Daredevil Message Board

[Mike Murdock]

This week's issue is brought to you by Venom from Sony Pictures. Sadly, I couldn't time it just right to get this issue released last week. Actually, I feel like almost every rumored Sony movie would have been appropriate for this story with Silver Sable and Morbius also heavily featured.

Daredevil Vol. 1 #323 - Fall From Grace, Part Four: Conflict

[Dimetre]

This came out at a time when I wasn't reading comics. The '90s are notorious for producing comics that prided style over substance, and this seems emblematic of that. Were all comics at the time this incomprehensible?

What I find most puzzling is that this issue doesn't take any advantage whatsoever of the previous issue's cliffhanger. Siege was standing over Daredevil and threatening to kill him. Flip forward to this issue's title page and they're suddenly partners fighting against the Snakeroot. How did that happen? What is the benefit of skipping crucial story beats? Was writing so unimportant in the 90s?

Now, maybe I haven't been paying close enough attention, or maybe it's hard for me to remember the massive assembly of characters populating this story, but I have no memory of Bisento from previous issues. When the villainous ninja taunt Daredevil for trying to save Bisento, I was confused, because I wasn't aware that he was trying to do that. It would have made more sense to me if he was trying to save Eddie Passim. That would have been consistent with previous issues. But no, we had to be introduced to a Snakeroot defector, and one who is foolish enough to hold back information until this issue's end.

It certainly doesn't help D.G. Chichester's convoluted story when you pair it up with Scott McDaniel's aversion for detail. A significant percentage of McDaniel's panels consist only of silhouettes, and Chichester clogs all the panels with multiple word balloons, making it a challenge to figure out which character is saying what line. It would have helped if Venom had his own style of word balloon, and for a while I thought he did, but that didn't last. A particularly glaring example of this was the page with Foggy and Karen. McDaniel draws a generic location with outlines of humans, and nobody's names are mentioned until the seventh word balloon. I had no idea that Foggy was in this scene. I had idea that Karen was there until the middle of the page. I had no idea what we were doing here. This is not only incompetent storytelling, but lazy sequential art.

But I don't think that was this issue's worst moment. There is a moment when Venom has Bisento trapped in his web. The following exchange happens.

[Mike Murdock]

I know every issue has a gap between the last issue, but it's a complete copout to suggest a fight and then have two characters immediately teaming up the following issue. Now, Daredevil and Siege are teaming up against the Hand. But the fight is really important. How else would you know that his billy clubs can also turn into Nunchucks and Bo Staffs?

At this point, Venom shows up. Obviously, Venom was big in the 90s, so I don't entirely mind him appearing. He could be a good test for the new costume to show how badass the new DD is. The problem is, I don't really get the sense the costume is any different. I guess it hasn't torn yet. Instead, it feels like Siege is the one who handles Venom. I like the way McDaniel draws him, though.

Probably the most clever moment is the debate about whether to run the Daredevil is Matt Murdock headline. It's such a cynical view of the media that they would go from hesitating whether to run a story to being enthusiastic simply by pretending to ask a question. Sadly, what makes it work is how true it rings. In the Foggy and Karen side of things, it becomes clear that maybe Foggy doesn't know what Matt's up to. I'm not sure Karen as an anti-pornography crusader is the most exciting of paths for the character, but it's good to see her taking a more active role in the book (even if I know it won't last).

Then we get to the point I completely gave up on this series, the next fight with Venom. In it, the two sides dance around for a bit and then stop to talk it out. Daredevil gives a speech and, because of that, Venom writes himself out of the book. It's a complete anti-climax and I'm left wondering what the point was of having him in the book in the first place. I mean, the answer is obvious - there was no point!

I feel inspired to link to my original thoughts of the prologue and part one I posted four years ago

[Mike Murdock]

[Mike Murdock]

Daredevil Vol. 1 #324 - Fall From Grace, Part Five: Descent

[Dimetre]

"Fall From Grace" has been a difficult story to follow, but this issue was even more so. I was thankful that Venom was taken out of the story by the end of the last issue, but here we have Morbius coming in and filling that void.

It is absolutely maddening how every issue has to start with Daredevil in the middle of a fight that isn't tied in any way to the end of the previous issue. Here we have Daredevil and Stone tangling with Morbius and Enteki from the Snakeroot (another character who I don't think we've met previously). I suppose it makes sense that Stone would take part in a fight against the Snakeroot, but I didn't know why Morbius would be involved. It's particularly laughable that late in this issue Matt says, "Too bad Siege took himself out of the loop -- he was afraid the virus was too much temptation for his own problems -- he could've used his hardware to track Morbius through the walls." It seemed like they just swapped in Stone for Siege without any rhyme or reason, and the story took the time to acknowledge that it happened off panel.

I don't have too much to say about the story. Daredevil and Stone went to Morbius to get his medical insight about the virus, and they get it. I, however, think the story could have proceeded without it. Was this just a way to bring Morbius into the story? He's heavily featured on the cover. Would a comic featuring Morbius sell well in 1993? I didn't think that Morbius was that much of a star back then, unless those episodes of the animated Spider-Man series were more popular than I realized. I suppose Morbius is yet another character that has a motive for going after the virus, but do we really need another one of those? I have to give Morbius one point though for his little jab at Daredevil's new costume. "This new look left me wondering who you were, Daredevil.... It still does." Nice.

As for the Advocate outing Matt as Daredevil, McDaniel's art is very hard to follow. Matt leaps across a gap, and enters a window into someone's apartment. Is it his? It would seem so, but then why is he fiddling with what looks like a straight razor, and what is he biting down on. I just can't figure it out.

The scene with the different Snakeroot characters did not interest me in the slightest.

The fight between Daredevil, Stone, Garrett and Erynys was kind of sloppy. In one panel she is a one-on-one fight with Daredevil, then she grabs Stone's arm. She tells him that it's too late for him to grow hard. How is it too late. He was able to turn hard quick enough to prevent Morbius from biting him. Does Erynys have some trick to prevent Stone from using his ability to make his skin inpenetrable?

Elektra finally shows up at the end of this issue, and as much as I complain about McDaniel's refusal to draw detail, I have to give him kudos for his close-up on Elektra's face. He takes a lot of cues from Frank Miller, especially the texture of her lips. It's a beautiful drawing, and fans must have been very excited by her return.

Getting there, however, was a real slog. Could any fan back then have been very invested at all in the search for this virus? And if you're allowed to just switch up the cast of characters around Daredevil willy-nilly with minimal explanation, how much as a reader can you be expected to care?

This cliffhanger has me curious as to how the next issue is going to begin, but I can't pretend that there was anything good preceding the cliffhanger apart from Morbius' wisecrack about the new costume. I give this issue two out of five.

[Dimetre]

In The Devil is in the Details, Julian Darius brings up a key failing that slipped by me as I was reading #324.

[Mike Murdock]

^ Did they possibly reveal it was Stone and not Elektra last issue? I don't know. I agree it's a pointless misdirect.

I'm never sure which pages are the added pages. The trade, at least, has a lengthy prelude that basically recaps Elektra's entire life. Some recap is reasonable (every comic is somebody's first), but this feels a little excessive. That being said, they're selling everyone on Elektra's return, which is important. Although it affirms the confusion I've always had over Elektra's death. She came back at the end of the story. Matt didn't know it and I understand his grief, but she hasn't been dead for a long time at this point. This is more a criticism going forward where Matt still holds Bullseye responsible for killing someone who isn't dead.

Anyway, each issue has had a time jump. This time jump has left me completely confused. Apparently Daredevil is with someone named Enteki who I guess is Snakeroot. Michael Morbius is hunting both of them. I guess Stone is there too. Seriously, I've had to do outside research to figure out what was going on and it's taken me entirely too long. The only redeeming quality of this fight is they finally do what I've been asking them to do - have Daredevil's new costume prove useful over the old one. I'm not sure I like the idea of Daredevil just taking a stabbing over dodging but, if you have the new armor, use it.

The next scene is in Battery Park. I was in Battery Park when I visited New York during Comic Con. I somehow didn't realize what the East Coast Memorial was, though. I like that Chichester throws in some clear New York references. I like far less that he just writes pointless cameos out even more pointlessly. Bye bye Siege. I still have no idea who you are. I'll admit, I hated Morbius's addition, but having him as the technobabble guy is clever and added some important exposition. If this were a Spider-Man comic, I'd imagine Doc Connors doing it. Maybe his cameo is less gratuitous than Venom's.

There are so many storylines going on and it's hard to comment on everything. I'll admit I've read this story at least three times and this is the first time I caught that we see Matt sneak in and blindproof his apartment. It also leads to a nice moment with Foggy and Karen and the few references to the law as Foggy tries to protect Matt. Finally, the reunion at the end, the moment we were waiting for, feels as rushed and confused as everything else.

Three Stars. There are some good moments, but they don't add up to good whole.
_________________
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

[Mike Murdock]

Last one!

Daredevil Vol. 1 #325 - Fall From Grace, Finale: Salvation for the Damned

[Dimetre]

I feel like "Fall From Grace" was constructed with a very loose plan, and a lot of editorial interference. I'm guessing that orders came from on high for Chichester to shoehorn in Venom and Morbius any way he could, and such directives prevented him from progressing the story in ways he originally intended. That could be why the past few issues have felt like so much marching in place, forcing this issue to be giant-sized, with all of the disjointed plots hurtling towards the finish line in a maelstrom of chaos.

We begin with Elektra trying to pull Hellspawn off of Daredevil. At the end of the previous issue, was Hellspawn around? The cliffhanger was the reveal of Elektra, but I honestly can't remember Hellspawn being there. This doesn't seem like a time jump, because it seems like Matt has not been able to ask her how she's alive. He tells here, "There's a lot of questions that need to be answered here, Elektra." I feel that if there were a time jump, he would have been able to get some of those questions answered, even though she resents being alive, and somehow holds him responsible regardless of the fact he has nothing to do with her being alive -- just for her soul being purified. I honestly don't know what narrative purpose these time jumps that begin every issue are supposed to serve. What rationalization could Chichester possibly make to not begin issues where previous issues left off?

I found that there were some powerful moments scattered amongst the chaos. While I thought it was dumb for Matt to thrust his fist in front of Elektra's face shouting, "This is what you need!" I did like some of his speech that followed: "Life's not peace on a mountain or in a grave! It's passion -- vitality! Life is feeling..." That dialogue was accompanied by a nice panel by McDaniel of Elektra finding comfort in Daredevil's embrace.

That is immediately followed by a completely nonsensical change of scene. Suddenly Matt is with Karen in his office. To be honest, as corny as it was that they still had the two halves of the torn-up heart, it was a tender moment between the two. Unfortunately it's only a couple of pages later that we rejoin Daredevil and Elektra searching for the virus. How is that supposed to work? Did he tell Elektra to look at something exciting over yonder, dart over to where Karen was, have that scene and dart back over to Elektra with her being none the wiser? These are mistakes a kid would make on a storytelling assignment in elementary school.

Once Daredevil and Elektra find the virus, the comic becomes almost impossible to follow. I challenge anyone to tell me where the container holding the virus is from panel to panel. I challenge anyone to tell me where the characters are standing in relation to each other in the subway tunnel. At the bottom of one page, it looks like Hellspawn is attacking Daredevil. At the top of the next page we have a couple of panels of characters other than Daredevil, then a panel of Daredevil and Elektra fighting members of the Snakeroot. Then we get the page of Eddie killing himself and a member of the Snakeroot. (I am quite unclear how that happens and I don't really care.) The very next page begins with Daredevil and Elektra alone in an abandoned train car. They were just fighting some Snakeroot. How did they get away from everyone else?

Because McDaniel's artwork is so unclear, it took me a while to figure out what Elektra did to Hellspawn. I didn't make the link between what she was talking about with Daredevil in the train car and whatever the hell we were looking at. Did they guess that Erynys was going to immediately kill Hellspawn?

As for what happened between Erynys and Elektra, that didn't make any sense to me. Had Erynys been killed without Elektra getting wounded, would her dark essence not have gotten sucked inside her? Is that what this comic is saying? What does a physical wound have to do with a soul's ability to go inside someone's body? That made no sense to me. What if Daredevil had cut himself on one of those pointy weapons inside his billy-club? Would Erynys' dark essence have gone inside him? And why on earth does Daredevil have lethal weapons in his billy-club?

For some reason it was necessary to return Siege to the story, although I don't think he brought anything new to the story other than knocking Garrett unconscious.

As for Matt faking his death by using Hellspawn's dead corpse as a decoy, that decision came completely out of nowhere. He mentioned to Karen that everyone in his life is now unsafe, but this seems like a very drastic step. We're not told what everyone thinks the circumstances surrounding Matt Murdock's murder are.

The scene with Sister Maggie was nice, and the final splash page by McDaniel is cool, but this issue was a slog to get through. No one in the Snakeroot is compelling in any way, and every time we get a panel or a page dealing with them, my disinterest becomes palpable. No effort has been made to have the action flow from panel to panel in a way that makes sense.

I also feel we missed out on a cool opportunity here. By having Erynys' dark essence go inside Elektra, we missed out on spending time with the pure Elektra. What would she have been like? I guess we'll never know.

I give this issue a two out of five.

This was an ambitious story, but Chichester proved himself incapable of managing all the moving parts, many of which were unnecessary. If we had focused on Eddie and his effect on the homeless, with Daredevil having to stop Silver Sable from finding him for Kenkoy, that could have been an interesting story, but they insisted on adding seven more sub-plots, and McDaniel showed no interest in drawing detail throughout the story, making so many things impossible to figure out. This was one of the worst arcs in a Daredevil comic I have ever read, even though I bet "Tree of Knowledge" is even worse. (Shadowland was its own series, with the Daredevil issues existing as Shadowland tie-ins.) I'm giving the entire story a two out of five.

[Mike Murdock]

This final issue begins the same way the first issue did with "these are the facts." I don't know if they knew it would be collected in a trade at this point, but I'm sure they expected people would be reading this more frequently than once six months earlier. I appreciate the twist with "don't try and dispute them." Then things fall apart as we're cheated of the first meeting with Matt and Elektra as we jump ahead again for a fight with Hellspawn. The panel with Hellspawn circling around Daredevil is a pretty well-designed one where the dialogue and art work together to tell the story. Too bad it's extremely anticlimactic and seems to add nothing.

Anyway, Foggy's contribution to the story was getting a restraining order. I like lawyers using the law, but it ended up being irrelevant as everyone broke into his apartment (also a crime) and got nothing. I mentioned before that I previously missed the scene where Matt sneaks in and fixes everything up to look more credible. Frankly, that scene didn't add anything and the surprise here would have been better.

We have at least a few little moments between Matt and Elektra. For the most part, it's Matt asking for information and Elektra coldly rebuffing him. I like, to a degree, that she doesn't feel she owes him. She has a right to live her own life and she wasn't planning on just coming back to tell Matt. That's why she never told him before. Now, of course, is different because she's acting for her own personal mission. One other interesting thing is that this story has clear allusions to The Man Without Fear. I know that story was released around the same time and D.G. Chichester was initially upset that Frank Miller was stealing his thunder, but he's still clearly a fan of Miller's work and has quickly incorporated elements into this one.

We also have a nice moment with Karen Page, although the art is pretty unclear at parts. It's a nice callback (I believe to Last Rites). But did Matt throw away the half of the paper? Did Karen? I don't know. Still, it's nice to see him acknowledge that Karen isn't just some kind of rebound for Elektra. Given how this story ends, this moment doesn't feel like it goes anywhere, but they left things in limbo for far too long.

Snakeroot doesn't come off as all that credible a threat with all their bickering. Also, Matt and Elektra seemed ahead of them in the hunt (Morbius was a distant third), finding About Face shockingly easy for how long this story has dragged on. The reveal of Snakeroot all around is nice. The fight that follows is fairly anticlimactic. It's amazing how little I remember about this story on the third readthrough because nothing seems to flow the way I remembered it. Anyway, Matt ends things shockingly quickly by just giving up and giving it to Hellspawn. I'll be honest, I completely missed that Erynys killed Hellspawn, I thought it was Elektra. I suppose it's still better than my previous recollection where I thought Hellspawn just died on his own. I will say, the use of the transformation was clever even if I think this story caused more problems than solved them. But it provides a credible way for Matt to fake his own death (one that I don't think was adequately explained away).

Then Matt kills Erynys (she's an undead Hand ninja, so it's OK), but I'm not sure I felt any tension. Is there any reason to believe Matt would kill Elektra and save Erynys? If so, the story didn't set it up at all. I'd have to double check Daredevil #168, but was the move that Elektra did here reminiscent of the one in that issue? I complain about the art, but I have absolutely no clue what happens next to make the dark part of Elektra go back into her. I thought I did, but I know even less on the third read through. That being said, is Elektra the one who fell from grace in the title of this story? If that's the case, I missed it each time before. I know it's not knew to say the Chaste are hypocritical dicks but they definitely act that way here.

I have a lot of complaints about this story. To add to the others, why did Morbius just disappear halfway through this issue for no reason? I don't think the story knows what to do with half of itself and the stuff it could use effectively often fall short. That being said, I will not knock the ending of this issue. That epilogue is very well-written and brings everything together as effectively it can. The story seeks out to make a statement of Daredevil. To that end, I don't think it succeeds, but it at least tries. I'll give this issue Three Stars because there's a lot that doesn't quite work, but there some nice moments in here nonetheless.
_________________
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