The Shadow by James Patterson and Brian Stitts (2021)

 

Choices were made. Now I am a fan of the Shadow so I have to admit I was a little perplexed by some of the choices made here.

I get Conde Naste's choice to reboot The Shadow (and Doc Savage). I get why they chose James Patterson (and friends) as the writer(s).

Patterson as a brand is much like the old school pulp writers churning out stories.

Now I get those choices. Others not so much.  Now some choices were external to the book.

Sanctum had a long running reprint program of the Shadow and was approaching the end of those reprints, when Conde Naste told them the licence was expiring, Sanctum upped production and asked for a little extra time to get the last couple of issues out.  Conde Naste said no and the reprints remain incomplete.

Now this seems like a move to upset the fans, it does nothing to make the faithful look favourably on this new book.

But hey this was all external to the book itself and wasn’t the authors fault and I shouldn’t judge the final product because of corporate Argy bargy.

So I found a cheap copy at a book sale and grabbed it. I went in with an open mind.

(When telling this to my wife she says “Yeah I can see the fraction of a millimetre you have your mind open.”)

So I read the book and choices were made in the making of the book.

Now the book opens with Lamont Cranston meeting Margo Lane for dinner – both have news. Lamont is going to propose and Margo is pregnant. Then Shiwan Khan poisons them. Lamont races and has both of them put into suspended animation.

Ok we want to get The Shadow out of the 1930s/40s and that’s a way to do it.  Hey it worked for Sherlock Holmes three times. (The Return of Sherlock Holmes(1987), Sherlock Holmes Returns (1992) and Sherlock Holmes in the 22^nd Century (1999-2001)).

I get that but we don’t see the Shadow in action in the 1930s. If I was not aware of who/what the Shadow was I’d be in the dark, we’re told a few times that he was a detective but we aren’t shown that.  Why take the Shadow off the board in 1937?

That’s when the radio program started. The pulp series had been running since 1931 and the Shadow was been the narrator of The Detective Story hour in 1930. But his arguably most famous incarnation that formed the basis of this version of the Shadow is sort of wiped off the board.

(There is a scene later where Lamont says that he never dressed like the pulp version and he thought it odd that the radio show revealed his real name.)

The story then jumps ahead 150 years to 2037. We are introduced to Maddy Gomes who is about to turn 18 and receive her inheritance. Now Maddy is named in this will not her grandmother or her parents.  Maddy can do the Jedi mind trick and control people.

Her parts are told in first person and Lamont and Margot’s in third person which can be a little distracting.

Oh yeah The Shadow’s history is changed no longer is he a World War One ace, he and Shiwan Khan are ten thousand year old monks trained in mystic arts.  This kinda ruins the whole Shiwan Khan is the descendant of Genghis Khan (1162-1227) that is the character’s thing.

Also Lamont suddenly gets new abilities like throwing fireballs and shapeshifting into a cat and wall.  Shiwan can also shapeshift, he becomes a runaway bus at one point.

The plot has Maddy waking up Lamont exploring the world where World Leader Gizmonde rules with an iron fist and the poor are getting poorer.  And there is an EEEEVIL!!!! Plan to poison large groups of people with food.

Maddy wakes up Margo and the three of them try to stop Gizmonde who we discover is Shiwan Khan.

Maddy gets trained by Lamont and can turn herself invisible.

Margo doesn’t mention that she was pregnant until the end of the adventure assuming that she had lost the baby, which is possible but you’ve been in status for 150 years unaging pretty sure the baby would be too.

Or we discover that she had the baby, How? Who knows?

That female baby grew up and had a baby and so on and so forth until Maddy.  Yep she’s their multiple great granddaughter.

I didn’t get any of the choices made to change things – it felt like Patterson and Stitts had novel about Maddy fighting the man in a dystopia and shoehorned the Shadow update very badly.  There were times I wanted to fling the book across the room, the choices made were so confusing and mind boggling – it was like it wanted to have its cake and eat it too.

I tried, I really wanted some enjoyable new Shadow adventures but this ain’t it.  There’s second book “Circle of Death” but I don’t think I’ll be reading that one anytime soon.

And really neither cover sets the world on fire.

Dominic Fortune in “Slay Bells” in Hulk! 25 Feb 1981

 Story Denny O’Neil Art Howard Chaykin

Dom is still working for Ferdley’s Milk in the fifth and final adventure in Hulk Magazine where he is invited to meet the British Ambassador when he is accosted by The Silhouette who thinks that Fortune is an Irish assassin trying to kill the ambassador. 

The Silhouette is a less competent version of the Shadow and Dom really has no time for his nonsense.  The Silhouette’s real identity Lamar Canfield is hosting the party for the ambassador.  Sorry Canfield and his companion Margo Payne swear that he is not the Silhouette.

When Santa arrives with gifts for all the guests and kidnaps the ambassador.  Dom knocks out The Silhouette and rescues the ambassador.

It’s an interesting story seeing Dominic Fortune interacting with a version of the Shadow, a few years later Chaykin would do a Shadow miniseries for DC (1986) and another for Dynamite (2014). 

Adventureman #2 by Matt Fraction and the Dodsons

 So we're back for issue 2 and when issue #1 ended insects were crawling all over our heroine's house and a beam of light or something shoots out of the house.

So what happened next?  Uh not sure.  What was the beam of light? No idea.

The issue opens in some sort of scary dimension where a voice with scary borders chastises Phaedra Phantom.  Phaedra was one of Adventureman's team and she is being held in this dimension by Adventureman's archnemesis Baron Bizarre and Baroness Bizarre.  It's implied that she escaped and visited Claire in the first issue but that's not clear.  Baron Bizarre is made of bugs. There's a hint that if people remember Baron Bizarre it gives him more power.

That interlude ends and Claire and her son Tommy are walking to school.  Tommy is reading the Adventureman guidebook from last issue.  Tommy advises that they gave the address of Adventure Worldwide - Adventureman's headquarters.  Like Doc Savage's 86th floor headquarters the building is never identified in the pulps, but they give the address in this guidebook.

(This came from Philip Jose Farmer's Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life where Farmer made a confincing case that Doc's Headquarters was the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, a fact never revealed in the pulps) 

Tommy has to race to school and Claire has an appointment with two of her sisters.  One is baking souffles and the other arrives late, makes noise and ruins the souffles and bugs crawl out of them. Could they be connected to Baron Bizarre and the bugs from last issue?

During the exchange with her sisters, Claire is reading the guidebook and the test is in white writing accross the page.  In at least one point, one of the sister's talks to Claire and her speech bubble covers the text - I get that it shows that this is interrupting the reading but it hides the words.  The white words also appear over the top of the panels even over lighter parts of the picture where the words are lost and impossible to read.  This happens several times in this issue and it is so annoying.

After the souffle incident, Claire decides to visit Adventure Worldwide - so she jumps on her vespa and  zips through the city.  She snatches a coffee from a cop and we discover that Claire Connell used to be an NYPD cop.  We have no idea why she stopped - it may be when she lost her hearing or when she had her son or someother reason.   2 pages about how cool Claire looks on the Vespa but just the hint about her past.

She gets to building and there's a giant art deco skyscraper there, that she doesn't remember being there before.  She texts her son in class for the street view of the address.  Tommy gets into trouble and can't respond.

Claire then accosts a passerby and he tells her that the building there is a dump.  Clearly Matt Fraction has seen the 1994 Shadow movie starring Alec Baldwin where Shiwan Khan hides an entire hotel which serves as his headquarters in a similar fashion - and Alec Baldwin accosts a passerby in the same fashion.

Claire walks to the door but there is no handle but she remembers how one of Adventureman's assistants first finds the building - another place with white writing where it gets lost in the image.  This time the information is important to the story. 

It turns out that Phaedra Phantom phases you thorugh the door - the place is in ruins but the security system still works as Phaedra warns before she disappears.  Claire immediately sets off the security system and has a fight with two robots where Claire uses brains and brawn to defeat them.  Claire takes the elevator to the top of building (shades of Doc Savage's flearun elevator) and calls out that she has the book.

We then skip to the family Friday night dinner - Tom is there but his mother isn't.  His grandfather is about to ask about Claire when she charges in with her shirt and pants torn (in a likely homage to covers to the 1960s Doc Savage reprints that featured Doc in a torn shirt) 

And the issue ends.

Argh, there is so much to like in this book but it frustrates me in so many ways.  It seems like there is information that we should be getting but aren't and transitions that aren't quite working for me.  

And the timing of events is confusing.  Every Friday night the family gathers for dinner.  This happens in issue 1.  What appears to be the next day, (Saturday) she gets the guidebook from Phaedra and that night the bugs over the house and the light.

But that can't be right as what appears to be the next day (Sunday) Claire is dropping her son to school - she visits her sister, visits Adventure Inc and then turns up late for Friday night dinner.    

But that timeline can't be right clearly she got the book on Thursday of that week, then took Tommy to school on Friday morning and spent the day at Adventure Inc.  but it's not clear.  I'm not even sure that the events of issue two take place the day after the end of issue 1. 

Let's see if issue 3 solves some of these issues.

   

In Like Flynn (2018)

In Like Flynn Trailer

So the add a video function is being tempermental and not letting me embed the trailer for the new movie In Like Flynn.  I saw the trailer and I was so on board for this movie.  Thomas Cocqueral certainly looks the part as Errol Flynn.

However what if I was to tell you it was based on Errol Flynn's own travelouge Beam's End ?
(which hopefully means the book comes back in print because prices are crazy high)

But wait there's more Errol's grandson Luke Flynn is co-writer and producer?

Not enough for you? The director is Russell Mulcahy, of Razorback, Highlander, The Shadow and several episodes of the Teen Wolf TV series.

I really enjoyed this movie, the opening sequence in New Guinea brought to mind the opening sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark which is high praise from me.

Most of the movie is a fun pulp ride, i really really enjoyed what I have taken to calling the Razor dance as Flynn fights off several straight razor weilding gang members whilst charming the pants off the gangster's moll.

Flynn is irresistable to women and it gets him into trouble more than once.

But there is also a heart to this movie as Flynn acquires a yacht The Sirocco (the first of two boats with that name that he owned)  and brings in two of his mates Rex and Dook. There is a history between the three men and their friendship is the backbone of this movie.

The trio are joined by Charlie the sailor and owner of the ship.  who joins them on the trip to New Guinea.    I grew quite fond of the old salt who was at his beams end and knew that this would be his last voyage as he was mourning the death of his wife and daughter.  (The end credits replayed one of Charlie's sea shantys which brought a certain sadness to the whole affair.)  The quartet have an easy comraderie which can turn from playfulness to arguements in the blink of an eye yet all four are ready to jump in a help each other when they are in trouble.

If you get a chance check out this movie.