Review by C.J. Bunce
Ever since the success of Frank Miller’s Batman: Year One
, everyone has climbed aboard to use the Year One tag to sell copies. Many times the Year One is not an origin story but a random early story that fails to satisfy readers’ expectations. A successful twist on the Year One was Andy Diggle and Jock’s Green Arrow: Year One
, but there’s also been Teen Titans: Year One
, Batgirl: Year One
and Huntress: Year One
, Nightwing: Year One
and Robin: Year One
, and even Batman: Two-Face/Scarecrow Year One
. It’s not only DC Comics who has cornered the market on Year One titles. We reviewed Howard Chaykin’s well done Die Hard: Year One
here last year, and if you look around you’ll even find a Judge Dredd Year One
and a Punisher: Year One
. This week Matt Wagner, writer of Dynamite Comics’s Green Hornet: Year One 
, takes on the 1920s-1930s masked crimefighter The Shadow in The Shadow: Year One. The first issue of Wagner’s Year One creation kicks off the better side of Year One stories.
Wagner and artist Wilfredo Torres begin their Year One with a mysterious force referred to as the “Shadow of Doom” in 1929 Cambodia, where we first meet The Shadow’s alter ego Lamont Cranston. He is in pursuit of a criminal called the White Tiger and this pursuit returns him to New York City, a city brewing with criminals for The Shadow to bring to justice.
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