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DD Book Club One-Shot: 34 Hours

 
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 1750

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 8:30 am    Post subject: DD Book Club One-Shot: 34 Hours Reply with quote

This one is by request. It's not on Marvel Unlimited or Trade Paperback so those who want to read it will have to do so the old fashioned way and pull out a floppy comic. However, this is a fun story so I hope there are others who have it. It's the first D.G. Chichester issue, which is good, because I'd like to get him into the mix.

Daredevil #304 - 34 Hours



Due 9/27
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james castle
Devil in Cell-Block D


Joined: 30 Jul 2004
Posts: 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 3:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My copy of this issue is in a bag with a board in a box in my parent's basement half way across the country. From my recollection of it, it's almost good enough to justify the trip to re-read it again but not quite.

Those who are able to read it: correct me if I'm wrong but it does a great job of focusing on DD's senses while also showing him as a real down to earth, street level hero. It's great.
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Marcus Plato
Flying Blind


Joined: 15 Sep 2011
Posts: 84
Location: Perth, Western Australia

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2015 7:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is without doubt my favourite issue of Daredevil ever. From the opening scene to the incredible finale, the action never lets up. Funnily enough my two favourite scenes don't involve fighting crime. Saving little Manny always brings a little tear to my eye, and teaching a jerk some manners when it comes to catching cabs makes me laugh every time.
The highlight for me, though, is that DD finally gets to take a bow at the end. And boy, does he deserve it!
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 1750

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2015 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

^ I agree with that. I guess the question is whether he got to sleep this issue.

Hooray. I get to read this one from an individual issue. The premise is an interesting one. It's basically a bunch of small events of things that happen in a 34 hour window in New York with no homicides. The narration is a bit over the top. The first one is a nice act of heroics, Daredevil saves a baby, placing himself in harm's way. The second one is a little less heroic. Some guy was just rude and cut in front of someone else for a cab. I do like how, in each one, DD essentially shows up to say something gruffly.

Some of the stories here can be quite dark. There is a group who gets its kicks lighting people on fire. There's a guy who is angry because he got kicked out of a bar so he comes back with a chainsaw. On the other hand, others are nice little things like saving a homeless man's shopping cart from tipping over.

Holy crap. There was a Bucky O'Hare video game for sale? I know that has nothing to do with the issue, it's just an ad, but that's awesome. I want that!

The climax is a series of events all at once. He saves an accidental death, a tragic shooting, and something else from all happening at once. While it's not overly flashy, DD's success is great nonetheless. The closing narration does a good job of tying it all together. This respite isn't just a break for the police, it's another family saved. Chichester's story is very Nocenti in style with small characters just introduced but we become invested in their fate. Overall, it's a nice happy story that's a relief from the darkness that surrounds it (much like its premise promises). Four Stars.
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I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
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Dimetre
Underboss


Joined: 16 Feb 2006
Posts: 1366
Location: Toronto

PostPosted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 2:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm the one who requested doing this issue. I thought since Ron Garney is going to be the full-time artist for the next little while, it would be a good time to take a look at his one previous Daredevil issue. It's kind of surprising it's from 23 years ago.

It took me a while to find this issue amongst my collection. I knew I had it, but I couldn't find it. I'm glad I finally did.

The opening splash page of Daredevil in front of the clock is gorgeous. Nice detail, and fantastic shading. It fills me with anticipation of Garney's work in Volume 5.

I also like that the billy club is white. It's switched between red and white over the decades, but I guess my favourite Daredevil artist ever is David Mazzuchelli, and he always had it as white.

D.G. Chichester can get a little flowery with his narration, but it isn't too bad this issue.

I find Garney's artwork very typical of the early 90s. You can see very clearly Todd MacFarlane's influence. (Perhaps another one-shot to study would be MacFarlane's only issue, #241). For the most part, Garney's artwork is excellent, although I find by the issue's end some of the panels start getting looking somewhat rushed, especially the close-up of Daredevil's face as he feels "white hot agony." (I don't completely understand that.)

I very much enjoyed the contrast between Daredevil's pure heroism (saving the baby), contrasted with his gruff righteousness ("Clean your ears.) I was kind of surprised that he bothered to interfere in the instance with the taxi. I thought Daredevil fought crime, not rudeness. Yes, Mr. Ponytail is an asshole, and it's fun to see assholes get their comeuppance, but does Daredevil regularly get involved in these types of matters? If someone talks throughout a movie, can we expect Daredevil to swoop in? This was an odd thing to see in a Daredevil comic.

Another thing I found puzzling is the page on which Daredevil takes a criminal to the police station. He says to a cop, "Clock's ticking, Sergeant." When I got to the end of the issue, I expected to find some significance to the time in which this story takes place. From what I can tell, the 34 hours from the story's title refers to the length of time that no one in New York died a wrongful death. (I'm assuming people still died of diseases and things like that.) By the time Daredevil got to the police station, 14 hours had passed. Was Matt conscious that no one in New York had died wrongfully in that time? I find that kind of strange that he would keep up with that.

This premise also makes it kind of strange for Chichester to include the scenes of the taxi, as well as the one with the old man and his cart full of cans. While it warms the heart to see Matt intervene in these scenes, does it really fit with Chichester's theme?

I was a little confused with the Washington Square Park scene. Did the film crew have anything to do with the Ninja sword guy? It seems like they didn't, and this Don guy was just going to run up with a gun and freak everyone out. So it was guerrilla filmmaking. However, when the knife-juggler trips on a can, it's two pages until Daredevil saves him from the falling sword. It's kind of funny how slow that knife fell, and how much happened in that amount of time. I think the panels could have been laid-out differently to show the slow passage of time better.

I also was less-than-impressed by the depiction of radar. It's just basically rendered black and white drawings. I hope, come Volume 5, Garney follows the example established by Paolo Rivera and Chris Samnee.

I guess the hammer of the gun closed on Daredevil's hand, and that's why he felt "white hot agony." It's kind of funny that he seems completely calm in the next panel.

I think Chichester was trying to say something with the last page and the "34 Hours" title, and I'm not sure he got that across, at least to me. Some of the matters in which Daredevil intervened were accidents that were the result of negligence, or distraction. Some of them were instances where people pissed each other off with rudeness. Some of them were criminal acts. Some were misunderstandings. Some were the result of stepping on a can. If Chichester is using these instances to show how heroic Daredevil is, than he does an amazing job, and gets full marks. However, the first page says that this is "a story of New York." What, with these random instances, is Chichester trying to say about New York? That people are distracted, and negligent? That people are rude? That some people in New York are guerrilla filmmakers, who are just trying to get something cool made? I don't know what Chichester is trying to say about New York with this issue. But Daredevil is at his best here, and this issue makes me look forward to Garney's return in Volume 5. 3.5/5
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 1750

PostPosted: Thu Sep 24, 2015 5:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I always feel like D.G. Chichester's heart is in the right place, but his execution isn't always so good. This is what Dan Chichester said (in comments) about his idea:

Quote:
FWIW, the 34 hours wasn’t a play on the 304 — although I can see how it might be interpreted that way. (And if I was more clever, I might have gone that route!) In truth, I was an avid reader of Newsday during my run, picking up all manner of NYC centric factoids to then run through the Murdock filter. They ran a story that was the foundation of the story: namely, that it had just come up that a full 34 hours had gone by in the city without a single murder. And that was the jumping off point for the “What if…” of how would DD occupy his time during such a stretch.


I agree that it doesn't entirely make sense, but it's nice to have a feel good issue of happy endings for everybody.
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Matt Murdock's cooler twin brother

Not sure what to read next? Check out the Book Club for some ideas!

I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
Thomas More - A Man for All Seasons
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