Daredevil Message Board

[Kuljit Mithra]

DAREDEVIL #2 by Soule, Garney and Milla ships December 23rd and here is a preview!

http://www.manwithoutfear.com/gallery/Daredevil-V5-002

Please use this thread for all discussion on the issue!
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Kuljit Mithra
www.manwithoutfear.com

[Dayle88]

This was a good issue. It's clear Soule is willing to take his time to fill in the gaps, which is good if the gaps turn out to be interesting.

I look forward to seeing if he takes the long time Daredevil enemy in a new direction or not.

[Dimetre]

I gave this issue a 3, just as I did the previous one. There are still a lot of unanswered questions. How did Matt restore his secret identity? Why is Foggy pissed off? (We don't even see Foggy this issue.) I'm waiting to find out the answers to those questions. I don't want to wait too long.

Ron Garney's artwork seems less detailed in this issue than in the first one. That's fine, although there are times -- as in the scene with Daredevil and Blindspot -- where it doesn't seem like so much a stylistic choice than a rushed job. Still, he's a talented veteran artist, and the title is lucky to have him.

I felt like I have a better handle on who Tenfingers is this issue than the last one. The opening sequence, which splits the scene between Tenfingers addressing his congregation and Matt addressing his legal team, is the highlight of the issue for me.

From there, I had some problems.

Matt should have been able to sense Tenfingers disciples moving through the building. He should have been able to sense something was wrong when he was walking past the holding cell with the bound up armed guards. But why would he sense Billy's pulse being nice and regular, and cool as a cuke? Clearly Billy was distressed. Matt should know that on the other side of the door. I think that is just flat out wrong, and if Soule is going to make this mistake in his second issue, that's cause for worry.

I like this scene with Sam, Tenfingers and Sam's mother.

The scene with Daredevil and Blindspot had some awkward dialogue. It seemed like some lines were deleted, and the remaining ones weren't edited to make up for the loss. I don't get why Blindspot said, "Fairness, maybe. I'll work on it." I don't know why he said, "You're never awesome..." to Daredevil. What? Daredevil's never awesome?

The following scene shows Tenfingers using a power stolen from some people with whom we should all be familiar. However, I have never seen them use this power in this way. Tenfingers is using this power to make his disciples stronger. However, my experience with this people is that they move energy around. If there adding energy somewhere, they're subtracting it from somewhere else. So, from where is Tenfingers subtracting?

Anyway, Tenfingers is a promising villain, although, now it's starting to look like he has no power set of his own. I don't care too much about Blindspot yet. I really like that Matt is now working for the prosecution. But there is still much that needs to be explained. I hope by issue four there is nothing left up in the air.

[Dayle88]

I thought the fairness line was in reference to him writing on Twitter 'Daredevil, man without fair' or maybe he'd go for 'Daredevil, man without fairness,' he hadn't decided what he'd type.

The awesome line is in reference to Matt being a tough, relentless teacher. Not whether Daredevil is awesome in general.

I agree about the tied up guards and Billy being calm. It wouldn't of taken much to change the inner dialogue to have Matt sense something wrong as he walked rather than him thinking to himself that everything is fine. Unless it develops into a power issue but I think that's unlikely given that there is no other clue to that.

[Daredevil24]

I'll back what you guts said.I had an issue with Matt being clueless.It seemed like Soule diminished his powers for plot purposes which is wrong.I still enjoyed it better than anything Waid did.

[Rand]

I reserved judgment on #1, cautiously rating it a 3 (out of 5).

We haven't learned a huge amount more with #2, but I'm now at least willing to share my opinion of it: overall -- like #1 -- its first half was pretty good, but its second half was rather weak.

The Good:

Those first three pages were really solid. I'm intrigued by "The Eights". The work of the colorist has already improved.

The Bad:

Page 7: "If not for pressure from the Mayor's office, you would never have been readmitted to the Bar..."

My major hang-up with #1 was that we didn't learn how Matt put the ID genie back in the bottle. Since we still haven't, lines like this one tend to grate (at least for me). If no one in the MU remembers that Matt is DD, how does anyone remember why he was disbarred? (And if no one does remember why Matt was disbarred, why would readmitting him be a big deal?)

Pages 8-9: "Billy's pulse is nice and regular. He's cool as a cuke."

I think I initially overlooked the implausibility (and risible wording) of Matt's assessment (on Page 8), thanks to the regrettably-rushed look of the half-page panel (on Page 9) revealing a dismembered Billy. (I actually groaned.)

Page 15: "You know I'm going to tweet this. The Blindspot account has like fifty-thousand followers."

The panel that follows (depicting Matt furrowing his brow and frowning) might as well have been a mirror, given how perfectly it reflected my own reaction to DD's sidekick bringing up Twitter.

Page 16 / Page 18: "Iron Man seems to do okay." / "Does Tenfingers have powers? Inhuman, maybe..."

This is nitpicking, but I couldn't help but wince a bit at Sam and Matt each name-checking one of the two properties that Marvel is trying hardest to promote right now. (Whether there's any truth to the notion or not, I could almost hear an editor whispering to Soule: "Be a team player, Charles: mention Iron Man... or the Inhumans... both, if you can swing it!")

Page 17 (a): "The guy who trained me would have killed your dog and fed it to you."

It's nice that we were able to make it a whole one-and-a-half issues with Matt's new Asian sidekick before someone made a "kill your dog and eat it" joke.

Page 17 (b): "You work? What do you do?"

I keep forgetting that Sam doesn't know who DD is. I seem to remember Matt stressing to Foggy (last issue) that he chose Sam because he trusts Sam... yet he evidently doesn't trust him enough to divulge his secret ID!

Naturally, this ties back in to the question of how Matt put the ID genie back in the bottle. I was especially confused when Foggy said (again, last issue) something along the lines of "You made everyone forget, except me!", which (no matter the means) struck me as more bizarre than saying something along the lines of "You made everyone forget, then told me!"

I simply have no confidence that Marvel is ever going to satisfactorily explain status-quo change-ups like this one. (My gut instinct is that they'll repeat the mantra "Don't worry! Don't worry! All shall be revealed!" for the next year or so, only to abruptly switch over to "Shut up! Move on! That happened over a year ago!" once complaints become too loud to ignore.)

But I digress...

Page 20: "Tenfingers! You have to stop." / "Daredevil. You've lost."

I could be alone on this one, but I thought it was both strange how quickly and easily DD dropped into Tenfingers' chamber and more-than-a-little odd how relaxed Tenfingers was when DD went nose-to-nose with him right then and there.

Page 21: "WE ARE THE HAND! And we will take back what was stolen."

Daredevil: "Here I am, suddenly!"

Hand Ninjas: "Here we are, too, also quite suddenly!"

Me: "This is all awfully... er, 'convenient' timing..."

The Verdict:

3 (out of 5)

I actually thought #1 was slightly better.

[Mike Murdock]

Ewwww, ten fingers. That's disturbing.

This issue focuses a lot more on Blindspot. There are reasons to be uncertain about his loyalty. The fact that he didn't go all the way suggests he's a good guy, but he certainly set Matt's prosecution back significantly. Still, he's the one who deals with this every day. He's the one whose Mom is apparently part of it as well. His power is to become invisible, but I like that he already feels invisible anyway as far as the establishment is concerned in New York. I think these efforts to humanize him help a lot since we're dealing with a lot of Asian faux-mysticism in Chinatown.

We also learned a bit more about the organization that Tenfingers runs. We see why he's called Tenfingers. In the final bit, we see where he gets his powers from. I wonder if using the Hand is a bit of a copout. He needs to establish himself as something different and threatening. If he doesn't proceed to kick the Hand's ass, I will be disappointed.

Some small background stuff. The biggest is that everyone remembers him being disbarred. I think we'll learn more about the eight month gap later. I think little hints are just thrown in to show they haven't forgotten it.

A step down from last week, but still pretty good. Four Stars.
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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

[DesignDevil]

Another great issue. I couldn't get my copy until this week.

Soule and Garney are killing it. This is everything I want this book to be. Daredevil is back!

I will agree that some of the art wasn't as sharp, so I'd honestly give it 4.5/5, but I rounded up for the actual vote.

[Dayle88]

I understand the confusion around how Matt got his secret ID back and how he became licensed again but even if it bothered me not knowing I think the blame lies at Marvels feet.

We don't even know how the universe exists, that is getting really tiring to me. If I'm supposed to buy into the big deal of Secret Wars then I'm going to expect the same level of attention to the 'new' universe. It's a big of a slap in the face to customers when we're asked to have faith in them after they took all our series away for almost a year.

[Mike Murdock]

Yeah, it's a premise of the new universe that there's an eight month gap and there's a mystery about why things changed. It's hardly fair to blame Soule for what's company-wide.
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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

[Darkdevil]

I get my limited pull list mailed to me bi-monthly from my LCS so yes, I'm a bit behind but all caught up now!

I thought this was a good solid second issue. We see more of Tenfingers' organization, his religion, and his views while also learning how the DA's office views him as a cult leader. It's interesting to note how much vigor Matt is exhibiting in his new role as ADA while his boss voices his hesitant concerns over having to hire Matt.

I do hope Soule does take the time to further elaborate on the relationship between Sam and his mother. His scenes with both her and Tenfingers was interesting. How did she become a prominent member of the Eights, the inner circle as it were of Tenfingers' cult? Tenfingers mentions that it was she who prompted him to give Sam this chance. But was it her idea or Sam's suggestion perhaps at the behest of DD? There's so much left unsaid at the moment that can really play into where Sam's loyalties actually lie.

Yes, I agree, the scenes with Billy Li and the tied-up guards was mishandled. I would think, regardless of the reasons, if you just had some fingers cut off, your heart rate would be pumping high. Shouldn't Matt have been able to hear the muffled/constricted breathing of the guards? Maybe it would've played better if Matt had sensed some danger and then rushed to Billy's room only find him in such a state, heightened the drama and shock a bit more.

The ending was good, a connection established with an old foe. How this affects things going forward should be fun to see.

And yes, credit to Garney, every shot of Tenfingers with his, well, ten fingers is creepy and disturbing. Yikes.

A 4 star issue for me.