A thought

  I have been wondering what could be the reason for The Shadow's fight against crime.  I know the explanation that he left espionage to focus on cleaning up the criminal element at home is the accepted reason but there has to be something driving him personally (I would think).  Something from his past, before the war, that scarred him and made him able to wake up every day for decades and put his life and the lives of his agents on the line to bring about the demise of crime.  I wouldn't expect it to be the same as Bruce Wayne and the death of his family.  Would it be the way he was raised?  Similar to Clark Savage, Jr?  Were his parents able to instill a sense of  nobility in him?  Perhaps his parents were criminals and he vowed to make sure no child would be raised in such an environment.
  I found a 16 year old chat discussion that started as a examination of his real face and found this comment.

"I once saw a documentary on World War I (on PBS I think) and it spend quite a bit of time on the
effects of gas warfare. At least one of the gases used would literally destroy the face. Photographs
were shown of veterans with large gaping holes where their nose and mouth should have been. Special masks had to be made for these people to give the appearance of a normal face. Otherwise, the victims would wrap their faces up in a scarf or some other kind of cloth. I believe the term for these people were "men of no faces" or "men of hollow faces". These people were generally kept out of the public eye, but most people of the twenties and thirties were aware of their existence. The Shadow was created in the early Thirties and Kent Allard was a WWI vet. References to "grotesque hollowness" and such makes me wonder if this was Walter Gibson's original motivation the Shadow's war on crime. Who knows......."

  I would really like to know if there has been an accepted version of what drives this avenger in such a single minded way.  Yes, I know he was a pulp character created to really just entertain people but I'd like to think that hidden away in some trunk in an attic somewhere lies a notebook written by Walter B. Gibson with the never before seen origin of our hero.

Just a thought.