This review is written with
a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede
all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing
without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at
WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Murder Geniuses
Series:
Batman/The Shadow
Author:
Steve Orlando, Scott Snyder
Rating: 2 of 5
Stars
Genre: Graphic Novel
Pages:
162
Words: 12K
Publish: 2019
This was brought to my attention back in 2019 when Lashaan reviewed it, HERE. He was very positive about it (he’s a HUGE Batman fan) and it caught my interest as I was becoming a fan of The Shadow. He also recommended it in my Recommend Me a Book series and I gave it an enthusiastic “Yes!” And this is the month in which I read it and am now reviewing it.
As you can tell from my rating, I did not enjoy this like Lashaan did. It all was due to how the writers treated The Shadow.
Now, I am reading the books roughly in publication order. I’m not 100% sure of that, but it is close, close enough anyway. I am aware that there were radio plays as well and that The Shadow changed over the years in both the books and the radio. But most of those changes were how he operated and used disguises, etc, they weren’t changes of defining character. I bring this up because I definitely don’t view myself as any kind of Authority on The Shadow.
This is important because the writers here absolutely BUTCHER the character of The Shadow. He is a psychopathic killer without remorse who will use and discard anyone at a whim. Harry Vincent, a man who The Shadow saves from suicide in the first book and becomes one of his top agents (albeit one that needs rescuing in every adventure he is in) hates The Shadow and claims he never wanted to be part of his operation. There is a lady, who I gather was from the radio plays, who might have been a possible romantic angle and man, does she lay into The Shadow. He used her as he saw fit and then just left her behind. None of that is The Shadow that I am reading about.
This is Deconstructionism at its worst and just like in Kingdom Come, (another deconstructionist graphic novel), anything good and decent is spat upon, mocked and maligned. The opposing philosophies of The Shadow and Batman are juxtaposed and while I found them both extremely shallow, I fully agree with The Shadow and don’t understand how anyone could claim that the twaddle Batman was spouting could in any way make sense. Here the writers move Batman WAY beyond “not killing” and into “any killing by anybody is evil and superduper bad and automatically makes you a villain”. It was eye rollingly shallow and I thought it did a great disservice to the Ideals that Batman actually holds to. As for the Ideals that The Shadow holds to, those were so twisted and misrepresented that to attempt to even touch upon them would give these writers a validity that they don’t deserve. The writers are utter dog shit in my eyes now and I hope a pack of rabid schnauzers attack them and destroy their ankles.
Now, with all of that ranting and swearing, you have to ask, was this even worth 2stars? It was. Mainly because the idea of the story was fantastic, even while being poorly executed and made into a mouthpiece of modern liberal cant. There were Cthulhu’ic ties and The Shadow is shown to be an eternal avenging angel, who is tired of the conflict. Batman was to be his replacement. Now, how cool is THAT?
While I was reading this graphic novel, I also read Jen Mugrage’s post on “Words that Mean Things” in which she talks about killing, murder and genocide. The first two points fit in very well as an anti-dote to the bs the writers of this comic were dishing out about “killing”. I’m going to stop now before I begin saying other things about the writers that aren’t appropriate for a blog post.
As for the cover, I briefly touched on that in my “Currently Reading” post two weeks ago. That has a large, high resolution version of the cover if you’re interested.
Overall, I was disappointed in this and felt the writers had no clue about The Shadow. Not “Riders Approved” at all.
★★☆☆☆
From the Publisher
While investigating the murde of a Gothamite, Batman identifies his prime suspect as Lamont Cranston... but there are two problems with that. One, Batman is not aware Lamont's alter ego is the master detective known as the Shadow. Two, and more importantly, Cranston seems to have died over half a century ago!
