In 1937, the Shadow became the main character of his own radio show where initially a young Orson Welles performed the character. The radio show ran until 1957, much longer than the Shadow comic strip, which only lasted from 1940 to 1942. After appearing in a series of short films in 1931 and 1932, the Shadow starred in multiple serials released between 1937 and 1946, as well as a 1958 television pilot called Invisible Avenger.

In 1964, the Shadow moved to his new regular home, the world of comic books. Shadow comics have been produced fairly regularly since then by publishers such as Archie Comics, both DC and Marvel, and most recently Dynamite Comics.

Who Is the Shadow?

Like any other character who has jumped across media and reboots, the Shadow has a few different backstories. According to the most common origin, the Shadow is really Lamont Cranston, a rich playboy who fights crime as a dark avenger of the night (why, yes, Bill Finger did borrow from the Shadow when developing Batman). But before that, the Shadow was World War I pilot Kent Allard, who battles baddies after learning magic techniques from a hidden tribe.

So Cranston must just be a new secret identity that writers made for a Shadow reboot, right? No, at least not at first. Instead Lamont Cranston was a rich guy who looked a lot like Allard. After the Shadow saved Cranston’s life, Allard borrows Cranston’s identity to further his own ends. In other words, Kent Allard pretends to be Lamont Cranston who pretends to be the Shadow.

Confused? Well, it gets weirder. Sometimes, Allard takes the identity of businessman Henry Arnaud, another separate person that the Shadow rescued and happens to look like him. Sometimes, he’s a janitor called Fritz. Sometimes, he’s a criminologist called George Clarendon. To the surprise of no one, most of these extra identities and backstories get ignored, going for the simpler explanation in which the Shadow is Cranston and that’s all. But, also to the surprise of no one, writers occasionally try to incorporate all of the previous story elements in one way or another, including Garth Ennis’s recent run for Dynamite.

Unclouding Men’s Minds

Although some earlier Shadow stories had Allard use the alias Ying Ko, none featured the origin that Koepp made for the 1994 film. Koepp’s backstory for the movie doesn’t just streamline the overly convoluted nature of the character. As he explained to MovieMaker Magazine back in 1994, Koepp sought to distinguish his movie from Batman by focusing on guilt instead of revenge.