By: James Robinson (writer), Darwyn Cooke (penciller), J. Bone (inker), Dave Stewart (colorist)
The Story: A cover on Life magazine? You’ve really made it.
The Review: It’s not usually my style to start off a review with bias, but I’ll make a rare exception to say that this series has one of the freshest voices of all the titles coming out of any publisher right now. A lot of it has to do with the unique qualities of Shade himself: erudite, wry, witty, and not a little bit of a romantic, a mix you don’t often hear from comics characters.
Even more than that, the title offers a great combination of different tones and running plotlines, making it a grab-bag of genres that can’t be perfectly qualified as just one. Over the course of the series, we’ve had bits of spy-thriller, romance, supernatural, sci-fi, pulp, mystery, and drama, all of which Robinson weaves together with wonderful credibility. Furthermore, Shade’s long-lived existence allows for a wide range of periods and settings as well. In short, this book has the opportunity to tell almost any kind of story it wants in any way it wants.
This time around, we get a WWII tale of conspiracy and patriotism, involving not only the already surprising intervention of the Shade—given his general indifferent to greater world matters in general—but also the two-gun, motorcycle-riding Vigilante and the cross-dressing Madam Fatal, also known as one Richard Stanton. You’re never going to have a weirder set of characters than that, and that alone makes this issue a standout from the year’s releases thus far.
Honestly, the plot is nothing much, being one of your typical “Who’s the mastermind scheming to kidnap/kill the Figure of Importance in question?” The reveal of this individual also proves a bit cliché and predictable, both as to his/her identity and how it happens. What makes it an entertaining read is Robinson’s use of Vigilante and Madam Fatal (and if you’ve never heard of either before, I imagine the surprise will be even greater), and the timing of Shade’s appearances.
Why, you may ask, does Shade get involved in the first place? The answer shouldn’t be a shocker: for his own personal reasons. The center of the plot is one Darnell Caldecott, Shade’s great-grandson, whom we saw in much degraded state at the end of last issue. Since William Von Hammer’s encounter with the Caldecotts’ bogeys in the debut, we’ve been led to believe the family holds some kind of grudge toward Shade, but this issue discredits that speculation some. From all appearances, William is sincerely patriotic, a true do-gooder, looking out for the others until the end. So why the tension between him and Shade in the present day?
Especially since this issue leaves us with a sentimental reunion between great-grandfather and great-grandson, walking along a beach. Besides the poignancy of such a scene, it also reveals some bits about Shade’s life and character: that his separation from his family was motivated out of affection, not animosity, proving that despite his insistence he’s lost a part of his humanity, he remains capable of many redeeming emotions, including loyalty to those he cares about.
If nothing else, this issue gives me a chance to talk about Darwyn Cooke, who wrote and drew one of my favorite superhero stories of all time, The New Frontier. When I first read the series, he surprised me with how versatile his simple, Bruce Timm-inspired work can be, and he demonstrates that again here, drawing cowboys, gangsters, Nazis, opulent skylines, jet planes, and all manner of other things with equal credibility and his special, charming style.
Conclusion: Given Robinson’s forte for reimagining Golden Age heroes, and his affinity for that period in general, how can the issue be anything other than, to use a word sadly out of use nowadays, wonderful?
Grade: B+
- Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: - Ah, Life magazine. My family happens to have a few copies of those lying around at home, and it still amazes me that such an institution, with such rich material, was lost to us. And yet The New Yorker is still around.
Filed under: DC Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Darwyn Cooke, Dave Stewart, DC, DC Comics, J. Bone, James Robinson, Madam Fatal, The Shade, The Shade #4, The Shade #4 review, Vigilante
This is something I’m looking forward in trade. When Robinson writes Golden age heroes, he is a top writer. Keep him away from everything else modern day heroes and he will be gold at writing.
Well, you say that, and yet I’d argue that Jack Knight (the last Starman), even though he took up a Golden Age identity, was a modern-day hero. He certainly felt and looked a lot more modern than a lot of what we called modern-day heroes at the time. So I don’t know; I think Robinson has talent, but he needs to find the right property to let it really flourish. It’d be too limiting to say he can only write Golden Age heroes.
Definitely agree with you there on finding the right properties for him to be great. But when I think of his JLA and Superman stuff the last how many yrs, it makes me sick. And don’t get me started with Cry for Justice, that made me want to cry as well. I should have clarified that he needs to stay away from heroes like JLA, Superman, Batman, etc.