Characters / The Shadow

The Shadow

Real Identity: Kent Allard (pulps), Lamont Cranston (1937-54 radio program and 1994 movie), John Halvorson (British reprints)

Key Aliases: Lamont Cranston, Henry Arnaud, Issac Twambley, Fritz the Janitor

First Appearance: The Living Shadow

Portrayed by: James LaCurto, Frank Readick, Jr., Robert Hardy Andrews (1930-34 radio programs), Orson Welles, Steve Courtleigh, John Archer, Bret Morrison, Bill Johnstone (1937-54 radio program), Rod LaRocque (serials), Victor Jory, Kane Richmond (1940s films), Tom Helmond (1954 TV pilot), Richard Derr (1958 film), Alec Baldwin (1994 film)

A mysterious figure clad in black, with a menacing laugh and twin .45s for any who would dare defy the law.

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• Ace Pilot: Kent Allard was the famed "Black Eagle" of World War I, and had made a name for himself as a celebrated aviator before his disappearance. Allard's "return to civilization" was the cause for public celebration in New York. As the Shadow, he's often seen at the controls of aircraft, though he just as often has Miles Crofton handle flying.
• The Atoner: A lot of later adaptations tend to make him one, though with a twist. Instead of renouncing the evil in his own heart and striving to become good, he's decided to use it against evildoers.
• Badass in Distress: Is not immune to being captured or injured (even severely injured, as in The Romanoff Jewels).
• Berserk Button: You do not kill any of the Shadow's agents, or any innocent person for that matter in the commission of a crime. If you do, The Shadow will go to the ends of the earth to find you and take you and your organization apart piece by piece. Just ask Nick Savoli.
• Big Good: For varying values of good. While certainly not blanching at putting a permanent and lethal end to evil, and laughing like a maniac while he does it, The Shadow is firmly on the side of protecting the innocent. His Big Good tendencies are more pronounced in the radio show where standards and practices forbade the Shadow actively killing.
• Blood Knight: The Pulp Shadow laughs like a maniac while gunning down evildoers. While some of the laughing is psychological warfare, there is a certain blood-knight quality to it as well.
• The Chessmaster: The Shadow can play Xanatos Speed Chess with the best of them.
• Combat Pragmatist: Don’t expect Marquis of Queensbury rules when fighting him. Once he’s on your tail, you’re fair game for any tactic short of those outlawed by the Geneva Conventions, and even then, only if you’re lucky.
• Crazy-Prepared: Some stories have hinged on The Shadow having prepared beforehand for situations he could never have foreseen, such as building a secret hiding compartment into a filing cabinet in his Sanctum in Crime, Insured or having an entire set of red clothes to thwart a room bathed in red light in The Voodoo Master. The Shadow generally takes Batman-level precautions (which is fitting for the character who taught Batman everything he knows).
• Cunning Linguist: Can speak numerous languages (often, he’ll know a language important to the plot) including Chinese, Russian, Xinca and Roma.
• Depending on the Writer: His willingness to kill varies quite a bit. In the radio show, he rarely kills directly. In the novels, he has no problem with killing people when necessary but still doesn't do so unless he thinks he has to—in The Cobra, he's outright disgusted by the titular vigilante's tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. In a lot of modern takes, especially comics, he kills for the hell of it.
• Development Gag: Early stories have The Shadow himself hosting a weekly radio program… on the same night and time as the real-life Detective Story Hour that originated the Shadow character and sparked Street and Smith to give the character his own magazine. Even later stories have The Shadow occasionally enter a radio studio to send a coded message.
• Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry: Gibson devotes on occasion Purple Prose to loving descriptions of how light plays over the girasol gem on The Shadow’s iconic ring.
• Expansion Pack Past: He's had a lot of adventures between his time in WWI and becoming the Shadow, traveling throughout the world.
• The Faceless: Early stories seemed to point in the direction of The Shadow being this, hinting at some ghastly injury that was never described, but that shocked the few who were privileged(?) enough to see the Shadow unmasked.
• Good Is Not Nice: The Shadow is an uncompromising protector of the innocent. However, if you are a lawbreaker and a deadly threat to The Shadow, his agents or the public at large (not necessarily in that order), get ready for all tactics up to and including rigging rooms in his sanctum to explode intent on taking you down. Even if you're on his side, don't expect the warm fuzzies from him, instead whispered orders and an expectation they'll be carried out.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: His earliest stories hint at his face being messed up to the point of being The Faceless. This is later ignored once the Kent Allard identity is established.
• Guns Akimbo: His weapon of choice is a pair of .45 automatics.
• I Work Alone: Averted, unlike many of his expies. He relies on a sizeable network of agents to help him.
• It's Personal: Related to Berserk Button above, you hurt one of his agents, he will track you down and make your life a living hell.
• Master of Disguise: The undisputed master. Legion are the Shadow’s double identities.
• Master of Illusion: Of both the mundane and paranormal variety. The Shadow is well versed in traditional escape artistry, stage magic and misdirection but since he's also an Empowered Badass Normal due to his meditation and mental training from Shamballa, he's can use psychic abilities to enhance his skills or even create a false image of a person, place, or thing.
• Mighty Whitey:
  • Kent Allard purposely crash-lands deep in the Amazon, where he becomes the "white god" of a tribe of South American Xinca tribesmen.
  • The radio Shadow is established to have learned his "power to cloud men's minds" at the feet of a Tibetan master, one who saw fit to teach it to no one else, not even the master's own children.
• The Mole: The Shadow often acted as this himself in his quarry’s outfit. He also pulled this on the NYPD, playing the part of a senile old janitor to keep abreast of leads on crooks.
• Old Soldier: A WWI veteran, he would by 1931 qualify as this.
• Pragmatic Hero: The Shadow is Good Is Not Nice personified. If you are an innocent, he will protect you. However if you are a crook, you are screwed if he gets on your trail. He will end you. Or in the radio show, arrange things so that karma would end you.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Teaches a Ph.D-level course in it.
• Proto-Superhero: One of the most influential ever.
• Psychic Powers: The Shadow developed psychic abilities through meditation and mental training while under guidance of monks in a Tibetan temple. These abilities essentially let him manipulate the minds of others and communicate telepathically to varying degrees. It should be noted however that while his psychic gifts give him a big edge, the Shadow isn't Professor X and at best his ability to manipulate is more like a powerful suggestion meaning the strong willed can resist him. His ring focuses and enhances his abilities so that when he uses it directly on someone it's more straight up Mind Control.
• Ring of Power: The Shadow's Iconic Girasol ring is mystical in nature and while useless in the hands of normal people, is powerful in the hands of those properly trained in it's use. While the ring's abilities and limits tend to be vague, it's known to be a powerful focus and enhancing object for the psychically gifted (think cerebro if you could put it on your finger). The shadow uses it to enhance his psychic powers of manipulation and illusion and when he uses it directly on someone (they need to look into the stone of the ring) he can control them instead of just manipulating them.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Was doing this trope long before Batman.
• Terror Hero: If it weren't for a typically '30s attitude towards language, most crooks' first words upon hearing that laugh or seeing a black figure materialize in front of them would be "Oh, Crap!". He's so much The Dreaded that when one crooked insurance company starts a business in insuring crimes, the Shadow is a hazard factored in by name by the actuaries.
• Wall Crawl: Did this often with the aid of large suction cups worn on his hands.

The Shadow's Agents

Harry Vincent

Portrayed by: Roger Moore (1940 serial)

First Appearance: The Living Shadow

• The Ace: Is often described as one of The Shadow's most trusted operatives.
• Badass Normal: Even with his Distressed Dude tendencies, Harry is resourceful, bright, a good shot and a capable agent. As confirmation of this, he is one of the very few people allowed to wear The Shadow’s slouch hat and cloak to double as the hero when the needs demand it.
• Demoted to Extra: If not outright Adapted Out of the more Margo Lane-focused adaptations.
• Distressed Dude: Taken to virtual Once an Episode levels, as Harry is the most likely member of The Shadow’s agents to be taken captive in any given story.
• Driven to Suicide: How we first encounter Harry, as a despairing young man about to jump to his death from the Brooklyn Bridge. The Shadow, however, had other ideas.
• The Face: Is charming and affable and makes fast friends with the ones The Shadow sets to protect.
• The Mole: Harry very often fulfilled this role on behalf of The Shadow. This, not coincidentally, was the root cause behind most of his captures.
• Supporting Protagonist: Harry often acts as a POV character, allowing The Shadow to stay... well, in the shadows.
• The Watson

Burbank

Portrayed by: Andre Gregory (1994 film)

First Appearance: The Eyes of the Shadow

The Shadow’s communications expert, often broadcasting from a hidden location in New York to the rest of the Shadow's agents.

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• Communications Officer: Burbank is the point of radio and telephone contact for the network of agents.
• The Ghost: Burbank usually enters the story only as a voice over a radio or telephone. Very rarely does he physically appear in any story.
• Last-Name Basis: Burbank’s full name is never revealed, nor even any indication whether or not “Burbank” is his real surname or an alias. The re-edited versions published in England did give Burbank a full name, Richard Burbank. However, so much was changed in the British versions (most notably, placing all the action in England rather than New York) that this version qualifies as its own separate continuity.

Lamont Cranston

Portrayed by: All actors on radio and film who portrayed the Shadow

First Appears in: The Eyes of the Shadow (mentioned, Cranston alias for The Shadow established), The Shadow laughs (first actual appearance)

The real Lamont Cranston, a globe-trotting playboy who allows the Shadow to use his identity and resources in his fight against crime.

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• Adaptation Displacement: Most people today believe Lamont Cranston was The Shadow, because they're more familiar with the more accessible and available radio show and movies.
• Ascended Extra: Of sorts — some of the very late stories dispense with the Shadow altogether and are essentially Lamont Cranston-Commissioner Weston mysteries.
• Badass Normal: When Cranston does team up with the Shadow, he's shown to be a capable fighter and crack shot.
• Cool Car: Being a Millionaire Playboy, he owns at least one very nice limousine, which the Shadow makes free use of.
• Grand Theft Me: The initial situation that let Allard assume the Cranston identity was one where he essentially blackmailed Cranston into the identity theft.
• Millionaire Playboy: It’s not really stated outright what Cranston’s actual source of wealth is, whether inherited, thrift or investments. The Shadow takes advantage of Cranston’s globetrotting ways to use Cranston’s identity. The radio Cranston's wealth is similarly mysterious, though it’s hinted that it’s most likely a vast inheritance, given that he spent much time in Tibet and elsewhere training and not running a business.

Cliff Marsland

Portrayed by: Pulps-exclusive character

First Appearance: Mobsmen on the Spot

A former crook and WWI companion of the Shadow, Cliff Marsland often uses his criminal past in the Shadow's service by infiltrating gangs.

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• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Cliff is particularly effective as The Mole on many occasions, such as in the early scenes of Crime Insured, where he learns valuable information at multiple turns and saves the Shadow's life in a shootout. He is also the only one of the Shadow’s agents in that book to fight back and nearly escape when criminals capture the Shadow's lieutenants.
• The Mole: Cliff is the most likely agent to infiltrate an actual mob or gang.

Hawkeye

Portrayed by: Pulps-exclusive character

First Appearence: The Green Box

• Gut Feeling: Hawkeye has very accurate hunches and tends to be Properly Paranoid about various criminals as a result.
• Reformed Criminal: Hawkeye is an ex-crook who became honest out of fear that the Shadow would kill him one day if he didn't. Later, he develops a genuine respect for society, a bond with crimefighters, and contempt for society's worst criminals.
• Scarily Competent Tracker: He is often tasked by the Shadow with following people and can spot inconspicuous criminals with either his keen eyes or Gut Feeling instincts.

Joe Cardona

Portrayed by: Edward Peil Sr. (1940 serial), Joseph Crehan, James Flavin (1946 films)

First Appearance: The Living Shadow

An honest cop and high-ranking inspector in the New York Police Department.

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• The Ace: Is often described as the star detective of the New York police force.
• Badass Normal: Can handle himself pretty well in firefights with the mob.
• Demoted to Extra: While he was a major character in the novels, he only had a few cameos in the radio series, with very few lines (most of which were "yes, sir" in response to Commissioner Weston giving him orders).
• The Commissioner Gordon: Of the "keeping the relationship secret" variety.
• Friend on the Force: He is one of Shadow's agents and supplies him with tips on the latest crimes and mysteries, either personally or through Clyde Burke.

Clyde Burke

Portrayed by: Pulp-exclusive character

First Appearance: The Death Tower

• Friend in the Press: His job and connections allow him to keep Shadow abreast of leads in his cases, as well as provide Clyde with the bonus of being able to report on the events.

• Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Although not technically a “superhero”, Clyde’s job as an ace reporter allows him to keep abreast of leads for The Shadow. It has the added half-bonus that since Clyde isn’t actually reporting on himself (usually) that bit of journalistic ethics is sidestepped (that and journalistic ethics in the ‘30s were fluid at best.)

Claude Fellows

Portrayed by: pulps-exclusive character

Appears in: The Living Shadow(first appearance), The Eyes of the Shadow, The Shadow Laughs, The Red Menance, Gangdom's Doom(final appearance)

An insurance broker, Claude was one of the key conduits of information through the Shadow’s network of agents. He's murdered in 1931 by members of Nick Savoli's Chicago mob.

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• Non-Action Guy: Which kind of becomes his downfall.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Claude ends up only appearing in the first five stories, as he's murdered by Chicago mobsters to set up for the Shadow's Roaring Rampage of Revenge in Gangdom's Doom.

Rutledge Mann

Portrayed by: Pulps-exclusive character

Appears in:

• Non-Action Guy: Is never involved in the field work.
• Replacement Goldfish: For the murdered Claude Fellowes.

Moe "Shrevvy" Shrevnitz

Portrayed by: Alan Reed, Keenan Wynn (1937-54 radio show), Lew Hearn (1938 film), Tom Dugan, George Chandler (1946 films), Peter Boyle (1994 film)

Appears in:

A New York cabbie who provides transport for the Shadow.

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• Ambiguously Jewish: Usually, though some of the comics strip the ambiguity and make him out-and-out Nice Jewish Guy.
• Badass Driver: The reason The Shadow picked him as his agent.
• Cool Car: His hack cab does have a sophisticated shortwave radio setup. Also it's one of the Shadow's preferred means of transportation, making it cool by association.
• Flanderization: The radio and 1994 film versions of Shrevvy are quite a bit more comical and dense than the pulps character.
• Strange-Syntax Speaker: The radio version only. He often repeats the first few words of his sentences again at their end for no apparent reason, resulting in dialogue like "I was talking to my friend Big Charlie, I was talking". No other version of the character displays this tendency, no reason is given for this quirk, and the other characters never seem to think anything unusual about this habit beyond that it shows Shrevvy's relative lack of formal education.

Jericho Druke

Portrayed by: Pulps-exclusive character

Appears in: The Chinese Discs

• Fair for Its Day: Jericho is decidedly not anywhere as stereotypical as many depictions of blacks in media at the time (even within the Shadow novels themselves). Although strong, he is not just Dumb Muscle, and even has a day job running a job-placement agency in Harlem.
• Genius Bruiser: Druke is the Shadow’s burliest agent, but is also smart enough to run an employment agency and perform competent undercover work.
• I Owe You My Life: Druke's first appearance reveals that he serves the Shadow out of gratitude for the Shadow saving him from being murdered by hoodlums in the past.
• Token Minority: He is the only recurring black character in the series long before the idea had really taken shape.

Dr. Roy Tam

Portrayed by: Sab Shimono (1994 film)

Appears in:

A Chinese-American physician, Tam serves as the eyes and ears for The Shadow in Chinatowns across the nation.

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• Asian Speekee Engrish: Deliberately averted, almost to the level of this being a Denied Trope with regards to Roy Tam. Gibson very intentionally wrote this character to be educated and fluent and so to dispel the older stereotype that had been in earlier stories. Some accounts claim this was due to Executive Meddling (John Nanovic, the editor of the time may have cajoled Gibson to retire some of the more obvious ethnic stereotyping), once again a reminder that Tropes Are Not Bad.

Dr. Rupert Sayre

Portrayed by: Pulps-Exclusive Character

Appears in: Master of Death

A physician who serves as The Shadow’s personal doctor.

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• Heel–Face Turn: Started out as a semi-willing assistant to the “Master of Death”, Eric Veldon, in his plot to make electronic zombies.

Miles Crofton

Portrayed by: Pulps-Exclusive Character

Appears in:

An inventor and aeronautical engineer, who is The Shadow’s pilot when The Shadow himself can’t fly.

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• Ace Pilot: Would not be the Shadow's personal pilt if he wasn't.
• Cool Plane: Crofton designed, built and often pilots The Shadow’s autogiro.
• Monochromatic Eyes: His left eye is white from having been blinded in WW1.

Myra Reldon

Portrayed by: Pulps-Exclusive Character

Appears in:

A former Department of Justice agent who falls in with the Shadow's agents while the Shadow is on a mission in San Francisco.

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• Secret Agent: Started out as a law enforcement agent for the United States before joining the Shadow’s organization
• Yellowface: Although Caucasian, she could convincingly pass for an Asian/Chinese woman, and often adopted the alias "Ming Dwan".

Margo Lane

Portrayed by: Agnes Moorehead, Margot Stevenson, Marjorie Anderson, Lesley Woods, Grace Matthews and Gertrude Warner (1937-54 radio show), Veda Ann Borg (1940 serial), Barbara Reed (1946 films), Paula Raymond (1954 TV pilot), Penelope Ann Miller (1994 film)

First Appearance: The Death House Rescue

A socialite who, particularly in the radio show, is a close companion of Lamont Cranston.

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• Canon Immigrant: Walter Gibson was not enthusiastic about including Margo in the pulp novels, as she was a radio-specific character, included to draw female listeners. In addition, he already had a female agent for The Shadow, Myra Reldon. However, Street and Smith kept on him to include Margo, and she finally made her pulp appearance in 1941.
• Damsel in Distress: Often gets this role in the radio show, as a further impetus for Lamont to spring into action. This is often subverted in the earliest years of the radio show. Margo was originally an active participant in The Shadow's operations, albeit not to the extent of being an out-and-out Action Girl. This was apparently the work of then-story-editor Edith Meisner, who wanted Margo to be a capable partner to Lamont instead of a passive, traditional damsel. When Meisner left the show in the early 40s, Margo's role morphed into the more traditional damsel trope.
• Expy: For Myrna Loy's Nora Charles, according to The Other Wiki.
• Spell My Name With An S: The radio scripts had her name as "Margot" Lane, in honor of Broadway star Margot Stephenson, whom she was named after, and who portrayed the character briefly in 1938. Walter Gibson, however, used the other, just as valid, phonetic spelling in the pulps.
• The Scrappy: At first, Gibson treated her like this in the novels (essentially a sometimes useful annoyance), before later promoting her to a full agent.

Rogues Gallery

Dr. Rodil Mocquino, the Voodoo Master

Appears in: The Voodoo Master, City of Doom, Voodoo Trail

Dr. Mocquino, a Mad Scientist, poses as a voudoun to lead a cult of fanatics in a series of crimes

• Diabolical Mastermind: He is a brilliant cult leader with Joker Immunity and is ambitious enough to plot to take over a whole country, a goal he nearly succeeds at.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: He is a wrathful, sadistic, megalomaniacal cult leader whose raspy voice is often emphasized.
• Genius Bruiser: He is one of the physically toughest opponents the Shadow faces in addition to being an Evil Genius.
• Mind Control: Mocquino can hypnotize masses of people into mindless followers.
• Not Quite Dead: In each of their first two encounters, the Shadow leaves him for dead with serious wounds but he recovers to menace his enemy again.
• Worthy Opponent: He enjoys the exhilaration of being opposed by the Shadow and is an enemy that the Shadow takes very seriously.

Shiwan Khan

Portrayed by: John Lone (1994 film)

Appears in: The Golden Master, Shiwan Khan Returns The Invincible Shiwan Khan, Master of Death

The descendant of Genghis Khan, Shiwan Khan uses superscience to gain tools for his criminal empire.

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• Breakout Villain: Definitely the most well known, and enduring of The Shadow's adversaries. Despite his fairly sparse appearances in the pulps, he has gone on to re-appear heavily in the comics, novels and even the 1994 film, where he is the main antagonist.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Shiwan Khan is the last living descendant of Genghis Khan.
• Yellow Peril: Shiwan Khan was a would-be world conquer and archenemy of The Shadow. He was the last living descendant of Genghis Khan.

Nick Savolli

Appears in: Gangdom’s Doom

A Chicago mobster who runs afoul of the Shadow.

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• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Savoli is very nakedly supposed to be Al Capone.

Five-Face

Appears in: The Fifth Face

• Master of Disguise: As his name suggests, Five Face can cleverly hide his true appearance.

The Cobra

Appears in: The Cobra

A vigilante who takes heavily after the Shadow's methods, and ends up in his crosshairs.

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• Decapitation Strike: His M.O. is to step into a room where a gang chieftain and a bunch of subordinates are, gun down the mob boss, and then step out the door before anyone can return fire. This is a calculated scheme meant to just kill the bosses while leaving their command structures intact so that high-ranking members of their gangs who the Cobra has suborned can take over with no trouble and start sending a share of the profits to him.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He goes from an opium-addicted stool pigeon to a murderous mastermind who nearly takes over the underworld and tricks the police into viewing him as a trusted ally.
• Malevolent Masked Man: He wears a creepy cobra mask and is a dangerous gunman with sinister plans.
• Evil Counterpart: The Cobra is essentially what the Shadow would be if he lacked his restraint, planning skills, and morality: that is to say, he's an indiscriminate murderer who has no compunctions with having his pawns replace the criminal leaders he kills so he can run the underworld himself.
• Villain with Good Publicity: His actions get him a lot of admiration from certain public officials, but much of his story is dedicated to the fact that simply slaughtering criminals isn't a good way to actually keep crime down. There's always going to be more criminals out there, and killing the big fish just results in another big fish swimming up, something the Cobra not only o owns but is actively profiting off.

The Salamanders

Appears in: The Salamanders

A gang of asbestos-suited arsonists who burglarize specific locations to steal a controlling interest in a company for their masters, burning the buildings to the ground once their mission is complete to cover their tracks.

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• Elite Mooks: Their armored suits, team coordination, and use of fiery weapons that make it hard to charge them cause the Salamanders to be far tougher to beat than average ordinary thugs.
• Evil Old Folks: Drune has gray hair, a withered face, and a pitiless criminal mind.
• Faux Affably Evil: Drune is capable of pleasant conversations with his dragon and has a perceptive, calm, Genre Savvy manner that can make him seem less vicious than the average Villain of the Week. This attitude makes it all the scarier when it becomes clear that he thinks nothing of killing a hundred people in one fell swoop and enjoys the idea of burning his most hated enemies to death. He also makes a big show of graciously offering to spare Harry and the other agents now that the Shadow is seemingly dead, while really planning to kill them the moment he has all of their identities. Even his men are occasionally fooled by his act, while Harry comes to recognize how the more courtesy Drune displays, the more dangerous he is if angered.
• Gas Mask Mooks: The eight Salamanders are unnamed, interchangeable henchmen who wear fireproof suits with breathing hoses and visors that let them see their opponents.
• Kill It with Fire: The sum of their MO is killing people and destroying things with flame-based weapons
• Morally Bankrupt Banker: Huxley Drune, the mastermind behind The Salamanders' arsons. He's ordered the assaults, with zero concern for potential loss of life, purely to seize a controlling interest in an energy company.
• No Man Left Behind: After one of the Salamanders is trapped in a burning building with the Shadow, the others keep pumping in air to try and help him until they realize that he is dead and the Shadow is using his air supply.
• Taking You with Me: After Drune is left choking on smoke from a fire that was set during his final battle with the Shadow, he pulls a lever to collapse the tunnel they are inside in a failed effort to kill his victorious adversary.

Marvin Bradthaw

Appears in: Crime, Insured

• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The head of the Solidarity Insurance Company, he found that big profits were to be had in an underserved insurance market — that of insuring crime. Sometimes, to ensure that it stays profitable, he takes out (or attempts to take out) insurance risks. It doesn't work so well when he tries to do it to the Shadow.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Marvin, Marvin, Marvin. If only you had stuck to your already profitable legitimate insurance business. You wouldn’t have ended up a raspberry stain on the street.
• Destination Defenestration: Did it to himself, trying to bull-rush the Shadow, but forgetting that he was on the 40th floor of his office building, and that he had rebuilt the Shadow's Sanctum in a room with windows... well, the math does itself. The results are not pretty.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: After recognizing how the Shadow keeps foiling crimes he has insured and is hurting his profit margin, he is prepared to get out of the racket before his subordinate Stampf contacts him with information that convinces him he can dismantle the Shadow's network.
• Magnificent Bastard: Plays an epic game of Xanatos Speed Chess with the Shadow, including actually stealing The Shadow’s Sanctum and setting it up in his office to make it seem like The Shadow was an employee of the company.
• Only in It for the Money: His entire motive. He doesn't care for crime, but having crooks pay him to ensure their jobs allows him a totally new revenue stream.

Stampf

Appears in: Crime, Insured

• Animal Motifs: His spindly body and ominous, calculating nature cause him to be compared to a spider on multiple occasions.
• Break the Haughty: He is proud of his skills and not used to accepting the idea that he was wrong about something even before thinking he killed the Shadow, which gives him an ego boost. This crumbles in the climax after he is wounded and captured, with him giving a nervous and defeated confession to the police.
• Great Detective: Stampf is a brilliant and respected insurance company investigator who has cracked some very tough cases. He finds out the Shadow’s main alias, where his hideout is, and who most of his regular agents (save a few like Jericho) are after just ten days of shadowing people, planting listening devices, and analyzing newspaper reports, when many people have spent years vainly searching for a fraction of that information. Unfortunately, Stampf is Only in It for the Money and he turns his findings over to the underworld.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Bradthaw is no slouch at planning, but Stampf finds out the vital information Bradthaw needs for his plans and leads the hit squad that almost kills the Shadow. It is mentioned that people respect Bradthaw more when they hear Stampf is working for him.
• You Will Be Spared: The Shadow takes pains to take Stampf alive and hand him over to the police, perhaps partially out of Worthy Opponent respect but mainly so that Stampf will turn state’s evidence against his company’s many criminal clients.

"Diamond" Bert Farwell

Appears in: The Living Shadow, The Chinese Discs

• Master of Disguise: Like the Shadow himself, he can convincingly disguise himself as other, existing people as well as made-up identities.
• Put on a Bus: Diamond Bert is arrested and sent to prison after his first appearance. According to Gibson, this was a case where Early-Installment Weirdness worked in their favor — most Shadow villains meet fatal ends unless there's a deliberate reason to keep them around. Gibson kept meticulous notes on all the villains who appeared in his stories, and had stumbled across Diamond Bert's index card and realized he'd sent him to prison and promptly forgot about him. And so, some sixty-odd stories later, he had Diamond Bert return to finally have a rematch.
• Yellowface: The entirety of his first appearance is in the disguise of a Chinese tea merchant.

Steve Cronin

Appears in: The Living Shadow, Gangdom's Doom

• Dragon Their Feet: He is the main goon of Bert Farwell in The Living Shadow but remains at large after Bert is arrested.

Graham Wellerton

Appears in: The Road of Crime

• Insurrectionist Inheritor: Graham's Evil Uncle is mortally wounded during a robbery attempt. Before dying of his wounds, he changes his will to leave his entire $10,000,000 fortune to Graham out of respect for how Graham became an even bigger crook than him (from a certain point of view) and gave him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech while he was dying (emphasizing that he intervened with the robbery to get revenge on the robbers, his old gang, rather than to save his hated uncle).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's a cocky bank robbery crew leader who can be self-righteous and Hot-Blooded toward decent people, but he is unhappy with crime, can be protective of good people, and when he inherits a fortune, he uses it for philanthropy.
• Redemption Equals Life: He escapes the Shadow multiple times throughout the book, and the Shadow stays on his trail, only to spare (and even aid) Graham after seeing that he is striving to change his ways and help the good people of his hometown.
• Third Act Stupidity : In his first several chapters, he plans ingenious bank robberies, spots the Shadow during a surveillance job where the stealthy Shadow doesn't want to be seen, and shows keen instincts in many other places, but in the final act, he nearly sets himself up for an obvious Inheritance Murder and is willing to trust a near-stranger who he knows worked for his Evil Uncle instead of genuinely trustworthy people he's known for many years.

The Golden Vulture

Appears in: The Golden Vulture

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: His alter ego is that of a helpful, concerned, and honest citizen.
• Crazy-Prepared: He has intricate methods of spying on his extortion targets (treacherous servants, peepholes, microphones, magnifying glasses, etc.), rigs his communication statuettes with cameras and explosive detonators so he can use them as weapons against any enemies who find them, and has one of his subordinates pose as him to divert his enemies.
• Graceful Loser: He is surprisingly calm and affable about being outthought and outdrawn by the Shadow during their final showdown.
• No Honor Among Thieves: He plans to kill all his accomplices so he won’t have to share his loot.
• Shoe Phone: His men talk to him with golden vulture statuettes that, once opened up, have radio receivers so they can hear him and television cameras so he can see and hear them.

The Black Falcon

Appears in: The Black Falcon

• Be Careful What You Wish For: He wants to expose the true identity of the Shadow, but is left gaping in terror when the Shadow takes his mask off to show the Black Falcon his face and identity as Kent Allard and emphasizes he will kill the Black Falcon (whom he has just Out-Gambitted) afterward.
• Calling Card: He likes to send a black falcon feather with taunting messages to his enemies.
• Domino Mask: He wears a carnival mask that only obscures the part of his face surrounding his eyes.
• The Gimmick: He sends challenging letters to the police before his crimes to see if they can stop him based on what little he tells them and occasionally misleads them with Exact Words.
• Too Clever by Half: He is a very intelligent and calculating criminal who loves to gloat about his deductions and strategies, but the nature of those strategies lead directly to his downfall despite how they would have been perfect ploys against anyone but the Shadow.
  • He sets up some Engineered Heroics by sending expendable henchmen to kidnap his civilian identity so he can foil and kill them to place himself above suspicion when no one would have even connected him with the case at all otherwise.
  • After deducing that the Shadow is Lamont Cranston, he kidnaps Cranston and pretends to be oblivious to the dual identity to lull his captive into a false sense of security. Unfortunately for the Black Falcon, he never considers that the Shadow might be an Identity Impersonator rather than the genuine Cranston, and he kidnaps the real Cranston while the Shadow is still out there, waiting to foil his scheme.

The Hand

Appears in: The Hand, Murder for Sale, Chicago Crime, Crime Rides the Sea and Realm of Doom

• Blackmail Backfire: Pinky Findelen's blackmail racket suffers an unconventional version of this due to being the first of their rackets to attract the Shadow's attention, which leads to him beginning to kill off the members of the group.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: All five Fingers have finger nicknames reflecting their membership in the Hand, and only "Long Steve" Bydle uses his given name with his nickname, while the Christian names of "Pinkey" Findelen, "Ring" Brescott, "Pointer" Trame, and "Thumb" Gaudrey" are unknown.
• Properly Paranoid: "Pointer" Trame lives on a yacht offshore, and staying that far away from other people does keep him alive for a while when the Shadow starts targetting the Hand.
• The Syndicate: They are a partnership of five crime bosses, or "Fingers," each of whom has a nickname after a finger joint (Ring, Pinky, etc.), operates out of a different city, and has a different primary racket (murder for hire, insurance fraud, Ruthless Modern Pirates, etc.). They are widespread and formidable enough that it takes the Shadow one book apiece (only the last two of which are consecutive) to defeat each Finger rather than fighting them all in the same story of in a five-part continuous storyline.

The Wasp/Basil Gannaford

Appears in: The Wasp and The Wasp Returns

• Animal Motifs: His head is abnormally small, his voice buzzes, and his touch has an electric sting, giving him a very waspish vibe.

The Python

Appears in: The Python

• Master of Disguise: Like the Shadow himself, he can convincingly disguise himself as other, existing people.

Double Z

Appears in Double Z

• Rich Boredom: He is a wealthy businessman who kills, steals, and matches wits with the Shadow more for fun than anything else.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: His whole alias came into being because he left an item with his monogram, Matthew Wade, at a crime scene, and people reading it sideways thought it said ZZ. He began signing his letters to the police with those initials to distract them from the truth.

Loy Rook

Appears in Double Z

• Evil Old Folks: He is an elderly underworld figure with all kinds of traps and poisons at his house.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: He may not be quite the master planner that Double Z is, but comes closer to killing his enemies than Double Z does once they go up against the Shadow and his agents.
• Red Herring: His arsenal, reputation, and scenes with his young apprentice might make him look like a potential The Man in Front of the Man and the real Villain of the Week, but he isn't the eponymous extortionist mastermind and multiple murderer Double Z, just one of his associates who is fought and dispatched before the Shadow faces off with Double Z himself.
• Trap Master: His house contains clever boobytraps and poisons that nearly claim the Shadow's life.

The Red Blot

Appears In: The Red Blot

• Calling Card: He has his men smear red blots of ink or blood at the scenes of their crimes.
• Dying Declaration of Hate: After being mortally wounded, he acts like he's ready for a Villain's Dying Grace moment and tells Detective Cardona to pull a lever to open the secret passage where his loot is hidden. Once Cardona does so, the Red Blot reveals that the lever is really flooding the dungeon where he's locked up several innocent civilians and dies laughing at how he got his adversary to doom them to a cruel death (fortunately, the Shadow saves them).
• Tunnel King: He works in the construction industry in his civilian identity and has secretly built lots of hidden tunnels that his men use to break into places like banks or escape during police chases.

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