scans_daily

It was four issues putting the latter in the former.

It opened with a Nazi rally in New York being broken up by the Shadow, his .45s, and some explosions.

The vigilante and his allies got away; in the backseat of their getaway car, his assistant Margo Lane pointed out how indiscriminate his justice was.

There'd been women and children down there, where he'd fired bullets and she'd set bombs. The Shadow answered that he'd taken his precautions, that he'd shot only those who shot at him, and that " [t]he weed of crime.. "

She cut him off, saying that he'd lost something- a " ..connection to people, to humanity. "

" I used to be weaker. I used to know fear. Compassion. Mercy.

" They interfere with the work. "

" Compassion isn't a weakness. Mercy isn't a weakness. Kent Allard knew that, but you've forgotten all about him. He's buried under too many masks. "

An explosion nearby punctuated her remark.

Another one directly under them echoed that.

The car turned over and over, into a broken wreck.

" You know better, Cranston! How did you get in here? How did you even find this place? "

The Shadow met the Shadow, eye-to-eye.

He stepped out, taking Moe Shrevnitz's cab to Margo's place.

She thought he was wholly Lamont too.

Their conversation was interrupted by men with guns.

The Khan demanded the Shadow's identity.

The-Shadow-in-Lamont told him to read his mind.

That gave the Shadow the opportunity to throw the Khan into his goons.

A fight ensued, ending in the villain and the hero going over the balcony.

As the Shadow fell, he heard Margo scream " LAMONT! "

(This is at least the third story playing an Orson Welles-esque off the Shadow.)

(Welles-> Springs is obvious, but whence Preston? Preston Sturges? Preston Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania? Nowhere in particular?)

The Shadow got through the show and some publicity afterwards, leaving him alone with Madge there.

She took him outside to a newsstand to prove her point.

It didn't work- he remembered the adventure related in the story on the stands. He also remembered his past in World War I, which he told her.

The Shadow stopped the thief.

The police caught up and took the criminal away.

" Hey, mister.. "

The Shadow raised a finger.

" Nothing so far, my smart little man. But I promise to let you know if I ever figure it.. "

" HEY! Busybody! "

The thief'd broken out of the cops' grasp; he charged at the Shadow, tackling him.

They both fell into traffic.

" PRESTON! " cried Madge.

The Shadow took stock of this next step in his journey.

The Shadow also took that call from the editor waiting for the first story of the Shadow.

(Maxwell Grant is a real pen-name.

Art, referred to as "[a] magician and a crime reporter" during the call, is Walter B. Gibson.)

Then he turned things over in the head he was in, trying to understand why he was moving through lives where he was more and more fiction.

" Something or someone.. some force is trying to teach me.. teach us.. something. Or send a message. "

He left himself and found himself literally pulled onto the typewriter's page, clad in aviator's costume.

There, Justice- gold, blind, scales and sword in hand- confronted him.

It swung at him. The Shadow, his shadow, leapt to his defense.

" Calling on your hidden reserves? "

" Now you can tell me. Why did you run away, Kent Allard? "

He said that he hadn't, that he'd went to the Xinca to learn what he needed to be the Shadow.

Justice asked him if he'd learnt to see into his own heart.

" My heart seeks justice at all costs. "

" I'm flattered. But justice has found you, instead. "

" On a sheet of paper stuck in a typewriter. "

" Justice can find you anywhere, Kent Allard. "

She pointed to a key striking from above.

He dodged it; it raised up again, leaving a J on the page.

" Justice cannot be reckless. Justice requires mercy.

" Look in your own heart, Shadow. Is there mercy? "

Keys fell and rose. The Shadow dodged them.

Someone pulled him out of the way of a falling T and I.

The Shadow fell, tangled.

Art awoke the next morning and began writing the first Shadow story, which opened with the vigilante saving a man named Harry Vincent from suicide.

The Shadow awoke on the night he'd left.

He met his captors..

.. and set about escaping.

He compelled the boy left to guard him.

Peter led the Shadow to his captive allies.

The Shadow freed them, then freed Peter, who pointed his gun at them and demanded to know why they'd attacked in the first place.

The Shadow answered that their open display of the swastika'd been provocation.

He applied the lessons of mercy he'd learnt.

The armory went up; the Shadow and friends went out in a car Moe'd hotwired.

In their way stood Nazis with guns.

The Shadow got out, picked up the gun of the Nazi Peter'd shot, and turned it on the other Nazis.

His laughter accompanied the gunfire.

Two days later, he sat in a bar with Margo, wondering what exactly'd caused what he'd been through.

She didn't think it was much of anything, other than a lesson.