Andy Diggle has had a troublesome time during
his tenure on Daredevil, while it started out fairly strongly he has struggled
when trying to tie in all the elements of his Shadowland mini-event… Shadowland
hasn’t really gotten off to the ass-kicking start he hoped it would either.

#609 continues to trudge forward, filling out
the mostly weak Shadowland story as it goes. In doing so however, Diggle has
pulled back the veil on certain story beats that for a time looked to breathe
life into the Shadowland event, taking it from being an otherwise forgettable
event to an earth shattering moment in Matt Murdock’s history. We all got a
little bit excited at the prospect of Murdock going rogue, turning villainous and
becoming some kind of street level menace… this issue realistically puts an end
to any hope of that. In fact with so many issues of Daredevil left before
Shadowland finishes this on-going looks like it’s going to be as interesting as
watching someone else’s paint dry.

It’s not that it’s a terribly bad issue, but
nothing is happening. Since Matt has returned from Japan the book is just
exposition. Yes, yes we get the fact you are brooding Matt and yes we get it
street level characters  – you all
hate having this castle and ninjas in your city… well stop standing around and
actually do something about it. Things look like they are finally going to kick
off next issue, but whether they really take off and soar like you’d expect
from something of this magnitude is looking ever more unlikely.

No complaints about Roberto De La Torre’s art, I love his
pencil lined detailed style and brings as always brings a uniqueness to the
book. It’s gritty, dark and menacing and helps bring about the overall tone of
the book without loosing the feel and emotion that Daredevil requires (and
deserves).

This is looking like a particularly lacklusterlacklustre
arc from Diggle, as a standalone story it’s incredibly boring and as a
companion to the Shadowland story it only goes to show how much is missing from
the event. Diggle is slowly stripping away any interest from the tale and it
can only end soon enough.   
 

-Josh “Origami Kid” West

Twitter.com/origamikid

http://www.origamikid.wordpress.com