Daredevil Message Board

james castle

Clearly I'm missing something. Over the months, while I trade wait, I see people on this board and in various reviews praise Bru. Everyone loves Bru. Why? I picked up Cruel and Unusual yesterday and wow....weak. So weak. Someone explain where I've gone wrong here:

Decompressed

Yes, yes Marvel titles are decompressed now. Stories stretch out a bit longer than they really need to. It's a bit about trades and it's a bit about how stories are told in comics these days. Even so...comon. I mean, really. The plot points in Cruel and Unusual wouldn't fill five lines. I know that there's character stuff in between but the sheer number of times plot points are repeated is crazy. My big complaint about the last trade was that the fact that Matt had to "be patient and under control" was repeated so many times it was absurd. In Cruel and Unusual there are a handful of things that were repeated over and over and over.

The one that really stuck out for me was when Matt goes to visit Big Ben for the first time. Matt figures out that Ben is innocent and that something is keeping him from saving himself. Fine. The a couple issues later Matt and Foggy go and visit Big Ben in the prison hospital. Matt figures out (again) that Ben is innocent and that something is keeping him from saying something. The hospital scene is entirely useless. From a story telling standpoint it's just repetition of the earlier scene.

Then there's the "bigger than you think" thing. It's like Bru had a bet that he could have every character discover and comment about the fact that things were bigger than they thought. It's repeated over and over and over again.

There's also a scene where the legal team gets together and after a few pages decides that they have to 1. prove Big Ben is innocent and 2. get Big Ben to agree. Well, obviously.

Plot = Fail

And then after slogging through the same issue three or four times we get the big wrap up. The FBI did it by threatening his son that no one knew about. Errrr. What?

First, the whole FBI thing is insane. So they did it to cover up a murder so they wouldn't blow Slaughters cover so he could catch terrorists? Leaving aside how ridiculous that is just on it's own...didn't the FBI show up with attack choppers to take out DD? Wouldn't that blow their cover?

More importantly, imagine that the ending was that the Kingpin did it. Or Vanessa. Or Doc Oc. Or anyone. The whole thing was a massive Deus Ex Machina. There were no hints that the FBI did it because of Slaughter and terrorists or whatever. There was no way any character or reader could have seen that coming. It was just an explaination barfed out by a character basically at random. That's not story telling at all.

Finally, so the kid that no one knew about was the key? Was that the point? But how did North find him? One scene she's looking at some checks. Next scene she's at a doorstep. Since how she went from A to B was the key to the whole thing you'd think you'd want to show a bit of it?

And why is Matt happy now? He didn't do a thing. Dakota could have and did handle it all by herself. And if the bad FBI people were just replaced when the truth came out why didn't that happen years ago?

What am I missing here?
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JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

Francesco · Underboss Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 1307

I have a semi-unrelated question. Did your TPB cointain issue 106 also? Because it said so in the description at amazon. However, they also said the previous TPB (Hell to Pay part 2) would've reprinted the Annual, which instead was nowhere to be found.

MurdockM · Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 2:44 pm Post subject:

What's even more cruel and unusual is that in the copy of the TPB i got, somewhere towards the end in issue 110, after Matt receives the phonecall from Becky that Dakota's in the hospital, it jumps back to issue 109 where Dakota is knocking on Little Ben's apartment door and repeats every page up to where Matt receives the phone call. How does this trade end? And is mine the only copy that's like this?
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Life and its twisted sense of humor... with me as its butts of jokes...

Francesco · Underboss Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 1307

So? Could anyone who already has the TPB please tell me if there's #106 in it or not?

jumonji · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 2:30 pm Post subject:

Francesco · Underboss Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 1307

Kuljit Mithra · Hardcore Joined: 29 Jul 2004 Posts: 1530 Location: Canada

Francesco · Underboss Joined: 08 Jun 2006 Posts: 1307

Oh, yeah, you're right. I mean the product description.

james castle · Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 3:58 pm Post subject:

I hope the annual is in the next trade. It would make some sense because, as I understand it, Black Trarantula shows up in the next arc.
_________________
JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

Ian · Flying Blind Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 33

James,

I sort of agree with you man. I mean, I love Ed Brubaker's stuff, but that last story arc was kind of a lame one. When I spoke to Brubaker earlier in the year, I asked him about Matt getting back into the courtroom and he (The Bru) basically said "Yeah...but wait until the NEXT story arc!" It's almost as if "Cruel and Unusual" was simply a vehicle to get Matt to calm the hell down and stop moping around. As for the small details, I wouldn't get too wrapped up in that. Not all story arcs can be gold, but Bru and the Crew have been holding it down for a couple of years now and I think they're doing an admirable job.
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"Show me a superhero without a first aid kit, an I'll show you a NUT!" (Daredevil #9)

james castle · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:19 pm Post subject:

jumonji · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 2:13 pm Post subject:

james castle · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:15 pm Post subject:

jumonji · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 4:56 pm Post subject:

Interesting answer, JC. I can sort of see where you're coming from, I just don't see Bru's stories as being any more random than Bendis's.

As for continuity, I think DD continuity holds up fairly well, and it wasn't the minor stuff that bothered me with Bendis some of the time (though the way everyone suddenly knew all about how DD's powers worked certainly did), but the bigger things. Some of them were things that really did diminish my enjoyment of a particular arc, like nearly everything Elektra did and said - and claimed to have done and said - in The Murdock Papers. When it comes to random WTF things, I'd say the demon baby in Decalogue counts, and when exactly was Bont supposed to have looked into hiring Nelson and Murdock?

I think both Bendis and Bru have had a lot of moments where you go "wow, I never saw that one coming." With both writers, I've tended to be able to enjoy the twist though and I haven't felt that it's been a cop-out or anything too random. But, to each his own. I will say that the current arc is shaping up quite nicely. We'll see where it ends up.
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The Other Murdock Papers

Ian · Flying Blind Joined: 08 Mar 2007 Posts: 33

You gotta admit that the new arc is shaping up nicely though. I'm having a GOOD TIME and I have The Bru to thank. Go Bru!
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"Show me a superhero without a first aid kit, an I'll show you a NUT!" (Daredevil #9)

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