Daredevil #7:
What Happened: While taking some blind kids on a trip to the Catskills for Christmas, the bus Matt Murdoch(Daredevil!) was riding in ends up crashing, killing the driver and stranding DD and the eight blind kids. DD keeps up a brave front and tries to lead the kids to safety, but the inclement weather ends up wreaking havoc on DD's radar senses and he ends up falling down a hill and knocking himself silly after hearing a truck off in the distance. Luckily for DD, the eight kids build a makeshift gurney(!?!) and drag him through the snow to an abandoned house where DD could call the cops from. With that, everybody is safe and sound(except for the poor bus driver, who's dead!) and we end this issue happily.
The Good: Until the UBER-hokey ending, I was enjoying this issue. Mark Waid built a great sense of dread here and had me honestly wondering how DD would get out of this one(especially since his clothing had been torn and his DD costume was exposed). The art was solid. I enjoy the occasional one and done comic book to break up all of the 5 and 6 part storylines I'm constantly reading.
The Bad: As I mentioned above, I was thoroughly enjoying this issue until that ending... I get this was supposed to be an uplifting holiday issue but ugh... The kids not only get DD to safety(where he can steal some clothes to hide his DD attire), but they also build a gurney out of sticks!? There's a bit of a cliffhanger depicting a graveyard, but it didn't exactly get me psyched for the upcoming Spidey/DD x-over.
The Verdict: This was a good comic. If there would have been a better ending, I'd probably go so far to say this was a really good or even great comic. But alas, it was not to be. Don't get me wrong, I totally get what Waid was doing here(show that the kids weren't helpless even when the super-powered adult was), but blind or not, what 8-12 year olds(which is where I'm guessing these kids fell age-wise) are going to have the wherewithal to build a gurney and drag their mentor to safety after he's injured himself?! Hell, if I was one of those kids I'd be long frozen to death, not creating stuff out of sticks! Then again, I was a really dumb kid... Eh, regardless, that ending was a bit too sugary for my taste. This is a series that's right on the fence in terms of me dropping it... Most likely I'll stick around for the Spidey x-over and then say so long to ol' Hornhead.
Score: 7 out of 10.
Yup, DD's a loser...
Hey X, happy holidays! So what's up with this series? Every mainstream comic site just gushes over it, but you've been giving it lukewarm praise at best. Any thoughts about why such a disparity?
ReplyDeleteI've never been big into Daredevil, but would buy this series if it were as good as the other guys say ($2.99!).
Happy holidays to you as well, TRobb. This might just be one of those cases of different strokes for different folks, you know? This series has been okay, but so far, for me at least, it's been inferior to the Brubaker, Diggle, and maybe even the Bendis runs. It's still early on though, and I've always loved Waid's work, but this series has yet to click with me. I will say this though... The $3 cover price might definitely help me stick with this series a bit longer, while a book like Inc. Hulk may get chopped sooner.
ReplyDeleteI was going to ask you the same, this series is in the top of all the "Best comics of 2011" list
ReplyDeleteI think I have mentioned this before, but this comic could be helped greatly with a huge story arc. I have a hard time caring about villains like the Claw, but if Daredevil started to do something like take on Kingpin again I could get pretty sucked into this comic.
ReplyDeleteWow, really Alien? This series wouldn't even make my top ten list! I've found it solid, but THE best of the year? Like I said, different strokes for different folks!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, Jermox. While I like the occasional one-and-done issue or a quick 3-part storyline, this series hasn't really given us a MAJOR story or threat yet... It's been Klaw, the Bruiser(I think that was his name) and this issue... Not exactly Frank Miller's DD run, now is it?
I'm a huge DD fan too. I don't mind the sugary ending, especially as it's a Christmas issue, and expected. I won't drop DD no matter where the series goes.
ReplyDeleteI've actually changed my mind completely on dropping DD, Vancelot. I mean it IS one of Marvel's reasonably priced books, and I do enjoy Mark Waid's work, so now I'm leaning towards ditching Uncanny X-Men and Incredible Hulk, two of Marvel's $3.99 books. That's my new strategy. Dump the $4 books and keep the $3 ones... Especially since Marvel loves to double ship those more expensive comics.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great strategy to me. I hate that Marvel thinks it's smart to charge $4 when obviously DC has proven that it's viable to do it for $3. It's one of the reasons that I read few Marvel books, and buy only 2 per month. DD is one of the 2 along with Deadpool.
ReplyDeleteBut now, unfortunately, DC is slowly starting to adopt Marvel's $4 strategy. Even after their whole, big, "Holding the line at $2.99!!" ploy. Batman is getting bumped up to $4, as well as Detective(I think...). They'd join Action and JLA(and possibly something else I'm forgetting) as DC's $4 books. And the thing about the 4 titles I mentioned? They're amongst DC's top sellers. Now that DC has tested the waters, it's only a matter of time until they bump more and more books up to $4 to try to reclaim the market share from Marvel.
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