By d. emerson eddy — I'm a sucker for pulp heroes. While the bygone pulp adventures are known for their heights of space and jungle adventures (as well as for having racially insensitive and sometimes worse villains), they also at times dealt with the type of crime that happens right outside our doors in the real world. The Shadow, The Black Bat, The Phantom, and The Spider were just as likely to be embroiled in a war with street thugs and crime bosses as they were intergalactic jewel thieves, and it lent the heroes a certain authenticity. When dealing with ordinary crime, it made a regular guy in a tuxedo, cape, and domino mask feel more like a possibility. More real, of the ordinary person going to extreme lengths to actually do something to clean up their part of the world.