Comic review: The Shadow #2- Starring Poor Old Mr Crowley

Writer: Cullen Bunn
Art: Giovanni Timpano
Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment
Released: 2nd September 2015


I do like me a bit of Shadow in the morning, a bit of occult daftness, a bit of red scarfed visual stimulation, and a bit of double printed text, just to keep me on my toes.

Double printed text?

Yeah, they messed up in ‘The Shadow #2’ duplicating the same text on two pages, but with slightly different art panels. I haven’t had my coffee yet, but I noticed it, oops.

The other thing I noticed about the book was Aleister Crowley, the beastly blokey who is lurking in the back of that famous Beatles album cover (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band), and a name that often crops up when people talk about the occult. He was a bit of a pathetic creature in this book, ageing out, depressed and afraid. I hope that Mr. Bunn is duping us all and that he has a bit more for him to do, as so far, it just seemed like a bit of a waste of a fascinating real life personality that you could do so much more with.

The plot of the book involves a cabal of villainous magicians that want to get their hands on ‘the last illusion,’ a secret that Harry Houdini took with him to the grave. It’s up to our shadowy hero to stop them, because if they get it, well, they’ll get up to all kinds of mischief, I guess. That’s simple, that’s easy, and that’s exactly what I want in my Shadow books. This particular issue was a bit talky, but it had to be to set up what is coming next, and it had a good cliff hanger, so that’s enough for me to return next month.

The Shadow #2 then is a simple, old-fashioned pulp comic book. I like that. Keep it simple, keep the mainstream statist/collectivist programming to a minimum, don’t lecture me with Marxist identity politics and tell a good, clear story. I can read the book, enjoy it, and forget it. There was nothing here to irritate me, and hey man that’s good enough for me.

Okay then, so that’s the first review of the new week done. Time to get me some coffee and to see if 2000AD is out in W.H Smith's yet. The Shadow #2 has that textual duplication error, but I enjoyed the book, mainly for the appearance of the Great Beast, but as I said in the first line of this review, I do like me a bit of Shadow in the morning, always have done, for some reason.


Rating: 6.5/10 (A narrative set up issue, with a beastly guest star)

Ozzy's ode to Mr Crowley