Shadowland #5

           This is the last issue of Shadowland. This has been a great mini series, I wasn't a huge fan of Shadowland issue four, but the rest of the series has been fantastic. The first issue might have been the best opening issues of a series that I've ever read.
           In the final issue Foggy Nelson was climbing the Shadow Land Fortress' wall, and now he is falling. Ghost Rider picks him up and puts him on a roof. He goes in to battle Daredevil, but his flame only makes Daredevil more powerful, so Ghost Rider loses, and is down. Daredevil then turns to kill Foggy, after White Tiger brings him, but before he can Iron Fist builds up a lot of Chi and punches him very hard. The Chi energy is a life force and Iron Fist used it to exorcise the demon out of Daredevil. Matt Murdock goes through a weird thing in his mind filled with awful images of people he knows telling him how disappointing he is. Daredevil goes unconscious, and the fighting in the streets stops. Matt Murdock runs away, and no one can find him. He went to a church to do some confessing, and Kingpin takes over the Hand.
          I always wanted Daredevil to leave the Hand, ever since he joined up with them, and when Shadowland came out I knew this was going to be the end, the first issues were great, but then I wasn't fond of the idea that it was some sort if demon possessing him. It looked like Diggle was trying to find an excuse to get Murdock back to being a good guy. Also when Iron Fist punched him with the Chi energy all I could think of is why didn't that just happen before, couldn't Diggle think of something better, even if Iron Fist's Chi energy was amplified by something and thats why it was powerful enough to exorcise a demon, then that would have been better, but the whole demon and Chi healing just felt rushed. Another disappointment was Ghost Rider, he is one of the more powerful people in the Marvel universe, and he had this great build up to him (including the cover of the issue) and then he was taken out in the first six pages of the final issue. At least give him a couple moments before rendering him useless. Overall this issue felt like a rush to finnish the story by the fifth issue, and Diggle didn't take the time to think the plot through and how to use the characters. A series with a great first issue ended with a disappointing last one.




Grade: 4/10
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Shadowland #3

          Shadow land is without a doubt in my mind my favorite mini since the Civil War. I used to read a lot of Daredevil but I stopped when he got involved with the Hand. I wanted him to be like the vigilantly that he was before, not the head of a group of ninja assassins. So naturally Shadowland would appeal to me , I hope that this is what bring Daredevil away from the hand, and so far Marvel is doing it in a way that is just so fantastic. Shadowland is written and drawn beautifully, and it includes some B list characters that I never get around to reading about, but I still find them interesting. (ex. Ghost Rider, Punisher)
         In this issue Daredevil and the Hand are still fighting Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Spiderman and a whole bunch of different fighters. Punisher comes in and starts shooting at every one giving the fighters time to escape.  Later Master Izo comes in and reveals a secret about Daredevil. Meanwhile Moon Knight and Ghost Rider destroy all the ninjas in the Shadowland prison and all the prisoners escape, and at the end Daredevil goes to resurrect Bullseye when someone else enters the picture.
        Another stellar issue. I have said before I hate it when issues are just giant fight scenes, and I was ready to take away from this issues grade for it, but I went back and read it again, and really there isn't that much fight scene, and I thought that was great. I think I might of gotten confused because the comic had such a fast pace. The fight scene was interesting and just plain cool, and the rest of the book was interesting and just plain cool. The secret was not my favorite thing, what happened was Diggle wrote the story, and now he needs to fix Daredevil as fast as possible. It could have been worse, but it could have been better. With each issue Daredevil just becomes different. He became evil when he killed Bullseye, then even more so when he ordered the Hand to kill the Fighters, and now he's bringing back Bullseye so that he will be loyal to the Hand. That is just a perfect order. I forgot to mention that I wanted Diggle to bring Bullseye back but I wanted him to do it in away that wasn't too fake, like Luke Cage made it to the hospital and the doctors saved Bullseye. I think the way that he's coming back is really good.
     So this issue was still really good, but I cant give it a ten out of ten because of an error with the secret that Master Izo said, but it is still a great comic and I recommend it highly.



Grade: 9.5 /10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com

Shadow Land #2

           Shadow Land one was one of the best comics I've ever read. I really liked the story, art, panels, dialogue, and... well just everything about it.  I really hope that Shadowland is what it will take to put Daredevil back to the state is was in a couple years ago.
           In this issue Moon Knight puts himself in prison so that he can infiltrate Daredevil's castle. Kingpin goes to Luke Cage and Iron Fist because he wants Daredevil taken out as well. Then he goes home and summons something that brakes everyone who was in Daredevil's prison, out. At the end Luke Cage, Iron Fist and others go to talk to Daredevil, which turns into a fight.
          This issue was just as good as the previous one. Daredevil did look like a oppressive tyrant last issue, but this time it was very thick. As I've said before I enjoy when authors take a brake from fights and add something else, weather it be some more character insight, development, or personal conflict. All of those are included in Shadow Land. Diggle voiced all of his characters. Sometimes it's just perfect. In this issue the standout was Kingpin. He sounded like he should, and was just the perfect amount of stuck up that he should have been. That and I alway love the funny banter that comes via Spiderman, and in this issue it was great. I've only seen the banter done flawlessly in two series, surprisingly not in Amazing Spiderman. The two series are Shadow Land, and Avengers. I want a little more Spiderman in both of those series.
          Story wise this comic was mainly fallowing Luke Cage and Iron Fist. I really didn't know much about them until I looked them up a couple of days ago, but Diggle did a good job with them in this series. This is the issue where Daredevil goes totally over the edge, and I really like that, because even though I want Marvel to go in the other direction, I can see a path that gets rid of Black Daredevil and brings back the classic red one, but not the sort of path where DD sees the error of his ways and comes into the light again.
         I was shocked to read that some people didn't like Shadowland, and I advise you to disregard all bad reviews for this comic or any other issue in this series and read them.



Grade: 10/10
Buy at: www.mycomicshop.com