James Lowder's story "The Crooked Smile Killers" is part of a cycle of stories about Chicago's mystery avenger. Both an homage and a deconstruction of the pulp genre, it features a mysterious masked avenger who brings a rough justice to a fantasy version of 1920's Chicago.
The 1920s heralded the birth of the hardboiled detective. Carroll John Daly is credited as having introduced the hardboiled detective with his story "The False Burton Combs." The story was published in the magazine Black Mask, which soon also published the work of Dashiell Hammett creator of Sam Spade, and Raymond Chandler, creator of Philip Marlowe. The hardboiled detective is cynical, ruthless, and violent. In classic noir, the detective is male, but recent works have featured a number of hard-bitten female detectives. No matter how cynical and pessimistic the detective may be, he or she will not stop once a mystery has been solved. These characters were particularly violent in the pulp magazines and comics, in which they would pursue a case without rest or remorse until they exacted vengeance on the evildoer. The hardboiled detective pretends not to care, but secretly desperately wants to do the right thing.
In the 1930s, The Shadow arrived in the pages of pulp magazines and was later featured in a radio drama. The Shadow was something of a detective superhero, since in addition to finely honed detective skills he had a supernatural ability to become invisible. The Shadow was a direct influence on the creators of Batman, who, in his first comic book appearances, was as violent, terrifying, and morally murky as any other hardboiled detective. These detectives and vigilantes were the guardians of their cities. They used pragmatic skills and fear of the supernatural to intimidate crooks and save the innocent.
We have always looked for heroes to guard our cities. Sometimes, as in Superman, those heroes are clean-cut, morally righteous representatives of all that is good. But often we crave anti-heroes who represent the city at its darkest and most corrupt. These flawed, violent characters tell us that good can rise from the darkest shadows. Sometimes the triumph and often they fail, but they are always watching out for the parts of the city that are most forgotten and most at risk.
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