REVIEW: The Vol. 2 #2

writer: Cullen Bunn

artist: Giovanni Timpano
publisher: Dynamite Entertainment

The Shadow is stalking the Society of United Magicians, who themselves are on the trail of the Last Illusion.Â As such, both sides take steps to acquire their respective goals, albeit with a side order of “lets kill The Shadow”. So whilst the Magicians are plotting, The Shadow, rolls out good old Lamont Cranston to do some socialising in the hope of getting a lead.

This second issue pretty much carries the main thrust of the storyline.Â We get a hint of the network The Shadow uses, we get a couple of panels featuring the fire ruby and of course it is always good to see Cranston out and about.Â We also get to see the manoeuvrings of the MagiciansÂ and some clarityÂ on the Last Illusion.Â So all in all, a busy littleÂ issue.

Cullen Bunn is on the script duties and continues to impress with his love of the genre in which The Shadow exists.Â I would assume it would be easy to forget that the characters live in an era long gone and colour their world with more relevant language.Â As it is, the book maintains its pulp feel.Â The script is fine.Â As needed there is an explanation as to the Last Illusion, but it is done in an info dump manner, which slows down the pace of the issue.

Pace is not something artist Gioanni Timpano needs to worry about.Â His work is vibrant, full of clean lines and billowing scarf and coat tails. For the most part, it works well, but there are a couple of awkward poses for a couple of the bad guys.Â For characters that use capes and the like, artists can use them hide a multitude of sins. For other “normal” dressed characters, this can be a bit of a bind for artists, as it appears to be here.Â What does help Timpano is the fantastic colors by Marco Lesko, which adds a level of texture to the whole issue.

This is a solid issue from a team that certainly knows The Shadow, now lets see if they know the evil that lurks in the hearts of men.

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network