Daredevil Message Board

Dayle88 · Playing to the Camera Joined: 25 Mar 2015 Posts: 140

I've enjoyed some of Waid's Daredevil stuff even though I don't particularly like the tone or art but it has gone downhill gradually.

This issue was terrible, gradually going downhill has turned into nothing left of the character at all.

jumonji · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 6:11 pm Post subject:

Here's my review in case anyone is interested.

http://www.theothermurdockpapers.com/2015/03/review-of-daredevil-14-2/
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The Other Murdock Papers

Dimetre · Posted: Wed Mar 25, 2015 6:37 pm Post subject:

I have defended Mark Waid for years now, and I still think all of Volume 3 is great. I've enjoyed aspects of Volume 4, but it isn't nearly as good. I can't defend this issue. It's awful. Mark Waid has officially lost it. I'm just going to be putting in time until we get a new writer.

Sure the suit is awful (even though I now want a DD belt buckle), but what bugs me most is that Matt hasn't learned a bloody thing since getting pounded by the Wakandans in the Original Sin issues. You'd think he'd operate with a little more discretion since then. Instead, the pendulum has swung the opposite way. It's not fun watching your hero be an idiot.

It's also interesting that this site's book club reviewed #183 this week. That issue, and the one that follows, shows Daredevil at his noblest. Someone who takes his job as a litigator seriously. Someone who does right simply because he can. Someone with humility. Now, with this latest issue, it seems like Daredevil can't be bothered to take anything seriously. When he joked with Kirsten by saying, "What's the worst that could happen?" I thought to myself, "I don't mind mind a more light-hearted Matt after years of misery, but this isn't him anymore." Daredevil always took his legal practice and fighting crime seriously. He was never cocky about it. In this issue, that's all he is.

And yes, the suit looks ridiculous. How many of them does he have? Is he willing to get them dirty? Who does he trust to dry-clean them?

So, I now declare that Waid has completely lost it. Thank you, Mark, for your brilliant work on Volume 3. Unless Matt is going to learn a valuable lesson from his stupid decisions in this issue, don't complain when the door hits you on the way out.

beneverett · Flying Blind Joined: 22 Nov 2012 Posts: 17

I really, really hate this "you're only as good as your last one" mentality that seems to pervade a good deal of popular entertainment nowadays. I'm not advocating lowering one's standards and accepting any junk that may come your way as "fair enough", on the contrary. I only wish that people would be more objective about what they take in and understand that absolute perfection in any endeavor is so rare as to be almost impossible and that (for a multitude of different reasons) they aren't all going to be winners. Waid and Co. have done an outstanding job on this title during their tenure, it may be my favorite run on the book. This team has created a lot of personal goodwill, and I have defended almost all of their decisions. I think that most of the criticism leveled at the book has frankly been baseless, unfair and exaggerated nonsense - I still do. And when I listen to the fans who cry out for a total retcon, I think to myself, "this is why we can't have nice things". Nevertheless, I would like to think that I've remained reasonable enough to call fowl on some of the elements that didn't work as well as they could have. And my attitude could still change with the handful of issues left in their run. When the preview for #14 came out and all the grumbling about Matt's wardrobe began popping up, I was really tempted to say something about how fans were overreacting to a single panel in what amounted to a three-page preview which had been removed from the context of the larger story that it was a part of. Because of that previously mentioned goodwill I feel to the creators, I'm still willing to play Devil's Advocate (so to speak) and remind everyone that this change is in no way going to be permanent, that the only one who thinks that Matt's new suit is a good thing seems to be Matt himself, and that these are all elements in a larger arc that has gradually been building to its advancing climax where, it is implied, it will all come together and pay off.

Having said all of that, I hope the payoff is worth it.

Dayle88 · Playing to the Camera Joined: 25 Mar 2015 Posts: 140

My problem is that it was an issue without a recognisable Matt. To me anyway. The suit thing doesn't bother me as much as his personality in this issue.

They have had a quality run over the last few years. It's catered to my taste less and less but I still saw Matt Murdock when I read it. He has always had a sense of humour, even amongst the darkest of times occasionally but, as Dimetre said, he takes the things he does seriously.

I guess we'll know more of the overall picture when we discover the effects of Secret Wars on the Marvel Universe too as far as the creative and fictional future.

DD'sbootyshorts · Flying Blind Joined: 19 Mar 2015 Posts: 6

Just curious what other people think about Kirsten. After reading recent issues in vol 4 I really don't know how Waid is trying to portray Kirsten. Last issue she basically made a joke of someone trying to kill her and this issue she is complaining that Matt is making a joke out of his current identity status. Does anyone else feel like Kirsten is just there to antagonize Matt and tell him "I told you so" when things don't go the way he thought they would?

humanaccident · Flying Blind Joined: 10 Jul 2014 Posts: 26

Glad someone else noticed the Moonknight rip off, this is criminal! Obviously its the final part of Matt's impending break down, its like a guy having a midlife crisis (hinted again by him mentioning his age) and wearing clothes that don't suit him (no pun intended).
We are seeing our favourite character destroy himself more throughly than any of his enemies ever have, this, if handled correctly, could become his new defining chapter. As I have said before his breakdown has left him out of touch with reality and we will see his complete collapse shortly.

Either that or Waid has just ruined the best character in comics.....

WilsonFisk · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 6:48 am Post subject:

I don't think anyone seriously expects us to believe this is a permanent or even long-term costume change. It's simply part of a storyline, one which has been quietly brewing since at least the end of Volume 3/start of Volume 4 about Matt Murdock growing increasingly complacent and cavalier about the separation of his two identities. I'm expecting a pretty brutal come-down from this at the end, but we'll see.

I'm certainly not going to start proclaiming that Waid has ruined the character or done any lasting damage. I was certainly vindicated in keeping my mouth shut when people were howling in outrage about Daredevil being "ruined" by getting his sight back in what turned out to just be a 2-part storyline.

DesignDevil · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 9:32 am Post subject:

Thayrone Ibsen · Flying Blind Joined: 13 Mar 2015 Posts: 59

[quote="RGdesigner"]

Clayton Blind Love · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:22 pm Post subject:

I gave it 2 stars. Really, I was simply being generous towards Samnee's art alone. I found happiness at the baseball stadium and I don't even like baseball all that much.

This is bad. This is "team up with monsters," "possessed by a demon" type of bad. Honestly, I'm still in it for Samnee's art alone, but Marvel have planted a seed in my purchasing power/behaviour that this may be the last volume I pick up in the monthly format. Seriously.

I need noir. I need Hell's Kitchen. I need NYC. This silver age San Fran run has gone on for much too long. And it is not because I'm set in my ways with "my" characters. I loved the Ellis Moon Knight. I loved the Morrison Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. Things should be tried and experimented with. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. As far as I am concerned, this SF run is over. It was over when the Purple Man story ended. Those few issues are probably the only ones that I'll ever return to in this volume.

Netflix DD save us! You're our only hope!

C.
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Dimetre · Posted: Thu Mar 26, 2015 2:34 pm Post subject:

JoeWithoutFear · Flying Blind Joined: 16 Oct 2013 Posts: 54

Wow, I got remembered! =P

I'm keeping an eye on the comments here and definitely planning to give my two cents in the near future after I've let things sink in more.

Sadly, I don't anticipate having nice things to say. In fact, I anticipate saying some things that I won't be proud of. Ugh.

DD'sbootyshorts · Flying Blind Joined: 19 Mar 2015 Posts: 6

The Message Board is currently in read-only mode, as the software is now out of date. Several features and pages have been removed. If/When I get time I intend to re-launch the board with updated software.