"Daredevil: Underboss"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Daredevil: Underboss” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            When Matthew Murdock was a boy, he was blinded in an accident involving radioactive chemicals. Though he could no longer see, his other senses were heightened. He then had a radar sense, allowing him to “view” the world in a way no one else could. Seeking justice, he studied hard and became a lawyer, but not satisfied enough, he used his gifts to become the vigilante Daredevil. He tried to keep his identity secret, but several people found out, including his law partner, Franklin “Foggy” Nelson; reporter for the Metropolitan newspaper the Daily Bugle, Ben Urich; and his greatest enemy, the Kingpin of Crime, Wilson Fisk.

            When first blinded, Matt trained with a blind man called “Stick.” Stick was the one who taught Matt how to hone his gifts and become a fighter. When Stick died, all Matt had left of him was a staff. But there was another master, Stone, who trained with Stick. Stone was in a war with the ninja organization the Hand and required Daredevil’s assistance. He sent his apprentice to steal the staff, then drug him and bring him to Japan to fight in this battle.

            Ben Urich was following up on a story involving one of Daredevil’s foes the Vincent Patilio/Leap Frog, who mysteriously disappeared. His son Timmy witnessed the battle between Daredevil and Leap Frog, which traumatized him causing him to create a fictional world where Daredevil fought a villain, the Fury. Despite the publisher of the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson’s protests that this was not a story, rather the Kingpin going blind and going on trial, the story Jameson intended to assign Urich, Ben felt this was the story that needed his particular attention most. Ben wanted to find out just what happened between Daredevil and Leap Frog that caused the mysterious disappearance and maybe bring young Timmy out of his catatonic state.

            Matt and Foggy hired an investigator for their law firm Nelson & Murdock, Elaine Kendrick. Elaine was eager to please. Samuel Griggs arrived at Nelson & Murdock with an unusual proposition: he wanted to sue Daredevil. He claimed that Daredevil destroyed his greenhouse recklessly and wanted compensation and for super humans to be held accountable for the damage caused in their fights. Matt, who did not believe that he was involved in this conflict, encouraged Foggy to accept the case so he could investigate just what exactly happened. Griggs, a very rich man, also promised to donate to the Foundation for the Junior Blind if Matt and Foggy took the case through. Griggs and Elaine got eager and decided to publicize the case, going so far as to make a publicized serving of the subpoena to Daredevil. Daredevil needed a lawyer, but Matt wanted a lawyer that would not ask for his secret identity. To that end, he found Kate Vikonur to represent him. Matt and Daredevil had to play to the media circus to prove Daredevil’s innocence, but the difficulty lied in getting both Matt Murdock and Daredevil in the same courtroom at the same time.

            Following this trial, Sammy Silke, and underling for Wilson Fisk, decided to be ambitious and take Fisk down. Silke learned Daredevil’s secret identity from Fisk’s crew and decided to place a hit on Matt Murdock, hiring several super villains to go after the blind vigilante. Meanwhile, the family of Wilson Fisk had to deal with the former Kingpin’s takedown and decide how to move on from there.

            Okay, now that you know the main point of the story, you get to know my personal opinion. This book had two writers, Brian Michael Bendis and Bob Gale. Bendis is actually one of my favorite comic book writers. He’s done a lot of work for Marvel in the 2000s, and I really loved it. His run on Ultimate Spider-Man has been one of my all-time favorites. So of course, learning he had worked on this book, I got very excited. And yet, oddly, his stories were not my favorites in the book. Gale’s story “Playing to the Camera” the story of Daredevil on trial was actually my favorite in the book. I thought it was brilliantly crafted, with plenty of twists and turns. I didn’t know what to expect there, how Matt would be able to prosecute Daredevil and be defendant at the same time, and I really enjoyed that one. The Ninja storyline was just okay to me, didn’t really grab my attention all that much. The Leap Frog storyline was well thought out. I enjoyed the concept, investigative reporting. As some of you may know, I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, which is one of the main reasons I write this blog, and I loved the idea of Ben Urich taking this “fluff” story and running with it. The whole mystery of what happened to the Leap Frog and trying to bring Timmy out of his traumatized state was compelling. I also must state that I have seen a movie exactly like this, I can’t remember what it was called for the life of me, but I remember enjoying it, so this story was a little too redundant to me. Yes, the story of exactly what happened to the Leap Frog was interesting, and trying to cure Timmy was interesting, but I’ve seen it before. As for the titular storyline Underboss, I found it to be highly enjoyable. I have to say, I did not see then ending coming, and it definitely leads into the next volume, which I now can’t wait for, but I’m warning you, you may have spoilers if you read another “Daredevil” review, and I apologize for it, so I am not going to reveal the title in an attempt not to spoil the ending because it probably will spoil the ending if I give you the title. Anyway, as much as I enjoyed the stories, I did have issues with a few of the artists. Rob Haynes, David Mack, and Alex Maleev are not artists I enjoy, sorry to say. I’m particularly familiar with the work of Maleev from my many years of reading comics. His gritty style just doesn’t appeal to me. However, Phil Winslade and Dave Ross blew me away. Their work on “Playing to the Camera” was visually pleasing to me and saved a lot of my opinion of the book. In my opinion, they drew what a comic book is supposed to look like. Maybe that is my problem with some comic artists is my expectations to see a “comic book” and that creates bias, but we all have our preferences, and I enjoy seeing a comic book that actually LOOKS like a comic book more than stylization artwork. I’ve had this issue a lot, and many of my prior readers will know this, so if you’re new to my blog, you now know.

            Now, I have to say who I think will find this book accessible to read. I think this is actually very accessible. I found the book to be standalone and self-contained. If you’ve never read a comic book before and never even heard of Daredevil or know anything about Marvel but want to pick up a book and start, I wouldn’t say this is the PERFECT book to pick, but I think you would probably be able to follow it pretty well. If you know a little about Marvel or Daredevil that will of course help, but this is a fairly good jump on point. It really doesn’t continue directly from any prior storylines. Yes, there are connections, such as the Kingpin’s blindness, which is a storyline even I’m not totally familiar with, but I didn’t find that to be a hindrance, and I don’t think it would be to new readers either. But I don’t think it really digs on from past storylines directly, so following it shouldn’t be too hard, in my opinion.

            Now, of course, we have to go to the main reason just exactly why we’re here: my numeric score. If you’ve been here before, you know the drill, but if you’re new, you don’t, so I have to give the rundown, but if you know, just bear with me for a few sentences. I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score, meaning this is a total piece of garbage and not worth reading. Ten means this is one of the best books I’ve ever read and you should make every effort to read this upon finishing reading this review, or even don’t need to finish, just get the darn thing already. Based on reading all I’ve written so far, you can probably guess I’m not giving this a ten, and that is mostly due to the artwork. Also, I didn’t feel the stories were to perfection. If this were just a novel alone with no pictures, I would give this book an eight, but this is a GRAPHIC NOVEL, and everything has to be taken into consideration. If it were just art alone with no pictures, I’d score this at a five. Winslade and Ross’ artwork saved the entire book in my opinion. So, you can now guess that as I score this book, it falls at a point between this. So, put together, all in, I score this book at… seven. I feel there was just enough of a balance in there to score it at this rating. The stories were good enough, the art by Winslade and Ross appealed to me, so despite Haynes, Mack and Maleev, I feel that I don’t need to dock too many points off of my score, so I think seven is very fair.

            Next off, you probably want to know if I recommend this book to you. This book gets a high recommendation rating. If you’ve read the entire review to this point and are interested in the whole story as I’ve presented it, I would say you should definitely make every effort to read this book. The quality of the stories was relatively high, so reading it would be enjoyable to Marvel fans like myself, even new readers would possibly find this appealing. So, this book DEFINITELY gets a recommendation from me, which as prior readers may know, does not always happen, so if I say this, you should know that this is probably a good read.

            So now, if you’re still reading this, I have to say, you are THE BEST! I know my droning on can be boring sometimes, sometimes even I get bored with myself, but seriously, thanks for sticking with me for this long. So now, I release you from your mortal bonds with just three more words: Tim Cubbin… OUT!