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| DAREDEVIL No. 0.1, September 2014 |
Originally ‘published’ as a four-issue mini-series
through their “Infinity Comics” imprint, this “Marvel Worldwide” one-shot
managed to just about squeeze itself within the top one hundred selling titles
of July 2014, by shifting a commendable 33,437 copies. An especially impressive
achievement considering that this “road trip unlike anything you’ve ever
experienced” before had already been available to the public since its “made-for-digital”
release five months earlier.
Disappointingly however, for those readers who preferred to
wait until they owned a tangible product as opposed to an electronic edition,
it is extremely unlikely that many would’ve felt the delay was worth it. For
whilst Mark Waid’s narrative is engagingly entertaining enough, and genuinely
delivers on the pre-release promise of placing the titular character “on a
brand new journey full of adventure, excitement, and more than a few dangers”.
The seemingly rushed, sketchily drawn artwork by the Eisner Award-winning
writer’s “Irredeemable” collaborator, Peter Krause, is far less appealing,
and at times is truly off-putting.
Mercifully, with some considerable perseverance on behalf
of the reader mind, the Alabama-born author’s surprisingly complicated
storyline does eventually manage to shine through the lack-lustre illustrations. Especially once Hornhead has defeated the rather ridiculous-looking Man-Bull deep within the tunnels of a sewer. Indeed
for those fans worried that this book would simply be a mindlessly dull ‘gap-filler’
between Issue Thirty Six of the 2011 “Daredevil” series and the “All New Marvel
NOW!” comic title, Waid’s early mysterious ‘man on a plan with no heartbeat’ sub-plot
should have proved reassuringly enthralling.
Admittedly the one-time “Fantagraphics Books” editor’s
script isn’t anomaly free by any means, as it is never properly explained
just who is chasing the confused and paranoid Frank Senic “adaptoid”. Nor why three motorcyclists abruptly appear from the back of a passing
truck, and bizarrely chase Daredevil and his ‘new-found friend’ as far as a
busy train yard; “At least he’s not paranoid. Three riders, maybe four. Not
grouped tight enough where I can hit them all at once, so that’s out.”
Equally as puzzling, towards the end of this forty-four
page periodical, is Waid’s portrayal of the blind crime-fighter as an
overconfident, arguably arrogant vigilante. Considering that Matt Murdock has
had access enough to the Avenger’s files to know of the Super-Adaptoid, its
rather incomprehensible to believe that he takes the Thinker as “no physical
threat” and actually derides the evil genius for being “overweight, slow and
empty-handed.” Little wonder that the “master tactician who prides himself in
being prepared for every eventuality imaginable” quickly wipes the conceited look
off of Daredevil’s face and forces him to ‘think outside of the box’ in order
to lift “frank’s preprogramed paralysis” and save the day.
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| Writer: Mark Waid, Penciller: Peter Krause, and Colorist: John Kalisz |
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