Friday 23 September 2016

Daredevil (2011) # 1-10, 10.1, 11-36


(I originally read these comics in early August 2015)

I read Mark Waid's first run on Daredevil and flew through it. It picks up after the 'Shadowland' crossover, which I read a couple of months back, and starts well by introducing yet another possible new love interest for Matt (I can't help thinking the endless string of beautiful women is wasted on a blind man). However, it then launches into a two-parter featuring Fantastic Four villain Klaw that I found near-incomprehensible. Then Matt comes into possession of something called 'The Omega Drive,' a piece of technology that holds info on five worldwide terrorist groups including Hydra and A.I.M., for a plot that's drawn out too long. Matt's then abducted to Latveria and is relieved of his powers. He regains them thanks to Hank Pym, but a succession of events have led Foggy Nelson to believe Matt is losing his mind and he dissolves their law partnership. That lasts until Matt's "madness" is revealed as a gaslighting plot by a returning enemy. With Nelson and Murdock restored, Foggy reveals he has cancer and DD battles the Sons of the Serpent, a white supremacist group who've infiltrated all aspects of the justice system. (That must be the reason all those poor, misunderstood black youths are sent to jail after selflessly relieving old people of the burden of their weighty valuables, according to Waid.) The run climaxes with Matt confirming his long-suspected dual identity to the court in order to foil being blackmailed and he and Foggy being disbarred as a result.

I always assume I'm going to enjoy Mark Waid comics more than I actually do. He can be a great writer and he occasionally is here, though I've no doubt this run is held in higher esteem than is deserved due to art by Paolo Rivera, Marcos Martin and Chris Samnee, three of the best artists working right now. Unfortunately, Waid grossly disappointed me recently when he had a hissy fit on Twitter and branded ex-Muslim and anti-Islam cartoonist Bosch Fawstin a "white supremacist." (Somebody should tell this moron not all Muzzies are brown.) I knew he was an outspoken libtard and had enjoyed his comics regardless, but that was plumbing new depths of leftist idiocy. Outside of anything he's already done for the Big Two, I'll be boycotting him from now on.


   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
  


Daredevil (2011) # 1-10, 10.1 and Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 677 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 1-6 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 7-10/10.1, Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 677 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 8 and Amazing Spider-Man (1963) # 677 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 11-21, Avenging Spider-Man (2012) # 6 and Punisher (2011) # 10 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 11-15, Avenging Spider-Man (2012) # 6 and Punisher (2011) # 10 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 11, Avenging Spider-Man (2012) # 6 and Punisher (2011) # 10 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 16-21 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 22-36 and Indestructible Hulk (2013) # 9/10 are collected in:

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Daredevil (2011) # 22-27 are collected in:

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Thursday 22 September 2016

Fantastic Four (1961) # 104-125


(I originally read these comics in late July 2015)

I read the Lee/Kirby FF at least a couple of years back and thought I should get around to picking up the post-Kirby era, with art by Johns Romita and Buscema. They're comparable to Kirby's last twenty or so less inspired issues on the title, but not his best. Stan Lee soldiers on, but they're definitely missing something. The only new characters of note are the Over-Mind, who doesn't seem to pose nearly as dire a threat as the characters would have you believe, and Gabriel the Air-Walker, Galactus' latest herald, revealed as a robot (*yawn*) after two drawn-out issues of battle. This time the Big G has come to reclaim the Silver Surfer after long since condemning him to earth. I guess a good herald is hard to come by, as Gabriel clearly wasn't it. There's also the introduction of Janus the Nega-Man in a confusing story cobbled together from leftover Kirby pages (issue # 108). Brief returns from Doom, Annihilus and Diablo (unseen since # 35) don't add up to much and it's clear an air of predictability has settled over the title; there's another doomed attempt to cure Ben, another Thing vs. Hulk slugfest, etc... 

Issue # 119 is pretty good, however, with Roy Thomas attempting some of that oh-so-hip early '70s social relevance in a story where the FF must rescue T'Challa, the Black Panther (here having temporarily renamed himself 'The Black Leopard'), from imprisonment in a segregated African nation. Thomas takes over as writer full-time from issue # 126 onwards. 

These issues are moderately entertaining, but they seem a long way from the title's peak five or six years prior.


   
   
   
   
  
  


Fantastic Four (1961) # 104-110 are collected in:

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Fantastic Four (1961) # 105-116 are collected in:

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Fantastic Four (1961) # 111-125 are collected in:

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Fantastic Four (1961) # 117-125 are collected in:

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