The Shadow

The Shadow (too German about: The Shadow ) is a in the 1930s by Walter B. Gibson under the pen name Maxwell Grant developed character from an American radio -Krimiserie that appeared in comics and pulp fiction.

description

Shadow is considered the forerunner of modern superheroes . Many later heroes, like Batman , are based on him. Characteristic of the gloomy antihero are his large, dark floppy hat, his red scarf that always covers the lower half of his face and his two large-caliber pistols .

Shadow possesses the ability, learned in Asia, to manipulate the mind of people through mental influence (based on hypnosis ) so that it can control and influence them. Among other things, he can make her believe he is invisible. In this state, only his shadow is still visible to normal mortals. This is how the name The Shadow is founded .

A big difference between the Shadow of the dime novels and the character of the Shadow from the radio shows is his real identity.

In the dime novels, the hero hides the pilot Kent Allard (known as "The Black Eagle") who crashed in Asia and who temporarily assumes the identity of his agent Lamont Cranston while he is abroad. In the later novels, however, it is hardly mentioned that there is a "real" Lamont Cranston. In the radio adventures, the rich playboy and bon vivant Cranston is actually the real identity of the Shadow . In the more recent novels it is even suggested that Allard's body was found in the wreckage of the plane and that Shadow is therefore neither Cranston nor Allard.

As the stories progress, Shadow builds a whole network of agents - usually people who owe him favors or who owe him their lives.

background

Gibson himself said that the character The Shadow is based on the real existing magician and mind reader Joseph Dunninger . Dunninger was a close friend of Gibson and had a popular radio show himself in the 1940s, where he read the thoughts of his guests live. In 1943 Dunninger appeared as one of the few real characters in the Shadow adventures in the Story House of Ghosts . In this story, Dunninger and Shadow fight side by side against ghosts in a haunted house.

Shadow on the radio

The first Shadow crime episode aired in the United States on July 31, 1930 . At first, Shadow was just the inactive narrator of the Street & Smith's Detective Story Magazine stories. The Shadow later became one of the most popular radio drama series in the United States. In 1937 and 1938, the role of Shadow was voiced by Orson Welles . In 1954 the series was discontinued.

Worth mentioning

Each episode of the radio show began with the sentences “ Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The shadow knows! "(" Who knows what evil lurks in people's hearts? The shadow knows it! ")
The Shadow had a predecessor of the same name. In 1929, the character invented by George C. Jenks appeared in Fame and Fortune magazine . In the story, The Shadow of Wall Street , Compton Moore was the protector of Wall Street , hunting dishonorable businessmen under the pseudonym Shadow .
In the December 1974 story The Night of The Shadow! (US-Batman # 259) by Dennis O'Neil , Shadow arrests a group of gangsters in Gotham City and saves the lives of Thomas Wayne and his son Bruce, who later becomes Batman .

In late 2006, Columbia Pictures acquired the film rights to Gibsons Shadow and planned a. a. with the help of Sam Raimi as producer, a remake of the material for 2008.

Film adaptations

year	title	Shadow
1937	The Shadow Strikes ¹	Rod La Rocque
1938	International Crime ²	- ³
1940	The Shadow	Victory Jory
1946	The Shadow Returns	Kane Richmond
1946	Behind the mask	Kane Richmond
1946	The Missing Lady	Kane Richmond
1958	The Invisible Avenger ⁴	Richard Derr
1994	Shadow and the curse of Khan (Original title: The Shadow )	Alec Baldwin

¹ Based on the Shadow story The Ghost of the Manoy

² Based on the Shadow Foxhound story

³ Shadow does not appear himself and is represented by his agents.

⁴ Planned as the first part of a three-part television series that never aired