Uncanny_Doom

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Uncanny_Doom

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Read vol. 6 #1 just now.

This is a great first issue and gives me such high expectations for what this run could be. Zdarsky writes Matt with a clear influence from all prior history but an unmistakable focus on the Frank Miller origins with a clear nod to The Man Without Fear mini and even beyond that, the look of Matt here with the shaggy hair and scruffy face along with flashbacks shown in the book seems to draw a parallel to the way he looked as a boy in Miller's Man Without Fear, just all grown up now. It felt like I was reading a directly following book to that in some ways.

The art and writing has a way of making this feel fresh and almost classic at the same time. By the time you get a Daredevil splash page in this book it feels absolutely badass, with art reflecting the grit that's so effortlessly established from the opening pages in a bar that looks like the kind of place you'd only find Matt Murdock in if he had things going on he still hasn't bounced back from. It's clear that Miller's early writing and the Netflix show have influenced this (in a good way) with the way Zdarsky is starting things off by taking the "super" off superhero in Daredevil, establishing that he's in a rough spot right now with even the most basic of crimes to deal with but keeping his likability in the fact that no matter how hard it gets, DD's never going to stay down, even if it means being on pain medication and face-planting in his bed at the end of the night. The final page of the issue paints such a contrasting picture to a previous splash, with the dialogue addressing a very commonly overlooked aspect of the whole vigilante/hero gig that could be interesting to see approached for once.

Honestly my only worry about this book would be the tone. I know Zdarsky (and I would say I'm overall unfamiliar with his writing) for being great at levity, charm, and humor, but being able to do it with heart. What kind of tone the book would take was sort of a question mark, but this has a tension to it with the right grit of Hell's Kitchen and still looks poised to say something with the emotional state of the character.

Bring on more.

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Uncanny_Doom

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@daredevil21134 said:

I don't think it was just a small amount of people who didn't enjoy Waid's run. It was the lowest selling run in DD history in decades. But to each his own. Soule's run was underwhelming so I'm looking forward to the chance.

This has become a tired narrative to try and push and is very odd to see used as attempt at justification of an opinion. Since around 2010 physical, single-issue comic sales haven't told the full story on a series. Digital sales figures aren't tracked and only become a more growing medium for people to read comics in as time goes on. Trades and collected editions also don't seem to get as much attention either. Single-issue sales don't matter anywhere near where they once did, that's why you can see stuff like Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Spider-Gwen, etc. have low physical sales but not get canceled. There are books and even characters that pull more sales in different forms. If you go talk to any comic readers in real life at cons and things like that, you'll have a much better idea of perspectives than focusing more on only similar opinions on the internet. It's also important to acknowledge that in this more modern age of comic reading there are readers who exclusively wait for collected editions/omnibuses, or read digitally through things like Comixology. No one that isn't a publisher can really speak accurately to the sales of a run on a modern book. Physical, single-issues sales have become a pick-and-choose tool for people to spin their own narrative in roughly the last decade.

It's okay to not like something, but I would hope in 2018 people have gotten over things and not try to speak a perspective as if it's fact and not try to misdirect curious readers with something like sales figures as a gatekeeping member of a fandom.

Anyways,what are some things DD fans want to see in the new run? I personally want more focus on Matt's personal and more interaction with his supporting cast. I also wish to keep the dark tone.

With any new run I want to see a good transition from the prior run that establishes where characters are going to be, and where they're going. So I really would like to see something done with Blindspot to either detach or reaffirm him as a Daredevil supporting character so he doesn't go the way of people like Echo, Typhoid Mary, Lady Bullseye, or Ikari in being a character (admittedly, Blindspot is less cool or interesting than every one of those named) who is introduced and significant in one run, and a complete afterthought for the future. As consistently well-written as Daredevil books are it always amazes me how unfocused and sort of scattered the characters are.

Being a huge fan and longtime reader, I just generally don't want to see Fisk or Bullseye anymore if it isn't something significant. I don't think Waid or Soule did much that justified using the character and it feels more like as writers they feel like "Well, I have the chance...I'm gonna do my Daredevil/Kingpin story!" and it's just a little on the stale side. I really wasn't a fan in general of Soule's treatment of villains overall. It's cool to realize that a superhero is more than just fighting bad guys, but he made so many villains go out with a fizzle. I'm all for creating new villains or building up old ones. Enhancing the mythos and supporting cast of any character is great. I'm kind of expecting at some point we see Netflix Bullseye traits integrated into comic Bullseye and won't be surprised if it happens in this run, just because it's so common for comics to do that. Obviously we'll have to see things with Fisk because of where Soule's run leaves off, I just hope Zdarsky does it well because it does have potential.

In terms of any specifics, I'm not really sure how I feel about Mike Murdock being around like he is. I'm sort of indifferent to the concept, so making that work would be good if he shows up in any capacity. It certainly feels odd to have this brotherly character come up that Matt feels close to when Foggy really tends to fill that role. The biggest thing I want is really just consistent art. Soule's run felt like it was filler when whoever the main artist at a given moment wasn't doing interiors, and when the book was on the visuals were striking. It can distract, break the immersion and tone, and even just quality of a run if the art has ups and downs.

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Uncanny_Doom

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@jb681131 said:

@uncanny_doom said:
@jb681131 said:

What Omnibus would you recommand ?

I'd say all of those except for the Stan Lee stuff and Shadowland/Reborn. You could probably skip Epic Vol. 21 too.

Isn't Mark Waid's run disliked and hasn't it been retconned ? Yet you still recommand it ?

It's disliked by some people here, but it would be a mistake to let a small group of people on one site warp your perspective on how something was received. Waid's run is hugely acclaimed for a reason. It's extremely well-written with some of the best art you can lay eyes on. I value the quality of a story and book more than anything. Waid's run is up there in the top of the crop among Daredevil runs with some elite work reinforcing why DD is such an awesome character with layers of depth to his personality and mindset. Waid captures Matt's charm perhaps better than any writer before him.

As for being retconned, the only aspect of it that was retconned was the status of Matt's secret identity, which was retconned using characters that were created by Waid himself. Changing a secret identity is pretty much a trope of superhero comics at this point though. The events of the book itself were not retconned, and are referenced in some form by the run that succeeded it by Charles Soule as well as having had impact on Matt himself.

But yes, I recommend it. If I'm recommending basically the Daredevil essentials to someone who wants to sink their teeth into one of the best and most consistently well-written comic characters of all-time, I'm recommending Miller, Bendis, Brubaker, and Waid's work before everything else. That's the stuff right there.

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#4  Edited By Uncanny_Doom

So Soule's run ends and I have to say, the twist to that last arc really took away from it.

He could've killed Matt or played out those events as actually happening and it would've been a way better story than basically just having an entire story arc go on in Matt's mind representing his battle against death. I think the concept of that on paper is good but the execution of it just made it messy. For that story to work as a dream where the essential basis of it is Matt fighting death some of these characters should change like Mike Murdock (should probably be Foggy or someone more meaningful) and Matt being the Vigil was really undercooked. That could've turned out to be someone else too. The twist was unrealized potential overall. I will say though, Phil Noto's art is always a blast, and the very last page of dialogue was great even though the twist of the story wasn't.

I think the oddest thing about Soule's run is just the lack of focus and consistency. Certain characters came up seeming like they'd be a big deal only to just not be. Tenfingers literally just popping up randomly in one of the recent issues as one of many baddies for Matt to beat on was weird, Soule's use of villains in general was very odd with how disposable he'd make not only his own creations such as Tenfingers or Muse, but even more threatening characters such as Typhoid Mary or high-profile bads like Bullseye. Perhaps the strangest afterthought of Soule's run is Blindspot, who seemed like he could potentially be groomed to either replace Matt or would be an attempted fixture as Daredevil's "Robin" only to really go nowhere. This character shared the cover with DD on the first issue of this run and ended up becoming forgotten by the very writer who created him.

Either way, another Daredevil run down, and it had ups and downs lacking the greatness or consistency of Waid's prior run, but still very enjoyable in places. Onto Zdarsky! Pretty interested to see what this take will be like as DD is the writer's favorite hero, and Marco Checchetto's a great artist that's done some nice work rendering Daredevil in the past. I really enjoyed his style in The Omega Effect story arc in particular with Spidey/Punisher/DD crossing over together.

@jb681131 said:

What Omnibus would you recommand ?

I'd say all of those except for the Stan Lee stuff and Shadowland/Reborn. You could probably skip Epic Vol. 21 too.

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#5  Edited By Uncanny_Doom

Loki is more fun, but Killmonger is cooler.

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#6  Edited By Uncanny_Doom

Anything below 5/10 to signify failure.

Iron Fist is an unfocused mess of a show with not a single character that I gave a shit about. It is a rare achievement in being something I can watch and find little to no enjoyment in whatsoever. A total chore to sit through with not a fight scene, not a dramatic moment, literally nothing that's just cleanly executed with quality from point A to point B. It butchered the public perception of a character I enjoy in his own comics, kept a number of people from watching Defenders who thought they had to watch all the Netflix MCU shows before it, and made the already floundering antagonistic force of the Hand worse with what the show does to them.

It's so bad it should get an award. I would be shocked if the second season is at all good because it honestly seems beyond repair.

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@vanceastro2 said:

I really love this run. Sadly, the vine is not very fond of it...

It's such a high quality and quintessential Matt Murdock run, really. Was the perfect bounce back from one of the worst points in the character's history while at the same time delving into everything that makes him one of the most compelling characters Marvel has.

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Loading Video...

Came across this quality channel on Youtube that goes in-depth analyzing a number of comics and this was a recent upload that stood out. This video goes so well into what made that Waid run great and more importantly, what makes Matt Murdock one of the richest, most interesting characters in comic books. This is a smart look at one of the most emotionally rich and artistically vivid modern comics we've been lucky enough to get. Something worth discussing and definitely worth watching.

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#9  Edited By Uncanny_Doom

Both Bendis and Waid's runs are two of the best runs (top 3-5 easily) that Daredevil as a character has ever had.

Read them for yourself. If you can get into them great, if you can't, no problem. I've heard people complain about the art in the Bendis run before. I personally enjoyed it for the atmosphere that Bendis' writing has, but I do understand that it has a kind of static feel and compared to the vibrant art seen when writers like Waid or Miller take on the character it just isn't anywhere near as dynamic, but for what it's worth I think the argument could be made that Bendis' run is the best story and character work for Matt Murdock since Miller. Possibly even greater than Miller, but I think so much of what Bendis did is too much of a homage to Miller for me to go that far.

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#10  Edited By Uncanny_Doom

Marvel has lots of great female characters but at this point people are so jaded with their stupid anti-SJW agenda that they don't give stuff a chance.

Not here to argue about who has superior characters but if you're not paying attention to Jessica Drew, Kate Bishop, Kamala Khan, Jane Foster, Jessica Jones, Black Widow, X-23, Spider-Gwen, Moon Girl, etc. and you're claiming to give a shit about female characters, you're doing it wrong.

Guys don't like to admit this but not every female character is going to be targeted at you anymore and you shouldn't have a problem with it. The lens of "I could have a drink with this girl" isn't the appeal that a female reader is going to care about. Think about the male characters you like as a male reader. Does Batman appeal to you because you can see yourself having a drink with him? All characters have different variables that can make them appealing and readers are going to have different things they look for and enjoy. Some are enjoyable because they're likable or funny or relatable, some have introspection and compelling layers of depth to them.

There's also something incredibly cringe-worthy in bringing up a man in relation to a female character in the original post but that's another story entirely.