Batman/The Shadow: The Murder Geniuses

I’ll grant that crossovers can get messy. And crossovers with two writers may get even messier. That said, the idea of having Batman and the Shadow joining forces must have seemed like a good fit, as they’re both dark, mysterious crime-fighters hailing from the same era (both debuted in the 1930s). Unfortunately, it’s hard to think of anything this comic series does right, at least in terms of its storyline.

I found that story impossible to follow. I don’t know the Shadow character very well, but I think even if I did I would have been lost. As far as I can figure out he’s an immortal figure or spirit from another dimension: the fabled city of Shamba-La. What is Shamba-La? Why it’s a “foothold on your plane of existence, anchored by heavy dimensional ballast.” People there live “on a higher thaumic frequency.” Got it?

Anyway, apparently the Shadow has had his eye on Batman for a while and has selected him to be his heir. But then this manga-masked super-villain from Shamba-La named the Stag (because he wears an antler headdress, you see) shows up and starts killing off all the best people in the world. This makes him the reverse Shadow, as the Shadow’s mission is to take out the worst people in the world. So Batman and the Shadow team up to defeat the Stag, who has allied with the Joker. Batman sort of gets killed but then he’s revived by going to Shamba-La and meeting Cthulhu. The Stag is finally beaten and the Shadow is stuck still being the Shadow and Batman stays on as Batman.

I may be getting something wrong in all that. I’m probably getting a lot wrong. I just didn’t know what was going on. The Stag has a backstory but he only speaks a single enigmatic line (“I am an honest signal”) over and over. The Joker is roped into action just because this is a big Batman title and they figured the Joker had to show up and do something. But this is one of his least impressive incarnations. The Shadow looks dramatic in his magic red scarf unrolling like Spawn’s cape, but honestly I didn’t understand what he was going on about most of the time. Harry Vincent and Margo Lane show up too, but just as props. I guess the art isn’t bad, but Batman’s boyish face doesn’t really go with his scarred tank of a physique and the Joker seems like a puppet figure.

I didn’t like this one. The crossover idea had a lot of potential but they needed to keep the script a lot tighter. With all the background mythology I just had the sense that things were getting away from Scott Snyder and Steve Orlando right from the start. It was fairly well received by fans though, which makes me wonder if coherence or intelligibility is something that people even look for anymore in pop entertainment.

Graphicalex