Zorro's Shadow

How a Mexican Legend Became America's First Superhero

By: Stephen J.C. Andes

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Long before Superman or Batman made their first appearances, there was Zorro. Born on the pages of the pulps in 1919, Zorro fenced his way through the American popular imagination, carving his signature letter Z into the flesh of evildoers in Old Spanish California. Zorro is the original caped crusader, the first hero to have a band called the Avengers, and the character who laid the blueprint for the modern American superhero.

In Zorro's Shadow, historian and Latin American studies expert Stephen J. C. Andes investigates the legends behind the mask of Zorro, revealing that the origin of America's first superhero lies in Latinx history and experience.

Based on the never-before-seen letters of Zorro creator Johnston McCulley, Andes describes how the legends around Lamport and Murrieta influenced the development of the masked hero in black, and further, how Zorro went from a real life Mexican bandido to a distinctly white, aristocratic hero. Revealing the length of Zorro's shadow on the superhero genre is a reclamation of the legend of Zorro for a multiethnic and multicultural America.

©2020 Stephen J. C. Andes (P)2020 Tantor

A Thorough History of Zorro and His Origins and Influence

Andes engages in excellent research for the accurate origins and influences of the character Zorro. He uses humor and his historians knack to leave no stone unturned to offer a balanced understanding of Zorro in the context of when it was created and also revealing his true LatinX origins. Fellow historians and fans of superhero characters will likely enjoy this.

not what I expected

I purchased this audiobook with the hopes of learning the creation of one of my favorite characters Zorro I got along with it I got loads and loads of diatribes about racism, inequity, and so on however, some of this may be true. I don’t think a lot of it can be taken as fact an example would be when the author attacks Marvel for not having enough colored superheroes in the MCU not taking into account that several colored heroes were in fact, included. One colored man actually controlled the whole thing Nick fury I believe the author needs to do more research before he writes an extensive book on racism in the comic industry.

Wonderful mix of culture and pop culture

I’m biased. I have loved Zorro since I was little, and I always dreamed of having a career that involved cutting Za into people’s butts. And I love books with histories of the entertainment industry. So essentially I was crazy about this book before I started. More crazy about it once I was done.