Daredevil

Nocenti definitely brings a different sensibility to Daredevil.  Her writing depicts a far more jaded world than the one that’s normally portrayed: Daredevil catches a bunch of kids (the Fatboys) dressing up as a Salvation Army Santa to scam pedestrians for money.  He makes them donate the money to a nun to teach them a lesson, but that cookie-cutter moment is undermined when the reader discovers that the ‘nun’ is running a con as well.  

Early Todd MacFarlane art!

There’s no black and white with her characters, just black and grey.  Nothing’s clean in this universe, and it’s hard to imagine Daredevil ever getting a win in this New York City.  Take a look at some of his encounters:

Rotgut - A delusional man, raised by his mother to fear all the chemicals that are pervading our society and environment.  He’s not completely wrong, as part of his rants include the hazards of smoking and the destructive effects of illegal drug use.  But the other half induces him to poison the water supply of his apartment building.  While the Fatboys keep most of the inhabitants from drinking the water, one of the kids doesn’t warn a resident as retribution for some rude words that were hurled in his direction.  I repeat: A ten-year old kid lets a man die because he was mean to him.  (Horrible use of pronouns, my apologies.)  

A down-on-his-luck blue-collar worker starts killing rich people as some kind of protest against the system.  A sleazy reporter, instead of reporting the man to the authorities, lets this go on in exchange for the scoop.  A segment of the population, of course, has no problem with any of this, leading to a riot that puts Daredevil on the wrong side of public opinion.  All of this is frighteningly real, despite the cynicism.  

A former soldier in the Wakandan army develops a gambling addiction, failing to provide for his wife or son.  His wife, coincidentally Black Panther’s cousin, deals with this by locking herself into the bedroom, refusing to come out until her husband pays the bills.  When Black Panther shows up, he’s perfectly happy to let the soldier kill himself as the honorable way of resolving the situation.  Nothing but bleak.  

Karen Page comes to the realization, after all this time, that her boyfriend beats people up in his off-hours.  This transforms her into a flat-out Roy Lichtenstein clone.

One that’s very, very emo.

Dude, villains don't monologue this much.

Yet two issues later, she’s cheering for Daredevil to beat up the bad guy of the month.  So now violence is okay as long as she’s the one being saved?  Nocenti is unrelenting as she points out the hypocrisies and bent views of the America she sees.  

My criticism is not with the ideas that Nocenti puts on display, but in the presentation.  In the vein of Stern’s Avengers, her scripts are overly wordy, and the plots themselves are uninspiring.  I can’t imagine reading these issues again, even with her interesting take on Daredevil’s world.  So I don’t know if I’m keeping these issues yet.  I’ll decide at the end of the run.  Forty issues from now.  Sigh.

The art was surprisingly good, considering that I’d never heard of these artists before.  (John Romita Jr hadn’t joined the title yet.)

Mike Zeck.  I've heard of him :P

I can find less than twenty issues to Louis William’s credit, but he acquitted himself well, and I wonder why he didn’t continue in the industry.  Below is an understated depiction of Matt’s radar sense, which makes for a beautiful, romantic page.

And I just liked the execution and composition of this splash:

Finally, calling out an example of composition that confused me:

For all the word balloons and center placement of the corporate bigwig in the foreground, the fine linework of the maid is what stands out to my eye.  (It’s got nothing to do with the outfit.  Serious.)  Considering how she plays absolutely no role in the rest of the comic, her prominent positioning makes no sense.  (Keith Pollard, the artist, did a three-year run on Thor right before Walt Simonson.  Learned something new.)

Regret buying? Yes

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine, Didn’t Suck for the last four issues