Dynamite Entertainment 2016
Written by David Avallone
Illustrated by Dave Acosta
Coloured by Omi Remalante
Lettered by Taylor Esposito
He knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men… but who knows what lurks in the heart of The Shadow? Find out, in the first issue of this mind-blowing four-part storyline entitled “Shadow of a Doubt”, as the Master of Men takes a fateful step into that wondrous land bounded only by imagination: an area which we call… The Twilight Zone.
For some reason this wasn’t even on my radar I guess my mind just flew past it but don’t let this happen to you. Now we’re all familiar with the Twilight Zone, SyFy runs or ran a marathon yearly and after reading this issue I think it struck me that every person who went to the Twilight Zone was having a crisis of conscience and had a lesson to learn. The Shadow may know what evil lurks in the heart of men but now it’s time to see what lurks in his own mind.
I was more than pleasantly surprised that this story takes place in 1939 because the best Shadow stories usually do. So naturally we start off with Nazi’s in the U.S. and the Shadow, Margo and Shrevy are there to teach them a lesson. Only in the car it’s Margo who thinks she has to teach the Shadow a lesson. David really does a number with the dialogue here and it’s really strong, powerful and quick to the punch. It’s also the catalyst for the story and it’s really quite something to witness.
Once the Twilight Zone part of the story gets underway I was kind of hoping to see Rod Serling not gonna lie. That didn’t stop me from reading the narration boxes in my own best impression, it was really bad but totally fun.
So I can’t really go into what happens but I have to tell you that the originality of this story and how it plays into the whole Twilight Zone concept blew me away. It’s one thing to wrestle with yourself and to wear so many masks, Kent Allard, Lamont Cranston, Ying Ko and the Shadow that’s a lot of personalities rummaging around in one noggin to begin with. So at what point is a mask not a mask anymore?
Dave and Omi do remarkable things with the interiors here. I like Dave’s art he’s a great eye for storyboarding/storytelling the way the pages and panels are used to help the flow of the story. His people are great they all have great individuality about them and honestly Margo, Lamont and Shrevy look marvelous. Not every panel has backgrounds in them but many do and I like that also without them the focus is entirely on the characters so it’s nice. His Shadow is pretty impressive and that last page wowza!
Dynamite continues to surprise me. They have these great classic characters and every time you think you know them the do something like this to expand upon what’s already been established. This is a great read and a combination you wouldn’t have thought of on your own which on the surface you’d think wouldn’t work but totally does.