. It’s about him becoming the masked vigilante hero that we all know and love.