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Following Ed Brubaker's epic run on the Man Without Fear, I contemplated quitting Daredevil. However, British scribe, Andy Diggle's impressive portfolio convinced me to collect the series for a few more issues. Moreover, I was curious to see how Diggle would handle Brubaker's move to have Matt Murdock assume leadership of the Hand, the evil mystical ninja clan that has plagued Daredevil for as long as I can remember.
Initially, I was mostly impressed with Diggle's take on DD, particularly his emphasis on the occult and the inner workings of the Hand, which, for the most part, have been a mystery. More interestingly, Diggle's short run was to culminate in Shadowland, a five-part mini-series that would see Marvel's "street-level" heroes (i.e. Iron Fist, Punisher, Moon Knight, Elektra, Luke Cage, Spiderman and more) face off against Daredevil, who, as leader of the Hand, has been meting out his own brand of ninja-justice, which didn't sit will with Marvel's finest, not to mention Daredevil's non-superhero friend's.
At first blush, Shadowland looked awesome and the first two issues did not disappoint. With this said, the back half of the story was, in my opinion, a complete fucking disaster.
Be forewarned, if you have any interest in reading the tripe that is Shadowland, proceed no further as I am going to ruin fair-sized chunks of the story right now.
The following is a breakdown of what I think went wrong with Shadowland, an event that, by all accounts, should have been great.
1. Billy Tan & John Cassaday
Normally, I'm not in the business of crapping on artists. First, I can't draw worth a damn. Second, I don't like to judge (most) people. However, I can't help but wonder why Billy Tan, a reputable but not stellar artist, was handed the pencilling chores for a big Marvel event. While we'll never know the answer to this one, I can say this, Tan's art, though mostly o.k., kinda sucked with when it came to Shadowland. I'm no critic so I will simply say that there was something "off" Tan's art. I can't put my finger on it, but, the overall composition of Tan's panels, particularly his lines, which, to me, where all over the place and resulted in characters appearing... misshapen. Observe:
I'm not saying that Tan is horrible, it's just that his art is not easy on the eyes, not in the slightest and, more importantly, is not conducive to the delivery of a big, series-changing story.
O.K., on to John Cassaday's cover art.
I like John Cassaday a lot. John Cassaday made a name for himself pencilling Warren Ellis' awesome Planetary series and Joss Whedon's fantastic run on X-Men, two series worth reading. Nowadays, Cassaday does cover art for various publications, like Dynamite's The Lone Ranger series, which isn't half bad. Here's Cassaday's cover art for issue #17 of The Lone Ranger.
I love this piece - it's understated, original, inspired and borders on iconic, which, considering that it's the Lone Ranger, is pretty impressive. More importantly, it's badass. Now, here's the cover for Shadowland #2:
The only word that comes to mind here is "stiff". While most comic covers feature static images, Cassaday's Shadowland work is flat out dull and actually a little hard to look at. Also, as an aside, Kingpin looks like a Vulcan.
In the interest of pursuing other trains of thought, I'm going to wrap-up my criticism of Shadowland's less-than-impressive artwork with this - if you're tasked with pencilling chores for a major event, you'd best bring your A-game, son.
2. Plot: good grief
As previously mentioned, the plot, at least at first glance, of Shadowland is sound:
Daredevil steps over the line (with ninjas); Marvel's "street" heroes "check" Daredevil; ninjas, ninjas everywhere.
What's not to like?
As a 31-year old comic book collector, I have learned to suspend disbelief. In fact, and it's taken me a while, I've learned that most of the stuff I read in comics is not real and that I should stop taking shit so seriously and enjoy the ride. Having said this, Shadowland simply has to many "What the fuck?" moments to ignore; moments that not only defy "comic logic" but are detrimental to the plot. Call me nit-picky, but I prefer simple, tight stories over epic sprawls that try to accomplish too much. This is why I think Lord of the Rings is stupid.
I digress.
Here are my bitchings about the plot of Shadowland.
a) The presence of Wolverine & Ghost Rider.
Shadowland was billed as a "street-level" battle for the soul of New York. If this is the case, what the hell are Wolverine, an X-Man, and Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance, doing in Shadowland? Simply put, and without ruining too much of the plot, Wolverine needs to be in everything because he is cool while Ghost Rider's function was that of the God brought in to resolve problems, otherwise known as Deus Ex Machina or "the easy way out".
Boo.
b) Snakeroot & The Beast of the Hand.
The occult is awesome and mystical ninjas are even better. The Snakeroot Clan and the Beast of the Hand took sweet mystical ninjas to a level of unnecessary stupidity that is beyond me. To explain, for whatever reason, in Shadowland Daredevil doesn't get all squirrely because he walks a fine and delicate line, a characteristic that has been developed for years. No. Daredevil loses his shit because he is possessed by the Beast of the Hand and quite literally turns into a scary demon... Yeah. I love it when a creative team tries to make its mark by ignoring years of continuity in favour of scary monsters that aren't tonally aligned with characters.
Yes, I'm being sarcastic.
Double-Boo.
c) Daredevil dies... Unnecessarily.
At the climax of the series, Daredevil is briefly granted control of his senses and uses the opportunity to kill himself, ridding the Marvel U. of the demon-scourge of NYC.
Briefly.
Shortly after his death, we're talking the same issue here, Matt Murdock is seen getting off a bus in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere, ready to atone for his sins. Further, fresh off the boat from Wakanda, the Black Panther has taken Murdock's place as Daredevil and protector of Hell's Kitchen. I guess he decided that Africa can take care of itself and that an NYC neighbourhood, that happens to be overpopulated with superheroes, needed his attention. With this said, rather than kill Daredevil off for a while and develop "Black Devil", Marvel is resurrecting Matt Murdock in Daredevil: Reborn, which will be released in early 2011, which is stupid because Daredevil was only dead for three pages.
This did not need to happen...
or did it?
To me, the Shadowland mini-series culminates in one thing - more cash for Marvel. Consider this - during and following Shadowland, the Marvel U.'s status quo remains intact with the added benefit of Daredevil being featured in two series that will result in nothing special happening.
Still, I really can't blame Marvel for creating a series to kill off Daredevil then orchestrating his concern shortly after his death. "Reborn" comics are all the rage these days and, properly done (i.e. Captain America) can be very, very entertaining. Sadly, Daredevil's death/resurrection lacks the ingenuity of Cap's death/return and is a poorly veiled attempt to stimulate sales in a series that, in my estimation, has suffered since Brubaker gave up the reigns.
