I was a bit worried about this series considering how much of it is turning into the new ‘X-Factor’ for Marvel. You know, where instead of letting a creative team tell their stories; it turns into crossover fodder for the company. So far Parker/Walker/Shalvey have dealt with Avengers Academy, Shadowland (currently), and apparently a Hulk tie-in in the near future. However, as this issue will indicate, Jeff Parker and the artist currently working for him shows it doesn’t matter what they crossover with.

These two issues have been so fantastic to read. Somehow Parker is able to weave a crossover into Shadowland but still create character development at the same time. With this issue, it is more fighting ninjas than anything else. But during the hysteria a major plot point occurs and it could change the team forever. The last couple of pages really surprised me and I love how Parker executed them. If anything he is reminding us that we should not like anyone on this team; because disturbing things will happen (like what happened here for lack of spoilers). For the most part though, again, there is a lot of ninja fighting in this. It actually stays consistant with the violence and Parker does some nice things here. I loved the first Juggernaut panel with crushing the head of the ninja, and Crossbones just putting anything a flame in front of him is sadistically fun. Just a fun, well paced issue to just make this a fantastic issue to read.

Declan Shalvey proves once again why he needs to do mainstream work with this issue. The amount of ninja’s in one panel is just so damn impressive. He makes the action fluid and fast but it never gets confusing at all. Shalvey is just great at ratching up the violence here. The reason why the moments with Juggernaut or Crossbones are fantastic is because of the pencils Shalvey does. There’s also some nice details in the panels; like what Ghost is doing throughout the issue or the hilarious head of Man Thing towards the middle. I really want Marvel to make Declan Shalvey an exclusive. There is so much he could do with other characters (like Punisher or Daredevil; proven on his twitter account) that it would be a shame to see him go after this arc.

You know, this might not be for some but I found this to be the best issue of the series so far. This has a lot of fun, a lot of action, tons of amazing artwork, and a huge twist at the end I didn’t see coming. I am actually a bit upset that Declan Shalvey is not going to stay aboard even though Kev Walker is coming back next month. However, as long as Jeff Parker’s scripts continue to be this fantastic to read (even during crossovers) then this will still be one of the best Marvel books to buy right now.