Amazing Spiderman #650

          I honestly can't say enough good things about the past couple issues of Amazing Spiderman. The re-structuring of Spiderman is something I've been wanting since last April. His story got more depressing and complicated every day, it became dull. Now with this arc he's fun to read about again, it's the Spiderman I've always wanted, plus he gets to show scientific things, which is always good to read about.
          In this issue Spiderman is still fighting the new Hobgoblin. When he was paralyzed by Hobgoblin's sonic scream, Bella Fishback played music really loud to counter the scream. Hobgoblin goes and steals a bit of Reverbium. He gets a way and brings it to Kingpin. Kingpin thinks that the new Hobgoblin is better than the old one and hired him. Phil Urich brings the tape of him robbing Horizon Labs to Norah Winters.  Peter Parker wants to steal the Reverbium back, so he calls Black Cat to help him. When the meet Spiderman is waring a suit that bends light and sound around him, so he's invisible.
          This issue is great. It shows how it's still hard for Peter Parker to keep his identity a secret, but possible. Dan Slott monitors how much time he spends talking about Hobgoblin perfectly. If there was an issue with little Hobgoblin, before this conflict is resolved, then I would wonder where he went, but if there was too much Hobgoblin I would want to hear more about Spiderman.
           The new Spider suit is just cool. It bends light and sound around him to make him invisible, that is just cool. The suit would have to be temporary, otherwise future comics would be very boring, if Spiderman just appeared out of nowhere and arrested the villain, but he can't just say that it's a temporary suit, there needs to be a reason. The black suit was powerful, but controlling. This suit needs something like that. If one day he puts the suit away, and just says he's finished with it, that would be very disappointing. It'll be interesting to see how Dan Slott disposes of the suit.
            This issue, and this arc have both been perfect, I could not ask for anything else. Not only is this arc amazing, but I really want to see what the long lasting effects do to other arcs. It should be interesting. But in terms of this issue, it's a must buy.




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

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
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