Resurrecting Vigilante Heroes: Daredevil Reborn

The Good: Decent story, Good character arc
The Bad: Painfully predictable, Artwork is blasé
The Basics: After Shadowland, the return of Matt Murdock to form comes in Daredevil Reborn, which is a pretty necessary (though unincredible) arc.


Back in the day, I had a brief time managing a comic book shop. That wonderful few months came during my Daredevil Year. I was quite a few issues back at the time, so I did not actually know how Shadowland was resolved when I was selling issues of Daredevil Reborn. So, there was a nice sense of nostalgia for me today as I picked up and read Daredevil Reborn. Daredevil Reborn was a pretty necessary story considering that the vigilante crossover event following Civil War focused on Daredevil. The storyline was Shadowland and unlike a number of major crossover events, Shadowland did not try to fake out readers by leading to the death of the protagonist. Instead, Shadowland left Matt Murdock a broken man, fleeing Hell’s Kitchen and leaving the vigilante superhero community in a lurch.

Daredevil Reborn is the necessary return story of Matt Murdock to the role of Daredevil. While Black Panther was in New York City assuming the responsibilities of Daredevil, Matt Murdock disappeared from the superhero radar. Daredevil Reborn fills in the blank of how Murdock would be going from afraid of himself and refusing to continue his vigilante activities to return to the work of being Daredevil, as fans of Marvel Comics would expect. Unfortunately, while the business sense of continuing Daredevil as a monthly comic book made sense, the story of Daredevil Reborn is a pretty obvious one. While it is good, it lacks sophistication, depth or subtlety. The graphic novel is just an explanation story that makes a sensible character arc without incredible lines, artwork or complications.

On the road for weeks, Matt Murdock ends up in the American Southwest where he walks through the desert. At the other side, he finds a tiny, burned-out town. There, the local thugs kick the crap out of him and Murdock is surprised when the Sheriff, Cole, refuses to help him. Told to get out of town the by the next morning, Murdock is hunted by two cops. After discovering a mass grave near the town, Murdock is captured by Cole and his flunkies. Cole is working for a mysterious gangster named Calavera, who has him smuggling guns.

Escaping using the illicit weaponry, Murdock muscles his way into meeting Calavera. Calavera is more than just rumored to tear out his victims’ souls. When Murdock encounters him directly, he is given the chance to look into his own soul where he wrestles with all he has done and all that was done to him. Refusing to accept Calavera’s comparison of him to Bullseye and mentoring a young blind boy in the town, Murdock finds the strength to return to New York.

Daredevil Reborn is a very basic story. The inclusion of the boy Murdock protects is an interesting angle that makes Daredevil Reborn more than just a typical “defeat the villain” story. The four-issue book has Matt Murdock being both spiritually and professionally reborn. But Daredevil Reborn is nothing more than the very basic story; Murdock is not given the chance to reflect on the magnitude of his possession in Shadowland. He just stops running in Daredevil Reborn.  Moreover, the character arc is not exceptional; Murdock empathizes with a blind child and wants to get back into righting wrongs in the world.

The artwork in Daredevil Reborn is mediocre. Matt Murdock and all of the other characters are very squarely drawn. Davide Gianfelice creates a Daredevil book that looks much more like a colorized version of The Walking Dead than Daredevil Reborn. Usually, Daredevil books use the muted colors in the artwork as a commentary on the City and Daredevil’s role in Hell’s Kitchen; in Daredevil Reborn, the book just looks sloppy, but brightly colored.

Ultimately, Daredevil Reborn is good, but not timeless or absolutely incredible or complicated.

For other Daredevil books, please check out my reviews of:
The Essential Daredevil Volume 1
Daredevil Vs. Bullseye
Daredevil: Visionaries Volume 1 - Frank Miller
Marked For Death
Born Again
Typhoid Mary
Guardian Devil
Parts Of A Hole
Daredevil: Yellow
Daredevil: Father
Batman/Daredevil - King of New York
Daredevil Noir
Daredevil: Golden Age
The Devil: Inside And Out, Volume 1
The Devil: Inside And Out, Volume 2
Daredevil: Hell To Pay - Volume 1
Daredevil: Hell To Pay - Volume 2
Lady Bullseye
Return Of The King
Daredevil: Shadowland
Shadowland
Daredevil: The Official Comic Adaptation

6/10

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out my Graphic Novel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Shadowland Puts Daredevil At The Forefront In An Incomplete Story.

The Good: Moments of plot, Most of the art, Moments of character.
The Bad: Not enough character, Gaping plot holes
The Basics: Shadowland is another Marvel story that has a good general story, but is missing so many key elements as to not stand up on its own.


I miss the days when graphic novels were not simple, but complete. A good story with real character development makes me happy. But more than that, I like being able to pick up a book and get the whole story. Lately, it seems like the big graphic novel stories are so massive or dense that they become such large crossover events that they require a guide to read them, like my guide to reading Blackest Night (that's here!). I wish I could believe that it was merely that the publishers wanted to tell great stories, but given how they churn out graphic novels that do not connect the stories, I know that is not the real reason. The latest cashgrab I have gotten into is the Shadowland Saga. I read Daredevil: Shadowland (reviewed here!) and was disappointed by how incomplete it was. But, I was intrigued enough to pick up Shadowland.

Sadly, though, Shadowland suffers from many of the same problems as Daredevil: Shadowland did. That is to say, the story the graphic novel tells is noticeably incomplete. Even more annoying than Daredevil: Shadowland, Shadowland has a choppy sense to it that lacks cohesion and reasonable breaks. Also like Daredevil: Shadowland, Shadowland does not have much in the way of character development. When combining the two works, though, there are overlaps and some of the resolution in the other volume - notably Foggy Nelson's reactions - read as entirely baffling.

Daredevil has degenerated behind the walls of the Shadowland castle he and the Hand have erected in the middle of Hell's Kitchen. With the residents of Hell's Kitchen free to walk under the protection of the Hand, fear spreads through the community there. When the Avengers decide that the Shadowland problem is not a problem they want to take on at that point, the more mundane heroes in New York decide to take on Daredevil themselves. What they plan as an intervention quickly becomes something more urgent when Daredevil defends Shadowland against Bullseye and he kills him.

With Bullseye dead, the criminals fall in line faster, with many of them like Elektra and Typhoid Mary joining Daredevil's Hand. When the traditional good guys - Spider-man, Ghost Rider, the Punisher, Luke Cage and Iron Fist - are visited by Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin, they are reluctantly forced to agree with him when he argues that Daredevil must be taken down. The heroes and Foggy Nelson converge on Shadowland to stop Daredevil, who has been possessed by a demon.

Without spoiling anything, Shadowland holds up poorly on its own, though the story is a generally engaging one. Matt Murdock has been a moral absolutist, but Shadowland finds him possessed by a demon. The only real character development for Murdock comes as the demon is exorcised late in the book and it is a tragically unremarkable. It does not reveal anything about Murdock that readers or even those not invested in Daredevil would not already know ("demon bad!"). Of course Murdock would feel remorse about being possessed, but it is hard to care when the character of Matt Murdock is absent for the bulk of the volume.

Within the volume, it is sensible that even Elektra thinks Murdock is gone when he decides he needs to bolster his personal army by resurrecting Bullseye. This is also that last moment any reader ought to believe that Matt Murdock is even still within Daredevil. In addition to pretty obvious costume changes - which Spider-man makes note of - that idea just rings as terrible.

The other niggling problem with the big picture is that the books do not fit together well - or sensibly. So, for example, after the climax, Foggy Nelson is awfully proud of himself in Daredevil: Shadowland. Because of where that story cut out in that volume, I assumed his reasons for being proud of himself and the elements he alluded to would be present in Shadowland. That scene is completed in Shadowland, but it does not have Foggy Nelson doing anything he did not already do in the other volume.

The artwork in Shadowland is good with a decent sense of movement and all of the characters are recognizable. But the story is still too fractured to recommend and the lack of actual character development is troubling to serious readers.

For other Daredevil books, please check out my reviews of:
The Essential Daredevil Volume 1
Daredevil Vs. Bullseye
Daredevil: Visionaries Volume 1 - Frank Miller
Born Again
Typhoid Mary
Guardian Devil
Parts Of A Hole
Daredevil: Yellow
Batman/Daredevil - King of New York
Daredevil Noir
Daredevil: Golden Age
Daredevil: Hell To Pay - Volume 1
Daredevil: Hell To Pay - Volume 2

5/10

For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Fidelity To The Issues Pretty Much Kills Shadowland: Daredevil (An Otherwise Great Story!).

The Good: Engaging story, Moments of artwork
The Bad: No character development, Much of the artwork, Huge story holes.
The Basics: The Shadowland arc of Daredevil might be one of the character's most engaging conflicts in years, but it won't be found entirely in Shadowland: Daredevil.


Lately, as I have read through many graphic novels, I have noticed a disturbing trend from the major publishers. That tendency is to preserve fidelity to the issues of a book instead of fidelity to the storyline of that character. The most troubling incident of this before now was in DC's Blackest Night. When I began reading Blackest Night (reviewed here!) I quickly discovered that there were missing chapters and it was only when the book was combined with Blackest Night: Green Lantern (reviewed here!) that readers got the very most basic story of that Saga. In the case of Daredevil, I was excited to get my hands on Shadowland: Daredevil Or Daredevil: Shadowland but when I sat down to read it, I became more disappointed the longer the book went on. This was irksome because it was one of the more enjoyable Daredevil arcs that I have read in a while.

Sadly, though, the missing chapters in this book are so significant that the book is pretty much worthless after the midpoint. Writers Andy Diggle and Anthony Johnston let the story get broken up, so Shadowland: Daredevil is only the Daredevil issues of the Shadowland Saga, as well as the one-shot Shadowland: After The Fall. There was, apparently, a mini-series Shadowland whose issues cross over into this book to fill in the missing chapters and make the story make sense. Sadly, they are kept in a separate volume. The result is half the story and the key fights, conflicts and character moments (if they exist) are not in this book.

Daredevil has erected a fortress in the middle of Hell's Kitchen and from there, he is using the ninjas from The Hand to keep the peace in Hell's Kitchen. At night, citizens could walk the street, if they weren't so afraid of the Hand and for those who do go out, they discover they are protected by Daredevil's standing army. But Daredevil's friends and Matt Murdock's remaining friends believe something far more sinister is going on and that Murdock's life is in jeopardy. This fact is confirmed when Daredevil allows Typhoid Mary to join his ranks and Elektra arrives with the knowledge that the Hand is using Murdock as the vessel for an evil beast.

No one believes more in the unerring goodness of Murdock than Foggy Nelson, a man whose faith in Matt is so great that when Daredevil openly kills Bullseye, Foggy is adamant that it must be a ploy by the Kingpin. With private detective Dakota, Foggy enters the sealed off Shadowland district and makes his way through assassins to try to reach Murdock before his soul is entirely lost.

Sadly, I have no idea how that goes because it is not in the book. One chapter ends with Daredevil standing over fallen superheroes preparing to kill Foggy himself and the next chapter begins after the principle characters have cleared out. But Daredevil: Shadowland is pretty good up to a point. The story - even though I am so far behind in reading Daredevil that I was surprised Elektra is back in the mix (last I read, she was dead) - is engaging and the cast is an intriguing blend with Typhoid, Elektra, White Tiger and Black Tarantula making for an interesting palate to paint from.

What truly bites about Daredevil: Shadowland (and that is a professional term in this case) is the utter lack of character. This book belongs, if to anyone, to Foggy Nelson. Matt Murdock is a peripheral character to his own demise in this book and the key character moments are robbed from the reader. What happens when Elektra and Matt meet up inside Shadowland? How does Foggy save Matt Murdock? How did all those heroes like Spider-man end up impaled inside Shadowland? The answer . . . is not here. This is frustrating on more than just a plot level. Instead of leaving me scratching my head saying "what just happened," I spent more time asking "Why did these things happen and who did them?"

As one might suspect, Foggy Nelson could have a compelling character arc to do a story about, but this is not that either. Instead, Foggy is Foggy. He's the eternal optimist. He starts that way, he miraculously ends that way. Whatever happens in between, he seems fine with.

As for the artwork, Roberto De La Torre and Marco Checchetto continue to deliver Daredevil as if it is a runny painting. The panels have a decent sense of movement and most of the characters are recognizable in most of the frames, but they cheap out on some key panels or get lazy, especially with Elektra, whose proportions are off in several of the panels of the book. That said, the colors are vibrant and there is a good sense of movement through most of the book.

But, ultimately, that doesn't save the book. I've seen a number of big Marvel anthologies at the book store lately (many of them pertaining to the "Civil War" arc) and I am at a loss as to why they did not present the Shadowland Saga as a complete, big story. I am betting it has to do with making more money by selling more, smaller, books. I'd like to discourage that practice, so for my money, I'm advising against Shadowland: Daredevil until Marvel gets its act together, shows some respect for the fans and puts it together in a sensible book with the entire story in one linear narrative.

For other Daredevil books, please check out my reviews of:
The Essential Daredevil Volume 1
Daredevil Vs. Bullseye
Daredevil: Visionaries Volume 1 - Frank Miller
Born Again
Typhoid Mary
Guardian Devil
Parts Of A Hole
Daredevil: Yellow
Batman/Daredevil - King of New York
Daredevil Noir
Daredevil: Golden Age
Daredevil: Hell To Pay - Volume 1
Daredevil: Hell To Pay - Volume 2

4/10 (very liberal for that rating!)

For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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