The Shadow #8

With his business in Nepal complete, Lamont Cranston slowly makes his way home with his pilot Miles through Istanbul and Rome bringing him to the streets of Paris where the interest of The Shadow is piqued by the murder of an elderly French couple, the Spanish Civil War, and the beguiling Major Esmeralda Aguilar of Spanish Military Intelligence.

After an exciting night with the major, Cranston returns to his investigation leading him to stow away on a cargo ship full of gun runners making its way from France to Spain. When the gun runners are ambushed while unloaded their cargo The Shadow makes it out of the port by the skin of his teeth, eventually rejoining Miles in Barcelona where fate leads him to the real reason behind his arrival - George Orwell.

Writer Victor Gischler does a good job setting up several pieces of a larger mystery without giving us, or The Shadow, a clue as to the true purpose of his journey to Spain. I'm not as fond of Aaron Campbell's art as Herbert's work from last month's issue but it's not enough to stop me from coming back to see how this story plays out. Worth a look.

[Dynamite Entertainment, $3.99]