Shadowland TPB

Wow, I’d heard that this was a below-average story, but this was brutal. I’m glad I waited for the big discount, but this probably should have been a library rental.

Daredevil is the ostensible villain here, but he’s never believable. I usually like Andy Diggle’s writing, but this had a ton of posturing and debate that never made it believable that DD would turn evil. This book tries to have the street-level heroes face down against the DD-controlled Hand, but it just doesn’t work.

I was actually interested while the story focused on DD dealing with Bullseye once and for all, but that was only for an issue. After that, we are supposed to accept the hordes of Hand ninjas as a legitimate threat to the street-Avengers who show up. But let me remind everyone of the ninja rule (also works as a robot or zombie rule): The more there are, the weaker they look. With a ton of ninjas bouncing around off light poles, I never worried for a moment that Luke Cage or Iron Fist would be hurt. Heck, the heroes agree to team-up with the Punisher! I don’t buy that either!

And it is not like there weren’t bad guys around! Kingpin and Lady Bullseye spent the whole series chatting! How about they bust some heads; this is the climax, right?

As a longtime DD reader, I was anxious to see the resolution to the Black Tarantula and White Tiger mind-control story arc, but that’s not here either. Maybe it is resolved in the DD trade?

I’m not a huge Billy Tan fan. His art is clear, but the Marc Silvestri influence just doesn’t do it for me. I did like the expanding horns on DD’s head as he loses control, but at that point I was so disappointed in Shadowland’s true villain (who appears out of nowhere) that I couldn’t make myself care.

Average