Wilfredo Torres is yet another artist whose work I discovered online a few years ago and have been a fan of ever since. His work on The Shadow: Year One and Jupiter's Circle is amazing and EVERYONE should check those books out, as you can watch him get better with every issue. Anyway, I've been wanting a commission from Wilfredo for some time and when he opened up his list, I was quick to jump on it. We went with the Shadow for the opponent in this Karate Kid commission, a character I have loved ever since I got to listen to a bunch of old The Shadow radio shows on cassette tape when I was a kid. Wilfredo did a fantastic job here, and I love the poses, the motion lines and the wrinkles in the Shadow's jacket. Later, Brennan Wagner added some sweet colors to this piece, and his work compliments Wilfredo's lines perfectly. Big thanks to both Wilfredo and Brennan for their great work here!

Although most people know about Kent Allard's proficiency with guns and his ability to cloud men's minds, not everyone knows that he is also an expert martial artist. I enjoyed seeing how the Shadow quickly took down Kato in the Masks miniseries a couple years ago, proving his superior skill. However, Val Armorr knows a lot more about fighting than Kato, and Mr. Allard may get more than he bargained for here. Karate Kid is the better fighter, and The Shadow's other skills won't matter much, I think. His ability to make himself like a "living shadow" won't be surprising to a man who trains on a team with Shadow Lass and Phantom Girl. And Allard's mind tricks won't mean much to Karate Kid, either, since he's also been trained to deal with mind attacks by Saturn Girl and his wife, Princess Projectra. So while I think that this fight may take longer than Val expects, especially once Allard starts using his special abilities, Karate Kid still comes out on top.

If you like this piece, then please do go buy some comics featuring Wilfredo's work in physical or digital format and/or go buy some of his art for yourself.

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