"Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D"

 

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Daredevil: The Devil in Cell-Block D” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            Blind lawyer/vigilante Matt Murdock/Daredevil had been arrested on suspicion of being the vigilante Daredevil. He was being held on Ryker’s Island in the Protected Custody Wing awaiting trial. He was kept out of General Population due to the fact that he was blind and was deemed unable to defend himself should he have any trouble with the other inmates. Meanwhile, someone else was running around Hell’s Kitchen, New York City dressed as Daredevil and fighting crime. Matt’s best friend and law partner Franklin “Foggy” Nelson was working on Matt’s defense, along with his assistant Becky Blake, and their investigator Dakota North was working on the case. The Federal Government decided that since Matt was Daredevil, he would be able to defend himself and moved to transfer Matt to Gen Pop. After being approached by gang leader Carlos LaMuerto/Black Tarantula in the prison infirmary, Matt was being walked back to his cell when he was attacked by Hammerhead and his thugs. Matt was able to defend himself but was placed in solitary confinement. Foggy and Dakota went to visit Matt in prison to inform him of the Feds’ plan, and while they were leaving, Foggy and Dakota were attacked, and Foggy was killed. After Foggy’s funeral, Matt and Becky went before the judge, and the Feds’ motion to have Matt placed in Gen Pop was granted due to Matt placing several of Hammerhead’s thugs in the infirmary, showing that he could defend himself and placed in Cell-Block D. Matt was approached by another prison gang leader named Morgan, who offered Matt to join his crew, but Matt declined. Tabloid Newspaper the Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich, and friend of Matt and Daredevil offered to help Dakota clear Matt’s name. Serial killer Bullseye was brought to Ryker’s, and every precaution was given to prevent him from harming any of the guards, fellow prisoners, or from escaping. Matt confronted Hammerhead to try to learn who stabbed Foggy, but Hammerhead didn’t know. Dakota and Ben got a lead on a lawyer named Alton Lennox, who was working with the imposter Daredevil, who was also involved in Foggy’s attack. Wilson Fisk/Kingpin was transferred from solitary confinement to Cell-Block D. After reading of Matt’s exploits at Ryker’s in The Daily Bugle, Frank Castle/Punisher turned himself in so he could get sent to Ryker’s. Fisk asked for a meeting with Matt. LaMuerto left Matt a shiv should things go bad. Matt confronted Fisk and accused Fisk of being behind Foggy’s attack, but Fisk denied Matt’s accusations. Hammerhead, LaMuerto, and Morgan planned to start a riot and take out Matt and Fisk. Matt was visited by his wife Milla Donovan, who tried to appeal to Matt’s gentler side. Becky told Matt about Ben and Dakota’s lead. Fisk prepared for the riot and attempt on his life by having Turk Barret and his gang get Bullseye freed and supplied with weapons. Matt, Fisk, and Bullseye were able to survive the riot, and Matt defeated Fisk and Bullseye. Matt turned to the Punisher, who faked kidnapping Matt, and the two were able to escape Ryker’s. Matt found the imposter Daredevil and engaged him in combat, but once the imposter unmasked, the fight came to an end. Both Daredevils, Ben and Dakota found their way to Lennox’s office, which was abandoned, but Dakota was able to reprint an e-ticket to Monaco from Lennox’s fax machine. Matt dyed his hair, bought contact lenses, got a fake passport as Michael Murdock, and flew to Monaco to find Lennox and the person behind Foggy’s attack.

            Matt learned Lennox’s only client was a mob-boss named Tybold Lucca, who lived on an estate in Monte Carlo, and Matt took on the identity Ray Mallory and booked passage to Monte Carlo. Matt did his best to get noticed in the casinos, hoping to get an invite to Lucca’s estate. One night, he caught the attention of Lily Lucca, Tybold Lucca’s daughter, who invited Ray to a party at Lucca’s estate. Matt was entranced to her due to her scent, which reminded him of his former lover Karen Page, who tragically died in his arms. Matt went to Lucca’s party, which was featuring a Matador. After putting on a performance, the Matador killed Lucca. Daredevil fought and defeated the Matador, and Alton Lennox and Lily were able to escape during the fight. Matt tracked down Lennox in Portugal, only to find he had been killed by Lonnie Lincoln/Tombstone, who had now taken Lily. Matt followed them to Paris, where he learned Tombstone, the Matador and Lily were all working for the woman who ordered Foggy’s attack. Matt defeated Tombstone and the Matador and learned from Lily who was behind Foggy’s attack. Matt made his way to Zurich, Switzerland and confronted the mastermind, who confessed to Foggy’s attack and offered to clear all of Matt’s legal troubles if he represented Fisk. Matt declined her offer, but when he turned on the television, he found that the charges against him were being dropped. Matt returned to Hell’s Kitchen and to his life with Milla and had a surprise reunion. Following this, Matt decided to uphold the deal he made and got the charges against Fisk dropped and Fisk was released from jail.

            Matt was fighting as Daredevil while battling the flu. Carlos LaMuerto was released from prison on parole. LaMuerto was given a corrupt parole officer who demanded money from him, so LaMuerto went to Matt looking for a job. Matt agreed to allow LaMuerto to work with Dakota. LaMuerto had a run in with Little Loco, a former underling of LaMuerto’s from when he was a gang leader, who was now in charge of a gang of his own. Daredevil and Black Tarantula teamed up to take down the Yakuza. Dakota and LaMuerto worked on a case that led to Little Loco and led to a fight between Daredevil and Black Tarantula.

            Okay, that sums up the story, now it’s time for me to put in the review bits. We’re going to start with my personal reflections on this book. First off, I will say that I felt like I was missing a piece of the background before reading this book. For some reason, Marvel decided to release the Volumes of Daredevil Modern Era Epic Collections out of order. They published Vols 2 through 4, then skipped to Vol 6, and I feel like this gap impacted my enjoyment of this particular Volume, so through no actual fault of its own, I had a dislike to this Collection, and I do feel bad about that, but I have to be honest here. The story in this book did not begin at what I consider a proper starting point, there I background context missing, and I have no prior knowledge of it, so it really harms my opinion of this book. As it stands, I found some level of enjoyability to this book, but it wasn’t exceedingly high. I was rather disappointed. I just found that I couldn’t fully get excited about the stories. The whole concept of the book just fell flat for me. All-in-all, I didn’t really like the story. I can say that there were plot twists I didn’t see coming, but they honestly didn’t help me enjoy the book to any further extent. If anything, the biggest one only just made my already low opinion fall even lower. Also, I was expecting something different based on the title and my prior knowledge of the Marvel time period, which I honestly shouldn’t have made the assumption I did, but it just happens. The issues contained in this Volume were originally published between 2006-2007, so I was expecting the incarceration to have something to do with the Superhuman Registration Act from “Civil War,” which was kind of dumb for me to just preconceive it to be and get disappointed by it not being what I wanted it to be, and if you read my review of “Daredevil: Out” I did the same thing, so my preconceived notions have hurt my enjoyment of reading what the book actually is, and it’s really not fair to the writers or editors, but it’s just how things happen, I guess, I can’t help it. And when we go into the other consideration of a graphic novel, the graphic part itself, I also found myself disappointed. The artwork completely failed to appeal to me throughout this entire book, I did not like the way this book visually appeared. This book entirely failed to hit the mark for me.

            Next up on our docket, we’re going to discuss accessibility. I know I’ve said this over six dozen times at this point, and I know there are some of you who already know what I mean when I say this because I know I have some readers who have been with me for awhile now, but there’s always new readers with every post I do, so I have to include an explanation of my meaning every time I do a new post for you newbs, so here I go. When I say the word “accessibility” I mean if this book can be picked up and read and be completely understood by any reader, even a reader who knows nothing about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. As you can tell from the previous paragraph, I feel like the accessibility rating is low as it is due to the missing background. There are also plenty of threads that pick up from past Daredevil stories that new readers would have difficulty picking up on. I really would not say that this is a book for a person who wants to start reading Marvel Comic books to begin with.

            Okay, I’ve prattled on for a while now, I think we’re getting to the point where we’re ready to discuss my numeric score. So, my system is extremely simple: I score on a scale of one to ten. One is the lowest score I can possibly give and that means that this book is not worth reading at all. Ten is the highest score that I could possibly give and that means that this book is sheer perfection. Now my regular readers know how picky I am and that I don’t like just handing out tens to books, and that to get a ten, the book has to be really special, with a flawless story and stunning art. This book did not deliver on either. The story was not engaging to me, I couldn’t find myself enjoying myself to the extent that I hope to hit while reading a graphic novel, and the visuals did not appeal to me at all, so obviously we’re talking an exceptionally low score here. So, putting all the ingredients into my metaphorical blender, the story I wasn’t too thrilled with, and the art I found to be atrocious, turning the blender on, mixing it until it is completely smooth, then stopping it, pouring it out into a cup and looking at it, the score I see is… a two. This book was a huge letdown for me, and I really did not enjoy it.

            Well, I think it’s time we moved on to the next point, the recommendation. This segment has two questions. Do I personally recommend this book? And who do I think should read this book? As for the personal recommendation, this book does not receive that from me. I cannot, in good faith, tell you to read this book. However, if you are a diehard Daredevil fan, I think you’re the target audience for this book. And if you like prisonbreak stories in comic books, this book is for you. Or if you’re a fan of Ed Brubaker’s work, this isn’t, in my opinion, his best work, but you might find this enjoyable. Otherwise, I honestly really don’t recommend this book to many readers.

            Okay, we are approaching my signoff point. I have a few end of post announcements first. This blog has over 160 posts on it. I’ve written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, as well as about six dozen book reviews like this one, so if you enjoyed this post, there’s plenty more content to explore, just check out timcubbin.blogspot.com for other posts. I post on a very frequent basis. The current focus of this blog is reviews of Marvel Modern Era Epic Collections and Marvel Ultimate Epic Collections, but I might shake things up and add something else in soon, you never know. I collect every Modern Era Epic Collection and Ultimate Epic Collection as soon as I can after their release and try to post a review when I’m finished reading them if possible, so you can usually expect at least one post a month, if not more. I’ve done a review of almost every Modern Era Epic Collection with the exception of four volumes that I couldn’t review due to the lack of having a device to draft the posts on at the time, but that could eventually change, we’ll have to wait and see on that, and I have reviewed every Ultimate Epic Collection released so far. At the time of my drafting this post, there is a new Modern Era Epic Collection coming out in one week, so you can probably expect another review upcoming sometime in the next four weeks. If this review seems professional, it’s because I have a bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in journalism, but alas, I don’t get paid for this, I just do this as a side project on my days off from my actual job where I work in a grocery store, but you honestly don’t care about what I do for a living, so that’s enough said about that. Anyway, keep checking back for more, I will keep doing this until either I can no longer see or type, so expect this to keep going for quite a while. If you’re still reading at this point, you are THE BEST! I appreciate your support. Feel free to like, retweet, comment, share, leave something behind for me to let me know what you think, that would be greatly appreciated, I would honestly love to hear from you, my readers, feedback would be very much enjoyed. Anyway, I think that’s all for now, so until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: King of Hell's Kitchen"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Daredevil: King of Hell’s Kitchen” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format. This is NOT connected to the Disney+ series “Daredevil: Born Again” in any way.

            Maya Lopez/Echo is able to mimic any movement she is able to visibly observe. She was born deaf. Originally, she was not believed to be deaf as she was able to skillfully read lips and talk and was labeled an insulting diagnosis instead. She communicated through her love of art. After she was diagnosed as deaf, she learned sign language. She was Native American and went to the Reservation with her father where she enjoyed learning the stories of her culture. She also learned of the ritual called the Vision Quest. When she was nine years old, her father died, and she was raised by his business partner Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. She excelled in schools so well she went from a school for children with handicaps and learning disabilities to a school for prodigies, able to master musical instruments, ballet, sports, and martial arts. Eventually, Maya began to work for Fisk and his criminal empire but turned good after meeting Matthew Murdock/Daredevil. Maya and Matt had a brief romantic relationship, but in the end, it didn’t work out and they went their separate ways. After Matt’s secret identity as Daredevil was outed in the press, Maya came looking for him, hoping to reconnect, but Matt rejected her. After a meeting with Fisk, Maya decided to embark upon her own Vision Quest. She returned to the Reservation and visited the Chief and asked him for guidance to perform the ritual. As she participated in the Vision Quest, she came upon James Howlett/Logan/Wolverine, whom she believed to be a “Spirit Animal,” something one comes upon during a Vision Quest. The two had a conversation, and during this conversation, Wolverine told Maya a story he had heard, a story that was originally told by Maya’s father before he died, a story Maya didn’t understand at the time, but upon Wolverine’s telling of the tale, it clicked in Maya’s head just what her father meant. Upon the completion of her Vision Quest, Maya returned to Hell’s Kitchen to say her final goodbye to Matt before moving on with her life.

            Daredevil defeated Kingpin and declared himself the King of Hell’s Kitchen and defeated all the gangs. After winning one of the largest class action damage settlements in the history of New York state over a newspaper outing him as Daredevil, Matt, and his new girlfriend Milla Donovan gave the money to the development of Hell’s Kitchen. After his takedown of Fisk, Matt was confronted by fellow superheroes Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Doctor Stephen Strange, and Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, who could not support Matt’s course of action. Nearly a year passed, and the FBI were still trying to find proof Matt was Daredevil. During a fight with the Yakuza, Matt went missing, and Milla, now Matt’s wife, turned to Daily Bugle investigative reporter Ben Urich to find her husband. Ben had long known Matt was Daredevil but never said anything, and Matt helped Ben gather information for his investigations. However, after Matt’s outing, Matt and Ben had ended their “professional” relationship. Ben turned to Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, Matt’s law partner, to ascertain Matt’s location. After finding him in a private hospital, Ben suggested that Matt’s recent actions could all be a nervous breakdown following the death of Matt’s lover Karen Page. Upon his return home nine days later, the Yakuza attacked Hell’s Kitchen and Daredevil teamed up with Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Danny Rand/Iron Fist to take them down. Matt asked Foggy to stay with Milla to protect her, and Foggy suggested the nervous breakdown theory to Milla. Following his battle with the Yakuza, Milla confronted Matt, asking if their marriage was all just a part of his nervous breakdown, going as far as filing an annulment.

            S.H.I.E.L.D. were able to apprehend Viper/Madame Hydra in Bulgaria. The Pentagon wanted Madame Hydra to answer for her crimes in the United States of America, but the Bulgarian government refused to turn her over without a trade. In return, they wanted Natasha Romanova/Black Widow. Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. informed Natasha to hide as she became wanted by the American government. Natasha turned to her former lover Matt Murdock for his assistance in evading capture. Daredevil and Black Widow went into action to take down Billy Russo/Jigsaw. Following the fight, Matt and Natasha returned to Matt’s place. Matt turned down Natasha’s advances but signed Milla’s annulment. Jigsaw confronted Matt at the offices of Nelson & Murdock, where Matt denied being Daredevil. The next day, Matt and Natasha went to lunch, where they fell into the crosshairs of Quinn, who had been hired to kill Natasha. The two barely survived. Jigsaw and his gang invaded Matt’s home and Natasha had to fight to stay alive until the police arrived. Upon discovering who hired Quinn, Fury was able to remove the warrant on Natasha.

            Alexander Bont, the Kingpin before Wilson Fisk, received early parole. The FBI was advised due to their continuing investigation on Matt and the fact that Matt was Bont’s lawyer.

            Daredevil’s adversary Bullseye killed Karen Page, but what if she had lived? Matt would have gone on a hunt to find everyone involved in the attack that almost took his lover from him. The trail would eventually lead him to Wilson Fisk. In an act of blind rage, Matt would have accidentally killed the Kingpin. Matt would have been outed as Daredevil and arrested before he could turn himself in. Matt would have gone on trial for the murder of Wilson Fisk. And Matt would have been found guilty and sent to jail.

            Okay, I know I haven’t done one of these in a while, and I apologize, but I’m here now. Anyway, let’s get to my personal parts of this review. First off, you’re probably wondering just what I thought of this book. I will say I have mixed feelings. There were things I liked about this book, but there were also things I disliked. Let’s start with what I liked. I felt that the story was mostly enjoyable. “Echo” was fairly good, but the story was a little difficult to follow for two reasons. Reason number one was that there were points where the story was told out of order, which I really disliked. Reason number two was that the script wasn’t completely printed in speech bubbles or word boxes and knowing what to read and where to read, it wasn’t always immediately obvious, which again was relatively annoying. That said, when the story was clear to read, it was enjoyable. I especially liked the appearance of Wolverine. However, I will say that the story Logan told Maya actually is an old Native American story and was not actually originally told by Maya’s father as the story says, I know this for a fact because I have actually heard this story before, it was not new to me, and I am sure that there are a lot of people out there who will corroborate with me. I found “The King of Hell’s Kitchen” to be interesting. I liked all the plot twists, which I’m not going to get into because I don’t wish to give any further spoilers, which I feel like I did more than enough of in this review. “The Widow” was actually my favorite story in the book, I liked the team-up between Daredevil and Black Widow, and the scene at Matt’s house with the Black Widow fighting Jigsaw’s gang was just hysterical. That said, we have to talk about the things I disliked in this book, and there were a few things. First off, I wasn’t a fan of the artwork. I just did not find it to be enjoyable at all. I’m a nice guy most of the time, and I don’t wish to insult anyone, and I’m sure the artists worked their hardest to produce this art when they did it, so I won’t say anything bad or more, but it just wasn’t visually appealing to me. I especially didn’t like the art in “Echo,” and I didn’t like how in “The Universe” there were multiple artists, it just made the issue feel so disjointed. Also, I really disliked the issue “What if Karen Page Had Lived?” I totally didn’t like the story, with Matt going nuts and killing Kingpin. It just totally ruined the character. I know that the reader is supposed to accept this as Matt being in a blind rage, but Daredevil being a killer just isn’t acceptable. Also, the issue felt extremely rushed, especially the ending. The pacing felt all wrong and there were certain details that I felt like should have been more elaborated on or focused on. I felt like if the issue were a little longer it might have been more enjoyable. All-in-all though, I will say I found there to be more to enjoy about the book than to complain about.

            Next up, we’re going to talk about accessibility. I say this every time I write a review, so I know there are some of you who have read this many times before because I know I do have people who regularly read this blog, but I also know there are people who have never been to this blog before, so I have to explain it for you newbs. Okay, so when I say “accessibility,” I mean just how easy it is to just pick up and read this book, particularly if you know little or nothing about Daredevil or Marvel Comics. I will say this book is relatively easily accessible. First off, when I read it, I didn’t feel like it completely forces you to have to have read any previous Daredevil comics, but it would certainly help you to understand this book. Yes, it picks up on previous storylines, but it’s not like the previous volume did a “To Be Continued…” at the end, so having to have read the last volume didn’t seem completely necessary to me. Second, it doesn’t cross over into any other events or series, so it’s not like there are missing pieces or gaps in the storyline either, so you don’t need to read other graphic novels to understand this one. As far as saying if this is a perfect starting point for new readers to Marvel Comics, I won’t say this is it, but it’s not off-putting either.

            Now we get to the nitty-gritty part of my review, the part that we’re all here for: the numeric score. My scoring system is extremely basic: I score on a scale of one to ten. If I give this book a one, that means it’s a piece of trash and should be avoided at all costs. If I give this book a ten, that means this is sheer perfection and should belong in every Marvel reader’s collection. Now, I will say I am a very harsh scorer, so a low score from me doesn’t necessarily mean anything, I’m just really particular, it’s a high score that’s impressive. Now, as far as this book goes, I found the story to be relatively good, my main problem was the art, so this book is getting a relatively average score. So, taking everything into account, I’m throwing everything into the blender, turning it on, and pouring out… a five. I honestly can’t give this book anything higher than that, I hate to say it. I just honestly can’t get past the artwork’s consistent displeasure, it really hurt the book that badly for me. And “What If Karen Page Had Lived?” was just totally disliked, so I had to deduct for that. So, all said, I have to score it at a five. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean this book was bad. There was plenty to like about it, the first three stories were all great in my opinion, but there was also a massive amount to dislike that I just had to deduct from, so I feel that the five is justified.

            Now, the next part of my review is my personal recommendation. By this, do I, myself, Tim Cubbin, say this book is worth reading? And then, regardless of that, who do I think would most enjoy this book? So, I’m going to start off by saying that, yes, I do recommend this book personally. As to whom I recommend this book to, I would say to fans of Daredevil mostly, and if you like Black Widow, her story in this book is really good, too. And if you’re a fan of Brian Michael Bendis, he did a rather decent job writing this book. And if you’re into Native American stories, this book would be interesting to you. And if you are a fan of Echo, I think this book would be appealing to you as well.

            Okay, so I’d say we’re at the point where it’s time to start saying goodbye. First, though, I will tell you there are over 150 posts on this blog, so there is plenty more content to check out. If you liked this “Daredevil” review and want more Daredevil, you can check out my reviews of “Daredevil: Underboss” and “Daredevil: Out” as well, you’d probably enjoy that. I have written dozens of reviews at this point, but there are also short stories, poems, essays, articles, editorials, and all kinds of other content on this blog, so keep scrolling, I’m sure you’ll find something else you’ll like. I have another review planned, it should be up in the next week, so keep an eye out for that. I post on a very frequent basis, I collect every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection as it comes out and try to review it as soon as possible, so there’s always plenty more content on the way. Well, I guess I’ll let you get on your way, I’ve wasted enough of your time as it is, you probably want to move on with your life and I’ve been doing this for almost four hours, so I’m ready to move on to, so I’ll speed you on with just a few more words, and they are: Tim Cubbin… out!

"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!

 

"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!

"Devil's Reign"

 

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics Event “Devil’s Reign” as presented on Marvel Unlimited.

            When he was a teenager, Matthew Murdock saved a man from being hit by a truck. The truck was carrying a load of toxic chemicals. The chemicals hit Matt in the eyes and was blinded. However, Matt realized that his other four senses had been heightened. He also discovered that he had a 360 degree “radar sense,” akin to echolocation. Matt grew up to become a lawyer. While in college, Matt met a woman named Elektra Natchios, and the two fell in love. Elektra went on to become a deadly assassin. As an adult, Matt decided that he wanted to use his gifts to help other people and became the crime-fighting vigilante, Daredevil. Matt and Elektra shared an on-and-off romantic relationship. Later in his career as Daredevil, Daredevil was convicted for a serious crime he did not commit, but Matt found a loophole in the justice system that allowed Matt to serve his sentence as Daredevil. In his absence, Elektra took on the mantle of Daredevil and Matt’s rules of not causing fatal injuries to others. Matt/Daredevil was eventually released from jail under time served, but continued to have both himself and Elektra sharing the title of Daredevil.

            Wilson Fisk had a criminal empire that spanned dominance over the entire city of New York, as well as beyond the city. He was an infamous mobster called the Kingpin of Crime, yet always managed to beat the legal system. Kingpin and Daredevil became arch-nemeses and battled each other countless times in the following years. Somehow, Fisk was able to win a fair election and became the mayor of New York City. He later married the schizophrenic villain Mary Walker/Typhoid Mary. The couple retreated to the mayor’s mansion.

            Daredevil’s secret identity as Matt Murdock was once exposed to the general public. Through the help of the Purple Children, who are able to influence minds, Matt was able to erase the public’s knowledge and again reestablished his secret identity as Daredevil.

            Mayor Fisk was able to find a sealed file on Daredevil, which used to contain Daredevil’s secret identity, but was now a blank folder, causing Fisk to realize that at one point, he knew the true identity of Daredevil. Armed with this information, Fisk decided to stick it to Daredevil in the worst way possible: Fisk made a law that declared vigilantism in New York city was now illegal, and any superhero was now a criminal and would now be sent to prison in the Myrmidon, a prison made to contain arrested super-powered individuals. He used the mind control powers of Zebediah Killgrave/Purple Man to keep New York City in his thrall.

            Fisk’s first targets were the Fantastic Four, who lived in the Baxter Building. Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Susan Storm-Richards/Invisible Woman were arrested and sent to the Myrmidon, but Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ben Grimm/Thing were able to avoid capture. Several other superheroes, including Marc Spector/Moon Knight were arrested and sent to the Myrmidon as well.

            The heroes of New York City decided to make a bold move against Fisk: the election was upcoming, and Fisk was running unopposed, so they needed a candidate in the super community to unseat Fisk as the mayor of New York City. The heroes decided to have Luke Cage be Fisk’s opponent.

            Fisk was aware of the true identity of Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman and targeted her through her young son, Gerry.

            Elektra is targeted by Fisk and must contend with the villainous Kraven the Hunter.

            Fisk gave the Baxter Building to super villain Otto Octavius/Doctor Octopus. Doc Ock decided to use Reed Richards’ laboratory for his own experiments, namely to create the Superior Four, an assortment of Otto’s variants from throughout the Multiverse, consisting of Otto Blaze/Ghost Rider, Otto Banner/Hulk, and Otto Howlett/Wolverine. However, their alliance was totally unsteady, and dominance of the quartet was up for grabs.

            Fisk decided that he had to have a hold on law enforcement and created a new team of Thunderbolts, consisting of former B- and C-list super villains, to tighten his grip of terror over New York City.

            James “Bucky” Barnes decided to take Fisk out of the picture by targeting Fisk’s mansion, but this mission ultimately ended in failure.

            The X-Men live in their Treehouse in Central Park. Despite the recognition of the mutants’ island home of Krakoa by some countries as a sovereign nation, they were unable to attain diplomatic immunity for their New York home and became targets of Fisk’s reign. He dredged up the past of the mutant Emma Frost in a supposed kidnapping and murder that supposedly occurred many years ago, but that was, in fact, false. The “victim” is very much alive and well and living in England.

            Another target of Fisk’s crackdown on New York’s vigilantes was Ben Reilly/Spider-Man. He was arrested but unable to be identified due to the beating Ben had taken to his face that obscured his features. Ben’s supporter at the Beyond Corporation, Marcus Momplaisir, was able to rescue Ben by placing himself as a decoy.

            Hunter’s Moon took on the duties as a Fist of Konshu, the Egyptian God of the Moon, who also shared his duties with Marc Spector/Moon Knight in Moon Knight’s mission.

            Matt Murdock’s twin brother Mike tried to hone in on Mayor Fisk by siding with Fisk’s son, Butch, while Fisk’s other son Richard also wanted payback against his corrupt father, but Mike soon had a target placed on his head by Wilson Fisk and his legion.

            In the Myrmidon, Marc Spector found himself undesirable to many of the prison’s other inmates. He ended up joining in on the prison’s fight club to ensure his survival.

            It now all comes down to Luke Cage, the election and the remaining heroes to try to stop Fisk and his reign of terror once and for all.

 

            Personally, I enjoyed the stories that comprise the event. I found them to be highly interesting, entertaining, and exciting. I was gripped into the event right from the start. BUT! This DID NOT feel new to me from Marvel. I done several reviews of different formats of Marvel’s “Civil War” events, and there were similarities. In “Civil War,” the Superhuman Registration Act was passed, requiring anyone who wanted to use their super powers in public had to register their identities with the government and join as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying they’re exactly the same thing. At least in “Civil War,” the super heroes had a choice. In “Devil’s Reign,” the heroes had no choice. And I have to say, Fisk’s first move against the Fantastic Four was rather harsh, walking into the Baxter Building and placing Reed and Sue in cuffs hours after the law was enacted, perhaps even too harsh. Nothing was said, they were just arrested. That seems highly wrong to me. And the Thunderbolts were pure hypocrisy. Heroes get nabbed, but his enforcement team being all former or current super villains is just fine and dandy? This really ruined the suspension of disbelief. And the desperation of Fisk creating this law just because he got ticked off seems to be too much. And also, it would take months of litigation, even after the election, before the anti-super human act could become law, but in this story it was just signed into law by the end of the first issue. Highly unrealistic. Now, like I said, I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but the realism was just not there. Also, this event seems to have no true ramifications on other Marvel characters and series. There were several other major story arcs occurring at the time that don’t seem to have had any impact created by “Devil’s Reign.” This was released during “Beyond,” “The Death of Doctor Strange,” and “The Reckoning War” and I saw absolutely no correlation there. There might be a few outcomes of “Devil’s Reign” that will stick, but as a regular devoted reader, I haven’t seen any yet.

            Now, you might want to know if I’ll refer this to you? I give a resounding “YES!” But I don’t think this story is for non-readers looking to start reading Marvel comics for the first time with no prior knowledge to anything Marvel. If you’ve never read Marvel before but have knowledge of the characters from movies and shows, you might enjoy this. For non-readers who have watched the Marvel Netflix series (Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher), this might be a good start for you as this story heavily features the characters from the shows. If you’re an on again/off again Marvel reader, I think this might be enjoyable for you. If you’re currently Marvel reader by collecting stories in paperback, this is something I feel you should check out. I give this a high recommendation, but I think you need to have some background knowledge and expect that there are a lot of unrealistic parts of this event.

            Okay, let’s move on to the moment you’ve been waiting for: my numeric score. In every one of my literally dozens of reviews, I give a numeric score of a scale of one-to-ten, one being the worst, ten being the best. So let’s take it all into consideration. Now, also take into account that this focused on many different characters in many different titles and had many different artists that I honestly can’t credit all those who worked on this event into said consideration. I will say that as this is a “graphic novel,” the artwork is also important. I enjoyed most of the artwork, but this was still a reason to have my score knocked down. So, again, everything into account, I score this at… SEVEN! I think that this was a very good effort by the writers and artists, but if the realism was fixed a little better I’d have given this a higher score.

            So, before you go back to whatever you were doing before you read this post (and if you’re still reading at this point, you are THE BEST!), I have a few more things to say. First is that this blog has a lot of content on it, not just all reviews of Marvel books and events (which, I hate to say, is what most of this blog is). I feature other content, such as short stories (fiction and nonfiction), poetry, essays, editorials, and articles. I am a certified journalist who can’t find a true job because I’m disabled, and I want to get my words out there somehow, so this unpaid job is what I do. Also, I post rather frequently, maybe once every week or two. I have a series of pointless complaints called B’ings if you’re interested in reading more of my work. I’m also an aspiring author looking to one day get published and a volunteer group leader with the Mental Health Association in Putnam County, so I am a rather busy little bee and don’t always have the time to do this blog, so you’ll have to forgive me for that. Finally, I’ll say that I hope you come back for more and if you want you can keep reading more of what I’ve already posted and until then, Tim Cubbin… out!

"Daredevil: Dead Man's Hand" by D.G. Chichester, Gregory Wright,, Fabian Nicieza, Chuck Dixon, Glenn Herdling, George Caragonne and Ann Nocenti

            This is a review of the Marvel Epic Collection “Daredevil, the Man Without Fear!: Dead Man’s Hand” graphic novel by D.G. Chichester, Gregory Wright, Fabian Nicieza, Chuck Dixon, Glenn Herdling, George Caragonne, and Ann Nocenti.

            As a child, Matt Murdock saved a man from being hit by a truck. The truck was carrying radioactive chemicals. The chemicals splashed into young Matt’s eyes, blinding him. But, in the absence of sight, the chemicals heightened his other senses, enough to give him a 360-degree “radar sight.” He went on to become a lawyer and with his law school roommate Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, started the Nelson and Murdock Law Firm. Matt decided to use his gifts in the service of mankind and to deal out justice that a lawyer can’t. His preferred weapon is a billy club, and he took on the name Daredevil.

            As Daredevil, Matt has come up against Wilson Fisk/New York’s Kingpin of Crime many times, as has tried to take him down as both Matt Murdock and Daredevil. After many years as antagonists, Kingpin has been defeated and discredited, lying low in the subway tunnels as a homeless derelict. But Fisk’s fall from grace has left open a power play to declare just who now controls New York City’s criminal racket. The first one to try to replace Fisk is Leland Owlsley/the Owl, who has been severely disabled after many battles with super heroes and vigilantes operating in Hell’s Kitchen (pardon my language). However, the Owl was not able to fill Fisk’s void.

            Daredevil stays awake for 34 hours straight and does all he can to save people from minor, daily, everyday, and easily avoidable accidents.

            Following the Owl’s defeat, Matt finds himself allied against the Surgeon General, an insane doctor who casts after men who fill her needs and does unpleasant things to them. As Peter Parker, Spider-Man tries to lure out the Surgeon General so he and Daredevil can get the Surgeon General to put down her scalpel.

            After this, young Max Mumm creates a computer program called Ultra-Max, which turns self-propagating and threatens all cyberspace. The cyborg Deathlok enters cyberspace and attempts to destroy Ultra-Max from the inside, while Daredevil must protect Max from the powered killer Bushwhacker.

            Matt has a nightmare of going up against Daredevil’s ten worst enemies.

            The Crippler fights the Wildboys to keep New York’s subways safe.

            Daredevil helps a boy called Eightball from a group of kids calling themselves the Fatboys prove to that his crush Darla’s boyfriend Tommy is a two-timing thug and prove his worth to her.

            Matt and Foggy travel to Las Vegas on a law case. All the worst in the Underworld gather together in Vegas to discuss who will fill in the vacancies in the fallen Fisk’s criminal enterprises. These include organizations such as Hydra, the Hand, the Secret Empire, and also includes other mob figures such as Hammerhead, Tombstone and Silvermane. When Matt hears of the gathering, he teams up with Jack Monroe/Nomad and Frank Castle/Punisher to drive the villains out of Vegas, while protecting the masked baby, Bucky and other associates of the trio. However, Matt, Jack and Frank have very different methods of dealing with their enemies, and their alliance is highly fragile.

            Upon leaving Vegas and returning to New York, a demonic Daredevil doppelganger is stalking New York City, and the mystic huntress Calypso attempts to establish control of Matt’s body and soul as her zombie servant.

            Finally, Daredevil swings through the snowy city in order to deliver a Christmas gift to a deserving child.

            The thought of a team-up can be exciting. This book had two team-ups, both of which I feel compliment Daredevil perfectly. Daredevil and Spidey have teamed-up many times over the years, but I didn’t enjoy the Surgeon General conflict. I don’t feel like there was much use for her. I felt that this whole team-up against someone who has no powers but was just crazy is really a waste. And the Surgeon General’s profiling was pointless since in all honesty she just wanted something unpleasant from them and not in a romantic way, why did they just have to be aesthetically pleasing? Now, the Daredevil/Punisher/Nomad crossover lived up to my expectations. Daredevil fights injustice and Punisher fights injustice, but their different methods to fight injustice that puts them at odds always feels natural to me. They both want the same things, with the difference being the vital status of their opponents. Seeing Matt and Frank going up against the entire super villain mob excited me, and throwing in Nomad, whose policies are a combination of Matt and Frank was just the icing on the cake for me. And a story arc with characters that complement each other that’s a nine-issue crossover always gets me excited, and my prior readers will know how I feel about crossovers. For me, though, the Owl story kind of fell flat. I’ve never really liked the Owl as a villain, and with impaired as he was, the fight didn’t feel even to me. This is not to say disabled people can’t fight (I’m disabled myself), but I just didn’t think it was a fair fight. I have to severely say that I feel the story of Ultra-Max really shouldn’t have been included. I get that they wanted to include the annual since it was released at the time of the other issues, but it was a crossover of annual issues, and I felt so confused by reading a story that was Part 2, but not only did it not have Part 1 with no recap, but it also didn’t continue past Part 2, so I only read an excerpt of a story, and it was like turning a movie on the television half an hour in and then being unable to finish the movie before the end because of someone else’s desire to watch a soap opera superseded my wishes to watch the movie. It just felt so unfair. The Calypso story was a little wonky, with a demon Daredevil and a zombie Matt Murdock, especially since the conception of a zombie in the Marvel Universe in 1992 changed drastically in the following years and does not gel with what we’ve seen in other zombie stories such as “Resident Evil” and even the “Marvel Zombies” installment wasn’t consistent to this story. I did find the 34 Hours issue to be enjoyable. It was a lighthearted issue that stood out from everything else in the book. The three bonus stories in the annual bored me. I didn’t feel the need to iterate some of Matt’s greatest enemies in a nightmare did all that much for the book, the subway story felt completely pointless, and the Fatboys story felt like something that would have been shown in a video I would have been watching in middle school health class. The Christmas story being told from the perspective of a toy lamb… well, I know it was a Holiday Special issue and needed to be light and uplifting, so I won’t say anything against it, but if it were in any other kind of comic, I’d totally put it down. Now, one of the most important points of a comic book is the artwork. The artwork can make all the difference. You can have a great story with poor art or a poor story with great art. That is, after all, why it’s called a “graphic novel.” The issues included in this book ranged from 1992-1993, and this style had a uniqueness of its own.
I always thought early ‘90s art to be high quality. This was when comic books were actually hand-drawn with no computer graphics aid, and I’ve always been a fan of it. The artwork in this book did not disappoint me. In fact, I thought the art in the Calypso story arc was exceptional. In some cases, I liked the artwork way better than the story. The nine-issue “Dead Man’s Hand” crossover story just felt perfect to me. I loved the story, I loved the art, can’t get any better than that. Now, I know kids these days would pick up this book and find the art to be horrible due to today’s standards, and I’ve read comics from the 1940s that I thought that are was kind of tacky, and that’s the way generations work (like “Star Trek”: “The Original Series” versus “The Next Generation”). Now, for me, another key point in any form of writing is the tone. To me, I like a story that’s serious but fun. There’s got to be high stakes (no pun intended), but it still has to have a few light moments. I felt that this book had this tone for most of the stories, with the exceptions being the Annual side stories and the Holiday special story, which violated this very heavily, but the main stories frequently had its appeals to me. I must also include the fact that in this graphic novel, Matt had no home and was living in his law office, which actually really made me sad. I come from a lower class American family, but I’ve always had a roof over my head, so I can’t imagine how hard that must be, but I also have to say seeing Wilson Fisk living in the subway to be both pleasing and sad. Here was this man who had everything, and he messed up so badly he lost everything, and it just seemed so sad to me. Yes he’s evil and this is his comeuppance, but still, it is kind of sad.

            Now, of course, a review wouldn’t be complete without some kind of rating. First, I will say that fans of Daredevil, whether from cartoon appearances, or Fox, or Netflix or No Way Home who have never read a Daredevil comic before and want a place to start, this book could be a good choice. I feel that this book was mostly self-contained but there are a few things alien to this book, like the Ultra-Max story, and Nomad has been an obscure character for more than a decade, but enough about him was explained that I don’t think not knowing him would be detrimental (I started regularly reading in 2001 and had never read a Nomad story before, I’m not even sure I knew of him). If you’re a fan of Daredevil comics, I suppose there is plenty to like. Also, this is a Daredevil book and not a Punisher of Nomad book, so despite nine issues in this book being a crossover, Daredevil stole the story from them. But if you like Punisher or Nomad, this trio team-up isn’t all that bad. I happen to read every current Marvel Comics series and love most of them, so I can’t be too objective, though, so don’t just go by my word, but if this is something you yourself actually want to read based on this review, I do encourage you to find a way to get to read this book. Now that I’ve said who I feel this book is for, I must take everything into account to give a numeric score. My scale ranges from one to ten, one being the worst, ten being the best. Judging by everything I read and everything I just wrote, I score it at a seven. It was decent enough, but could have been quite a bit better.

            Now, we’ve reached the end of this review. I will say I am a very frequent poster, so keep looking for more of my work if you liked this post. I write a lot of book reviews (many of them Marvel, but I do mix some other things in), and I write short stories, poetry, essays, and editorials as well, so you might find something else to like here. Feel free to do whatever you can do on the page you found me on, like, share, comment, retweet. Thank you for joining me here in From the Mind of One Time Cubbin, and now I say, Tim Cubbin… out! 

"Daredevil: Born Again"

            The following is a review of the Marvel Comics storyline “Daredevil: Born Again.” This review is of the fictional Marvel Comics character Matthew Murdock/Daredevil. It is not about any real-life daredevils. This review has no connection to the Marvel film “Daredevil” or the Marvel Netflix series “Daredevil.”

            Matt Murdock was a child when he saved a man from being hit by a truck, but the truck was carrying radioactive chemicals, which spilled onto Matt’s face, causing blindness. His father was a boxer. He never wanted Matt to be a fighter, rather a doctor or a lawyer. Matt’s father met an ill fate for not throwing a fight. Matt went on in his studies. He made it to law school. His roommate was Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. Matt and Foggy graduated from law school and started their own firm “Nelson and Murdock.” Matt may be blind, but his other senses were extremely, superhumanly enhanced: taste, touch, smell, sound, and create a 360-degree “radar sense.” He learned fighting techniques and took up the costume mantle of Hell’s Kitchen’s “Daredevil: The Man Without Fear.” Matt’s worst enemy is Wilson Fisk, Hell’s Kitchen’s Kingpin of Crime. (Pardon my language.)

            Matt and Foggy hired Karen Page to be their secretary. Foggy, Karen and Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich eventually found out Matt was Daredevil, and Nelson and Murdock eventually went under. Matt has been dating Glorianna O’Breen. Unemployed, Karen traveled west and became a star of films I will not say as this is a G-Rated blog and also picked up another nasty habit. Karen got so desperate to sate her habit that she sold out Matt’s secret double life. This information made its way right into Fisk’s large hands. Now the Kingpin knows that Matt Murdock is really Daredevil. Fisk decides the ultimate revenge he can get is not only to destroy Daredevil’s life, but Matt Murdock’s life as well. To that end, Fish goes to the Bar Association and issues a claim so bad that Matt is disbarred and unable to practice law. But that’s not the end of that. Fisk also incriminates Matt with a crime he didn’t commit. Fisk goes to the IRS and gets Matt’s assets frozen. He also blows up Matt’s house. He hires Frank Simpson, the patriotic fanatic super soldier called Nuke to fight Daredevil. On top of that, Glori, feeling shafted by Matt turns to Foggy, and Foggy and Glori fall in love. Now Matt finds himself with no job, no money, and no place to live. His and Daredevil’s lives have completely unraveled.

            Hey there, thanks for reading From the Mind of One Tim Cubbin! My name is Tim Cubbin! You have been reading my review of “Daredevil: Born Again.” I’d like to share my personal thoughts about the story.

            First off, right from finishing the second issue, I felt there was potential there. It had the potential to be a great story. It doesn’t get any worse than having your entire life blown up around you. However, upon reading the final issue, I felt like it didn’t live up to that potential. Frank Miller, the “Daredevil” writer at the time, came up with such a great idea. However, the ending left a bitter taste on my proverbial tongue. This was a story published in 1986, which was before I was born. I have not followed much classic Daredevil stories from that time. Now, we all know that there are times when a super hero has their secret identities exposed. In this instance Fisk made the name “Matt Murdock” taboo within his organization and did not share Matt’s identity publicly. This was something Fisk could hold over Matt, the proverbial “if something happens to me, I expose you” kind of thing, and I felt this was a little cliché.

            As far as scoring this personally, based on my opinion of the story on a scale of one (being the worst) and ten (being the best), I’d score it as a five. As I said, to me, it had potential, but that potential just didn’t seem achieved to me. Now, I’m hard to please, but I feel that we all have our own personal opinions that no one else can change. So if you have, or if you do read the story, I’d love to hear your opinions.

            The most important point of any review is if the story is recommended. This story is a defining moment in the life of Matt Murdock/Daredevil. I usually like reading stories containing defining moments. Those are often the most enjoyable stories. For those long-time Daredevil fans that haven’t read this, I do give a recommendation. If you’re only into Daredevil from the movie or Netflix series, I still can recommend it. Who I can’t recommend this to would be people who have never read Daredevil of had not watched the movie or Netflix series. To me, I just didn’t feel it was a jump-on, too much history, too many loose threads.

            That will be it for now. If you enjoyed this post, share, retweet, comment, like, whatever you can do on this page. I have written dozens of reviews, and I am also a writer of short stories, poetry, essays, and editorials, so feel free to browse through this site if you so wish. I post frequently, so you can expect more from me soon. Until next Time, Tim Cubbin… out!