Issue(s): Marvel Comics Presents #87 (Shroud story only)
Cover Date: 1991
Title: "To touch the darkness"
Credits:
Eric Fein - Writer
Ron Wilson - Penciler
Harry Candelario - Inker
Mark Powers - Assistant Editor
Terry Kavanagh - Editor

Review/plot:
Unlike the previous two Shroud solo stories in Marvel Comics Presents #54 and Marvel Super Heroes #7, this is not an inventory piece. Well, i mean, it's a Marvel Comics Presents story, so by the time it was published it was out of date (and in fact this is getting placed earlier than the other stories), but it's less of an inventory story than the last two, and it gives us a better idea for what Marvel might have wanted to do with the Shroud as a lead character.

For this story, he is still with Night Shift and is also still posing as a crimelord.

The guy that he's leaning on agrees to meet him at a warehouse to cut him in on the protection racket, but it's an obvious trap and the Shroud comes prepared, getting there before the bad guys, and beating them all up before they arrive. And it turns out he's brought help.

Funny that he beat almost all the thugs up himself while keeping that group in reserve. Also, Mockingbird was in Night Shift? Between that and the Great Lakes Avengers, she sure was keeping her options open.

Nightshift then goes to visit an old lady that was hurt by the thugs. Scenes of them at the hospital are interspersed with the main story (which is told as flashback), and she dies at the end.

I like the basic idea of the Shroud as a crimeboss, and i guess that can coexist with the idea that he's the leader of a group of monsters, although i think of the two things as being separate. Even ignoring Night Shift, though, Shroud turns out to not be very effective as a crimelord, failing to intimidate a bunch of very low level thugs. I think Ron Wilson does a decent job of the Shroud kind of looming over the thug (very Batman-ish, obviously) and it makes me think that Shroud-as-crimeboss could work, but this doesn't really prove it to me.

And seriously, when you have a werewolf and an Avenger at your beck and call, use them for something more than guard duty.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The main story actually takes place in flashback, with the scenes of the old lady dying taking place "two days" later. This would have to take place before Marvel Comics Presents #54-59, where we learn that Werewolf By Night has built up a tolerance to Dansen Macabre's powers and has left Night Shift.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A