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DD Book Club - Flying Blind

 
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Dimetre
Underboss


Joined: 16 Feb 2006
Posts: 1366
Location: Toronto

PostPosted: Sun Aug 19, 2018 2:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So I was confused by the way the previous issue ended. I think anybody would have been. I have to give Scott Lobdell credit, he had me fooled, and he even took a few pages before the big reveal that Laurent had pulled the old switcheroo.

As annoyed as I was by #378, I think this issue was a strong ending to the arc. Fisk was up to form, proving both a physical and tactical threat, I like that he started to recognize Matt in Laurent before Synapse did his thing.

I'm not sure I accept that Synapse's mind-rewiring would have returned Matt to his old self. I think it would be within Synapse's abilities to rewrite someone's brain patterns multiple ways. I understand we needed Matt to come back, but this wasn't the most credible way.

However, it was a relief to have Daredevil back. As old a trick as turning out the lights is, it felt very good when he did that.

The weirdest part of the issue for me was that swipe at DC. Claudia shouts at Laurent that he's a dead man, and Laurent, with a big grin, cracks back, "I doubt it! He's that pasty-faced guy in the red tights, right? Never read him." That was so out of left field. I don't know if Lobdell had a bad experience working at DC. Looking over his bio on Wikipedia, it doesn't look like he had done any work at DC by this point, so it looks like the jab at Deadman was just playful mud-slinging.

I liked how the mind-rewrite didn't eliminate Matt's eyesight right away. I thought that was well handled. Matt wouldn't know what to do with eyesight, and it would prove a distraction.

I wish we were given a better explanation as to how a man Wilson Fisk's size slipped through everyone's fingers. It shouldn't be possible for Fisk to elude Matt. Yes, he was stunned by the lights coming back on, but that would have meant everyone else should have been able to see Fisk. That made no sense to me.

However, the ending with Foggy couldn't have been better. Matt had never seen his best friend before. I liked that it was Foggy and not Karen.

Now that we've read the entire story, I don't really understand why this was such a low-point for the character. (Personally, I don't think it gets much worse than Chichester's run with Jack Batlin.) I suppose some people want Matt to be Matt and Daredevil to have horns. If you actually read the story, it's pretty good. I think Lobdell could have withheld some information from us readers longer than he did so we could have been left wondering longer, but this was an interesting idea, and the parts where we're in Laurent's headspace were very well handled. I give both this issue and the story as a whole a 3.5 out of 5. (If we had gotten Batroc instead of Le Concierge, it would have gotten a four.)
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 1750

PostPosted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I spent a good ten minutes confused when this issue started when our hero says he's posing as Le Concierge. That's a new reveal, right? If so, it's actually frustrating to use flashback panels to tell it because I often skip those if I remember the story. It also feels we were cheated of useful information by showing the switch unless I missed something. I guess it explained how he got out of the cliffhanger, but it also didn't feel like it added much as he quickly has to change back to his old costume. To do all this for a "I guess you're wondering how I ended up here" opening/flashback didn't really seem to help.

I didn't find the dialogue witty. The resolution felt a little weak. The whole sight thing wasn't really explained, so I'm not sure the ending was earned. The idea of Matt seeing his friend for the first time is a wonderful one. Mark Waid would use it effectively later. But I just felt too distracted by the whole sight thing to truly appreciate it. Overall, I felt like this premise was a bit wasted.

Three and a Half Stars.
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I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 1750

PostPosted: Mon Nov 12, 2018 7:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have to bump this thread because I found something interesting. I was previously reading these issues in the Epic Collection, but I finally got a tangible copy of the original floppy. These issues had a foldout page at the beginning that functioned like the previously page in modern comics. This issue, however, completely spoils all surprises in this story. This is in the foldout for the very first part of the story where it explains who the characters are:

Quote:
Laurent Levasseur/Matt Murdock

Accepting an assignment from SHIELD, Matt Murdock has become Laurent Levasseur. A SHIELD operative from France. But Matt doesn't even know/remember this due to the necessary rewriting of his memories for this mission. A procedure which has some interesting side-effects.


I complained that Scott Lobdell wasn't doing enough with the surprise. I guess now I know why.

The other weird thing is the letters page keeps playing up the relaunch because of Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti. Kevin Smith almost seems like an afterthought.
_________________
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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