Daredevil’s back in New York, his identity again secret and he has a trainee / sidekick to boot. Soule’s writing continues the story nicely from Waid’s farewell and Garney’s art creates the required dark atmosphere.
Add in Murdock as a prosecutor and all the ingredients are there for a great series.
Via the great Comics Collecting Facebook group comes this amazing picture from a collector (Anthony) who has amassed Volumes 1, 2 , 3 and 4 with all the annuals, giant-size editions, mini-series, one-shots and specials.
(Click on pic for full size)
To you sir I tip my hat – well done.
It’s not long until April 10th. I have to keep telling myself that.
So what do you think? Looking good?
Waid and Samnee are on a roll, but there’s no complacence here. Recent issues have covered post-natal depression and Murdock’s own depression and now we have a great story on aging and relevance involving The Stunt-Master. I’m hoping the TV launch doesn’t change the great trajectory this title is on.
9/10
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s Ant-Man trailer launch, Marvel have now finalised the launch date for the Daredevil TV series.
That’s right Marvelites, Season 1 of “Marvel’s Daredevil” will premiere with 13 one-hour episodes on April 10, 2015 at 12:01 a.m. PT in all territories where Netflix is available.
Now this is interesting from an Australian viewpoint: Netflix launches here in March, so in theory we should have access to Daredevil from the time it launches, unless the rights had already been signed away to another company prior to that.
As for the show itself, I’m encouraged by the small snippets I’ve seen so far. DD is my favourite Marvel character (it’s the only Marvel title I attempt to be a completist on), so like a lot of people
I’m very keen to see the show work. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. shows how a Marvel show can work well (albeit after some initial stumbles), so I remain hopeful for a great ride.
Personally I’m not a Netflix subscriber, but I will be if I get to see Daredevil.
What about you?
Waid finishes Daredevil’s superhero life in New York, makes a nice transition to the new series set in San Francisco. Foggy’s fate is left hanging, but everything else is tied up neatly as you’d expect.
One of the better plots for the east to west coast move Marvel has done.
8/10
It’s the time of the year where we look back on the previous 12 months and the highlights and lowlights. Kimberley Griffiths and I dragged ourselves off our respective summer couches to throw some bouquets and brickbats:
Kimberley’s take
1. /Hawkeye v4/
This series has gone from strength to strength, and bringing in whole issues for Kate Bishop was a genius idea on the creative team’s part. Some have disliked the amount of introspection in Fraction’s book, but for me, it’s a welcome relief from the constant chaotic events that tend to take over the Marvel universe. It just edges out my number two thanks to none of its issues being annoying event tie-ins. Favourite issue? #11 (Pizza Dog), thanks to the innovative storytelling and David Aja’s fabulous art. (Marvel)
2. /Captain Marvel v7/
The first volume of Kelly Sue’s book is now over, but this has been a huge standout for me. When it first started, I was mostly just excited to see Carol in pants, but it had me hooked within two issues. Wonderfully written, only a few missteps with the art and the Infinity tie-in, and great character development. I can’t wait for volume 2.
Favourite issue? #17, which ended on a poignant, whimsical note. (Marvel)
3. /Pretty Deadly/
Another Kelly Sue Deconnick title, this one is brand new but already shows promise to be a stand out for 2014. I feel like we’ve been waiting for it forever, but the anticipation didn’t dull any of my enjoyment – gorgeous art from Emma Rios, a witty, clever script from DeConnick, and Jordie Bellaire’s subtle touch on colours. It’s a fairytale western mystery, and if that combination doesn’t hook you, the art certainly might.
Favourite issue? #1 if only because there’s only three so far. (Image)
And the worst: Rick Remender’s /Captain America/ /v7/. I made it five issues in before I decided it wasn’t worth it, not even for Steve (Marvel). The Bounce, for being a self indulgent, trying too hard to be cool, disaster of a book (Image).
David’s take
1. /Daredevil: End of Days/
This mini-series was not only the highlight of 2013 for me but probably the highlight of the last five years in comics I’ve read. Art to die for, a brilliantly penned story with equal amounts of Daredevil history and new events – this series has got some serious praise and it’s all deserved. (Marvel)
2. /Judge Dredd/
I’m quite the Judge Dredd fan and I really like what IDW are doing with him. The stories are new, the art is more than respectable and the franchise is getting the respect it deserves. My only criticism would be that IDW oversaturated a little with the Judge Dredd: Year One and Judge Dredd Classics, although Mars Attacks versus Judge Dredd has been brilliant. (IDW)
3. /Todd: The Ugliest Kid On Earth/
I’ve raved repeatedly on this title, and I’ll continue to do so. It’s wall to wall quality from an art, story and humour viewpoint. Each cover is pretty well worth the price of admission alone. (Image)
The lowlight for me was: Hoax Hunters even though I liked it a lot initially – it just lost me by issue six or seven and I just gave up.
For 2014 I’ve added Pretty Deadly to my pull list and would love any suggestions for others. Happy New Year from us all here at The Comics Herald!
It’s not often I go on a rant, so it’s probably about time. The focus of said rant is Marvel Comics, who I’ve been interacting with as a consumer since the mid-1970s. I know things have changed a lot since then, I know that financially it’s harder to make a buck out of the industry, but I still think it’s possible to not treat longer-term readers with the disdain that’s currently occurring.
Specifically, I’m talking about the numbering of issues and constant re-booting of series. It’s not a recent issue by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s one that appears to be getting worse.
I’m a huge Daredevil fan – he’s the one mainstream character I’m (dismally) attempting to be a completionist with. Which means that aside from a significant number of mini-series and one-shots, there are three volumes of Daredevil starting with the 1964 Volume 1 series that ended with #380 in 1998. Volume 2 kicked off pretty much straight away and ran 119 issues until 2009. Then there was a break of more than a year with Volume 3 kicking off in 2011 and being very successful under the stewardship of Mark Waid.
Which is why I was little taken aback by the announcement that Volume 3 is finishing with issue #36. In fact, I was more than taken aback, I was pretty immediately angry. I was initially angry at the fact that the decision is nothing more than a highly cynical move to create another ‘first issue’ opportunity, potentially under the Marvel NOW! banner. Then after calming down a bit, I realised that DD’s upcoming 50th anniversary may be the reason for the change. My calm lasted only a few minutes when I thought about that: there’s a bunch of ways to celebrate a character’s anniversary without killing a series.
So that’s where I’d love your input: does this sort of stuff annoy you, amuse you or plain doesn’t concern you at all? Sure it’s a pretty longstanding gimmick, but it seems to be getting worse by the year.
Is there anything that can be done?
Having completed reading all my monthly pull list, here’s some brief thoughts on each:
Daredevil End of Days #6: Dreading this series ending in two issues. Is there one good reason you haven’t bought this yet?
Daredevil #24: The current story arc could have lost its way but it’s done far from that and the Foggy health scare storyline is as good as anything else going on in the book.
Todd The Ugliest Kid On Earth #3: Still delivering great art, interesting story and a couple of legit belly laughs an issue – doesn’t get much better than that.
Judge Dredd: Year One #1: New mini-series looking at stories from Dredd’s first year as a Judge. Enjoyable, and love IDW’s print quality on these.
Hoax Hunters #8: Frustrating me more and more as time goes on. It meanders, the story remains hard to pick up each month. Some silly sense of loyalty will keep me going to issue 10 but I’m done after that.
I’m late, so late. It was only because I had the opportunity to actually turn up in person to my comic shop of choice (I’m a mail order customer), that I stumbled across the Daredevil: End of Days mini-series. Slated for eight issues, four were already in store and the cover artwork had me picking them up right away. Sure, I’m a Daredevil completionist, so I would have grabbed them anyway, but after consuming the first issue it became apparent that this was going to be one of the best Daredevil story arcs in a lot of years. Even taking into account the recent superb Mark Waid run on the monthly title.
I’ll get onto why I so rapt, but be aware there are spoilers, so stop reading here if that’s a concern and get out and buy these issues while they’re still on the shelves.
So why is it so good?
1. Sentimentality: if you lived through Frank Miller and Klaus Janson’s famous Daredevil run, the return of Elektra, The Kingpin and Bullseye to name three, is a hook hard to avoid. Add in to that the fact that Klaus Janson is doing pencils on End of Days and it becomes a no-brainer. Oh, and there’s also Typhoid Mary, Echo and The Punisher by end of issue #4.
2. Story: sometimes it seems that Brian Michael Bendis can do no wrong, and this series’ effort alongside David Mack is not going to dispel that perception at all. Using the veteran reporter Ben Urich as the narrator works superbly and the persona of an aging man in an ever-changing society is captured perfectly. Daredevil is dead a few pages into the first issue, so a good story becomes even more critical and it’s delivered in spades.
3. Art: aside from the sentimental aspect of Klaus Janson penciling this book, the whole art team have pulled off a supreme effort. It’s dark, gritty and engaging work. Bill Sienkiewicz’s finished art is of the quality I’d happily pay out big bucks for in a poster format. Take note please Marvel.
Overall, Daredevil: End of Days is one of the best Marvel stories I’ve read in the past three years. If work of this quality was done across the board, there’d be a hell of a lot more people reading comics across the board. If you live near a comic shop, get your arse in there and see if they have the first bunch of issues. If not, buy them digitally or start the countdown to the trade – I think I might buy it to hand around to a few people to get them back into comics.
Score: 9.5/10
RSS - Posts
Recent Comments