Daredevil’s solo series is probably the one I have consistently enjoyed the most across the decades of Marvel Comics that I’ve read for this site.  Sadly, though, his first time driving a linewide event is pretty flat.

I debated how to cover this event.  There’s the main event miniseries, Shadowland, which ties directly into Daredevil #508-512, and then there are a whole bunch of one-shots and miniseries showing how various heroes interact with Daredevil’s new Shadowland Empire (which is really just Hell’s Kitchen, NYC, with a wall around it).  

I’ve decided to cover all the issues together–mostly because there’s not much substance here, despite the event spanning about 30 issues.

Here’s what’s covered:

• Daredevil #508–512
• Shadowland #1-5
• Shadowland: After the Fall One-Shot
• Shadowland: Blood on the Streets #1–4 
• Shadowland: Bullseye One-Shot
• Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow #1–3
• Shadowland: Elektra One-Shot
• Shadowland: Ghost Rider One-Shot
• Shadowland: Moon Knight #1–3
• Shadowland: Power Man #1–4 
• Shadowland: Spider-Man One-Shot

It all starts in Shadowland #1 in Japan, with the senior members of The Hand (which Matt Murdock now leads) providing the reader with the narrative explanation that they have successfully led Daredevil down a dark path, he’s back in New York City, and that it’s all a plan to ensure the dominance of the Snakeroot clan of The Hand.

Back in New York, Bullseye busts out of prison and decides to kill Daredevil–finding that he can’t get into the area of Hell’s Kitchen that he blew up several issues ago because DD and The Hand have build a fortress called Shadowland.

The reaction shots along the bottom of that page are odd.  I know that DD had The Hand build Shadowland in record time, but this can’t possibly be the first time guys like Punisher and Kingpin noticed.  I mean, surveillance is kind of what they do, all day every day.  Moon Knight, too, for that matter–but maybe he’s busy being a Secret Avenger.

The nice thing about having those four dudes on the page is that each of them get tie-in miniserieses.  Which prompted me to think, “I really should like this–it’s all about street characters, which I generally find much more interesting than big cosmic, world-destroying threats.” Yeah.  I should like it.  I can say this: As I am re-reading it, I dislike it a lot less than I did when it came out.

Back to the story: There are also reaction shots by various bigger-time heroes (Thor, Cap, Iron Man, etc.), all of whom are grimly predicting that this won’t end well while at the same time not doing anything about it.  WTF is up with that?  

Daredevil sics his Hand minions on Bullseye and then he himself breaks Bullseye’s arms and stabs him.  

Bullseye is shocked but…Daredevil broke every bone in Bullseye’s body way, way back in Daredevil #181, and then kinda gloated about it in #182.

Bullseye actually gets a hero’s funeral (remember he was an Avenger during Dark Reign).

That Bullseye one-shot may be the most ridiculous story of the lot.  Bullseye is not even in it. A bunch of New York City bikers all get upset that Bullseye isn’t being properly remembered and go on a rampage, only to be fought, captured, and taken to Daredevil’s Shadowland prison.

This makes Ben Urich scowl with disapproval.  

Shang-Chi, Power Man and Iron Fist, etc., try to meet with DD about all this, but he refuses to talk.  

They try again later, after Kingpin urges them to(?!?), but again they are rebuffed. 

DD has decided to be the law unto himself, kicking the cops out of Shadowland and beating the snot out of any criminal who dares to enter.

A lot of this series is taken up by various people handwringing about Shadowland, deciding to confront Daredevil, but then doing a half-assed job about it.  Also, there’s a lot of scenes with Daredevil fighting all his former allies and actually trying to kill them.  

Having failed to get Daredevil’s fellow heroes to evict him, he conjures up Ghost Rider, who gets a one-shot to fail at stopping Daredevil. Ghost Rider also joins up with Moon Knight.  Both fail.  

Moon Knight’s miniseries is the most ponderous.  It ends with him saying that his Jake Lockley identity is “dead” and he’s Marc Spector now.

Not only does that panel look silly, but would Marvel really eliminate Moon Knight’s most interesting aspect (i.e., that he has multiple identities) in an event tie-in?  No.  No, they wouldn’t.

No, wait–I take back what I said.  The most ponderous tie-in is Power Man.  No, not Luke Cage.  

A kid named Victor Alvarez who has some kind of energy-absorption ability.  His father was killed in the destruction of the building by Bullseye (i.e., the building that was eventually rebuilt as Shadowland Prison), so he’s got an axe to grind. 

Iron Fist, Cage, Spidey, etc. help him. He becomes a hero and … You know what?  This dude never went very far.  If you wanna know what happens in this event tie-in that really doesn’t need to tie into the event at all, go read it yourself.  For what it’s worth, it establishes that Shang Chi and Iron Fist sometimes teach together.

And of course there’s Spidey, who is taken out by DD’s ally, Typhoid Mary.  In the same battle, Tarantula and White Tiger help Daredevil fight off Iron fist, Shang-Chi, MIsty Knight, and Colleen Wing.  

The heroes are losing until Punisher comes and saves them.  

Really?  That’s your big one liner, “Kung Fu this”?

This is what I mean: The Shadowland event has some interesting aspects and potential, but it’s all so formulaic and lazy.

Once the kung fu gang escape, they meet with Master Izo who reveals that Snakeroot Clan is mind-controlling Matt using an ancient creature called The Beast of the Hand (yes, the same “Beast” demon from the terrific Frank Miller/Bill Sienkiewicz Elektra: Assassin miniseries).

While that’s going on, Daredevil decides he needs more help, so he takes the body so the Hand can revive him. 

By this time, Elektra has joined up with her ex-BF as well, keeping an eye on him.

Also while they are planning their next move, Spider-Man has a one-shot where he teams up with Shang-Chi to fight Mister Negative, who is trying to exploit the Shadowland fracas to his own advantage.  There’s really no reason for this comic.  It goes nowhere.

Speaking of lack of purpose, there’s also a miniseries called Shadowland: Blood on the Streets.  It’s about Misty Knight, Paladin, Shroud … There are Hand ninjas in it, but there’s no reason for it to be a Shadowland tie-in.  In fact, I totally support a series about these lesser-developed, street-level characters.  I had more fun reading this book than the rest of these comics.  Misty is also featured with Colleen and others in the Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow, which also didn’t have to be a tie-in.  It’s not as good, though.  

The Thunderbolts’ regular series ties in as well, but I’ll cover those issues as part of my coverage to the Thunderbolts book.

For the final act, we get to see Kingpin in a parka.

Elektra helps the heroes infiltrate Shadowland and stop him from resurrecting Bullseye.  Since this is an event and he’s not otherwise being used, Wolverine joins the fight.  Not much sense in this.  He’s not a New York-based hero.  He’s not really a street-level guy.  But, hey, he gets to be in everything.

Big final fight where Daredevil is fully taken over by The Beast, and manifests increasing levels of power.

Daredevil actually wins.  With the Beast in him, he’s more powerful that all of them. He even sucks up Ghost Rider’s hellfire.

As he sits on a throne in front of the unconscious heroes (why didn’t he kill them?), White Tiger drags Foggy Nelson in by his hair.

Foggy tries to break through to the “inner Matt” inside the Beast, but fails.  Why?  Why couldn’t he be the one to get Matt to shake off the beast?  I dunno.  I guess it’s because they wanted to have a really dumb psyche scene with Elektra.

And with that simple act of suicide, all is well again.  Iron Fist heals Murdock using “chi” (dumb).  Kingpin steps in and gets Typhoid Mary installed as the leader of The Hand, which basically means they work for Kingpin now.  Matt is so ashamed of himself that he quits being Daredevil and jumps on a bus. And for no reason at all, Black Panther decides to be the protector of Hell’s Kitchen in the wake of DD being gone.

At least that will lead to some really good comics as he takes over this book for a bit.

Maybe if this had just been 5 comics it would have been good (probably not, though), but as it stands it is a very, very long and tedious event.