The Shadow, Howard Chaykin series.

Right off, I don't like the cover. Where is the Shadows scarf? This is the first part of the Blood and Judgment series. It's a series that I really did not care for at all. I especially don't like the idea of starting off the series by killing off the Shadow's former agents.

The only thing good about this issue is the article that is included about the Shadow's agents.

I don't care for the cover artwork.

Lamont shows up at a place where other former agents are. They are not overjoyed to meet him. He also shows them his two sons, then there's a flashback to something from his past in 1922. Lamont went to Shanghai and got a job as a pilot for a guy that ran a bar/opium den.

There's some trouble at the 'airport.' Lamont is shot but still flies the plane. The attackers punctured the fuel tank and disabled one of the engines. Some guy on the plan forces others to jump without parachutes.

The plane crashes. When Lamont wakes up he is in Shambala. It's a place which is scientifically extremely advanced. The evil guy from the plane kidnaps the woman leader and Lamont. The plane lands and Lamont is able to kill the guy, though, and he and the woman return to the town.

Lamont asks to be trained as a paladin. Shambala had trained others to fight evil, also. The place ends up disappearing, though. to shield itself from the world.

Finally there's an article entitled The Story of the Shadow.

First off, I hate the cover. It makes the shadow look like some kind of crazed guy, and he was anything but that.

This is also one of the worst stories. Somebody has been killing the Shadow's agents. The Shadow, meanwhile, had gone somewhere and had not aged, while the agents had.

The four part story was later published separately in a single bound volume.

I consider this series, including this issue, to be the single worst Shadow story I have ever read in any format. I dislike both the story and the artwork.

This is the conclusion of the Blood and Judgment storyline.

The Shadow is going to move after someone, but that person expects him to do that. The guy's wife has the hots for the Shadow and wants to have sex with him while setting off a nuclear bomb. She shoots her husband, but her husband's son kills her and then is killed in turn.

The Shadow decides to stay in the city to continue to fight crime, this time with his two sons.

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