"Daredevil: Out"

 

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

            Mobster Sammy Silke led a group of Wilson Fisk/Kingpin’s men into attempting to end the life of the Kingpin. Thinking he had succeeded and hoping to get away with it, he went to the cops and offered a confession and something big in exchange for immunity. The something big he offered was the true identity of the vigilante superhero of New York City’s Hell’s Kitchen: blind attorney Matthew Murdock. This information was sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, who investigated Matt’s background and considered if it was a possibility. Although instructed to keep this information contained, Agent Driver disobeyed orders and went to the tabloid the Daily Globe and sold out Matt’s secret identity as Daredevil. Matt’s law partner and confidante Franklin “Foggy” Nelson met to discuss Matt’s options on how to proceed. Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich and former Daily Bugle photographer Peter Parker tried to cover up Matt’s identity by telling Daily Bugle Editor in Chief J. Jonah Jameson they knew Daredevil’s true identity but wouldn’t reveal it because Daredevil gave Ben exclusive stories for the Daily Bugle and exposing Daredevil would mean losing information. Matt’s life became a nightmare as he was hounded by reporters who followed him, trying to find proof that he was Daredevil. Matt was conflicted on whether he wanted to reveal to the world if he was Daredevil or not. He came close to doing it but changed his mind. Supervillain Mister Hyde came to Matt’s house and attacked, and Daredevil had to team up with Spider-Man to take him down. Matt had to hire fellow superheroes Luke Cage and Jessica Jones to act as his bodyguards in public. Matt made his decision to tell the press that the reports that he was Daredevil were untrue, and he sued Rosenthal Publications, the owners and publishers of the Daily Globe, for $400 million. Following this, Matt decided to lay low and not be Daredevil. His ex-girlfriend, fellow superhero and S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow attempted to bring Daredevil back into action. Matt had dinner with Vanessa Fisk, wife of the Kingpin, who revealed to Matt who sold him out to the press. Natasha went to another of Matt’s ex-girlfriends, Elektra Natchios, who also tried to bring Daredevil out of retirement. Matt met with Uri Rosenthal to try to settle the suit out of court and get an apology retraction printed, but this meeting failed for Matt. Matt then swung back into action as Daredevil.

            A gang of street thugs attempted to rob a pawn shop. As they were doing so, a police officer caught them and met an unfortunate ending. “Retired” superhero Hector Ayala/White Tiger arrived at the crime scene, but the street thugs were able to escape and when the officer’s backup arrived, White Tiger was in a guilty-looking position and was arrested for the heinous crime. Street level superheroes Luke Cage and Danny Rand/Iron Fist, who were friends with White Tiger, went to Matt and asked him to represent Hector. Matt and Foggy met with Hector and agreed to take his case. Hector’s wife was unable to handle the situation and wanted a divorce, but Matt was able to convince her to hold off until after the trial, afraid of what the lack of support from his spouse would have as an impact on Hector’s performance in court. The prosecution tried to dispute that Hector’s mystic amulet gave him powers, and even went so far as to suggest that he could fire a gun without pulling a trigger, as his fingerprints were not on the gun. Matt called in several superheroes for the defense, including Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Doctor Stephen Strange, to explain Hector’s abilities. Matt called Hector to the stand, but Hector lost control and erupted during the cross-examination. After both sides made their cases, the jury deliberated. The process was quick, and the verdict led to nothing short of a great tragedy.

            Blind woman Milla Donovan was crossing the street when she was right in front of a truck. Fortunately, Daredevil was there to save her. This led Milla to have a crush on the superhero. Crime boss Leland Owlsley/Owl started a racket on Mutant Growth Hormone, a street drug that temporarily gives its user superpowers. He also intended to incriminate Daredevil with a video camera to record their altercation, but this attempt failed. Milla figured out that Matt was Daredevil based on voice comparison. The two agreed to go on a date. Uri Rosenthal met with an unfortunate demise. Matt and Luke Cage had a falling out over Matt’s hypocrisy. Matt became a suspect in the ending of Rosenthal. His house was searched, and he was brought in for questioning, but he was released. Wilson Fisk returned to the United States, recovered from his near demise. The FBI closed in on the Owl, and Daredevil arrived to assist in the aid of his takedown.

            Wilson Fisk brought rehabilitated pyrokinetic and telekinetic supervillain Mary Walker/Typhoid Mary out of her hypnotic state and back to her evil self. He then started trying to rebuild his criminal empire. Matt and Milla agreed to another date, but on their way to their destination, Typhoid Mary attacked them. With the help of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, Matt was able to defeat Typhoid Mary but was injured. Kingpin hired assassin Bullseye to take down Daredevil. Milla almost became collateral damage, but Daredevil was able to defeat Bullseye. Matt then knew that he had to take the fight to Wilson Fisk to establish the ground rules of being Kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen.

            Okay, so now that we have the plot thoroughly analyzed, let’s talk about my opinions of this graphic novel. I will say that this was not exactly what I was expecting. After reading the end of the previous Volume, I formulated an idea of what this Volume was going to be, and this was not it. I was expecting a whole trial of Matt Murdock as Daredevil and maybe an attempt at getting him disbarred. Now, I’m not saying this is a bad thing. I found this book to be highly entertaining as it was. I enjoyed the whole concept of Matt trying to pick up the pieces of his life after being outed and trying to cover it up by saying he wasn’t Daredevil. I especially enjoyed the Daily Bugle scene where Ben Urich and Peter Parker covered for Matt and Ben wondering how Peter knew, I thought that little scene was great. The trial of the White Tiger totally threw me. That ending to that storyline was something I did not see coming, and I will not spoil it for you in this post, but to me, it was totally unexpected. I enjoyed the character of Milla Donovan, shipping Matt with another blind person makes perfect sense, I don’t know why the writers didn’t think of this sooner. And I thought the Typhoid Mary and Bullseye fights were great. And I will tell you, the ending was brutal, but I won’t give any details, you’ll have to read it for yourself. I thought these stories were very well written, Brian Michael Bendis is one of my favorite comic book writers, and he did not disappoint me in this book. However, I am not a fan of the artwork of Alex Maleev, sadly to say. The art in this book was mostly just not visually appealing to me. Really there was only one issue with art that I truly appreciated and two others that I found acceptable, but mostly it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I know some of you have read me say this multiple times (and if you have, you are THE BEST!), but I have to say it again for the new people who have never read a Tim Cubbin review before. Accessibility, for the purposes of these reviews, is how easy it is to get into this book, especially if you know little or nothing at all about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. Now, I find this interesting, because even though this book is marketed as Vol. 3 and picks up directly after the previous Volume, I still think it’s easily accessible to new readers. This book only has issues from one series, all consecutively, and there are no ongoing events that take place at the same time as the issues in this book, so there are no crossovers. Reading it, I honestly felt like it doesn’t draw a lot of knowledge from other Marvel stories that deeply. Yes, it helps to know the lore, but I think that this is actually a good jump on point for a new reader. If you’ve somehow never heard of Daredevil and are reading this review and think that you want to read this, I honestly don’t think that there is a hindrance there. Or if you know about Daredevil from other Marvel media, the same applies, this honestly doesn’t deviate from those concepts a lot. If you’ve ever read Daredevil comics at any point in Marvel history, you are well prepared to read this graphic novel. I am surprised at how easily accessible I found this book to be, but I think if you’re looking to get into Marvel Comics and want an enjoyable book to start with, this is actually a fairly good choice.

            Okay, you’ve come here to know just how good I thought this book was, not to read about how easy it is to read, so let’s get to the key point of my review: the numeric score. Some of you know the drill already, but some of you are new to the game, so I must explain my scoring system. I score media based on a scale of one to ten. One means that this media was total trash and should not even be looked at in a bookstore shelf. Ten means that this book is so good it shouldn’t be on a bookstore shelf because every copy should be sold out. Now, of course, I said I loved the story, and that means the score is probably going to be higher, but we have the problem of the art. This is a GRAPHIC novel, and I have to take both the story and the artwork into consideration when I give the book a score. I can’t give it a super high score because the art was just a disappointment. So, I think that an appropriate score for this book would be… (drumroll please) seven. Though it was not artistically appealing to me, the story was, so I can give it a higher score.

            Next up is my recommendation. This of course means do I personally recommend this book and regardless of if it has my personal recommendation or not to whom do I recommend this book? The answer to the first question is a resounding yes, I personally recommend this book. To answer my second question, I start by saying if you’re reading this review and are interested in reading this book now, I’m telling you to try to make every effort you can to read this book as soon as possible. If you’re a fan of Daredevil from any form of Marvel media, TV shows, movies, video games, comic books, this book is definitely for you. Matt has faced many challenges over the years, but this one is quite different and makes for a very compelling read, and I totally think it’s worth it.

            Okay, I’ve gone on for long enough now, I think it’s time we wrapped this up and you can go about doing whatever else you’d rather be doing than spending time reading this review that I have now been working on for almost three hours. So, I just have a few more things to say first. This review is but one of dozens of reviews I have written. If you liked this one, there are plenty more. Feel free to search for my review of the previous Volume in the series “Daredevil: Underboss” if you want more Daredevil stories. I have so many more reviews planned in store for you, so you can keep coming back for more. You can expect another review coming up sometime within the next two weeks. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials. I’ve written a bunch of things called B’ings, if you want to completely waste your time you can read those. I post on a very regular basis, I literally collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection, so there’s always going to be plenty of more content on the horizon. And I will leave you now with just a few more words. They are Tim Cubbin… out!