Daredevil: Reborn #1
Andy Diggle (w), Davide Gianfelice (a), Matt Hollingsworth (c). Marvel Comics.
This book was going to have to impress the shit out of me to make me forget the shit that was Shadowland. There’s a lot of shit going around this book right now and it seems like that’s going to continue. This was an extremely underwealming performance from Diggle and Gianfelice. I’m especially dissapointed in the latter as I’m a fan of his work on DMZ and Northlanders. His work here is fine but it’s not as strong as either of works. It’s servicable, but it’s pretty boring and unispired.
Though, it would be hard to get inspired from this thin, uninteresting story. After the major fuckover of Matt Murdock’s character that Diggle helmed I was inclined to chalk it up to editorial interferance. This story, however, has puddle-deep depth and understanding of Matt. Fucking awful. It’s billed as this rebirth of Matt — okay, I’m down. In an opening scene, Matt takes a beating because he’s rejecting the cycle of violence around his life — cool, progress. Ten pages later he’s going to beat up a bunch of crooked cops. Great. Amazing. I’m glad that he got over all that shit in 10 pages.
Now, I fully recognize that in the next issue he could back away from violence or something — but I was hoping for something more that Matt Murdock stumbling into a crime plot. Maybe I’ll be wrong, but here is how this story is going to go: Matt is going to keep pushing this small town to find out its dirty secret; the blind kid that he bonds with at the start will probably die, and at the end Matt will realize that he needs to pick up his costume again to avenge that innocent boy and all the other innocents. The end credit will say “How Matt Got his Groove Back” and I will stop buying Daredevil comics for the rest of my life. — Miles Baker
Knight and Squire #4
Paul Cornell (w), Jimmy Broxton & Staz Johnson (a), Guy Major (c), DC Comics.
There’s a real charm to what Cornell is doing with this miniseries. Especially for someone who, like me, loves British culture. Rather than telling a big six-issue story Cornell has used this miniseries to focus each issue on one thing, and always through the lens of England. We’ve seen the way British superhero culture works and we’ve seen an exploration of British cults but this issue we take a breather to really focus on the characters of Knight and Squire. No surprise… it’s my favourite issue yet.
There are a lot of things that I love about this issue, but my favourite is probably the way that Squire’s new relationship with another hero is portrayed. It’s not made out to be a perfect, hopefully romance. Heck, it’s not even made out to be a GOOD one, he’s kind of a dick. Still, it’s also not demonized (nor is he), and you get the impression that it may be a good thing for the characters for a while before it inevitably ends.
Another awesome thing here is Knight’s version of Alfred, who is an American named Hank. In the back-matter (which is a great read) Cornell explains that every international Batman should have a butler from “the opposite country”. I like to think that Canada’s Batman has an Australian butler.
I’ll leave it here, since a lot of the charm of this series comes from never knowing what to expect, but I highly recommend this miniseries to other Britophiles (did I make up that word or does it exist) like me. It’s good fun. – Owen Craig.
Red Robin #19
Fabian Nicieza (w), Marcus To (p), Ray McCarthy (i), Guy Major (c). DC Comics.
The first words of the issue are “Where am I?” If I’d noticed that before, maybe I wouldn’t have been so confused. Red Robin is captured by what appears to be the Calculator (but maybe not) and the Riddler, before getting saved by old school Adam West-style Batman and Robin. It was crazy; I was thinking I must’ve skipped an issue.
It wasn’t until the sixth page when a single sentence of dialogue, which alluded to the circumstances of the previous issue, that the whole story came flooding back to me. It was like magic. This is why I prefer well done exposition and stand alone-ishy issues over the straight “here’s what happened” front page over at Marvel. Not to say these intros aren’t useful, but I feel it encourages writing for trade. Just my opinion. But seriously, I felt amazing when I remembered how this issue tied into the last one.
I should note that when Red Robin said the dialogue that refreshed my memory, he had also forgotten what happened last issue (remember those first lines in the book?) — the effect is that the protagonist and I are having roughly the same feeling at the same time. I doubt this was done on purpose, but bravo either way.
The issue takes place in a computer world, like an evil Matrix. Well, evil-er Matrix. So all the characters looked like however they wanted to look. Tam Fox revealed her insecurity in the face of all the super hero weirdness she’s been confronted with in this series — she looked like a baby. Once she got a little confidence she grew into an afro wearing 70’s “Foxy Lady.” She got made fun of for that form too.
Red Robin, interestingly enough, had a different look too. While it’s been theorized that the dark cowl and attitude of “Red Robin” was a mantle assumed as a form of self-flagellation in the face of the deaths of all his loved ones (and I’m talking about EVERYONE). But now that Batman, Superboy, Kid Flash, and Stephanie Brown are ALL back — well Tim Drake is in a much nicer place. He’s still a little on the outside of things, but now it’s more a case of him being an adult, stretching his wings. Reflecting that, his costume in this book is definitely a combination of his Robin suit with Nightwing’s look. I love it — I officially vote for this to be Tim’s new look.
They covered a lot of ground in this one issue, but the implications of the computer world, its origins and implications- Nicieza has opened a can of worms that holds the potential for a lot of good stories in the future. That creates a kind of potential energy and excitement for me, whether or not Nicieza returns to the concepts here.
One other thing — lately I’ve been thinking about the idea of acting with zero consequences. The questions of “what would you do if you could get away with anything? And and what does that say about you?” Tim is faced by a computer image of his father’s killer, in what boils down to a very detailed game of Halo, and he doesn’t kill him. “Here, like in the real world… that would be too easy…”
Tim, even thinking of that at all, really endears him to me. Man, what a great guy. True, he is fictional. – Isaac Mills
Miles, I read DD in the store today and I don’t think you’re being totally fair to the issue. Keep in mind I’m speaking from the perspective or a person that wouldn’t wipe his ass with DD: Shadowland if it were printed on paper softer than pre-moisturized baby kittens.
He doesn’t go to beat up any cops, crooked cops come after him to kill him, and the issue ends before he beats anyone up. It’s not fair to say he got over his aversion to violence because he has to fight in order to not die. I’d get over my aversion to poison oak immediately after someone held a pistol to my head and told me to stuff it down my pants if I didn’t want to die.
Actually, I WANT to see Matt kick the crap out of someone, do you know how long it’s been since he beat anyone up (retarded demon powers not withstanding)? Pretty much his entire run under Brubaker and Bendis; they seemed to really not like putting him in his costume and REALLY didn’t like letting him win anything. DD is the Marvel Universe’s punching bag, even moreso than Peter Parker. Peter has trouble with the rent and gets splashed by cars driving over puddles, Matt gets publically humiliated, gets beaten half to death, or ruins his entire life every four issues. It’s fucking ridiculous and it’s getting boring. It’s like he’s a racehorse who breaks one of his legs every time he gets out of the gate, but instead of humanely putting him down they put a bandage on him and make him race every day for the rest of his life.
Seriously! I’m getting more upset about this the more I think about it. Why can’t DD be a regular superhero who goes out on patrols and fights crime and overcomes obstacles and fights villains and stuff? Why does he have to have his secret identity compromised, go to jail, get an insane wife, have an affair, drive away all his friends, become unlikable, and get turned into a host body for an evil demon who destroys all his relationships and his reputation as a hero? This is LITERALLY ALL THAT HAS HAPPENED TO HIM IN THE LAST NINE YEARS. When is the last time you saw him do anything COOL? BAH.
I hope your prediction about the next few issues is wrong though, because that does sound trite and awful.
lol at your second paragraph
and I would have put “become unlikable” a little earlier on that list. At least before “drive away all his friends”.
I might not be fair to this issue of Reborn, but you’re not being fair to NINE YEARS of amazing Daredevil comics.
“I WANT to see Matt kick the crap out of someone, do you know how long it’s been since he beat anyone up (retarded demon powers not withstanding)?”
Yeah, just before Shadowland started and he took on a bunch of crime lords (Diggle’s first run) or when he and all his friends teamed up and fought the entire fucking Hand (Brubaker’s last arc). Brubaker’s run had tons of amazing action. Remember when he was in a prison right fighting back to back with Kingpin? That was fucking amazing and just the tip of the action iceberg.
“Pretty much his entire run under Brubaker and Bendis; they seemed to really not like putting him in his costume”
While I agree that Bendis kept him out of costume for chunks of his run you can’t say that about Brubaker — there are way more panels of him in costume busting heads than as Murdock.
“Why does he have to have his secret identity compromised, go to jail, get an insane wife, have an affair, drive away all his friends, become unlikable, and get turned into a host body for an evil demon who destroys all his relationships and his reputation as a hero?”
Maybe because that stuff is DIFFERENT and INTERESTING? It’s like saying “Why isn’t Daredevil Flash? He’d be better if he was Flash.” NO, HE WOULDN’T. If you want heroes where they win all the time there are lots of comics out there for you. Personally, I like that being a hero has a cost and is hard for Murdock. He earns his wins. It’s better drama in my opinion.
As for this issue — Murdock has a lot of options. With his level of training, if he didn’t have to fight if he didn’t want to. The cops had lost him — Murdock could have stayed hidden. He had options and he’s just returning to the same old thing.
It’s true I’m over generalizing when it comes to his Beatdown Efficiency Quotient (a term i just invented, no big deal), but when I think back on his fight record these past 9 years, he seems to have a lot more L’s on his record than W’s. And yeah, he beat up some members of the Hand, who hasn’t? Those guys dissolve if they bump into each other too hard. Street thugs don’t really count either, because they’re not treated as big challenges. My point is, in terms of important fights, big fights, he rarely comes out on top and if he wins, it’s usually at some great personal cost (e.g. Mr Fear, where he won the fight, but Mr Fear kind of let him win and Matt’s wife is incurably insane. that kind of thing).
You’re right about Brubaker doing a better job putting him in his costume. In fact, when he finally did start being DD again, I remember being thrilled about it, to the point of telling a comic buddy I was so happy to see him be DD again.
I don’t know man, aren’t you tired of not seeing DD do anything cool? I think back on Brubaker’s run and all that sticks out at me is Matt being a loser, kind of. Constantly making mistakes, constantly being ruled by his emotions, falling into emotional and physical traps set by his enemies, never outsmarting anyone, rarely having control over situations…I know you can point out instances where this is not true, but these instances are few and far between. DD’s my boy, you know? And as a character I’m starting not to like him anymore. Sure it’s good writing and big drama, but shit. I feel he’s been turned into a dangerously violent fuckup who can’t be trusted by his friends or by the rest of the superhero community. Does anyone respect him anymore? Should they?
In regards to your second last point, yes it’s dramatic and interesting and different. But it’s also boring when you do it over and over again for 9 years. Can we not move on to something else, some other storyline than Matt’s Life Is Ruined, Volume 14? I don’t want him to win all the time, that’s also boring, but does he have to lose all the damn time?? Does he have to turn into a person I don’t want to root for, a person who is ruled by childish anger, a person constantly dancing on the puppet strings of his enemies, a person who only reacts (badly) to problems and rarely solves them, and so forth?
I just want Matt to be cool again, but writers just want to use him as a whipping boy. Can we not emphasize that he’s a master combatant with super senses and ninja powers and high intellect? Must we emphasize all his negative qualities ALL THE TIME?
And yes, in regards to your last point, Matt could have run away – but I’m not sure what you want out of this non-violent approach Miles. Should he talk the bad guys out of shooting him? What do you want to happen in this miniseries, and how do you want it to happen? Sometimes violence is necessary, and I don’t want to read a version of DD where he avoids every physical confrontation he comes across.
And something just occurred to me. You want Matt’s character to grow in this series…do you feel his character has grown in the past 9 years? This is an actual question, not a snide jab. Personally I don’t think his character has grown, at least not in a positive way…I think his character has regressed, he’s become a worse and worse person with each creator’s run.
I like how Miles went with Daredevil as Flash, when I think it has been long since documented that Caesar isn’t a big Flash fan (well, mostly not a fan of the Flash’s Rogues, but the villain makes the hero)