Shadowland (Review)

Writer: Andy Diggle

Artist: Billy Tan
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Collects: Shadowland #1-5; X-Men: Curse of the Mutants Spotlight

As I understand it, Shadowland was conceived as a street-level equivalent to big, cosmic, universe-threatening comic book Events, and was born out of Andy Diggle's run on Daredevil in which the Man Without Fear became the leader of the Hand, an ancient alliance of powerful ninja. Daredevil thought he could turn the Hand towards good, but things didn't quite turn out that way.

I'm not entirely sure if the "mini-Event" label is accurate. On the one hand, Shadowland did not have the same "everything must change!" impact that most Big Events have. On the other, it was nice just to read a good story for the sake of reading a good story. On the third hand, while many may decry the unrealistic plot points -- the Hand buys Hell's Kitchen and turns it into a fortress, complete with dungeon -- this is proportionally equal to the much grander scale plots found in regular Events.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!