Writer – Cullen Bunn
Artist – Giovanni Timpano
Colours – Marco Lesko
Letters – Rob Steen

The Society of United Magicians, a cabal formed for the gathering of knowledge of the arcane, is on the hunt for the secret of the Last Illusion. The Shadow is on the hunt for the Society for daring to harm Bess, the wife of his friend Harry Houdini, and the carrier of the previously mentioned secret. They will stop at nothing to gain it and The Shadow will not stop until he has them. It is a dangerous game of cat and mouse, but in the end, just who will end up being the cat and who the mouse is the question that begs to be answered. Cullen Bunn steps up to chronicle the adventures of The Shadow in this latest series and starts the book off with a bang. It is a tale packed with action, intrigue and mystery galore and it could hardly be any better than what is presented here. The invention of the Society is a fantastic idea and it adds to The Shadow’s rogues gallery which has been sorely lacking throughout the previous series to have been published. The Society is obviously a formidable group and they should prove to be quite the nuisance for The Shadow as they are both unlike anyone he has faced before and yet much like himself in several ways. Even better is the fact that Bunn has decided to base all of this around Houdini, something one would have thought to have seen long before this comic ever came around.  Bringing a real-world figure into the story is a brilliant idea and something more writers should do to give their fictional creations a more tangible existence. Giovanni Timpano’s pencils are excellent and a perfect fit for this book of magic and malice. Grim when they need to be and electric when called for, Timpano gives this book exactly what it needs to appeal to the eye of the reader and one cannot help but be entranced by each and every page. Together, he and Bunn have created an excellent first issue that hooks the reader in and makes them want to stay for the entire journey, yearning to see where it is heading next. As far as downsides go, there is none to really be found, nothing to quibble about except having to wait until that next eventual issue. This is definitely a book for those who love crime, magicians or best of all, good storytelling.

4 out of 5