DAREDEVIL No. 9, December 2014 |
Considering that at its most basic level the plot to
Issue Nine of “Daredevil” simply consists of a group of young orphans stealing
and then driving a marked police vehicle, Mark Waid’s narrative manages to
create an incredible amount of ominous tension and suspense. Indeed the creepy
nature of the Alabama-born writer’s youngsters genuinely replicates the fright and
fear generated by notable horror luminaries such as Stephen King, with his 1977
short story “Children of the Corn”, and John Wyndham, who wrote “The Midwich
Cuckoos” (a.k.a. “Village of the Damned”) in 1957.
Much of this pervading aura of claustrophobia and ‘sense
of dreadful foreboding’ is undoubtedly due to the dark, highly atmospheric
artwork of Chris Samnee and colorist Matthew Wilson. For in using a muted palette of purples, blues, greens, yellows alongside eerie silhouettes, the creative team manage to imbue the five sinister-looking adolescents as they wordlessly walk the streets of San Francisco with a genuine aura of menace. So much so that it is little wonder any person foolish enough to make eye contact with Doctor
Zebediah Killgrave’s offspring stagger away screaming in silent agonised terror.
Such a wonderfully oppressive and suffocating ambience is
heightened still further by the unexpected and rather gruesomely bloody return
from the County Morgue’s slab of a seemingly ‘zombified’ Purple Man… plip plap
“Gnnngh--!” “It… doesn’t… hurt…” In fact the Harvey Award-winning
artist has arguably been just as influenced by 'gore gurus' such as George A. Romero, as his fellow story-teller Mark Waid has. For the concluding
splash page to “Purple Reign”, disconcertingly depicting a gashed, broken
shambling effigy of Killgrave looming over the convulsing beaten body of
Daredevil, scarily smacks of something inspired by the American-Canadian film
director’s celluloid body of work.
Disappointingly such a well-crafted incredibly
illustrated ‘frightfest’ is unfortunately let down by the inclusion of a
bizarrely jovial and oddly out of place scene depicting a supposedly
heavily-disguised Foggy Nelson wearing a ridiculously inept ill-fitting
fat-suit. The somewhat lengthy sequence, which focus’ upon whether the blind
lawyer is ready to face his past trials and tribulations whilst writing “the
most depressing book in the world” sadly ‘brings very little to the party’
except interrupt the reader’s immersion in the sinister shenanigans of the fear-provoking
purple-skinned children.
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