[CBRC] Daredevil #9

http://i.imgur.com/ddDDr.jpg

Daredevil #9
Writer - Mark Waid
Artist - Paolo Rivera

Quote:

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Mole Man returns, fresh from his battle in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!

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Preview of first 4 pages

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Everyone is welcome to join in provided you have read the issue. To be clear, you must read the issue prior to reviewing it. If it is obvious that you have not read the issue or your post is completely off topic, I will ask a mod to delete your post. I want this review session to be fun but I also want it to stay focused on the comic we are reviewing.

If you are interested but don't normally read comic books, we have purposely chose an issue that is supposed to be new reader friendly. If you have questions on where to acquire this issue, feel free to pm me.

Was that 2 issue arc with Spidey worth reading?

Yes it was. Please limit this discussion to primarily Daredevil #9.

The Good: First of all, I was really expecting to criticize the artwork in this book since I haven't really been a fan of it in the past few issues, but I never really paid attention to it until I made a point of noticing it for this review. Instead, it turns out that I quite enjoy the artwork, especially the juxtaposition of daredevil's radar sense with what's actually going on in the real world. Another thing is that a lot of writers always write daredevil's superpower (being blind) as an advantage, while in this series it's actually a weakness, as his heigtened senses never fully compensate for his lack of vision. I feel that this actually humanizes daredevil's character much more than has been done in the past, and makes it easier to relate to his character (which I have had trouble doing in the past).

The Bad: The story itself felt a little bit slow paced, with the black cat's interlude in the middle breaking up the action even more. Obviously as an intro story, they don't want to lay all the cards on the table right away, but I feel they could have alluded to why the mole man's kidnapping corpses other than the fact that he's probably a necrophiliac.

The Ugly:See the above note about mole man being a necrophiliac.

Overall, I liked this issue a lot more than I expected to going in. I might even consider reading the next issue as well (I skipped the last issue since I was bored with the series). In the end, I'd give it a rating of 8/10

First, let me just say that I've never been a big fan of Daredevil. In fact, I generally downright loathe him. I'll freely admit most of my prejudices come from the terrible 2003 film starring Ben Affleck (I went to look up the year it came out on IMDB and unsurprisingly IMDB told me "People who like this film also like Batman Forever") so I probably went into this comic expecting to hate it.

Turns out, there's very little to hate. It's dark, gritty, and above all human. Nermy hit it right on the head when said Waid used Matt Murdock's blindness as an actual disability. I loved that Daredevil's echolocation was incomplete, missing the very important fine details. I guess I just like my superheros fallible (which probably explains why I absolutely loathe a certain DC superhero who up until recently wore his red underwear on the outside of his blue tights).

Having little contact with the Fantastic 4, I really don't know much about the "artifact." A blind guess (no pun intended) is that it's The Human Torch's badge, so that kind of took me out of the story periodically. Regardless, the story was still interesting and easy to understand for someone who was just jumping in.

I also really enjoyed the art in this one. The fine details, the crisp edges and the complex backgrounds made for a great reading experience and that's something quite refreshing after last week's visual trainwreck.

In the end I'm guessing my prejudices will win out no matter how great the art or the story is. I just don't care enough about Daredevil to continue reading. Regardless for someone just getting into comics who wants something that epitomizes today's dark, gritty super-heroes, this is it. This ain't your daddy's Superman.

Final Rating: 8/10


Added to my pull list: No

Daredevil #8 was the first Daredevil comic I've ever read, and so I pretty much know nothing about about the character other than he's a blind lawyer by day and a vigilante by night.

I enjoyed this issue a lot and thought it was new reader friendly. I liked the Black Cat subplot going on and was glad it broke up the cave scene. I look forward to seeing where that part of the story is heading. (btw, is the reader supposed to know what the significance of the Fantastic Four artifact thingy is yet?) The main story was fairly interesting. I liked the pacing and Daredevil's internal running commentary. I'm curious to what is up with Mole Man and the dead lady but I can't see how his motivation can be anything other than the cliche of "she was the love of my life and I just wanted to spend more time with her". I guess we'll see in the next issue.

Like Nermy and DaiTengu, I really enjoyed the artwork, especially the juxtaposition of what Daredevil perceived and what was actually there. The line work and the colors seemed to mesh really well together. I thought the cave scenes were especially good. It was clear what was happening but at the same time it was very easy for me to imagine this taking place entirely in darkness.

Not to sound like a parrot but I too give this issue 8/10

if i remember correctly the ff costume piece is just a hard drive full of sensitive information that AIM, Hydra, and a bunch of other organizations want

I agree with your general sentiments, except Mole Man's potential necrophilia doesn't have to be ugly if there's a solid story behind it.

Best part: Mole Man's humming has upside down eighth notes.

I didn't know that comic books are so short. I feel like that was a teaser, between the amount of recap (which was very necessary for me to understand the backstory) and the diminutive length. Like Tengu, all I know was that awful movie that came out on Valentine's Day for some reason.

The art was cool and I agree with Nermy, I like that Daredevil actually has a weakness The Moleman character might have more context that I don't understand but it seems, uh, ridiculous. Underground army in a series of excavated tunnels with an underground river in Manhattan? Oh, OK.

All that aside, I did enjoy reading the episode, but the fact that it was so short sort of turned me off. If that's normal length for a comic book, I probably don't fit in.

As far as actual page count, most comics are 32 pages. Some writers pack a lot of story within a single issue while others really drag things out. I thought the pacing of Daredevil #9 was fairly average for today, maybe a touch on the slow side. I've never spent more than 30 minutes reading a 32 page comic so if you're looking for an hour's worth of entertainment, that's not gonna happen.

That being said I really hope you continue to participate, even if only occasionally.

sounds like you'd be more likely to buy a Trade paperback (TPB) / graphic novel, Atmosfear.

Well the odds of me buying anything are slim to none, but I would be more interested in reading a completed story arc rather than a 20-minute read of roughly 15-20 story minutes