Daredevil ramblings

[ratcreature]

I started writing this on Sunday, right after I finished reading Daredevil: The Man Without Fear (by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.) and Daredevil: Yellow (by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale), but then got sidetracked by some fanfic and a really pretty vid (in case anyone's interested it was a TS vid by Seah & Margie, called Black Cat, and can be found on this site). So the post got never finished on Sunday.

Anyway, Daredevil -- and, as an aside, how exactly did I get from "I don't really read superhero comics." to reading Spider-Man, then Nightwing, then following most of the fricking Bat-Family, and now Daredevil? I mean, I have read Superhero stuff from time to time before when I loved the artists, or it was a famous or groundbreaking comic in some way, but until recently I've never followed the characters for their story. At least so far I haven't fallen for the cosmic battles and spacemonster stuff, but mostly for crime (and freak) fighting heroes with moderate or no superpowers (okay it is arguable whether Spider-Man's power's can be described as "moderate" but at least it's balanced by him being a science geek with a ton of personal problems). That is at least still somewhat similar to my fondness for detective stories, mysteries, and the like. Not that my resolve to avoid the spacemonster genre is absolute or anything (case in point, I read Outsiders).

But back to Daredevil. Both TPBs are retellings of Daredevil's origin, or in case of Yellow more like a "Year One" thing with the origin and early events in Daredevil's career as superhero. Also I think Miller's might be the official retcon these days. Because I read both right after one another I couldn't avoid to look at them in comparison, even though I think that this is probably not the best way to think about them.

Overall I like Miller's version of Daredevil better than Loeb's, though I don't care much about the "adept" stuff, and him and Elektra being the only two somethings (sorry I don't know the Daredevil/Elektra stories Miller wrote yet, and this TPB isn't terribly specific about this mythic (?) stuff). Maybe it's just because by now I feel a definite overkill with characters who are born as special for some kind of battle. But other than that I liked this Matt very much, probably because I have a thing for angst and don't mind a heavy dose of tragic (melo-)drama. I like that Daredevil isn't a "nice" superhero and that his actions have sometimes dire consequences, but neither is he a maniac mowing criminals down with automatic weapons.

Yellow otoh has quite a bit more levity, and for all the somber "letter to a dead girlfriend" narration its Matt is much less tortured. This young Matt enjoys being Daredevil in a more "innocent" playful way -- in as much as you can say it is innocent to dress up in a devil costume and beat up criminals in the first place -- he has definitely less anger and rage. It's more like in classic superhero comics, there are wacky fights with costumed supervillains etc, and yet at the same time it is not really like that, despite the homage element, because the darker future is always there: Not just in Matt's narration and our knowledge of the future tragedies ahead, also in moments like when Matt watches the execution of his father's murderer. I liked that in Yellow Matt's father wasn't killed when Matt was a kid, it makes for some variation in the murdered parents origin story, that so many superheroes have, and is obviously part of why this Matt is "lighter."

I enjoyed the art in both books, but I have to say that especially John Romita Jr. has become a lot better since then. I thought some of the crosshatching looked quite unfortunate, but then I only like crosshatching when it's done really well and with good effect for the surfaces it's supposed to depict, and that is really hard to manage. And I like Tim Sale's Batman art better than his Daredevil, but that's mostly because I think it suits that universe better.

To finish my a bit disjointed comments, both books are definitely worth reading.

Comments

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

Also I think Miller's might be the official retcon these days.

Admittedly it's a little difficult to tell unless somebody references one or the other, but given that a) YELLOW is the more recent book and b) it was published under current Marvel management, I think it's the other way around. But you'll find plenty of people who prefer MWF, and have it as their "official" story. (I like MWF a lot better myself, though I don't regard it as canon.)

[ratcreature]

I think my impression came from reading the little Elektra parts in Daredevil Vol. 2 #37, when Matt's and Elektra's time in college appears in flashbacks. When I read MWF it fit really well and worked to give me more background on that relationship. And I see Yellow as more of a standalone in the context of the DD series, because it's part of this whole "color project" (I don't know if it has an official name) that Loeb and Sale have going on, with Daredevil Yellow, Spider-Man Blue and now the upcoming Hulk Gray.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

MWF is actually inconsistent with the comics issues, having mainly to do with the timing and the way Elektra is introduced--granted, I've had arguments with people who believe it can all be worked out, but they've never convinced me. (It also means that I'd take the relationship of Matt and Elektra in MWF with a grain of salt, as far as canon goes; I personally don't think her homicidal tendencies emerged until some time after college, although we see so little of her there that it is possible. You can make up your own mind when you read the Miller stories.) YELLOW, on the other hand, is supposed to parallel the first few Daredevil issues quite closely--the FF really did show up to hire him as their lawyer, for example, silly as it is.

[ratcreature]

I have to admit I haven't read Daredevil with an eye on nitpicking details, not yet anyway. ;) And I can totally believe that Yellow reflects early DD issues, that's what I meant with it feeling like a homage to classic superhero comics, with the silly villains who are out making names for themselves, just with more darkness "lurking."

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

I have to admit I haven't read Daredevil with an eye on nitpicking details, not yet anyway. ;)

*gasps* You don't care whether Matt's father was killed before or after he went to college? What kind of fan are you? ;-D

As for the silly villains--oh, trust me, you have no idea. I think YELLOW stops before "The Mysterious Masked Matador," thank god..

[ratcreature]

With nitpicking I didn't mean when Matt's father died as much as the exact events and timeline of him and Elektra in college. ;)

And actually Yellow does mention the Matador. The newspaper Karen reads at the beginning of Book Six? The headline is "Matador No More" And she reads aloud how Daredevil defeated him, and in the upper half of the double page we see a scene of Daredevil punching that masked Matador guy.

[greenygal.livejournal.com]

With nitpicking I didn't mean when Matt's father died as much as the exact events and timeline of him and Elektra in college. ;)

Well, honestly I think "when Matt's father died" is more of a nitpicking issue than "was Elektra killing people left and right while she was in college." You can possibly see that I wouldn't regard that as a minor detail. :) I regard MWF's Elektra as a necessary consequence of not being able to pick up on the character later; she has to be made lethal, and psychotic, and utterly self-confident right away, instead of just laying the groundwork for for her to become those things later, which is how I see her portrayal in canon.

The major conflicts between MWF and canon, as best I can tell, are 1) when Matt's father died, 2) how Matt met Elektra, 3) Elektra's general behavior, 4) Stick's attitude toward her, 5) the length of time between Matt and Foggy graduating and when they set up their own office (as in, right away, or several years later?). (Then there's th prostitute falling out the window, which creates its own special problems; it's certainly not in the original story, and whether it can be placed there is arguable, but later creators have used it in issues of DAREDEVIL. *rubs temples*) The level of seriousness you assign to any of these problems is obviously up to you. :)