Lamont Cranston (DC Comics)

In 1922, Lamont Cranston was a drug runner who originally met, Kent Allard, the world-famous aviator, in Shanghai. There, he hired the pilot for a shipping job.

Unknown to Allard, Cranston was smuggling heroin. About three hours into the trip, Allard noticed a fuel leak in the plane. Hearing that Allard wanted to dump the cargo to preserve fuel, Cranston threaten the helpless pilot with a gun. Nonetheless, the gas did run out, and the plane crashed somewhere over Tibet.

Both lost consciousness after the crash, but when Allard awoke, he realized he had no injuries. He later learned that he was "reassembled" by a strange technology that was centuries ahead of his own. He was also introduced to a new city, Shambala.

Shambala was a scientifically advanced city-state hidden deep in the Tibetan mountains. It was there where Allard met Rudra Cakrin and fell in love. She explained that he was now physically enhanced and put him through training which would teach his mind to travel beyond his body, to become a true warrior in the shadows of society.

When he flew back to the west, he became a mystery man and began his crime fighting campaign as The Shadow.^[1]

But that's Allard's story.

Lamont Cranston, on the other hand, was also involved in that fateful plane crash over Tibet. Like Allard, he too was taken to the mysterious city, Shambala. Since he survived the crash without a scratch, he did not have any reconstructive surgery.

While Allard was healing from his wounds, Cranston proved to be a threat to the Utopian city by killing some of his benefactors. He then took Rudra Cakrin as a hostage and forced Allard, once again, to pilot a plane for a smuggling run, this time with gold bullion bars. During the flight, they went back to the original crash site to pick up the abandoned heroin. Once there, Allard pushed Cranston off the snowy peak, leaving him to die.

Cranston was later rescued by a Russian who nursed him back to health. Six years later, he sneaked back into the United States, and laid low for a while. He bought a few speakeasies and turned them into brothels. He began to make his fortune and started his company, "Mayrock."

Soon after, he began hearing about the exploits of The Shadow and realized that Allard was using the Cranston name for his own. Terrified, the real Cranston went underground, and tried to go back to Shambala, but failed to ever find it.^[2]

Eventually, Allard found that Cranston was still alive and threaten him into being part of his fight against crime. Reluctantly, Cranston agreed and became "somewhat" of an agent by allowing Allard to carry on the Cranston identity.

This relationship ended when The Shadow retired in the early 1950s and Cranston became a reclusive.

Thirty-five years later, the real Cranston, now known as "Preston Mayrock," came back with a vengeance. He began ruthlessly murdering The Shadow's agents one by one.

This brought The Shadow out of retirement. Accompanied by two of his older agents, Harry Vincent and Margo Lane, and a few new agents, The Shadow confronted Mayrock and avenged his fallen comrades by killing Mayrock (Cranston) once and for all.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Abilities

Strength level

Weaknesses

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

This is the DC Comics version of this character. Please see the Lamont Cranston disambiguation page for other depictions of this character.

Trivia

No trivia.

Links and References

[1] Shadow (DC Comics) (Volume 2) #2

[2] Shadow (DC Comics) (Volume 2) #4

[1]

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