West Coast Avengers #4 - Marvel Comics

WEST COAST AVENGERS No. 4, December 1984

Having initially started with Jim Rhodes ‘shellshocking’ his teammates by revealing that he’s replaced Tony Stark as Iron Man, Roger Stern’s script to Issue Four of “West Coast Avengers” subsequently transforms itself into an all-out action fest which not only sees the super-group rescue a truly waterlogged Wonder Man from the clutches of the formidably powerful Graviton. But also hand Franklin Hall a considerable ‘smackdown’ in the process. Indeed the Wackos' victory over “the Master of Gravity” is so compellingly conclusive that few readers must have shown surprise at the Vision’s ringing endorsement of the “…progress… made in just the first few weeks since the founding of our Western Division!”

However that doesn’t simply mean that the co-creator of the Hobgoblin has the heroes wade into the villain’s Santa Monica Retreat and just start throwing punches or firing repulsor rays. Instead the Noblesville-born writer pens a genuinely engaging plot packed full of intrigue and guile, as well as occasional bursts of raw power, that sees a fast-maturing Hawkeye using his brains as opposed to his team’s brawn in order to get the job done. In fact, up until the sudden appearance of the golden Avenger halfway through the twenty-three page periodical, it doesn’t appear as if the master archer's team have even yet arrived at the Canadian physicist’s lair. Let alone infiltrated it by disguising themselves as a barmaid, Maggia henchman and Madame Masque…

Such a well-devised cleverly-executed scheme really helps draw in the reader, and even provides a few stand-out moments such as an overconfident “amateur Iron Man” directly tapping into “the entire south-western power grid” and Tigra viciously slapping a moustached Clint Barton around the face when he momentarily gapes at the submerged ‘cadaver’ of Simon Williams in full view of Graviton; “Louis! What is the matter with you?! You’ve killed dozens of men! How dare you weaken at the sight of one corpse!” Is it any wonder that a year later in 1985, “Marvel Comics Group” launched a “second ongoing Avengers series” based upon the self-same line-up?

Bob Hall’s breakdowns are also nicely rendered throughout the majority of “Finale”. Finished by Brett Breeding and Peter Berardi, the American artist manages to pencil some incredibly expressive close-ups of the main cast, most notably Hawkeye, as well as draw some awesomely dynamic set-pieces like Wonder Man literally tearing down Hall’s lavish retreat just before “Phase Three” of the West Coast Avengers' plan takes effect.

Writer: Roger Stern, Breakdowns: Bob Hall, and Finishers: Brett Breeding & Peter Berardi

West Coast Avengers #3 - Marvel Comics

WEST COAST AVENGERS No. 3, November 1984

Fans of Wonder Man were probably in two minds about Roger Stern’s handling of the Ionic-energy empowered superhero in this penultimate issue of the “West Coast Avengers” Limited Series. For whilst Simon Williams is shown ruggedly clearing the Santa Monica Freeway of unseasonal snow at the start of the comic, and later provides an enjoyable plotted history of his origin, Don Heck’s co-creation is for the most-part depicted as little more than a sullen, brooding super-hero who is rather worryingly solely preoccupied with his public image and the perceived battering it has taken following “that Blank… getting away… a couple of weeks ago.”

Admittedly such a flawed personality trait as hubris does make “the son of rich industrialist Sandford Williams” a far more compelling character, especially when he quite touchingly confides in fellow ‘Wacko’ Tigra that he doesn’t feel much of an Avenger having let the force field generator-powered felon escape his custody. But any reader’s sympathy to his confidence-lacking plight is then soon dispelled by the Noblesville-born writer dressing him up with the most absurd-looking curly blond wig and shades imaginable, just so the ‘experienced stuntman’ isn’t recognisable when escorting the Shroud on a visit to “what was once the home of one “Lucky Man” Galeno…”

Fortunately the narrative to “Taking Care of Business!” also spends a considerable time focussing upon former gravity researcher Franklin Hall and his return from being “exiled to the interdimensional void” by Thor. Able to manipulate “the subatomic particles that carry the force of gravitational attraction”, Graviton proves as formidable a foe for Wonder Man, Maximillian Coleridge and Greer Nelson in this comic’s later stages as he is mentally deranged. Indeed the supervillain’s spiteful toying of Clyde, the man whose charging field actually helped rescue the Canadian physicist from his “state of suspended animation” shows a decidedly nasty streak to a criminal clearly capable of taking on “Earth’s Mightiest Heroes”; “There is no room in my organisation for whiners, Blank!”

Equally as engrossing as Graviton’s determination to “organize California’s criminal element!” is Bob Hall’s wonderful artwork for a twenty-three page periodical that is rather dialogue-heavy in parts. In fact the University of Nebraska-Lincoln attendee’s drawings of the Shorud repeatedly stepping from out of his Darkforce is arguably worth the cost of this comic’s cover price alone, even if the ‘Master of Darkness’ is accompanied by a ludicrous-looking Williams.

Writer: Roger Stern, Penciler: Bob Hall, and Inker: Brett Breeding

Daredevil #18 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 18, November 2015

Undoubtedly a comic of two halves, the first twelve-pages of “Signature Piece” prove to be a genuinely pulse-pounding read as Matt Murdock, disguised as Ikari, attempts to save the lives of his two dearest friends by fooling Wilson Fisk into believing that the assassin has killed his alter-ego. Indeed it is hard to imagine a more tense atmosphere within a comic book as “it sinks into” the Kingpin “that Daredevil’s no longer his to murder personally” and the Crime Boss’s “hostages aren’t breathing at all” due to their host’s gunmen holding weapons to each dinner guest's head.

Such an uptight, frighteningly nervous scene is actually then made all the more terrifying as the blind vigilante goads a badly beaten Foggy Nelson into striking out at one of his captors, and simultaneously launches himself across the dining room table towards his arch-nemesis. Wonderfully drawn by Chris Samnee and tightly scripted by Chris Waid, it genuinely seems in all the confusion and noise which follows that at any moment a panel will suddenly depict one of the blind lawyer’s hapless associates being gunned down. Something which makes every turn of the page and movement of the reader’s eye a nerve-wracking experience.

Fortunately for the costumed crime-fighter's buddies however, the Eisner Award-winning author ignores their momentary vulnerability and instead focuses his narrative upon the long-awaited, highly-anticipated, though all-too short, confrontation between ‘The Man without Fear’ and the Tenth Comic Book Villain of All Time as ranked by “Image Games Network”. Initially obtaining the upper hand on account of his great size, it at first looks like Murdock’s clever charade will meet in failure and death at the hands of his formidably bulky foe. But one fork in the bald-headed maniac’s foot later and it’s the “extraordinarily heavyset” crook who is bloodily ‘eating a knuckle sandwich’; “This. All of this. A nice piece of work, Murdock.”

Sadly, having provided such a terrifically electric climax to his two main antagonist’s confrontation, the rest of this series' final issue is disappointingly dire with Waid bogging down his storyline with nauseating ‘wrap up’ sentimentality. Even Daredevil’s woes with San Francisco’s Deputy Mayor, a sub-plot which certainly seemed to have had a lot of potential for some ‘renegade superhero fleeing the Authorities’ shenanigans, is inauspiciously resolved within the space of a single panel as the vigilante’s “arrest warrant [is] rescinded” and Charlotte Hastert helps “clear my name against all my firm’s angry wiretapped clients…”

Storytellers: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee, and Colorist: Matthew Wilson

West Coast Avengers #1 - Marvel Comics

WEST COAST AVENGERS No. 1, September 1984

Whilst Roger Stern’s somewhat pedestrian-paced script for Issue One of the “West Coast Avengers” limited series is nowhere near as frustratingly tedious a read as Stan Lee’s Silver Age story “The Old Order Changeth!” There is, perhaps understandably, a number of similarities between this “bold new chapter in the annals of Earth’s mightiest heroes” and the May 1965 “spectacular special issue” of “The Avengers” which heralded “the start of a great new Avengers line-up!”

In fact the narratives for “Avengers Assemble!” and its thirty year old predecessor are in some ways upsettingly undistinguishable from one another with both featuring a new team leader pulling together a fresh collection of hesitant, nervous and somewhat unproven super-heroes, and then housing them within an expensively lavish state-of-the-art compound. The Noblesville-born writer even goes so far as to include several ominous nods to the one-time publishing President’s original storyline by having 'his' Hawkeye once again refer to the Super-soldier serum enhanced Captain America as an Avenger who doesn’t have “any amazing powers” and then offer a perceived super-villain, in this case the anti-hero Maximillian Quincy, a place on the “Wackos” having been impressed with the Shoud’s skill in penetrating their Los Angeles-based estate's defences; “Besides, what you did reminds me a little of how I introduced myself to the Avengers -- I broke in too!”

Putting aside such potential plagiarism of a “classic Avengers” comic however, Stern’s twenty-three page periodical also proves to be something of an inauspicious experience due to its failure to live up to its initial concept’s promise. Bob Hall and Brett Breeding’s cover art genuinely gives the impression that this ‘new’ title could really be something innovatively different, and even suggests that diverse characters such as Rom the Space Knight, the diminutive acrobat Puck and “genius psychiatrist” Doc Samson may be permanent cast members. Disappointingly though, with the exception of Mockingbird, the American author instead simply regurgitates a number of arguably failed former “New York team” associates, and even portrays a couple of these “out of my league[rs]” as being somewhat displeased when awarded a “spot” on the line-up. Indeed Tigra is actually paid $1,000 by the Vision just to catch “the next shuttle flight” to California and “help the [West Coast] Avengers out.”

Fortunately Hall’s precise and detailed pencilling goes a long way to help make amends for the graphic novelist’s uninspiring storytelling. With the former “Charlton Comics” inker’s depictions of an overly enthusiastic, somewhat pushy Hawkeye and self-doubting "Jimmy Rhodes" Iron Man, resplendent in his shiny red and gold armour, looking as good as any bibliophile could ask for.

Writer: Roger Stern, Penciler: Bob Hall, and Inker: Brett Breeding

Daredevil #17 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 17, September 2015

There’s an awful lot to enjoy within the twenty-pages of this periodical, as a bloody and severely battered Matt Murdock finds himself losing both a battle of wits with his arch-nemesis Wilson Fisk and a deadly game of ‘Cat and Mouse’ with the murderous Ikari; a ‘horn-headed’ assassin who “has all of… [Daredevil’s] fighting abilities” and “enhanced senses”. In fact the blind vigilante has rarely been depicted, certainly under the penmanship of Mark Waid, in a more grimly-determined serious mood, and even considers allowing his brutal opponent to kill him on the off chance that the hero’s sacrifice can save the lives of his friends.

Disappointingly however, despite such enthralling, action-packed contents, the 29,904 consumers of this opening instalment of “Finale”, a stunning drop in readership by almost three and a half thousand copies, will genuinely have had to work in order to fully appreciate the flow of the narrative’s events. For whilst this comic features a wonderfully acrobatic martial arts rooftop fight sequence which would arguably put Shang-Chi to shame, its action is continually interrupted by scenes plucked from either a similarly tense ‘evening meal’ between the “monster” Kingpin, Murdock, Kirsten McDuffie, Foggy Nelson and Julia Carpenter or a somewhat less successful four-way skirmish involving the likes of the Shroud and Jubula Pride. Indeed if not for the Alabama-born author’s constant top left-corner reminders as to where within the timeline each page’s action takes place, many would doubtless get lost within his script’s choppy, confusing series of events.

Happily however, for those bibliophiles willing to persevere with the storyline’s somewhat illogical layout and also agreeable to the occasional ‘flip’ backwards for a brief re-read, there is still plenty of entertainment to be had from this comic book. Certainly only the most casual of Daredevil fans would struggle for their hearts not to swell with pride when the crime-fighter tears off his gaudy three-piece suit to reveal the famous all-red ‘Double-D’ costume underneath.

Chris Samnee’s pencilling is also near the top of the storyteller’s game, most notably with his characters' wonderfully telling facial expressions. Whether it be Murdock’s cold set lower lip as he single-handedly opens the Kingpin’s greenhouse door using one of the Crime Lord’s own mobster bodyguards as a battering ram or McDuffie’s terrified sideways glances at Fisk whilst supposedly being his guest, every one of the Harvey Award-winner’s figures has so much more to say than just their dialogue.

Storytellers: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee, and Colorist: Matthew Wilson

Daredevil #16 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 16, August 2015

Considering that this twenty-page periodical is almost completely devoid of any acrobatic action and instead predominantly concerns itself with a lengthy conversation between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk, it still arguably manages to provide a pulse-pounding, compelling read on account of Mark Waid’s somewhat sinister and seriously-toned narrative. Indeed despite the extensive thirty year-long comic book history between the two arch-antagonists, it is doubtful that their coldly calculating confrontation within the Kingpin’s “shop in the Bay Area” of San Francisco has seldom been better written, so dangerously laced is each and every sentence they contemptuously ‘spit’ at one another; “No one runs me anywhere. If you’ve come to needle me with your alleged wit Mister Murdock, I’m inclined to have you killed on the spot.”

The Eisner Award-winner is equally as enthrallingly inventive with his choice of location for these formidable foes’ tête-à-tête, as the grim-faced Crime Boss insists upon the pair continuing their conversation “in the gallery” as “art relaxes me.” But instead of leading the blind lawyer through a collection of Picassos as the super-hero presumes, because “they’re all blank canvasses to me”, the Kingpin actually parades the sightless Hornhead through a series of paintings which all graphically depict the hapless costumed vigilante being mutilated and murdered in a variety of grisly ways.

Somewhat disappointingly however Waid is far less successful in explaining the fact that the Owl’s daughter has suddenly changed her allegiance and, admittedly begrudgingly, joined forces with the dangerously deranged Shroud. For having fled the shadowy clutches of Maximillian Quincy Coleridge in the previous issue, Jubula’s sudden and unexpected appearance at the disheveled anti-hero’s side comes as something of a disappointing shock, especially when the Hueytown-born writer tries to simply explain it away with the throwaway line “I should never have come back for him without Matt…”

Just as visually gloomy as its storyline is the artwork to Issue Sixteen of “Daredevil” with storyteller Chris Samnee and colorist Matthew Wilson placing the vast majority of this comic’s characters in the shadows, and thus permitting this magazine’s 33,309 readers to see little more than purple-hued countenances and narrow piercing eyes for the best part of the book. In fact even when the script does require a little more light, as Murdock attempts to track down Julia Carpenter at the local airport, the scene is swiftly thrown into a murky deep blue darkness courtesy of the Shroud’s Darkforce Dimension.

The regular cover art of "DAREDEVIL" No. 16 by Chris Samnee and Matthew Wilson

Daredevil #15 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 15, June 2015

Since taking over as this title’s lead storyteller in 2011 Mark Waid has undoubtedly carried “Daredevil” from out of “the shadows of decades’ worth of grim and gritty stories” and transformed the often bleak-looking psychologically-demonised hero into one which not only displays a far more “cheerful outlook on life”, but is arguably a ‘throwback’ to the vigilante’s “sunny early superhero days”. For whereas under the penmanship of writing legend Frank Miller the costumed crime-fighter fought injustice in a dark moody world heavily influenced by Film Noir and “the malaise of the Seventies inflation-era America”, the Alabama-born author’s version of Matt Murdock has, in the main, been confronted by a surprisingly lighter vein of colourful supervillains, many of which, such as the Purple Man, Stunt Master and the Matador, actually hark back to some of Hornhead’s earliest issues when Stan Lee and Bill Everett’s creation was arguably largely seen as little more than a “poor man’s Spider-Man”.

“Darkness Falls” undeniably changes this somewhat heavily criticised devolution of Hornhead into a “light-hearted, juvenile… grinning… wisecracking celebrity”, and within the space of just a few panels completely turns the “silly” life of ‘The Man Without Fear’ on its head. Indeed it is genuinely hard to imagine a more abrupt and damning change in a comic character’s circumstances without some prominent member of their supporting cast dying, as the deadly combination of the Shroud and the Owl publically broadcast every secret, lie and piece of legal privilege the blind lawyer has kept hidden since Murdock first encountered Maximillian Coleridge and Leland Owlsley in San Franscisco.

The fiends even target Matt’s girlfriend Kirsten McDuffie, revealing the woman he loves “wasn’t there for my mother when she died… I was drunk in a bar” as well as ex-business partner Foggy Nelson, whose death was “very publically faked” by the blind lawyer “in order to protect his best friend.” These massive disclosures of dishonesty, as well as the misguided belief Daredevil had her “daughter kidnapped just so you could rescue her” swiftly turn the city's deputy Mayor against the three-piece suited vigilante and within moments “half the [police] force” are shooting at him; “I don’t want to hear it right now! I can’t believe a word you say! No one will ever believe you after this!”

Such a dramatic enthralling turn in events would arguably make Issue Fifteen of “Daredevil” worth its cover price alone to its 32,541 readers. But Waid actually goes one step further with this comic’s theatrical conclusion by reintroducing “the only one imaginable with enough power and influence to put this genie back in its bottle”, the arch-nemesis of Murdock, Wilson Fisk… a.k.a. the Kingpin.

The regular cover art of "DAREDEVIL" No. 15 by Chris Samnee

Daredevil #14 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 14, May 2015

Whilst it would certainly be fair to say storyteller Mark Waid has implemented a number of changes to both the look and feel of “Daredevil” since he took over the title as writer in 2011, with Matt Murdock becoming “a public figure” and relocating to San Francisco being the biggest of the bunch. This particular instalment disappointingly introduces another of the Eisner Award-winner’s “huge paradigm shift[s] for the character and his world and his entire method of operation” in arguably the most stunningly contrived and clumsy manner conceivable. For having kept his secret identity such a closely guarded secret for so very many years, the Alabama-born author would have this issue’s 29,575 buyers believe that the blind lawyer would suddenly replace his iconic mask and outfit, a costume which undoubtedly imbued the crime-fighter with “an air of mystery” and “presence”, with a gaudy-looking, scarlet three-piece suit and short smart haircut simply in order to appease his girlfriend’s father and endorse the eight million dollar book deal the blind lawyer has “landed”; “Daredevil for the defense!”

Sadly this rather tawdry and flamboyant attire, complete with red designer gloves, shoes, and an uncomfortably corny ‘DD’ belt-buckle, makes the acrobatic vigilante appear rather garishly incongruous both within the courtroom as well as upon the city’s rooftops and frankly rivals that of the infamous 1993 “armoured black” outfit, worn by ‘The Man Without Fear’ in order “to allow the character to convincingly battle stronger supervillains”, as practical regalia. Indeed it is hard to take such a ‘new-look’ cheerful ‘Hornhead’ seriously, even when Waid does tip his narrative hat back to the superhero’s earliest days by having ‘The Man Without Fear’ briefly battle Wally Wood’s Sixties co-creation the Matador.

Arguably even more poorly designed however has to be the futuristic ‘Manga-like’ costume of Jubula Pride, “the Owl’s daughter”; a cold-blooded anti-hero who appears to wear one of the worst-looking armoured suits imagined since “Marvel Comics” licensed the giant toy robots, the “Shogun Warriors”, from “Mattel” in 1979. Potentially resplendent and “sleek” in a metallic dark blue and gold outfit, the lithe-looking killer’s assemble is then ruined by artist Chris Samnee with the addition of a short white cape, predatory mask and a bizarre calf-length burgundy dress, complete with fluorescent disc-shaped adornments. Just how the American penciller expects Leyland Owlsey’s offspring to be taken even remotely seriously whilst wearing such a brash ‘mish-mash’ is incomprehensible, especially when the character’s colourful presence during a supposedly tense darkly-drawn expedition into a supervillain’s secret base beneath Alcatraz Prison ruins any sense of suspense the script was presumably trying to create.

Storytellers: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee, and Colorist: Matthew Wilson

Daredevil #13 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 13, April 2015

Whilst a storyline based upon some nemesis of a comic book’s titular character seeking revenge upon the superhero’s friends and family is not a new one, nor indeed a narrative exploring the paranoia of some costumed crimefighter as they fear for the safety of their loved ones. Mark Waid’s script for Issue Thirteen of “Daredevil” is somewhat surprisingly refreshing in that it additionally deals with the possibility that Matt Murdock’s ‘sweetheart’ Kirsten McDuffie may actually have an enemy of her own as a result of being a former assistant district attorney; “Do you know what this means? I have my own arch-foe! My! Own!”

Unfortunately for this magazine’s 31,483 readers however the revelation that the Lilac Murderer is the prosecutor’s “grudgemate” is not actually revealed until near the very end of the twenty-page periodical. Something which disappointingly means any perusing bibliophiles must first wade through a series of nauseating scenes which depict a rather disagreeable ‘Hornhead’ at his most insecure and argumentative. In fact the blind lawyer’s self-righteous quarrel with long-time friend Foggy Nelson about how Kirsten is ‘little more’ than “a supporting player in the adventures of Daredevil” shows ‘The Man Without Fear’ at his very worst, especially when he also accuses his sick ex-partner of being jealous of his relationship with the woman because she’s “loopy for you.”

Luckily the Eisner Award-winning writer doesn’t exclusively focus upon this rather dislikeable opinionated super-hero for too long, and by this publication’s mid-way point has finally got Murdock donning his famous all-red costume and leaping from rooftop to rooftop across the San Francisco skyline in an effort to locate his missing beloved and her abductor. Daredevil’s subsequent investigation into McDuffie’s disappearance at her regular Coffee Shop is compelling stuff and the added edge that this time the victim is close to his heart makes the suspense all the more pulse-pounding.

For once the Alabama-born author also doesn’t depict the vigilante relying solely upon his highly developed sonar ability either. But instead portrays Murdock as being every bit the detective as some of his comic book contemporaries, as he uses his sense of smell to realise that the assailant never left the eatery because otherwise “this alley would reek of knockout gas” and actually escaped via a hidden basement entrance into the sewers.

Equally as enjoyable as Matt's 'masterclass' in deductive reasoning is the welcome return of Max Coleridge as the anti-heroic Shroud. "San Francisco's proto-daredevil, if you will" adds a much needed uneasiness to Waid's storytelling and the magazine's abrupt cliffhanger that Steve Englehart's co-creation has allied himself to a sinisterly youthful-looking Owl proves a fittingly dramatic conclusion to a deepeningly dark read.

Storytellers: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee, and Colorist: Matthew Wilson

Daredevil #4 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 4, August 2014

Disappointing and disorientating, this lacklustre conclusion to a once promising three-part story arc featuring The Shroud and The Owl, required several partial re-reads, as I really struggled to understand a good deal as to what was going on initially. Indeed even the Chris Samnee cover, a drawing of a battered and bleeding Hornhead within an owl-shaped frame, had me momentarily perplexed as I tried to fathom out what the silhouette's outline actually was...

Much of this mystification is down to the plotting of the story, which starts with the comic’s opening double-page spread and its black panel borders. Cleverly used to indicate dank and dark danger in the past, in this issue they completely masked the fact that the action actually flowed horizontally right across both pages. Something which left me rather puzzled as to how an unarmed Matt's telescopic staff miraculously appeared in his hands and enabled the blind lawyer to evade a fiery demise.

Having discerned the correct reading order of the panels I was then befuddled, perhaps a somewhat petty complaint, by Daredevil's flight from Owlsley's mansion. For one moment Mark Waid has Murdock rushing through the enormous corridors of his archenemy's' home, then suddenly he’s having an evening meal with his partner Kirsten McDuffie, before ‘flash-backing’ to his evading snarling guard dogs, dodging gunfire and leaping security gates at The Owl's residence.

Unfortunately the finale to this piece is sadly even more nonsensical as the former "Boom! Studios" editor has The Shroud and The Owl ‘team-up’ to steal a device capable of delivering data through unfettered photons directly into the human brain. As Daredevil states immediately after Owlsley’s ‘omniscience’ explanation “I really have no idea what you’re yammering about…” To make matters worse and even more unsatisfying, Waid would then have the reader believe that this entire farcical fracas has been ‘engineered’ by Max Coleridge because he wants to commit suicide by super villain!?!

Perhaps himself a little underwhelmed by the quality of this book’s pitiable plot, Chris Samnee’s artwork is uninspired as well; at least until Murdock actually dons his all dark red costume and starts to once again trade blows with The Shroud. In fact their ‘quarrel’ and the dynamic illustration work Waid’s fellow storyteller produces for it, is the highlight of an otherwise disagreeable read.

Storytellers: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee, and Colorist: Javier Rodriguez

Daredevil #3 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 3, July 2014

Right from the wonderful Chris Samnee cover illustration depicting a memorial statue of the sightless goddess Justitia, there is a definite theme to this comic of a person being blind to the possible consequences of their actions and making a mistake as a result.

Mark Waid’s storyline is plagued with such poor decision-making, whether it be Eli’s fatal indiscretion to his boss, The Owl, that he too knows the location of Matt Murdock’s San Francisco residence, an appallingly disguised Foggy Nelson visiting Kirsten McDuffie at her office or Daredevil falling for The Shroud’s trap and following the anti-hero back to his squalid apartment. Errors in judgement are constantly being made and all them lead to a very unwise confrontation between an unarmed Murdock and Leland Owlsley; a meeting which takes place in the very ‘throne room’ of the underworld crime lord’s home.

In the past such encounters have potentially lacked any genuine sense of menace to Daredevil as a result of The Owl’s much maligned level of supervillainy; the guy can glide a short distance, has sharp teeth and nails, and likes eating live mice. But Waid does a very nice job of building up the menace and sinister nature of Owlsley in this issue, especially when he has the deranged former financier ‘swoop in for the kill’ on one of his own henchmen at the book’s very beginning.

Even if such a fine ‘write-up’ of The Owl’s unstable nature and super-powers wasn’t present, the sheer amount of gunmen and guard dogs on show at the end of the issue amply demonstrates Hornhead is in a serious predicament; especially when The Shroud reneges on their ‘team-up’.

Indeed the only element which somewhat detracts from the atmosphere of danger and hazard is Chris Samnee’s perplexingly inconsistent artwork, which disappointingly frustrates and interrupts the sense of peril the writer is trying to incrementally increase as the plot thickens. The American artist’s pencil work is terrific when it comes to both the composition and sketching of the loose-lipped Eli’s demise at the ‘talons’ of The Owl. Daredevil’s ‘smackdown’ of The Shroud is equally impressive. But the scenes centred around Murdock’s attorneys-at-law office between McDuffie, Deputy Mayor Hastert and briefly, Foggy Nelson, sadly appear almost child-like in nature; little more than basic stick-like scribblings.

The variant cover art of "DAREDEVIL" No. 3 by Jerome Opena

Daredevil #2 - Marvel Comics

DAREDEVIL No. 2, June 2014

There is something distinctly dark and ominously oppressive about this issue of “Daredevil”. Something which stems from the suffocatingly confined Chris Samnee cover illustration depicting a cornered Hornhead stoically stood ready to embrace an onslaught of shadowy figures, and then continues as writer Mark Waid pens a shady tale of former super-hero Maximillian Coleridge’s fall from grace into madness and villainy. This is genuinely a gloomy story, which shows the Shroud at an especially low ebb in his life with his morals and path apparently as stale, corrupted and soured as the rancid and filthy San Francisco apartment within which the character now inhabits.

Fleetingly the Eisner Award-winning author provides a splash of light in the proceedings, as Matt Murdock and Kirsten McDuffie enjoy an idyllic late home-cooked meal with Deputy Mayor Charlotte Hastert. But this glimpse into ‘Pleasantville’ is swiftly replaced by an awkward rooftop confrontation between Daredevil and the Shroud and then a captivating contest as the pair duel over who rules the “turf”. However it is only in the aftermath of this exchange that the dank depths to which Coleridge, once invited to join the West Coast Avengers by Hawkeye, has fallen are revealed… and clearly his ethical code stinks as bad as his unhygienic body odour.

All of this murky action is quite dynamically illustrated by Samnee, who certainly gives the fist-fight some incredible energy and draws a suitably dishevelled Shroud throughout. Indeed sketching such physical exchanges and activity are clearly the 2011 Harvey Award-winner’s forte as the American is less impressive when it comes to pencilling the more sedentary scenes, such as Murdock’s home life and later a brief exchange between McDuffie and Hastert.

However the highlight of the artwork has to be the wonderfully dark palette used by colorist Javier Rodriguez in order to create the atmosphere of encroaching gloom and in the Shroud’s case, decay. Some of the Spanish comic book artist’s touches are so simple yet incredibly effective, such as his use of black borders to surround all of the panels concerning Coleridge’s character, as well as the constant presence of a mixture of purple hues throughout such pages.

The variant cover art of "DAREDEVIL" No. 2 by Alex Maleev