Shadowkurt
11-12-2010, 04:17 AM
Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow #3
1. Spoilers:
As seen in the preview, Colleen gets taken down hard by her former team, though what looked to be a slit artery turns out be merely a nasty cut to the side of her neck. She’s then escorted to Daredevil, but Cherry Blossom helps her escape. She turns up at Misty’s, who greets her with a gun in her hand, and the two have a long talk (on which more later), while Black Lotus gives a speech to the rest of the Nail. Colleen returns to Shadowland and breaks into the dungeon a second time, but when she and Tig are about to leave, she’s ambushed (again) by the Nail. This time, she challenges Lotus to a duel, which Colleen barely wins; she then leaves with Tig and Cherry Blossom who defects to her side. We then flash forward for two weeks, and the three of them are on a plane to Japan as a private investigating team, with Colleen also intending to do some research on her family.
2. Review:
Let’s just start with the elephant in the room: the solicitation.
The Story: SHADOWLAND TIE-IN!! Colleen Wing made a bargain with the devil�and now she has to pay the price. Trapped in the dungeons of Shadowland with her new sisters-turned-enemies at her heels, Matt Murdock offers the sword-slinger a second choice: escape from the prison he�s built�or the truth about her dead mother�s shocking connection to the Hand. Can Colleen find the inner strength to stand up to the hero who once inspired her�or will she be forced to lose her mother a second time? Find out in the shocking conclusion that will change this Daughter of the Dragon�s world forever!
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Only almost nothing of it happens in the book. Either the person who wrote the solicitation was completely clueless what the third issue would be about or it was subjected to a massive rewrite during the past month. I strongly suspect the latter, not just due to the final issue’s three-week delay but also due to the strange disappearance of Daredevil. Matt Murdock is the elephant who’s not in the room: he’s got one panel in which he interrogates the crooked councilman (By water boarding. Did Marvel have an advance copy of Decision Points and do they want to imply Dare W. Devil isn’t the only one possessed by the Beast?), and he gives Lotus free reign to deal with Colleen. In the first two issues he came across as a master manipulator who went to great lengths to recruit her – she didn’t just show up on his doorstep like Elektra or Typhoid – and who knew exactly how to play her, so I expected him to have some contingency planning in case she got second thoughts; now he suddenly loses all interest in her, and doesn’t care about using his knowledge about her mother as a carrot anymore. Strange…
Where the book shines, however, is the characterization of the women. The high point is the conversation between Colleen and Misty. Anyone who feared that Misty would get jobbed for Colleen to shine can relax; she’s shown as the kind of friend you can call out of bed in the middle of the night and get the advice you need. She does not say “I told you so”, but accepts that Colleen is right to make her own choices even if some of them may be wrong, and she considers Colleen to be the one of them who would incur greater disadvantages if it meant doing the right thing (which is the way Zeb Wells wrote her too, by the way). So the two reconcile and Misty gives Colleen her blessing to go ahead and form her own team. Colleen herself is spot on as usual, though she’s got much less internal narrative than in the earlier issues (except at the very beginning and end). Her best part came during the duel with Black Lotus whom she defeated despite a concussion and a foot pinned to the ground, all the while admiring her opponent’s skill.
As for the Nail girls, they’re also fleshed out more. Black Lotus has a good moment when she recalls their pasts: none of them had any goal in their life before DD told them about their heritage. Lotus is a professional killer who for the first time in her life was given the chance to – well, basically do the same thing as before but for something greater, something with meaning. She’s 150% committed to the Nail because she doesn’t have anything else, and she hates Colleen because her lack of commitment is an offense against Lotus’ new-found faith. She also feels quite protective and responsible for the other girls, though. Young Cherry Blossom seems to have found a surrogate family in the Nail, and she tries to hold it together the longest, but when she has to make a choice, she sides with Colleen – who thus gets a sidekick on her own. Yuki remains mysterious: she plays her cards close to her oversized kimono, doesn’t seem to commit to either side (was she in on Colleen’s escape or not?), and even when Lotus talks about their lives before the Nail, she calls Yuki a “ghost”. Makro is the least interesting; she just seems content to be a henchwoman taking orders from whoever’s in charge. Tig also doesn’t get to be more than a generic damsel in distress.
All in all, what Henderson has managed is to take a hero who’s been around as long as Wolverine (both first appeared Nov. 1974) but who has almost always been overshadowed by those around her, given Colleen her own supporting cast, enemies and motivation and generally shown that she can work as a character on her own – no mean feat.
3. Art
Just like before, Rodriguez is best at action scenes. Makro’s arms, Yuki’s accelerated moves, Colleen’s and Lotus’ acrobatic duel – they’re all great to look at. There’s a problem with his faces, though. Their expressions during the conversations often don’t seem to match with what the person is supposed to think or feel at the time, especially in Misty’s case. And Colleen and Cherry Blossom still look too similar.
4. Final Thoughts and Speculations
This book didn’t turn out like I expected. I thought we’d see Colleen cross some more lines, similar to Matt, and then have to find her way back to the light; possibly including a fight against Misty. Instead, she stayed on the light side more or less consistently and even made her peace with Misty, but it was written very well, so that’s OK. More important, the book leaves a lot of threads hanging: what was up with Colleen’s mother? Why was Matt so hell-bent on getting her to lead the Nail, instead of just settling on Lotus and the three other girls? And why did he believe that a bona-fide hero like Colleen would stay on his side for good? If my suspicions about the rewriting are correct, then it may have been planned to have these questions answered in the final issue, but someone realized that they could get more out of this. The ending (it actually says “The End?”) begs to be continued in another book. Now anyone who read the solicitations and interviews about the new Heroes for Hire will have noticed that Colleen was absent from the long list of names thrown around; someone even asked how you could have Heroes for Hire without her? Well, just as you can have Daughters of the Dragon without Misty, who proposes Colleen to build a new team by that name. So I would expect to see a new (at least mini-)series called Daughters following Colleen, Tig and Cherry Blossom in Japan, hopefully with Black Lotus as recurring antagonist. I’m a bit concerned, however, as no such series has been announced yet. Is Marvel is waiting to see how well SL: Daughters of the Shadow sells before committing to the continuation? Because if they don’t, this will have been a very enjoyable but also very incomplete mini-series.
Score for the whole Series: 8.0 (if continued)/6.5 (if not).
1. Spoilers:
As seen in the preview, Colleen gets taken down hard by her former team, though what looked to be a slit artery turns out be merely a nasty cut to the side of her neck. She’s then escorted to Daredevil, but Cherry Blossom helps her escape. She turns up at Misty’s, who greets her with a gun in her hand, and the two have a long talk (on which more later), while Black Lotus gives a speech to the rest of the Nail. Colleen returns to Shadowland and breaks into the dungeon a second time, but when she and Tig are about to leave, she’s ambushed (again) by the Nail. This time, she challenges Lotus to a duel, which Colleen barely wins; she then leaves with Tig and Cherry Blossom who defects to her side. We then flash forward for two weeks, and the three of them are on a plane to Japan as a private investigating team, with Colleen also intending to do some research on her family.
2. Review:
Let’s just start with the elephant in the room: the solicitation.
The Story: SHADOWLAND TIE-IN!! Colleen Wing made a bargain with the devil�and now she has to pay the price. Trapped in the dungeons of Shadowland with her new sisters-turned-enemies at her heels, Matt Murdock offers the sword-slinger a second choice: escape from the prison he�s built�or the truth about her dead mother�s shocking connection to the Hand. Can Colleen find the inner strength to stand up to the hero who once inspired her�or will she be forced to lose her mother a second time? Find out in the shocking conclusion that will change this Daughter of the Dragon�s world forever!
Sounds great, doesn’t it? Only almost nothing of it happens in the book. Either the person who wrote the solicitation was completely clueless what the third issue would be about or it was subjected to a massive rewrite during the past month. I strongly suspect the latter, not just due to the final issue’s three-week delay but also due to the strange disappearance of Daredevil. Matt Murdock is the elephant who’s not in the room: he’s got one panel in which he interrogates the crooked councilman (By water boarding. Did Marvel have an advance copy of Decision Points and do they want to imply Dare W. Devil isn’t the only one possessed by the Beast?), and he gives Lotus free reign to deal with Colleen. In the first two issues he came across as a master manipulator who went to great lengths to recruit her – she didn’t just show up on his doorstep like Elektra or Typhoid – and who knew exactly how to play her, so I expected him to have some contingency planning in case she got second thoughts; now he suddenly loses all interest in her, and doesn’t care about using his knowledge about her mother as a carrot anymore. Strange…
Where the book shines, however, is the characterization of the women. The high point is the conversation between Colleen and Misty. Anyone who feared that Misty would get jobbed for Colleen to shine can relax; she’s shown as the kind of friend you can call out of bed in the middle of the night and get the advice you need. She does not say “I told you so”, but accepts that Colleen is right to make her own choices even if some of them may be wrong, and she considers Colleen to be the one of them who would incur greater disadvantages if it meant doing the right thing (which is the way Zeb Wells wrote her too, by the way). So the two reconcile and Misty gives Colleen her blessing to go ahead and form her own team. Colleen herself is spot on as usual, though she’s got much less internal narrative than in the earlier issues (except at the very beginning and end). Her best part came during the duel with Black Lotus whom she defeated despite a concussion and a foot pinned to the ground, all the while admiring her opponent’s skill.
As for the Nail girls, they’re also fleshed out more. Black Lotus has a good moment when she recalls their pasts: none of them had any goal in their life before DD told them about their heritage. Lotus is a professional killer who for the first time in her life was given the chance to – well, basically do the same thing as before but for something greater, something with meaning. She’s 150% committed to the Nail because she doesn’t have anything else, and she hates Colleen because her lack of commitment is an offense against Lotus’ new-found faith. She also feels quite protective and responsible for the other girls, though. Young Cherry Blossom seems to have found a surrogate family in the Nail, and she tries to hold it together the longest, but when she has to make a choice, she sides with Colleen – who thus gets a sidekick on her own. Yuki remains mysterious: she plays her cards close to her oversized kimono, doesn’t seem to commit to either side (was she in on Colleen’s escape or not?), and even when Lotus talks about their lives before the Nail, she calls Yuki a “ghost”. Makro is the least interesting; she just seems content to be a henchwoman taking orders from whoever’s in charge. Tig also doesn’t get to be more than a generic damsel in distress.
All in all, what Henderson has managed is to take a hero who’s been around as long as Wolverine (both first appeared Nov. 1974) but who has almost always been overshadowed by those around her, given Colleen her own supporting cast, enemies and motivation and generally shown that she can work as a character on her own – no mean feat.
3. Art
Just like before, Rodriguez is best at action scenes. Makro’s arms, Yuki’s accelerated moves, Colleen’s and Lotus’ acrobatic duel – they’re all great to look at. There’s a problem with his faces, though. Their expressions during the conversations often don’t seem to match with what the person is supposed to think or feel at the time, especially in Misty’s case. And Colleen and Cherry Blossom still look too similar.
4. Final Thoughts and Speculations
This book didn’t turn out like I expected. I thought we’d see Colleen cross some more lines, similar to Matt, and then have to find her way back to the light; possibly including a fight against Misty. Instead, she stayed on the light side more or less consistently and even made her peace with Misty, but it was written very well, so that’s OK. More important, the book leaves a lot of threads hanging: what was up with Colleen’s mother? Why was Matt so hell-bent on getting her to lead the Nail, instead of just settling on Lotus and the three other girls? And why did he believe that a bona-fide hero like Colleen would stay on his side for good? If my suspicions about the rewriting are correct, then it may have been planned to have these questions answered in the final issue, but someone realized that they could get more out of this. The ending (it actually says “The End?”) begs to be continued in another book. Now anyone who read the solicitations and interviews about the new Heroes for Hire will have noticed that Colleen was absent from the long list of names thrown around; someone even asked how you could have Heroes for Hire without her? Well, just as you can have Daughters of the Dragon without Misty, who proposes Colleen to build a new team by that name. So I would expect to see a new (at least mini-)series called Daughters following Colleen, Tig and Cherry Blossom in Japan, hopefully with Black Lotus as recurring antagonist. I’m a bit concerned, however, as no such series has been announced yet. Is Marvel is waiting to see how well SL: Daughters of the Shadow sells before committing to the continuation? Because if they don’t, this will have been a very enjoyable but also very incomplete mini-series.
Score for the whole Series: 8.0 (if continued)/6.5 (if not).