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maxwell-grant · 3 years

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The weirdest Shadow villain of all time

From Shadow Comics #40

For the most part, Street & Smith’s 1940s Shadow Comics were forgettable and dull, largely comprising of adaptations of radio episodes but devoid of atmosphere or humor, it’s hard to even believe Gibson wrote them. It’s a 100% sanitized family friendly American Hero Shadow with little bite or personality, really just another mediocre Golden Age superhero comic for the most part.

But every now and then, those comics would get real, real weird with what they could get away with. They’d just go full-in on fantasy storylines that were unfeasible for the pulps and radio, and pit The Shadow against the weirdest villains he’s ever encountered. The Shadow vs Solaris was a three-issue story arc where The Shadow battles a mad scientist named Solaris who uses a shrink ray to transport convicts under his employ (as well as a captured Margo and Valda Rune) into the planet Venus so he can flee the authorities on Earth.

Solaris is not the abominable clown monster menacingly hovering above The Shadow in that image. No, that’s Suven, a character who only appears for one issue, and never again. Perhaps for the best, as we'll see below:

After Solaris and his crew arrive on Venus, they are approached by transparent bell-like living beings. Some of the convicts attack the bell things, so they capture all of the crew and transport them to a palace surrounded by thunderstorm. There, they meet Suven, the Ruler of Venus

(Who is the "we" Suven is referring to? Why is an alien familiar with Roman terminology? Is the S&S comics Shadow’s Earth called Mars on other planets? Did the rest of the galaxy name Earth “Mars” before we did? Is Suven a bigger authority than the rest of humanity since he rules an entire planet single-handedly and therefore it’s simply us that have been calling the planet wrong the whole time? Does this mean The Shadow technically lives in Mars? One page in and we already got so many questions unrelated to the existence of a THREE-EYED CLOWN KING OF VENUS IN A SHADOW STORY)

Contrary to what the appearence of a gigantic three-eyed monster clown would indicate, Suven is actually incredibly nice, all things considered. He is completely welcoming to these weird, tiny strangers who attacked living beings in his world, whom he knows come from a wartorn world, and eagerly welcomes them as refugees. Suven may very well the most genuinely benevolent ruler of state ever depicted in a Shadow story.

(Why is his friend/servant/partner’s name just Suven’s own name but scrambled? Is everyone on Venus named after anagrams of the planet’s name? That would actually be the most Shadow-appropriate thing of it all, since Gibson did love anagrams and wordplay).

Problem is, Suven is also an alien king who does not know how to interact with humans. In fact, he thinks all creatures on “Mars” are reptiles. And so, his idea of helping them break up conflict is to lock away those rowdy fighters, and help the peaceful ones shed their skin.

(The other reptilian specimens? If Suven is referring to the monsters in the bowl, does it mean those monsters come from "Mars"? Has he done this to other humans? Has Suven been to Earth before to determine that all creatures are reptiles? He knows enough about it to determine it as a wartorn world, saying the Mars people "will never learn". What kind of contact did he have with the "Mars people" prior to this, then? Why can't he tell clothes apart from skin?)

As expected, The Shadow manages to break free and rescue them in the nick of time. The story ends with them stealing a rocket and flying away from the planet, the first and only time The Shadow was ever forced to flee from someone who put Margo in danger. No climactic confrontations, no, they just nope the fuck out of Venus before Suven comes back. And the Venusians are happy to see those violent intruders gone.

The cover for this particular comic depicts a scene of Margo and Valda held in the grip of a giant while The Shadow prepares to shoot a giant gun to rescue them, although it depicts a green ogre-esque giant instead of Suven. Then again, if we know one thing about supernatural monster clowns, is that they rarely stay in one shape for long. Maybe that’s just what Suven looks like sometimes.

Despite not being truly evil, Suven is possibly the only “villain” in the Shadow’s history posing a danger that The Shadow has never defeated, or even tried fighting. Suven and Venus never appeared again, and the next story of the Solaris arc only mentions that the Venusians kicked Solaris and his crooks out of the planet, which even acts as a catalyst for Solaris’s goons to want to reform.

As far as I’m aware, there was only one other story from the S&S Shadow Comics set in outer space, and no other Shadow story since then has ever gone that far outside of Earth. There were aliens in one episode of the radio show who were nothing like those from Venus (and certainly not benevolent), and The Shadow’s had encounters with supernatural beings who live outside of Earth’s bounds, but never in space. Never like this, never again.

For all we know, across all Shadow continuities, Venus is home to a strange ecosystem ruled by a three-eyed clown king (possibly a hivemind of clown kings with anagrams of the same name) who is a really swell, pacifist guy and kind, accepting ruler, with the small caveat that he may try to freeze your skin off thinking he’s doing you a favor.

#the shadow #the shadow essays #shadow comics #all of the diet Cthulhus of Shadow comics don't have shit on this guy #what can possibly prepare you for a giant alien clown king who wants to shed your skin because he genuinely thinks he's helping you #i wish the rest of those comics were this weird

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