The Shadow/YMMV

1930 radio series and resulting franchise:

 * And the Fandom Rejoiced: The first Shadow comic since something effectively killed the franchise in 1995 is being written by Garth Ennis.
 * Awesome Music: "Omphale's Spinning Wheel" by Camille-Saint-Saens for the radio version, and Jerry Goldsmith's beautiful score for he movie.
 * Fair for Its Day: While many parts of the pulps are horribly racist, the Shadow is also notable for having an Asian and an African-American as agents at a time when they would usually have been villains or useless.
 * Family Unfriendly Aesop: The radio episode "The Spider Boy." Thanks to Values Dissonance, we are told that Domestic Abuse is a minor peccadillo that can be solved simply by apologizing to the victim...but that owning an unusual pet (a large spider) that at no time harms or even threatens to harm a human being is a horrific crime deserving of a Karmic Death.
 * Magnificent Bastard: Khan and to an extent Lamont himself.
 * Narm: The Lanes are hypnotized by a... cigarette billboard.
 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * Literally. Lamont's nightmare that he tears off his own face, revealing Shiwan Khan's undeneath.
 * Come to think of it, Shiwan Khan in general. Any guy who can hypnotise you into killing yourself and does so for fun is pretty NF.