"It’s 1938, and the Justice Party has swept into office in New York State. But the newly-elected officials are in the control of powerful criminals, who quickly corrupt the law to their own advantage. When a fascist police state is instituted, the only ones who stand in defense of the innocent are masked vigilantes like The Shadow, The Green Hornet (and Kato), and The Spider. As the confrontation builds, more masked heroes will join the fight including Black Bat, Miss Fury, Zorro, Black Terror, Green Lama and many more! When the law is unjust, justice must be an outlaw!"
Released by Dynamite Comics in 2013, Masks is a very loose adaptation of the 1938 pulp story "The Spider Vs. The Empire State" (also known as "The Black Police Trilogy") with more Golden Age pulp and comic book heroes thrown into the mix. It got a sequel in 2015 titled Masks 2.
This comic provides examples of:
- Badass Bystander: The Black Legion are beaten and overwhelmed by thousands of normal civilians and real police officers, who have enough of the Justice Party, from carrying out their coup in Washington.
- Coat, Hat, Mask: The outfit of choice for The Shadow, Green Hornet, and The Spider.
- Dramatic Unmask: The Shadow unmask the Black Legion and Justice Party's Master and it is reveal he is Brian O'Brien, aka The Clock.
- Fallen Hero: The Clock (Brian O'Brien) lost his faith in the justice system after realizing how his efforts in fighting crime as a vigilante and trying to reform the system from within are ultimately pointless when the system is firmly ruled by corrupt judges and politicians being paid off by criminals and allowing guilty men to walk free. His real solution to change the system and ensuring justice is deliver? By turning America into a fascist police state. However, his actions such as false imprisonment, theft of property, and sending alleged criminals to concentration camps makes him no different from those who perverted the law.
- Legacy Character: The new Zorro (Rafael Vega) was inspired by the original.
- The Man Behind the Man: Brian O'Brien, aka The Clock, is the mastermind behind the Justice Party.
- Massive Multiplayer Crossover
- Putting on the Reich: Nothing about the Justice Party is trying to hide their fascism. Somewhat Truth in Television too, since at the time the comic was set many Americans saw fascist governments as system to emulate during the chaos of the Great Depression.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Tony Quinn, a district attorney, protest to the judge against prosecuting Rafael Vega for vagrancy by pointing out that he was unjustly arrested for being poor and non-white. However, Tony is forcefully escorted out of the courtroom for contempt. He later leads a jailbreak in freeing Rafael and the other prisoners.
- State Sec: The New York Bureau of Investigation, aka the Black Legion, are armored Dirty Cops who target "freeloaders, the slackers, the aliens and outsiders."
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: The Shadow has no problem with killing criminals in which his approach clashes with the other heroes. Ultimately near the end of the story, the Black Bat stops The Shadow from killing The Clock and tries to reason to have O'Brien to be brought to trial. However, O'Brien grabs a gun and tries to kill Black Bat but only to get fatally shot by The Shadow.
