Written by Scott Snyder & Steve Orlando
Art by Riley Rossmo; Ivan Placencia; Clem Robins; & Deron Bennett
Cover Art & All ‘A’ Covers by Riley Rossmo
SUMMARY:
Released in 2018, this 168-page DC Comics/Dynamite Entertainment crossover compiles its prelude from Batman (Rebirth) Annual # 1 and the complete Batman/The Shadow # 1-6 limited series. In Gotham City, upon linking the vile homicides of billionaire Barry O’Neill and a Arkham Asylum employee named Lamont Cranston, Batman obsessively seeks to bring the long-dead Shadow to justice.
The Dark Knight suspects the original Cranston somehow faked his death decades before and has now killed his own namesake descendant for some devious motive. Batman tracks down the Shadow’s surviving allies for possible answers. Yet, Gotham’s Caped Crusader is stunned to discover murky links to his own past and that of the Wayne Family.
Once Batman and his quarry call a temporary truce, the diabolical killer known as ‘The Stag’ makes a preemptive strike. To snare a final victim, the Stag recruits the Joker to help access evil’s answer to Shangri-La — the realm known as Shamba-La. Mortally wounded, Batman’s only hope is trusting a Golden Age legend, who doesn’t mind using lethal force.
Note: Also available is a different The Shadow/Batman team-up hardcover by Steve Orlando and artist Giovanni Timpano from 2018.
REVIEW:
Had this book been a DC Elseworlds team-up, Batman and the Shadow’s noir-ish Golden Age worlds should have easily meshed. That isn’t the case with The Murder Geniuses. Instead of a grim wartime caper, this story resurrects Lamont Cranston as a 21st Century anachronism ‘overshadowed’ by the present-day Batman. Squandering its potential, the scripting from co-writers Scott Snyder & Steve Orlando prolongs itself by becoming increasingly contrived. Case in point: the Shamba-La showdown merely exacerbates the plot’s dual lack of coherency and consistency.
Primarily, Snyder & Orlando’s loose portrayals of Lamont Cranston’s Shadow and ex-girlfriend Margo Lane are out-of-tune from their established personas. Short of extreme old age, it doesn’t make sense how the Shadow’s adult cronies (i.e. Margo Lane & Harry Vincent) could conveniently still be around almost twenty years into the 21st Century.
Then again, in order to accommodate Batman’s domineering role, it isn’t surprising that this Shadow does his original incarnation little justice (short of the tantalizing possibility of Batman facing off vs. Cranston’s vengeful ghost).
By portraying the Dark Knight as so vehemently self-righteous and all-knowing in his pursuit of the Shadow, the writing duo fails to properly balance the Batman-Shadow pendulum. Part of this gaffe involves far too much linking of a skeptical Batman’s past to the Shadow. Instead of a few discreet inferences, Snyder & Orlando opt for overkill. Their retroactive angle for the Shadow as Batman’s ‘secret’ mentor invariably proceeds to backfire. Hence, Batman’s seemingly fatal injury becomes a mystical cop-out instead of a satisfying finish.
Further, the Joker’s presence merely exploits an obligatory Batman/Shadow vs. Stag/Joker tag match. In that sense, The Murder Geniuses is paint-by-the-numbers. While the Bat-villains make a collective cameo, no explanation is given re: why the abundant Bat-Family isn’t available.
In this scenario, when a rightfully-worried Alfred makes an emergency call — where is Catwoman? Damian Wayne’s Robin? Batwoman? Nightwing? The Justice League? etc. Instead, readers are left to swallow Alfred’s judgment that only Commissioner Gordon’s cops can save Batman. To the writers’ credit, some dangling plot threads (i.e. What is the Shadow’s enigmatic link to the Wayne Family? What other Bat-characters might have the Shadow impersonated?) are left for another time.
As compensation, the art team’s neat visuals are above-average. The top-caliber covers and multiple variants provide the book’s best asset. By favoring style over substance, this book’s artwork only disguises a litany of plot holes so much. It’s as if far more time and effort was spent on devising cool cover images than problem-solving an undercooked storyline.
ADDITIONAL CONTENT:
All the covers and variants are included in a full-page format. Artists Tim Sale & Brennan Wagner provide the ‘B’ covers for all six issues. The alternate ‘C’ cover artists are: Cliff Chiang (Issue # 1), plus an extra unused cover from Riccardo Federici; Chris Burham & Nathan Fairbairn (Issue # 2); Edward Risso (Issue # 3); Steve Epting (Issue # 4); Francesco Mattina (Issue # 5); and ‘Jock’ (Issue # 6).
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 5½ Stars