Chasing Shadows (comic story)
Chasing Shadows was a fifteen-page comic story, part of “Issue 5” of the Tales To Behold subseries of the webcomic The Cosmic Beholder. Written and drawn by Paul Hoppe, it was released both in webcomic form and in a limited print run.
Contents
Plot
On a previously-normal afternoon in New York City, a supervillainess calling herself the Shadow Queen begins to rampage through the streets using a Shadow-Ray to bring people's shadows to life as physical entities loyal to the Queen, who immediately set about attacking their originals. The Odds intervene, and, at first, seem to be on the losing side, with their punches going right through the shadows while the shadows are able to hurt them.
However, the battle is brought to an end by the sun setting: without light, there are no shadows, making the Queen's army begin to disappear. She retreats to her home with her remaining Shadow Warriors, though not before Evening manages to throw a tracking device at her. After pledging to summon even more shadows in the morning she goes to bed, guarded by a ring of Shadow Warriors. Tracking down her home, the Odds attack it, with Captain Evening cutting the power-line, making all the shadows inside the Queen's house disappear; however, she has a backup generator for just such a contingency and soon summons them back again, just in time to face the Odds making their way into the building.
They surprise her, however, by having summoned Shadow Odds to match her shadow warriors. The heroes' shadows, matching their models in battle prowess, easily defeat the Queen's shadows, based on ordinary citizens. The Queen, sensing that she's about to lose, tries to flee on her Flying Platform, but the Captain gets Merv the Griffin, Shadow-Merv and Shadow-Captain-Evening to flip her Platform, tossing her out, and she finally surrenders. As she is taken into police custody, the Odds are interviewed by Amanda Allen about how they did it. Captain Evening explains that during their brief taking out of the lights at the Queen's house, they found her Shadow-Ray and, using advice from Professor Madison, reprogrammed it to make shadows it summoned loyal to the Odds rather than the Queen before using it on their own Shadows. After finishing the interview, the Odds use the Flying Platform and a Reverse-Shadow-Ray to unsummon any remaining roaming shadows, ending with the Shadow Odds themselves, who are returned to normal shadows after thankful hand-shakes with their real selves.
While the Odds are left wondering where the Queen came from, Amanda Allen reports a “special news alert” from City Hall where it turns out that the New Protectors have been carrying out secret negotiations with the Mayor. At noon, a robot walks out and makes an announcement to the press about how the recent surge in attacks from supervillains and monsters has persuaded the mayor's office to take “new, pro-active measures”.
Elsewhere still, in an airport, a disguised Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood are preparing to skip town for an anonymous vacation away from the travails of the lives of spies gone rogue. Red Riding Hood is anxious about whether their disguises will be enough; the Wolf tries to assure her that they're foolproof, only for the little boy ahead of them in the queue to turn out to be an android who swivels his head to give them a recorded message from “Grandmother”, pointing out that the spy organisation knows full well where they are and what they've been up to — although, in recognition of their heroic work helping to rebuild New York, they also say that they will no longer try to arrest the two for going rogue, so long as they stick to themselves and don't engage in any criminal activities. They eventually make it to a luxurious hotel bedroom in Acapulco where they finally take off their disguises and begin to enjoy their vacation, for which everything is ready — down to the Wolf having brought some breath-mints as Red Riding Hood asked him.
Worldbuilding
Universes
- This story takes place entirely in Reality Z-25 31-H.
Continuity
- The New Protectors plotline introduced in COMIC: Epilogue to Destruction is further developed. Additionally, the Big Bad Wolf and Red Riding Hood's help in repairing the city in that story is mentioned.
Behind the scenes
Read online
Chasing Shadows is available online on the Cosmic Beholder blog.
