Shadowland: Daredevil

Shadowland

by Andy Diggle, Antony Johnston, Roberto De La Torre (Illustrator)

It's the battle for the soul of Matt Murdock! Daredevil has taken over The Hand, hoping to transform the clan of coldblooded killers into a force for justice. But after returning from Japan, it's Daredevil who's changed. He's locked down Hell's Kitchen - placing it under martial law and his friends have no choice but to confront him. Foggy Nelson, Dakota North, Power Man and Iron Fist brave the dangers of Shadowland to save Matt Murdock. Meanwhile, Master Izo and Elektra travel to Japan to learn the ninjas' true plan for Daredevil! Collecting DAREDEVIL (1964) #508-512 and AFTER THE FALL.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction, Fantasy

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Andy Diggle is a British comic book writer and former editor of 2000 AD. He is best known for his work on The Losers,Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Adam Strange and Silent Dragon at DC Comics and for his run on Thunderbolts and Daredevil after his move to Marvel.

In 2013 Diggle left writing DC's Action Comics and began working with Dynamite Entertainment, writing a paranormal crime series Uncanny. He is also working on another crime series with his wife titled Control that is set to begin publishing in 2014.

Reviews

[Robert Kroese · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am a casual comics reader these days. A while back I picked up a copy of The Devil's Hand, a compilation of comics covering Daredevil's ascension (descension?) to the role of leader of the shadowy organization known as The Hand. I loved it and waited patiently for the conclusion of the story, Shadowland. Man, was I disappointed.

The art is good. The writing is competent. Here's the thing, though: this "book" is missing its climax. And I don't mean that the ending is anticlimactic; I mean that the most important part of the story is literally missing. On one page, Spider-Man, Iron Fist and half the cops in Hell's Kitchen are in Daredevil's underground dungeon and Daredevil is on the verge of executing Foggy Nelson. On the next page, the dungeon is closed, Daredevil is no longer running the hand, and Foggy is perfectly fine.

I can only assume that the climax is out there somewhere, probably scattered across sixteen different issues of five different Marvel titles. I don't know. I don't know how to find out. I don't have the money to hire Dakota North to find the missing pages of this story.

I'm fine with comic crossovers. When Spider-Man showed up in Daredevil's prison, I assumed that I would have to pick up a Spider-Man comic to learn how that happened. Fine. But leaving out the most important part of a Daredevil story in a compilation of Daredevil comics? Not fine.

This is cynical, money-grubbing bullshit. Shame on you, Marvel.

[Aaron · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's a shame to see Daredevil fall so far. I'm not talking about the plot, in which Daredevil succumbs to the Hand's evil (sort of?). I'm talking about Diggle's writing. There is almost nothing redemptive in this. The story jumps from seemingly random event to random event. Daredevil's good, then he's evil. No explanation given. Characters show up out of absolutely nowhere and end up not mattering in the slightest. There's an extended period where Moon Knight keeps being set up to be a key player in the story, then he just vanishes and is never mentioned again. One of the most anticlimactic books I've ever read. If you're going to give a crossover a central series, MAKE IT IMPORTANT. This felt like reading a novel with about 3/4 of the chapters missing.

Daredevil has long been my favorite ongoing title, and traditionally one of Marvel's best-written, so seeing it crapped all over by a company trying to make a buck on a crossover event is very disappointing.

[Subham · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This felt like such a filler and is irrelevant to even the main story.

Most of the stories focus on side characters like whatever is going on with Dakota and Foggy as they try to escape from hand and then Izo and elektra and what they find out, rehashing the events that happen in the main event book and then something with the fallout and how people are reacting to Matt's thing especially Detective Kurtz and Ben and its alright, them seeing the aftermath and maybe it was for the better but it feels like a chore to read through. Maybe thats the point of it, filling the main story with unnecessary stuff. Skip this.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was a little too far out for many Daredevil readers, but I liked it. Daredevil has taken over the ninja group The Hand and has built a fortress in the middle of Hell's Kitchen. He and his army of ninjas have basically instituted martial law, but many heroes in the area don't like how he's operating. When he crosses the line and murders Bullseye, they know they have to take action, which leads into the Shadowland crossover.

[Matthew · Rating 1 out of 5]

There is potential for a good story here, but this book is a mess. I have no idea how things went this wrong, but the storytelling is simply, all over the place. The book starts out with a recap of the previous volume, mentioning the part where Daredevil snapped and killed Bullseye - - WAITAMINUTE!!!!! That didn't happen! Did they just end the last volume planning to begin this one with that event, only to forget they didn't portray it at the end of The Devils' Hand? This kind of thing happens throughout the book. Osbourne has lost his power over New York as inexplicably as he gained it. In one seen DD (who is possessed by a demon) is about to kill his best friend, Foggy. We cut away, and when we come back to these characters, Matt's back to normal and Foggy's fine. There's no explanation of how the scenario played out. In another part we see several defeated Marvel heroes sprawled out across the floor of a room. Many of them haven't appeared in the pages of Daredevil in a long time. There's no explanation of how this came to be. And there's all kinds of other crazy stuff. Teenager's disguised as Hand ninja's taking on armed robbers as a "joke." Rioters assaulting eachother as if they forgot why they were rioting. Honestly, having finished the book I remain quite vague on what the titular "Shadowland" was exactly supposed to be. And the last chapter in which The Black Panther (a foreign king!) for no apparent reason takes DD's role as protector of Hell's Kitchen is straight out of left field. Do Matt and T'challa even know each other?

And one more thing. In some panels the artist drew Kingpin so skinny I didn't recognize him. At first, I seriously thought I was looking at the vulture.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was so ass. Whoever planned out the Shadowland event needs to be shot. 💀

Like what is the POINT of this one? You have to go back and forth between this and the main Shadowland mini series to follow along and even then you'll end up lost anyway. This is half the same damn story but with different art and different vibes???

It follows a lot of Daredevil's side characters that I don't even give a damn about anymore and this entire thing was just the worst way to end this run.

Side note I love how when Daredevil took over The Hand all the ninjas started wearing lil devil horns lol.

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems incredible, but Diggle has managed to maintain a good standard in the Daredevil series – in this case, a tie-in to the Shadowland event – while at the same time completely ruining the event, even though it features the SAME character and takes place at the SAME time.

Bloody amazing.

What's more, De la Torre and Chechetto are handling the artwork, so we're sitting pretty.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shadowland: Daredevil! Now with 80% less Daredevil.

So...Matt has been possessed (or something) and is hanging out with The Hand in a ludicrous, Sengoku-era Japanese castle in Hell's Kitchen, and his friends (Foggy, Dakota, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, etc.) want to stage some kind of intervention to get him to snap out of it and quit hanging out with nutjobs like White Tiger and Typhoid Mary.

Meanwhile, there's a very street-level "last good cop in the kitchen" story line, and the trials and tribulations of Master Izo and Elektra fight yet more Hand-types in Japan itself to try to get to the bottom of Matt's malaise.

On the bright side, I really enjoyed the dark and gloomy artwork, the washed-out nighttime cityscape backgrounds in particular looked lovely.



On the way down side, key confrontations (like Iron Fist and Cage confronting Matt in his throne room- yes, Matt freaking Murdock has a throne room in this, which is so bizarre- or the big fight versus pretty much all of NYC's resident superhuman community- Avengers excepted) are skipped over completely. Covered in crossover titles, I suppose, but makes for some pretty patchy narrative in this compilation.

[Ming · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update:
(Finally read both this and Shadowland together, so updating this entry)
It was a very poor decision to have the Shadowland event miniseries and the DD series so tightly intertwined, without making them properly sequential. You'd literally have to read a few pages of this, hop over to read some pages of that, and skip back to this, in order for stuff to make chronological sense. (And don't even get me started on the other tie-ins)

That being said, reading both simultaneously was... weird. I get that DD is more of a noir book, and Shadowland is more superhero mash-up, but they just didn't go well together, despite being parts of the same story. And it's not even a good story - there are so many peripheral characters that did not have to be involved at all, because they do anything significant, but put in appearances just so they can "legitimately" be spun off into tie-in miniseries or one-shots. The worst offenders in this sense are probably Moon Knight and Ghost Rider.

But damn, the art is pretty though. Almost on par with that during the Bendis and Brubaker runs.

Original review:
Someone gave this to me without giving me the Shadowland collection. Without which, this book makes completely no sense at all. I hate things like that.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short version is the Daredevil has gone rogue. He's built a Japanese temple in the heart of Manhattan and has surrounded himself with ninjas. As the new leader of The Hand, he intends to use the silent assassins to keep peace. Instead, he descends into darkness and his corruption leaches out to the city around him.

Heroes like Spider-man, Moon Knight, Luke Cage and Iron Fist try to reason with Daredevil, but after he goes too far it seems like killing him is the only solution. Enter Ghost Rider, The Punisher and Wolverine.

I thought this was a fun read, but the problem I have with this is that instead of being a self-contained miniseries, it reads more like a Wikipedia summary of the storyline.

You'd have to read the Shadowland: Daredevil, Shadowland: Blood on the Streets, Shadowland: Power Man, Shadowland: Moon Knight, Shadowland: Street Fighters and Shadowland: Street Fighters collections to get the full story. If you just read this, you'll wonder why major characters drop out of the action without any notice.

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 1 out of 5]

[Ramón S. · Rating 1 out of 5]

Daredevil becoming a villain with a lot of gratuity violence and non sense. A waste of time

[James DeSantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

This might be more like a 2 star. Cause the art is actually solid. Especially in those Daredevil issues. And the first issue ain't bad, watching Matt fuck up Bullseye is very satisfying.

But holy shit is the story some horseshit. This is easily the lowest point I ever read in all my Daredevil reading. If you haven't read Daredevil he has a ton of amazing runs from Frank Miller to Bendis to Chip to Waid. This run is easily the worst in the last 30 years. And easily one of the worst superhero events I ever read.

Daredevil gets possessed by a actual devil and goes head to head with some power house superheroes to stop it. Every single storybeat you can guess, every single death is reverse, every single big major storyline pushed in Bendis/Brubaker's run is turned to shit, and basically this entire goddamn event is one boring slog with even worse side stories than it somehow.

So yeah, FUCK Shadowland.

[47Time · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daredevil is keeping the crime low in Hell's Kitchen from his Shadowland fortress. He does so by declaring martial law and policing the neighborhood by force.

Izo is working with Elektra to uncover the conspiracy against Matt. He is quickly found out by the Hand daimyos conspiring against Daredevil. Elektra must get word to Matt.

Dakota and Foggy try to leave the city as riots break out on the streets. Mayor Jameson orders special forces to pacify the rioters with force. Foggy tries to reason with Matt one last time, but nearly gets killed. Dakota saves Becky from her home.

Eventually, Matt is defeated and his fortress falls. Foggy is among the few who still stand by Matt. The latter now has an arrest warrant on his name, though he is nowhere to found. In fact, he is trying to find himself.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as shadowland itself but nice to see where a lot of characters are during and after the events.

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is substantially better than the main event. I think Andy Diggle is a decent Daredevil writer, and I think a fair bit of the blame of the event being a mess is on editorial. The art in these issues is also much more fitting for the character and much more to my taste.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off I should point out that, like most crossover events, reading only the central mini-series is often not enough to fully enjoy said crossover event. From one chapter to the next, you might feel as if you've missed an important development in the story, one that's happened in a companion mini-series or tie-in. Such is the case with Shadowland, to which I basically gave the same review. Sure, the more tie-ins you read, the better, but the absolute minimum you should read along with this book is the "Shadowland: Daredevil" collection. Which is logical, since the event is centered around Daredevil. Ideally, to get the most out of this storyline, one needs to read the first part of "Shadowland", then the first part of the "Shadowland: Daredevil" collection, and then the second part of "Shadowland", then the second part of the "Shadowland: Daredevil", and so on...

For an event that's gotten generally mixed reviews from "professional" reviewers from all corners of the internet, "Shadowland", in my humble opinion, is not nearly as bad as you'd be led to believe. Sure, some of its elements might be seen as unrealistic or implausible, but hey, this is a comic book, people! If you just let yourself go along with the story, you can see it as an interesting development for Daredevil.

Since its re-launch by Kevin Smith, through the Bendis and Brubaker runs, Daredevil's been subjected to one hardship after another, and he's always come out on the other side. He just keeps going. Now even though the aforementioned Bendis and Brubaker runs were phenomenal and destined to become classics, the Daredevil comic book itself had become quite dark and gritty, and somewhere along the way the editorial staff at Marvel comics decided to bring the character back to a traditional, not-so-dark environment. But they couldn't just change the character overnight. Instead, they had to take him to the logical end of the path he'd been on for the last years. Enter Andy Diggle, whose mandate it was to bring about the "end" of the dark days of Daredevil. Daredevil: The Devil's Hand (which I highly recommend to you) was an excellent start to his run and directly precedes the events of "Shadowland".

So, sure, "Shadowland" and the tie-in books may not be up to par with the Bendis and Brubaker runs, but one must keep in mind that, while these two writers pretty much took the character where they wanted him to go, Diggle had been given clear directives by the editors. This usually excellent writer did what he could with what he was given, and that's that. The art by Billy Tan is nice and the covers are supplied by the always excellent John Cassaday. Considering all of this, "Shadowland" turns out to be quite satisfying in its own right - just don't forget to read it alongside "Shadowland: Daredevil". 4 stars.

[Kit · Rating 1 out of 5]

What...

what was this book?

It amazes me when I read bad Daredevil that so much good came after. It really is no wonder so many people have written off the character with this kind of garbage.

This collection is mostly the spotting of the larger event, making little sense and loosely strung together. Imagine yourself at summer camp with your new best friend. You decide that the best way to immortalize your brotherly union is through the making of friendship bracelets, which you plan to wear all of the time. Ever made beaded bracelets at summer camp, imbued with the promises of eternal feelings and a sense of wonder that through the commitment, they will last forever...

...only to get 4 months down the road and have the weakened elastic stretch and break in the shower?
Yeah, this Daredevil trade is like that. It is like a well-intentioned broken promise of scattered beads on the floor, meant to be read together and seen in concert with other events, but sadly a confused, scattered mess once the elastic is worn thin.

The problem lies in the idea of big events in comics. When we get an event sprawled over several titles for months at a time, all weaving together into what is hopefully a big WOW moment. Once the dust has settled and the fans are looking for special edition hardcovers or trades, however, we get the cash grab, which frequently means that chunks of stories are similarly strewn over collections, if they are collected at all, leaving the narrative in many of the collections a complete mess. This seems to be the case with Shadowland.

Oh, DD. I thought we'd be friends forever.

[logankstewart · Rating 1 out of 5]

[Note: This review is identical to my review of Shadowland , as the two are intertwined through a cross-over event.]

To be fair, I was warned. The truly wonderful Volume 2 of Daredevil, spanning from Issue #1 to Issue #512 (which is 132), began in 1998 with a reboot. It lasted for 12 years, and in the majority of those years the story of Matt Murdock was fantastic. Sure, Murdock had a downer life, constantly assaulted and beaten. It was horrible. Tough. But still Matt Murdock pressed on.

When Andy Diggle took over the series at issue 501, there was an immediate shift in the story. Things were already dark, but Diggle took them to a ridiculously level of absurd darkness with little-to-no plausible explanation. The writing quality dropped noticeably, and consequently did the characterization. Art work was passable, but not as good as Lark or Maleev (or any of the others previously). And worst of all was the conclusion. This messy story might have been okay had it been spread out over more issues or handled differently. Instead the cross-over event was wacky and chaotic and I found myself cringing.

To me Daredevil Volume 2 ends at issue #500. Most everything established up to this point is resolved, and while the ending isn't perfect it's magnitudes better than the thing here in Shadowland. If you're reading stories about the Man Without Fear, allow me to recommend the same thing the guy that loaned me these comics: SKIP EVERYTHING AFTER 500. You won't regret it.

[Jordan Myers · Rating 2 out of 5]

The last issue is really all that’s worth reading in my opinion. Just glad to be done with it.

[Emmett Spain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Focusing more on Foggy Nelson and Dakota North, this trade is superior to the Shadowland event.

As I mentioned in my Shadowland review, the event works only if you read one issue of Shadowland followed by one issue of this trade and so on. If you read this on its own, it doesn't make sense. If you read Shadowland on its own there’s holes you could drive a truck through. It’s all part of this disturbing trend to force readers to buy all the trades or issues connected to an event in order to understand it.

I give this book 4 stars because I read it after Shadowland, so it all tied together much better than if I would have read it alone – I urge you to read this in partnership with the Shadowland event as suggested or not at all. It’s a much more satisfying experience that way, and the character work in this volume is more satisfying than the flashy smash ‘em up of the event itself.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stronger half of the Shadowline story, with great art and nice attention to all the secondary characters of the Daredevil universe.

[FortressOfBookitude · Rating 2 out of 5]

These are just tie-ins that aren't any worse or better than the main story.

[Fabi · Rating 1 out of 5]

This arc is soooo out of character. None of the things happening in the book seem connected and they happen without explanations. They better explain it in the next few issues…

[Matty Dub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poor editorial kept this book from being good, it spends too much time repeating what we’ve already seen in Shadowland instead making its own progress into the event. 2.5/5 for the good art.

[Rockito · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of good character moments in the aftermath can't save this slop.

[Christian Oliverio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Note: This review is for Daredevil by Brubaker & Lark: Ultimate Collection, book 3; Daredevil: The Devil's Hand, Shadowland, and Daredevil: Shadowland

This is one of those longer arcs that starts off great. Brubaker's opening two acts really made me like the Hand... then the last two sections reminded me why I think the Hand is corny. If my star reviews are any indication, you can see how quickly it dives in quality.

Let's start with the negative and work our way backwards towards the good stuff, whilst avoiding as many spoilers as possible. Shadowland made no sense. You could tell the executives came to Diggle and made him do a crossover with all the street level heroes centered on Daredevil. He clearly set up the individual writers for some good stuff, but it didn't go anywhere (looking at you Moon Knight and your glorious 5 pages of screen time). And a few characters popped out of nowhere with no explanation just to be thrown in because the producers said so (Punisher and Wolverine). Worse yet, the character work in the Daredevil tie-in is VERY important to the main story, but is so disjointed and not easy to read, even when jumping between the two in release order of issues. The whole thing was a mess of loosely connected cool scenes and rushed character work with little payoff. Thankfully, it was short. Best part that came out of this was Daredevil's black suit. Loved it!

Now, the set up for Shadowland, Devil's Hand was fine. It had excellent set up in Brubaker, set up Shadowland's story well, and had some fun fight scenes. It also had some great twists along the way. Overall, it was just fun ninja pulp. Also it gave us the leaders of the Hand known as the Fingers, which is simultaneously stupidly hilarious and amazing; which summarizes my thoughts on the Hand as a whole. Sorry, but Ra'as will always be cooler and taken far more seriously.

But, despite the terrible ending and decrease in quality; the first half of this story (which is collected in Brubaker's run (specifically book 3)) was spectacular! They did a great job of actually making the Hand cool (as much as they could), introduced two great characters (Izzo and Lady Bullseye), and did a phenomenal job of balancing different street heroes and making them feel important to the overall story. I loved the buildup to figuring out what the Hand and Izzo wanted. I loved Izzo's drunken shenanigans. I loved Lady Bullseye countering Matt's enhanced senses via cool kungfu bullcrap. I loved Foggy (the friend we all need). I liked Dakota, despite her and Matt making a VERY poor choice together. Plus, Fisk's part in this whole story was great. He is easily my favorite Marvel villain for the insane amount of layers this man has. And that ending (Brubaker's, not Shadowland)! Holy cow, 'twas fire!

So in short, Diggle was pretty clearly screwed by the executives. He had great set up, was going fun places, and once Shadowland is over, he told a great story in Daredevil: Reborn. Still, despite the convoluted mess that was Shadowland; Brubaker's opening makes this story worth the read.

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

A tie-in to the Shadowland crossover event, in which Daredevil gives reign to his darker side and enforces his ruthless dominion over Hell's Kitchen. This book follows his non-superhero friends and allies, including Foggy Nelson and Ben Urich, as they attempt to survive the Hand's brutal control of the streets and come to terms with the man Matt Murdock has become.

Because the main Shadowlands book (written by Diggle) is where the key events of the crossover happen, this is very much supplemental material and, honestly, doesn't add much of great interest. Sure it makes for an interesting perspective to see Foggy's take on Matt's fall from grace, but it has no significant impact on events and isn't really able to add anything of import.

There were two things I did like here, however, and those were getting a bit more information on the roles played by Black Tarantula and Typhoid Mary. In the main event story, the former suddenly drops out without any fanfare and the latter suddenly appears in much the same way. Here though, we get to see the back stories of what happens to both of them outside of the main event.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Kieran Stott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gonna go out on a limb and say that the three star is more so for the art as the story (from the book I read) is honestly weirdly packaged together. As other reviewers have mentioned. If possible, don't do as I've done and read this solo. You'll likely need the companion pieces. Like I say, nice art but messy storytelling. Like releasing a novel but there's chapters missing between 10 and 20. So you end up with half the picture.

[meagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

shadowland is the only plot involving the hand that i enjoy

re-reading the comics makes me even sadder that they (spoiler for BA) - killed foggy in the show, he truly is matt’s anchor