[The Shadow 117] • Vengeance Is Mine

VENGEANCE IS MINE was originally published in the January 1, 1937 issue of The Shadow Magazine. Someone is setting off bombs to kill his victims. And he doesn't care who else is killed in the process. He's out for vengeance, and it will take all the might of The Shadow to stop him. This story is nothing special, even for a 1937 story. It's a good respectable crime story in which The Shadow triumphs over evil, but there's nothing that really makes it stand out. Of course, it's head-and-shoulders over most of the 1940's fare that was to come later. But during the mid-to-late thirties, there were some really terrific Shadow pulp mysteries. This, unfortunately, wasn't one of them. That's not to say it's a bad Shadow story. It's not bad at all. I had a lot of fun reading it. But it's a bit routine, when compared with some of the other high points of this period. There's no exotic or interesting settings or characters. The magazine issue immediately before this one featured a mysterious organization that coerced innocent men into committing bizarre crimes. The issue immediately after our current story featured Theodore Tinsley's second Shadow novel, and was a definite pulpish treat. But nestled snugly inbetween those two is this somewhat anemic story, "Vengeance is Mine!" As our story opens, The Shadow has been doing his job extremely well. So well, in fact, that there has been a lull in crime. Mobsters had been routed in battle, tracked down to their hide-outs and forced to flee from Manhattan. Yes, The Shadow could take the credit for crime's complete collapse. But you know that nature abhors a vacuum. So it's only a matter of time until some other criminal mastermind steps up to fill the void. So we find The Shadow out riding around in his limousine, seeking any inkling of coming crime. He knows it's inevitable that there is some master of evil out there who has been biding him time, awaiting the right opportunity to embark upon his insidious campaign of crime. And sure enough, it doesn't take long until new crime rears its ugly head yet again. In his commonly-used disguise as Lamont Cranston, The Shadow visits The Cobalt Club. He is no sooner inside the door when a bomb is detonated, taking the lives of businessman George Zanwood and the club's doorman. Crime has returned to Manhattan! Someone... some fiend of crime... some terrorist had wanted George Zanwood dead, and didn't care who else died in the process. Yes, the pulp magazine actually used the word "terrorist." So for those of you who thought the word was a more modern one, you should go back in history. The theory of acquiring one's goals by means of terror tactics is a long one, and was certainly in vogue when this story was written. The Shadow rightly considers that some enemy had risen from George Zanwood's shady past to strike him down in an act of vengeance. And, thus, there might be others doomed to a similar fate. And sure enough, this theory is proven as more bombs explode throughout Manhattan. Bombs that take the lives of the innocent along with the intended victim. The Shadow must find the mad bomber at all costs! The Shadow works nearly alone in this story. Harry Vincent shows up a couple of times to help out, and taxi-driver Moe Shrevnitz gets two good scenes, but that's it. Contact man Burbank is mentioned, but doesn't actually appear. None of the other agents of The Shadow have any part in this story. Police Commissioner Ralph Weston and Inspector Joe Cardona are both present from the very beginning of the story at the Cobalt Club to the very end at the climax in which the mad bomber receives his just reward. And speaking of just rewards, yes the criminal mastermind dies at the end. That's pretty typical of The Shadow's adventures. The bad guy nearly always "buys the farm" at the story's climax. But this time, the cause of death is a bit unexpected. Usually the villain is wounded by a gunshot from The Shadow's .45 automatics, and then cut down in a hail of police bullets. Occasionally the crime master falls into a death trap that he had set for The Shadow. But this time, our criminal mastermind is killed by... a heart attack! That's right, there's no bullet through the heart. Instead, the heart just snaps from the exertion of battle with The Shadow. I suspect that might have been a bit of a letdown to those pulp readers of 1937 who had come to expect a flurry of bloodshed at story's end. Another unusual thing about the ending of this story is that it features a short paragraph extolling the virtues of the next adventure. Although that was standard practice for the Doc Savage Magazine stories, it was unusual for The Shadow novels to promote the upcoming issue within the story itself. There was always a promo for the next story somewhere in the issue, set off at the bottom of a page. But for it to be actually included in the novel itself was quite unusual. So, let's run down a short list of things that popped out at me as I read this story. In most other Shadow stories, The Shadow keeps a set of black garments and loaded automatics in a hidden drawer beneath the back seat of Moe Shrevnitz's taxi-cab. But in this story, it's described as a bag beneath the rear seat. It's almost like author Walter Gibson forgot about the hidden drawer. A bag under the seat isn't nearly as "pulpy cool" as a hidden drawer. Makes me wonder if some Street Smith editor didn't add that in, later. Someone who wasn't as familiar with the way The Shadow worked. We also get to see The Shadow pick locks in this story. He uses the "plierlike instruments of his own invention" which we've seen before. The Shadow didn't invent nearly as many cool gadgets as did Doc Savage, but he was responsible for a dozen or so unique tools. Tools such as his special lock picks. They were mentioned in several other stories, but they don't show up often, so deserve mention here. We also get to see The Shadow take over the driving of Moe's cab, with Moe in the back seat for a change. It's an amazing chase scene that surpasses the abilities of even Manhattan's most experienced hackie, Moe, himself. We are told that "the chase that followed made Moe's own feats of driving fade into insignificance." One of the coolest things in the story is the method that The Shadow uses for identification. Better than a police artist, The Shadow has a box filled with blocks upon which are painted facial parts. He places the blocks together to form the face of a suspect, based upon witnesses' descriptions. Here's now Gibson describes it: "The Shadow produced a large box that contained many small compartments, each filled with little blocks like the portions of a jig-saw puzzle. Each of these pieces was cut square; it was a simple task to fit them. One compartment contained eyes of varied shapes and hues; another had noses of varying sorts. There were portions of lips, cheeks, chins, ears, hair - everything needed to form the portrait of a human face."This amazing box of blocks was featured on the magazine cover. Find a cover scan of this issue if you want to see exactly how it looked. Strangely enough, though, I don't recall this amazing box used in any of The Shadow's other cases. It seems like a fairly efficient method of identification, and I'm surprised it didn't show up again. Another point of interest is that in this story, The Shadow scales the outside wall of a house and climbs to the second floor. And all without those rubber discs -- those suction cups -- that he often carried beneath his cloak and attached to his hands and feet to ascend the outside of buildings. Those discs had appeared in over two dozen stories by the time this one was published, so Gibson surely hadn't forgotten about them. My guess is that they just weren't necessary. The Shadow's iron grip and soft-toed shoes were all that was necessary in this particular situation. In many of the earlier Shadow novels, Commissioner Weston denied the existence of The Shadow. He even went so far as to forbid Joe Cardona from mentioning him. But by the beginning of 1937, Weston knew that The Shadow was no figment of the imagination. In this story, Weston is present at the climax of the tale and witnesses The Shadow's defeat of the mad bomber. He certainly can't deny him now! So once again, The Shadow saves the day. Just as he had been doing every two weeks for the previous five years. And it makes for a nice pulp mystery/adventure. But there had been much better Shadow tales in the past, and there were much better ones yet to come in the future. So this one, in particular, fails to stand out as anything special. But it's still The Shadow and it's still a nice way to spend a couple of hours reading.