Comic Book / Shadowland (2010)

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Shadowland is a 2010 comic book event from Marvel Comics, a Crisis Crossover set in the shared Marvel Universe, and written by Andy Diggle with art by Billy Tan.

Set after the events of Siege, Shadowland follows Daredevil and his life after his Face–Heel Turn.

After Matt Murdock became the leader of the Hand, it was his turn to take over New York City. Matt slowly begins to show that he's Jumped Off The Slippery Slope, first by building a temple/prison in Hell's Kitchen (the eponymous "Shadowland") and then by killing Bullseye. Eventually, it's revealed that Daredevil has actually been possessed by a demon called "the Beast." When Iron Fist manages to exorcise it from Matt's body, Matt kills himself before it can take control again. In the aftermath, Elektra steals his body to resurrect him like she was once resurrected.

This leads into Daredevil: Reborn, a four-issue mini-series by Diggle and Antony Johnston, where Matt hides out in Mexico trying to figure out his life. While there, he gets into a conflict with the local corrupt police and drug smugglers. After dealing with the situation, he decides to move back to Hell's Kitchen and restart his life.

(Meanwhile, Daredevil's own book was taken over by Black Panther and renamed Black Panther: The Man Without Fear.)

Shadowland provides examples of:

• A Beast in Name and Nature: The Beast is the name of a demon tied to the origins of the evil Ninja clan known as the Hand, which is revealed to have possessed Matt.
• Action Girl: Colleen Wing, Misty Knight, and The Daughter of The Shadows.
• Affably Evil: Tarantula.
• Anti-Hero: Punisher, Ghost Rider and Wolverine.
• Asshole Victim: Daredevil completely loses his shit and murders Bullseye. This was supposed to show that Daredevil was descending into darkness, but it backfired as most people wanted Daredevil to kill the man who blew up a block in Hell's Kitchen and gloated over it.
  • Bullseye has both arms broken and gets impaled just like he previously did with Elektra. Becomes cathartic in light of Dark Reign and the atrocities he committed, either by himself or in Osborn's name. Made effective with the scared-shitless look on his face before he's killed.
  Bullseye: W-wait... Th-this ain't... ain't like you... Y-you wouldn't--
• At Least I Admit It: Crossbones is blatantly racist during Thunderbolts #149, while fighting the Hand.
  Crossbones: Fine with me. I'll burn out more of these Jap zombies.
  Moonstone: That's right— you don't talk much so I forget you're a crazy racist.
  Crossbones: Everyone is. I'm just honest about it.
• Badass Biker: Ghost Rider.
• Badass Normal: Moon Knight and Punisher to name a few.
• Bash Brothers: Luke Cage and Iron Fist. Spider-Man and Shang Chi.
• Bat Family Crossover: Shadowland does this for Marvel's street-level heroes, such as Daredevil, Luke Cage, and The Punisher.
• Big Bad: The Beast of the Hand, the demon served by the Hand, who is slowly possessing Daredevil as his attempt to lead the Hand and turn it into a force for good goes terribly awry.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Daredevil.
• Break the Cutie: After all the years of trauma and abuse, Daredevil has finally snapped.
• Cain and Abel: Moon Knight & Shadow Knight.
• Category Traitor: The new Power Man (Victor Alvarez) insinuated that Luke Cage was a race traitor because he joined The Avengers and married a white woman.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: It doesn't take much to kill the Hand Ninja, regardless of their numbers.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to the current Heroic Age.
• Demonic Possession: Matt spends much of this era possessed by "the Beast."
• Driven to Suicide: Matt kills himself rather than be taken over again.
• Enemy Mine: Kingpin summons Ghost Rider to help him, as well as Luke Cage and the Iron Fist, to take down Daredevil.
• Everybody Was Kung-Fu Fighting: Pretty much everyone. But the cake goes to the killers in the "Blood on the Streets" miniseries. How exactly a quartet of detectives just happens to have enough training to use ninja weapons to take out armed thugs and bodyguards is completely unexplained.
• Evil Costume Switch: Daredevil's new costume is all black with wrist blades, longer horns, and red lining. Lampshaded by Spider-Man, who points out he's an expert when he says that black costume switches always end badly.
• Face–Heel Turn: Daredevil.
• Fallen Hero: At the beginning of Kevin Smith's run on Daredevil, Karen Page was stuffed into a fridge in Guardian Devil. Then, Brian Michael Bendis took over and his identity was exposed to the public, eventually, he was incarcerated for obstruction of justice. After beating the rap, his new wife, Milla, suffered a psychotic breakdown, and the marriage dissolved (Matt cheating on her with Dakota North happened in between). By the time Lady Bullseye started to kill his closest allies to resurrect them as zombie ninja slaves, Daredevil finally said "screw this" and abandoned his life as Matt Murdock to become the leader of the Hand. Though still a Technical Pacifist, the crossover Shadowland changed this with Marvel promoting Daredevil as the new "greatest super-villain of the Marvel Universe".
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Daredevil's attempt to reform the Hand as its new leader fails horribly after the Hand's true leader, the demon known as the Beast, possesses him.
• Highly Visible Ninja: The Hand.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The way Daredevil kills Bullseye◊, which happens to be the same means through which the latter killed Elektra years prior.
• Never Speak Ill of the Dead: Subverted in Shadowland: Bullseye. At Bullseye's funeral, there's a crowd of people and a priest saying how Bullseye was a hero and saint. However, we quickly find out the priest is just being forced to say this by a biker gang (the only people who were genuinely in mourning).
• Knight Templar: Daredevil as the leader of the Hand
• Legacy Character: The new Power Man (Victor Alvarez).
• Manchurian Agent: Typhoid Mary was revealed to be Kingpin's Manchurian Agent.
• Oh, Crap!: Bullseye when he realizes that Daredevil's no longer adhering to Thou Shalt Not Kill.
• One-Word Title: The event is just named Shadowland, named after Daredevil's fortress.
• Never Trust a Trailer: Teasers for the series carried the tagline "Witness the birth of the Marvel Universe's greatest villain". Matt is ultimately redeemed by the end of the story.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: As the Big Bad, Daredevil's gotten a pretty big boost in power to contend with the other street-level heroes who are usually a bit above him in terms of strength. This boost is the first hint that Daredevil isn't really Matt, but rather him under Demonic Possession.
• Prepare to Die: This line is delivered to Master Izo, leading to the awesome answer "I was preparing before you were born".
• Suspicious Spending: In the Shadowland: Power-Man tie-in, Victor Alvarez, the new Power-Man, is confronted by his mother about where he's getting all of the extra money he's been providing to help pay the bills since she found out he actually quit his old job working at a pizza parlor (and the money he's been bringing in is too much to be explained by a job like that anyway). She accuses him of drug dealing, not knowing he's been earning money as a superhero for hire.
• The Man Behind the Man: Rather, the organization behind the man: it was the Snakeroot that summoned the demon that possessed Daredevil and turned him evil so that he could serve their purpose.
• Technicolor Ninjas: The Hand, again.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Spider Sense versus Radar Sense.
• Use Their Own Weapon Against Them: Daredevil kills Bullseye with the latter's own sai, mirroring how Bullseye killed Elektra.
• [Verb] This!: During a huge fight with Daredevil, Shang-Chi, Iron Fist, Misty Knight and Colleen Wing, Wolverine, ninjas, and all sorts of assorted hand-to-hand and melee fighting, the whole thing is put to a stop by The Punisher, who blows his way into the scene, whips out a machinegun, and declares, "Kung Fu This," before opening fire and putting an end to the fight.
• Where da White Women At?: Luke Cage gets accused of selling out, partly over his marriage to Jessica Jones, by the new Power Man, Victor Alvarez. Considering Luke's understandably volcanic temper, it is probably quite fortunate for Victor that a) he didn't get to finish his sentence, b) walked it back and apologized immediately.
• The Worf Effect: Despite being one of the best martial artists in the world, Iron Fist gets his ass handed to him pretty often in this series.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?: Brought up by Punisher and Wolverine, but their attempts to do so fail pretty badly.
• Wolverine Publicity: You'll never guess who randomly shows up in the fourth issue without any build-up, though it is fairly lampshaded.