i don't know what to think about this one. i'm not going to review it like i normally review books because i honestly don't even know how i'd do that.

the art? good.

the writing? great?

the weird plot twist where the shadow was given his powers by what looks like... cthulhu? uh.... what?

now, the majority of shadow related media that i consume is the radio show with just a dite of the 80s/90s era comics so this is uh kinda just out there for me. even the newer comics i've read didn't involve shads being an interdimensional being sent by the great old ones to maintain truth and justice on earth.

this plot point was a lot for me and even the artists drawing the joker like the fuckboy reject that he is didn't make up for it so it's a solid 4/5 for me. ( )

I received this in exchange for a free review through the GoodReads 'First Reads'.

Its a Batman/Shadow crossover, which makes it very interesting just from the get-go. With Batman basically having been completely modeled off of The Shadow in the first place and created like a Shadow 2.0 back in the original DC comics when he was first introduced.

The story is pretty interesting itself, and it centers around Shadow/Stag and Batman/Joker though Joker plays a very subdued role and is more just a facilitator for The Stag's storyline. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but could have been more interesting if he had a bit of a more prominent actual role.

The artwork is good and comes with a few 'variant covers' at the back of the book. Overall its a good graphic novel and one that most people can jump into with minimal knowledge of Batman. ( )