slowly catching up on Daredevil

Ages ago (well actually late 2004) I stopped reading Daredevil. The trigger was that #66 had so much idiotic babelfish translated "German" dialog that I just couldn't get through it -- I commented on that at the time -- and then I got the next issue, but still couldn't bring myself to read #66, and somehow that state of affairs continued.

Anyway, tonight I found myself in the mood for Daredevil, and soldiered through the awful fake-German even though it felt like being sporked in the brain, repeatedly, (and spelling "ass" as "@$$" in one bit of dialog came close second-- I mean seriously, WTF, Marvel? Is this the text version of breasts without nipples??).

BTW, if you don't speak any German, and don't mind the occasional spam email spelling, there is actually things to like in #66 and the whole Golden Age story (issues #66-70), like the way the different eras are set apart in the coloring style: The 1940s flashback is b/w, the flashback to early in Daredevils career is colored with a slightly exaggerated rastering effect of older comics, and the present day is colored regularly. I found that effect very neat. And while overall neither the "old crime boss seeks revenge" story nor the White Tiger stuff grabbed me, it was okay to read, and there were bits with Matt and Foggy that I liked a lot (like, Foggy: "Sorry I'm cramping your style with your stalkers." *hearts*)

The next story Decalogue (issues #71-75) is at first about people of Hell's Kitchen sharing their Daredevil stories. I really like the stark covers, especially the first in this series (probably not least for its somewhat blasphemous impression). Though I found the idea of some church support group to discuss Daredevil kind of odd. Also, while I usually like outsider POVs of the characters, getting just these glimpses of Daredevil, until the last issue anyway which had plenty of Matt in it, wasn't all that satisfying, even though the creepy guy in the support group definitely worked for me to build suspense. And actually the reveal was pretty cool and surprising ( cut for serious spoilers. )

even more Daredevil

I really enjoyed the next story The Murdock Papers (issues #76-81). Lots of cool action and fights, Fisk being a manipulative bastard, sort-of-evil government officials, and plenty of angst and pain for Matt, and poor Ben Urich caught between a rock and a hard place. Also, the story brought home why Foggy teases Matt about the number and occupations of his (ex-)girlfriends. I felt really sorry for Milla, though. I like her quite a bit, but I suspect she's been rethinking whether it was a good idea to return to Matt quite a lot during the events. Things are quite bad when several of Matt's exes, one of them half-naked and armed with knives, barging into their hotel room , is actually the least of your marriage problems.

With the next story, The Devil In Cell Block D (issues #82-87) the writer/artist team changed to Ed Brubaker/Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano. I like their art less than Maleev's though they seem to have tried to keep it in a similar style. But I think he just isn't as good at it, in particular I like the faces less somehow. Still, not bad art or anything, just not quite as awesome as before. As for the plot ( cut for spoilers. )

On a random note, I till hate the spam email spelling of "ass" as "@$$". It's just bizarre. Either use obscenities or don't, but this half-assed (sorry I couldn't resist the bad pun) way drives me insane.

reading yet more Daredevil

Sorry about the deluge of Daredevil posts, but since I'm now caught up with the series that should die down again.

So now I've read The Secret Life of Foggy Nelson (issue #88), The Devil Takes A Ride (issues #89-93), Our Love Story (issue #94) and the first two parts of To The Devil, His Due (issues #95-96). I haven't been to my store recently to get #97 yet, which I think is out already, so please don't spoil me in comments.

( Since these are fairly recent, all comments on the story line are spoiler cut. )