Rather than live in anyone's financial shadow, Knight Ridder executives felt they needed, if not parity, at least steady improvement in Philadelphia.
classes could be things like warrior, paladin, monk, shadow knight, wizard, priest, ranger, rogue, druid or even summoner.
"Shadow Knights," about British intelligence operatives during World War II, also includes the stories of female secret agents, she noted.
Parents of young children should note that the books don't gloss over unhappy endings: one of the heroes of "Shadow Knights," for example, is executed at Dachau.
In "Shadow Knights," there are references to "Lord of the Rings," Sherlock Holmes, and James Bond, and the comparisons seem warranted: these stories also feature epic struggles, clever detective work, and plenty of gory violence.
There are two books so far: Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America, written by David Talbot and illustrated by Spain Rodriguez; and Shadow Knights: The Secret War Against Hitler, written by Gary Kamiya and illustrated by Jeffrey Smith.
In "Shadow Knights: The Secret War Against Hitler," one of two books in the series that Simon & Schuster released last month, a British spy named Harry Rée wrestles with a Gestapo agent: "He gouged at one of the man's eyes, but it wouldn't come out.
What's more, three other Bowser images, "Guinevere," "A Dark Knight" and "Shadow Rapids," were used as illustrations inside the novel.
The unexpected success of The Avengers, released in early May, has cast a shadow over The Dark Knight Rises' triumphal progress towards its 20 July release date.
That said, glimpses of class conflict emerged amid the shadows of "The Dark Knight Rises," which riffs on the French Revolution, nods at the Occupy movement and glances back at the gangster movies of the 1930s, in which struggles for power and money were accompanied by the rat-a-tat of Tommy guns.
All the talk of darkness obscures what may come as an aesthetic surprise in "The Dark Knight": the creepy shadows and gothic Wayne Manor are gone, replaced by sleek towers, shiny surfaces, bright lighting and the vistas of a city with shoulders bigger than Batman's.
