If there has been any weakness with this series right now it would be the dreaded word known as: Crossover. The last issue with Avengers Academy, although a solid issue all around, really could’ve been much better if it wasn’t forced fed to include the Avengers Academy. Now the series could be at the start of a free fall thanks for being including into Shadlowland. Why Marvel thinks this is a good idea is anyone’s guess, but we could be forced to suffer through a bad and pointless crossover. Thankfully, Jeff Parker is not having any of that.

Yes, this is a much better use of a crossover then last issue. As Luke Cage feels obligated to free some close friends from evil Matt Murdock’s clutches; he makes good use of having insane supercriminals to do the job. I think Parker does a good job of making this crossover seem, somewhat, relevant and it isn’t the usual cash grab. But what Parker makes this issue for me is the scenes before Shadlowland comes fully into play. To have both sides of the team talk during lunch at the Raft was a great way to establish more personality to the characters and to slowly push forward other plot points. Crossbone’s Terrigan Mists problem and the Asgardian cannibal are obviously going to be played more through out the series and I hope we see more of that in the future. Oh and we do have some ninja fighting in this. But even with that Parker still tries to just make this more of talking heads then anything else.

Now Declan Shalvey is not an artist I would immediately think to do a title like this. In fact I think this is his first superhero work, and also the first mainstream comic he’s worked on. While he is certainly no Kev Walker, Shalvey does some pretty good work in here. He’s kinda like Eric Canete in a way; where the characters look a bit off the but amount of detail is staggering. Now he can’t really do much to put a different take on established characters; but his version of Luke Cage, Ghost, Songbird, and others are definitely different from other artists. I’ve never really seen Shalvey do much action in his work (considering how the series 28 Days Later is) but he can handle the chaos really week. Some panels are a bit hard to figure out in terms of fluditity, but considering he has dozens of ninjas to work with on each panel it really is good.

You know I’ve loved this series since word of mouth on this site was strong and I got the reprints to catch up. But it is a bit weird that a Shadowland tie-in, compared to the others, is the best I’ve read so far of this series. This is how you do a crossover though. Yes, bring in the obvious tie-ins up front but try to make something your own as well. Jeff Parker has really impressed me as a writer with this series so far. He is clearly one of the best talents Marvel has to offer and it is issues like this that make his stock rise in the industry. I also hope to see more Shalvey in the future as well; maybe a stint on Daredevil or Punisher?