Gotta say I agree. It’s up there with having the X-Men foiling regular humans robbing a bank. Some stories should never be told with certain characters. That’s not to say they can’t dip into stories like that here and there but some subtlety is required.
I’ve read one of the issues where DD teams up with Ghost Rider to battle the Hand. Just flipping through it, the Hand uniforms were changed to black with pink hand wraps and tabi, which made me frown. Also, there was this hulking androgynous creature with an extensive case of herpes named Izanami. However, Lee Weeks art makes DD look graceful and GR really spooky. I would love to read Chichester’s whole run for the lulz, if nothing else.
A while back, I managed to track down most of Lee Weeks’ run on Daredevil. I believe he drew at least a couple of the back end of Nocenti’s run. (Those stories didn’t stand out.) I am a big fan of Weeks. I even bought the Modern Masters special TwoMorrows did on him. Chichester wrote a bunch of the Weeks issues, so those are the ones I’ve read. Yeah, that includes the Ghost Rider team-up issue, which was fun but nothing too spectacular. (There’s also a Punisher appearance in another issue.)
However, I thought the Last Rites storyline in #s 297-300 was pretty good. I mean, there were a couple of quirks in the story that slightly diminished the verisimilitude of it all, but the general idea was strong. Don’t know if you guys have read it, or even remember it, but it seems like it’s meant to be a thematic sequel to Born Again. Obviously, Chichester was smart enough to know it’d be foolish to make Born Again II, so I don’t think it was meant to be a true sequel or anything.
Last Rites is more about how Wilson Fisk’s life gets systematically dismantled, much like what happened to Matt in Born Again. There’s this one beautiful moment at the climax of issue 300 where Daredevil basically beats the dignity out of Fisk and literally destroys Fisk’s last physical piece of evidence the Kingpin was hoping to use to fight Matt Murdock through the legal system. And then the Kingpin is just defeated, all broken and pathetic, and he’s just curled up on the ground like a fat loser. Daredevil stands over him, looking all somber, and without prompting says, “I forgive you.”
Thought that was one of the best scenes I’ve read in a Daredevil comic, and Lee Weeks made it look triumphant and tragic simultaneously.
Yes. He and McDaniel (Nightwing artist) made a good team. I liked the Tree of Knowledge and Fall from Grace storylines. I think the other Daredevil uniform (hate it when people call it a costume) was underrated.
I’ve heard that it was very similar to Born Again, which initially turned me off because it sounded less than original. However, despite that I’ve heard lots of good things about this story. If it’s as good as you say it is, then that is truly a shame considering the damage Chichester did later with Fall from Grace and Tree of Knowledge.
Yeah, well, don’t expect the greatest Daredevil story ever or anything. It’s just that Last Rites is remarkable to me because of its era. Most of the other big-name Marvel books of the very early '90s don’t stand out to me favorably at all. The Chichester/Weeks issues are pretty good comics in context.
I actually just dug out issue 300 and flipped through it again. Now I think Chichester did intend to make Last Rites a thematic sequel to Born Again. There’s even a scene at the very end of it all, when Kingpin is obviously rising from the ashes of his life, where there’s a caption that contains the words “born again.” Could be interpreted as somewhat heavy-handed, but I still think the whole story holds up. And the art is just amazing - Lee Weeks is the most underrated artist I can think of.
I just feel like Daredevil’s been fortunate to have so many good stories throughout the years. Of course some decades were leaner than others, but comparatively speaking, Daredevil’s been one of superhero comics’ most consistent in terms of quality.
I ain’t familiar with the Tree of Knowledge story and have no recollection of it. I’ll Google it later. I only vaguely remember Fall from Grace. I remember the cover to the first issue of it was pretty outstanding, but McDaniel’s art in that story was uneven. I don’t think he’d developed his artistic voice at the time. It looked like a bizarre amalgamation of Frank Miller’s style and the Image house style.
Daredevil and Captain America vs. Hydra with an appearance by Gambit. Something about the internet which at the time of the storyline (1994) was a new experience for most people.
<3 This topic is a year old today. Happy Birthday, Thread Without Fear! <3
Okay, so I decided to give DR: The List - DD a chance when I discovered that it was in fact a one-shot and was intended to bridge the gap between #500 and #501. I didn’t like the art at all, but I went in expecting that based on the preview in #500. Billy Tan’s pencils aren’t bad, they just don’t suit gritty visuals that you’ve come to expect from a DD book. Honestly, I hope this Dark Reign bull-shit doesn’t last…it was cool to see Bullseye in costume again, but since the reboot in 1998, part of the appeal of the title has been that it’s all set in it’s own smaller, street-level universe. On the upside, the #501 preview was sick and Roberto De La Torre’s art is perfect. The Hand’s new outfits are clever, and the last page made me poop my pants. The question is, will Diggle be able to produce some quality yarns without Dark Reign as a crutch?
Click.
[media=youtube]plU9CTQL7gk"[/media]
Interesting. Sano edited your post.
I think I’m done buying the ongoing Daredevil series for the time being. Nothing against Diggle, but honestly, the end of Brubaker’s run is a jumping off point for me. Silent Dragon was pretty cool, as was Green Arrow: Year One, but I think the quality artists (Leinil Yu on Silent Dragon, Jock on GA) had a lot to do with my enjoyment. Also, the preview of DD: The List in #500 did nothing to entice me; if anything, it only made my choice all the easier. I thought Billy Tan’s art was terrible in that. I really liked his art in Brubaker’s Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire, but ever since then he’s been completely off his game. I think he’s just had a string of really lousy inkers who can’t complement his style. His New Avengers work was pretty ugly, too.
All that said, I’ve got a lot of love for The Losers. I’ll probably just check out the TRADES, BABY.
There was a link for YouTube Daredevil Docementary stuff with lots of creators like Frank Miller, Stan Lee, etc. Pretty sure that stuff’s not legit for the same reasons Adam Warlock got a perm ban for tossing a YouTube link of Thor vs. Hulk for free in the Marvel thread (note that I myself didn’t ban him). If I’m wrong and it’s not from a DVD currently on sale or if this is sanctioned by Marvel or whoever else owns that footage for free viewing then let me know.
I understand the ‘get out while it’s still good’ mentality, and I’ll let you know if those trades end up being worth buying. Also, remember that Billy Tan isn’t going to be the regular artist; that honor goes to Roberto De La Torre.
If comics were cheaper, I’d probably keep buying it. At this point, though, I think it’s just cheaper to wait for the TRADE, BABY.
Although it could be worse, I suppose… They could have raised Daredevil to $3.99 an issue.
Don’t ever say that again.
Amazingly, yesterday I found a copy of Daredevil #208 in a quarter bin! That’s the Harlan Ellison issue with David Mazzucchelli artwork: “The Deadliest Night of My Life!” It’s a classic story and I still can’t believe I found it in the quarter bin… Everything else in that box was a random early 90’s to fairly recent comic, with lots of random copies of stuff like StormWatch and El Diablo (the early '90s version). It was worth sifting through all those dozens of random comics just to find this one gem of a Daredevil comic.
The comic’s got a hokey Silver Agey premise (despite being an '80s comic) but somehow it works. Basically, Daredevil gets lured into an inescapable mansion full of deathtraps of doom. Of course, he uses his wits, his training, his reflexes, and every other resource at his disposal in order to escape and survive. What makes this a good read is the clever writing which shows a very intelligent Daredevil in a fight to survive, and it’s enough to keep things interesting from panel to panel. The artwork, obviously, is excellent. And there’s a sense of humor and playfulness about the whole thing that just makes it fun - the final panel of the comic makes me laugh.
There’s only one mistake in the writing that kind of bugged me - at one point, while investigating the mansion in which he is trapped, Daredevil encounters a painting and, in his thought balloons, is able to identify it accurately as an oil painting of an old woman. I get that he can probably sense that it’s an oil painting, but is it really possible for him to figure out that the painting is of an old lady? He didn’t even touch it. Oh well. It wasn’t enough to prevent me from enjoying the comic. What a great buy for 25 cents.
It only took 45 years but I think Daredevil finally gets it. Sometimes you have to take steps that some would consider extreme to get results. He has an army of ninjas at his disposal and he can use them as a force of good. As long as he kills any outside or inside threats to his dream I think that this can work.
This is just what a mentally-disturbed, psychologically broken superhero needs; a messiah complex. Of course he’s bringing Izo back, but I wanna know how this story goes. Much like Bendis, Brubaker has left the series on a great note and has plenty of potential.
I also have to admire how smooth a progression this is. This is just Murdock suddenly deciding to cross the line and killing people, he’s been slowly going down a pit of despair for almost a decade of comics now. His lovers, his friends, his father; all dead(or put in a hell of a lot of danger constantly). “I told myself I should go live in a cave. I should hide and have no friends. Don’t you understand? THE HAND IS THAT CAVE!” Almost any other hero doing this, it would sound totally out of character, but when you’ve been beaten and broken down as many times as DD, you start to wonder if killing IS the only way to do good. And I think he’s answered it.
Awww, silly comics and their convenient lack of reason.
Have you even been reading DD, or just the monthly spoilers? Clearly, Matt is in the worst state of mental health since the Born Again arc. Matt doesn’t “get” anything, if anything he’s lost all sight of why he became DD in the first place. He’s become so completely devoted to protecting Hell’s Kitchen that he’s willing to begin killing to maintain order? This is far worse than the Underboss arc, he might have busted some heads, but at least he withheld his stance on taking a life. At this rate, he’s proving to be worse than Bullseye. At least he doesn’t try to justify murder.
Matt’s mental stability aside, the new team is looking great. De La Torre’s art is amazing, it reminds me of Alex Maleev. The Kingpin and Foggy in particular were spot-on, and that’s exactly how I picture them. I’m in awe at how Diggle’s story has flowed seamlessly from #500. However, I have some very minute complaints, like Izo’s sudden lack of hair, and the overall slow pace of the story. Maybe it’s just the rabid DD fan in me craving more.
Finally got my hands on that Return of the King trade, very happy!
I had no idea there was a DD arc by Bru called ‘Cruel and Unusual’…never even seen that trade til I saw the advertisement in the book. Maybe that will explain why the fuck Dakota’s arm was broken at the beginning of Lady Bullseye. Gotta go hunting now. :mad:
Ah yes, thats the one with the old Gotham Central team of Brubaker/Rucka co-writing and Lark doing the art.