1. Dan Slott has Spider-Man and Chang Chi take on Negative Man’s forces as they try and expand into Shadowland.
2. This being called a Spider-Man story is a joke. This is a Shang Chi story with Spidey around to boost sales…
3. I generally like Slott’s Spider-Man, but he’s a bystander here, and Shang Chi, who supposedly gets character development, is incredibly trite within deciding he must “master his own soul.” Cliche alert.
4. Negative Man is a cool enemy and makes for a cool visual. If anything is to be done with Shang Chi after this, and if it is, it had better be better than this, then I wouldn’t mind Negative Man being his new nemesis
5. The art is really good here, with expressions managing to show up well on everyone, mask or not, but the panel layouts are a bit too creative for their own good and can get hard to follow.
6. The comedy relief thugs are well-handled. Glad to see success hasn’t cost Mr. Slott his sense of humor.
7. Shang Chi going all evil from Negative’s touch just flat out doesn’t work if you’ve read enough of the character. He’s achieved inner peace.
8. Corny finish here with Spidey letting Chi win knowing his honorable soul wouldn’t let him kill Spider-Man. If this is the finish of Shadowland as Daredevil can’t kill someone like Foggy, I will be displeased.
9. Seriously, could this be more tenuously tied to Spider-Man or Shadowland?
10. Rating: 3/10 – A cash grab in both putting Shadowland on the cover and Spider-Man’s name, it’s a cliche story without anything to say about the characters. Great art is all that saves this from an abysmal rating.
