Daredevil Message Board

[Mike Murdock]

Comic books are a wonderful mix of writing and visuals. Nowhere is it more apparent than the start of this issue. Read little Wilson Fisk's story and you miss the fight going on in the background. Look at the fight and you get deprived of the analogies to the story being told. Only together in this fusion can you see both. And the fight scene is as beautiful as it is brutal (much like the story of Matt and Maya).

I talked before about the parallels between Matt and Maya, but it is really the parallels between him and Wilson Fisk that stand out (and why Fisk is the best Daredevil villain). There is a sense that the difference between them is a different path taken more than anything else. And I swear I wrote that before the ending. Wow, what a surprising ending.

Just to expand on the Fisk thing, I can't help but post this interview with David Mack. I hadn't realized this when reading it, but a lot of that background with Fisk are things he invented. The fact that he drew from himself is kind of disturbing (I'm certainly not going to mess with David Mack after that). I like that he invented Fisk's middle name.

I'll give this one Five Stars. Truly a well-made story.
_________________
Matt Murdock's cooler twin brother

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

[Dragonbat]

Five stars from me too. Loved the fight, loved the insights into Fisk's character. I'm not a neurologist, and I'm not sure how believable it is for Fisk to be blinded by the gunshot wound without sustaining additional damage. (Then again, I'm not sure how realistic it is for someone to take a faceful of radioactive waste and survive without hideous disfigurement, plus get superpowers, so why am I overthinking it?)

But the action flows, the words resonate... just a good good issue.

[LightningandIce]

Sorry for missing last week. I got a little busy with the holidays and all. I do like the last two issues. I'm not as big on the fights in this as I was on their first fight. They seem to move too quickly and don't have the same flow. That's a minor nitpick, though.

The first time I read this last year, issue fifteen didn't quite sit right with me. It wasn't bad, per se. What bothered me was the heavy focus on the Kingpin. This issue was supposed to be the big climactic confrontation between Matt and Maya. The underlining plot threads were building up to that. So when the final battle comes, instead of a big emotional action-packed fight, we get a sudden backstory for Kingpin that comes completely out of left field. It seemed odd that in all of the times Fisk has ever been a major character, going against Daredevil or Spider-Man or Punisher or whoever else, of all the opportunities that writers have had to focus on him, his flashback has to come at the climax of another character's big debut arc.

Looking back at it now, I still kind of feel that way a little. Don't get me wrong, it is well-written and interesting. But just like the little thing with the flashback a couple issues ago, it seems out of place. I think I have a much better appreciation for it this time, though, especially reading everyone else's comments. I can see that Fisk is a much bigger player in this than I realized at first and I can see the threads leading to it. That interview that Mike Murdock referenced helped a lot too.

As others have pointed out, I love the parallels between the two scenes. It reminds me of Watchmen, which I also re-read recently. The artwork in Fisk's flashback is great, with the way the father mutates in a cartoony way to show his anger. It's a nice metaphor for a child's perception. I do, however, second Dimetre's point that the character designs are inconsistent.

So I did like it over all. A pretty good issue, and a great story arc.



In addition, I have a little theory. I've been thinking about this and it seems like an appropriate enough place to put it. I started thinking about this not too long ago when I re-watched the Daredevil movie, and reading this cemented it in my mind. Bear with me.

I actually like the movie for the most part, but the biggest flaw for me was the portrayal of Elektra. Jennifer Garner's version has very little in common with the comic book version. The original Elektra is a cold assassin. She's a tragic villain, one with some gray morals and internal conflict, but she is still a ninja assassin. She travels the world, has no qualms about killing, and has a very distant disposition. She has very little connection with Kingpin, only crossing his path when he hires her and he has no connection with her backstory whatsoever. Pretty much the only thing that they have in common is the death scene.

Movielektra, on the other hand, is a mostly-happy girly girl who can kick butt too. She's pretty well rounded and well adjusted to society. She has a cute little relationship with Matt. Her father is the Kingpin's partner, who he has killed. She goes after Daredevil because she mistakenly thinks he was responsible, and eventually realizes her mistake.

So Movielektra has nothing in common with Elektra, but in retrospect, she fits Maya to a T. That's very close to what happened in this book we just read. They even dress the same. Other than being deaf and Native American, Movielektra is a pretty accurate translation of Maya. According to Wikipedia (yes, I know, but where else am I going to look?) the screenplay was written in 2001, right around the time that Parts of a Hole was concluding, so the timing is perfect.

Do you think that maybe the movie's version of Elektra was originally supposed to be Echo? Maybe it was changed because Elektra has more marquee value? The similarities are definitely present and it would make a lot of sense.

Anyway, sorry to turn this into a discussion of a twelve-year-old movie that none of you guys probably liked anyway. I just had to bring that up, since I've been thinking about it a lot while reading this.

[Mike Murdock]

I have no idea, that's an interesting theory.

To me, this story is a story of three people. The Kingpin is as much a part of it as the rest. The ending with him being blind is more worthwhile because of the buildup. I wonder if it would have been better if they started his story earlier rather than in the penultimate issue, though.

BTW, while I like the creativity of the opening fight (particularly the way it would occasionally intersect with Kingpin's story), I'll admit that I essentially had to read it three times (one for each) to understand it. I thought it was clever, but I could see not liking that.
_________________
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