Matt Murdock: Daredevil Appreciation 2019

[Devaishwarya]

Ann Nocenti's run is very underrated IMO. I do not believe her run is collected in one volume, but you can find chunks of it in the Epic Collections.

Agreed.
Ann's run was my first intro into Daredevil and I loved every issue of it.
I did read Miller's run in bits and pieces, eventually, and yes, they're great but...Ann Nocenti's DD holds that very special place in my heart.

[jetengine]

Question, the Mackay run. That was a mini series right ? About what its like without Daredevil ? How well was it received? How well did it sell ?

[macjr33]

Yeah I agree. Everything up to his battle with the Sons of Serpent are some of the most enjoyable, well written, and fun superhero comics I've ever read. But after he moves to San Francisco, the book got pretty stale and dropped in quality.

What do you guys and gals think of Soule's run? I feel like I enjoyed the characterization and the art (Ron Garney's black suit is my favorite look for 'ol Hornhead), but I think he had a tendency to build up storylines and then switch over to something else without much of a satisfying resolution.

I felt that Soule's run was solid for the most part but not at the same level of a Miller, Bendis, Brubaker or Waid (or even Zdarsky given how great the start to his run has been).

Muse was a great new villain for Daredevil, he was truly terrifying. Also, the arc with the Purple Man was fantastic where all the different iterations of Daredevil were in the bar was great. I actually felt he cam up with as good of an idea to Matt's secret identity back in the bottle than could have been hoped for.

With the positives, there were several things I felt were holding it back. One was the lack of consistent artists. With many of the runs we have been discussing there were consistent artists that really helped to shape the story that was being written. Second, I thought Blindspot fell flat for me. Matt having a "side-kick" never really made sense to me and really has never been something Marvel has really pushed. Third, and perhaps most importantly for me, was the use of supporting characters in Matt's world. Foggy is barely present, Elektra was in a few issues; however, most of it felt forced. Natasha isn't present at all. I think we got one appearance by Luke Cage, but no Iron Fist or Jessica Jones. And I am not saying it necessarily had to be characters we've already seen in Daredevil. For example, he had She-Hulk make an appearance in one issue. In my mind, he could have done a few more issues with Matt and Jennifer given that despite their shared profession they haven't interacted much (and their most memorable interaction Soule wrote).

So all this to say it is definitely worth reading, though given the high bar set for Daredevil it falls a little short of the most celebrated runs.

As for Waid's run, while I agree that the first half is better than the second I still really enjoyed the second half a lot too. As others have said, given the debacle that was Shadowland it was a breath of fresh air and bit of a soft reboot for the character. Also, really liked Kristen McDuffie as well.

[Adset]

Part of me was disappointed w/ Soule's run when those initial previews came out and everybody thought Blindspot was Gambit. I was like "that makes absolutely no sense, but now I desperately want it to be so for some reason."

[Winterboy]

Viper and DD by Daniele Afferni.

madame .jpg

[Nanashi]

Daredevil 13 preview!

https://wp.me/p3SNYV-mp3

[phonogram12]

For whatever reason, the Soule run never really clicked with me. While I do think the way they put his secret ID back in the bottle was a stroke of genius, it didn't really pick up for me until they made Fisk the mayor. And even then I was only picking the book up because I felt that at least the book is better now than it was earlier in the run.

My favorite DD stories tend to be the one's where he's trying to climb his way out of the hole that is his life while all the while trying to protect his neighborhood at the same time as these two aspects of his life collide to only complicate things further.

[cc008]

The tricky part, to me anyway, is putting Matt in a hole that he has to climb out of that he hasn't already climbed out of countless times. I think Zdarsky has found a way to do that right now and it's fecking brilliant.

[phonogram12]

The tricky part, to me anyway, is putting Matt in a hole that he has to climb out of that he hasn't already climbed out of countless times. I think Zdarsky has found a way to do that right now and it's fecking brilliant.

I completely agree. Miller, Bendis, Brubaker, and now Zdarsky have done this brilliantly.

[Nanashi]

Daredevil by Martin Simmonds

[ZeroBG82]

On the subject of DD and modern runs on the character, I think we've been largely spoiled, as fanbases go. We've had such remarkable talent on the book for so long, doing such wonderful things. Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil set the stage, and of course Bendis' run is a masterpiece. I really do feel like people will be always be talking about Miller And Bendis as the seminal DD writers for decades to come. Brubaker picked up where Bendis left off, and we got another excellent run. I honestly think his Mr Fear arc is probably my favorite single DD story. Even Diggle's run had some interesting ideas. I actually liked the idea of watching Matt fail to use the Hand to bring justice to New York, but Shadowland completely botched any kind of pay off.

The first half of Waid's run (the NY portion) was another absolutely amazing turn for Matt. Much needed after the Shadowland debacle, it captured a little more upbeat take on the character that had been missing for quite a while, but also built on some of the character flaws that help make Matt so interesting. I feel like Waid's San Fran run in the back half really killed a lot of the momentum of his run. It was still good, but no where near the level it had been in the first half. Although I did love the Purple Children arc that kicked it off.

Soule's run is solid. Workman-like. There are some brilliant ideas, and some weird choices. The art holds it back in places, it could have used a little more consistency on that front. And if you didn't like Blindspot, or couldn't get on board with DD having a sidekick, I can definitely see how the run would feel like a drag. Still, Muse and Mayor Fisk are great pay offs for a run that was very worth reading, and Supreme is such a quintessentially Daredevil story, I honestly don't think you could tell it with any other Marvel character (ok, maybe She-Hulk, but it works better with Matt). And Soule even came up with a way to put the identity genie back in the bottle without making Matt look worse for it.

And now Zdarsky is off to such a great start. Man, aside from the Diggle-Shadowland interlude, we've had good to great DD for almost two decades. How many characters can say that?

[macjr33]

And now Zdarsky is off to such a great start. Man, aside from the Diggle-Shadowland interlude, we've had good to great DD for almost two decades. How many characters can say that?

I would also add that in addition to the great runs in the modern area within the standards Daredevil book we've also had some great mini's as well!

The Lee Week's story in Daredevil: Dark Nights, Daredevil: Yellow and Daredevil: Redemption are fantastic! For me, I think Daredevil: Redemption is criminally underrated especially given that it focuses almost entirely on Matt as a lawyer. How many other heroes in comics could pull that off? The last issue in that mini was one of the most heart-wrenching things I have read in comics and being a Daredevil fan that is saying quite a bit.

[Prof. Warren]

Today's issue was killer. This run continues to impress.

[Mike_Murdock]

Very good issue. It felt like a middle issue to me, so not quite as exciting, but still great.

In other news, they just announced the Daredevil Epic Collection that includes the last part of Ann Nocenti's run (a very underrated Bullseye story) through D.G. Chichester's Last Rites story (i.e., the Fall of the Kingpin). I'm definitely looking forward to that.

[Jekyll]

On the subject of DD and modern runs on the character, I think we've been largely spoiled, as fanbases go. We've had such remarkable talent on the book for so long, doing such wonderful things. Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil set the stage, and of course Bendis' run is a masterpiece. I really do feel like people will be always be talking about Miller And Bendis as the seminal DD writers for decades to come. Brubaker picked up where Bendis left off, and we got another excellent run. I honestly think his Mr Fear arc is probably my favorite single DD story. Even Diggle's run had some interesting ideas. I actually liked the idea of watching Matt fail to use the Hand to bring justice to New York, but Shadowland completely botched any kind of pay off.

The first half of Waid's run (the NY portion) was another absolutely amazing turn for Matt. Much needed after the Shadowland debacle, it captured a little more upbeat take on the character that had been missing for quite a while, but also built on some of the character flaws that help make Matt so interesting. I feel like Waid's San Fran run in the back half really killed a lot of the momentum of his run. It was still good, but no where near the level it had been in the first half. Although I did love the Purple Children arc that kicked it off.

Soule's run is solid. Workman-like. There are some brilliant ideas, and some weird choices. The art holds it back in places, it could have used a little more consistency on that front. And if you didn't like Blindspot, or couldn't get on board with DD having a sidekick, I can definitely see how the run would feel like a drag. Still, Muse and Mayor Fisk are great pay offs for a run that was very worth reading, and Supreme is such a quintessentially Daredevil story, I honestly don't think you could tell it with any other Marvel character (ok, maybe She-Hulk, but it works better with Matt). And Soule even came up with a way to put the identity genie back in the bottle without making Matt look worse for it.

And now Zdarsky is off to such a great start. Man, aside from the Diggle-Shadowland interlude, we've had good to great DD for almost two decades. How many characters can say that?

Agreed! It’s one of the many reasons that Daredevil is my favorite Marvel character.