Daredevil Message Board

[Kuljit Mithra]

DAREDEVIL #14 by Soule, Garney and Milla ships December 14th and here is a preview!



http://www.manwithoutfear.com/gallery/Daredevil-V5-014

Please use thread for all discussion on the issue when it ships next week!
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Kuljit Mithra
www.manwithoutfear.com

[Dimetre]

I love Muse.

At least I think I might. It's hard for me to tell. What I know for sure is that this is a villain with enormous potential. He is so creepy, and he has such a unique angle. His dialogue is priceless. He's talking about his first kill -- pardon me -- work of art.

[Mike Murdock]

^ I'm fine with the issue. It's deliberately bittersweet. Yes, it would be nice for Daredevil to be heroic, but Muse has beaten him at every step. Daredevil got to save lives (at a cost) and is the reason that Muse was stopped, but he didn't get to win a triumphant victory either. To me, that's very fitting for Daredevil.

I loved this issue. The synthesis of art and writing was wonderful. In particular, there's a two page spread of little panels that just stands out. Muse was absolutely creepy and his actions genuinely shocking and terrifying. I love how he uses the language of art to describe his actions as a serial killer. He's unhinged, but felt shockingly authentic. He's a character I would love to see again.

I wish Christine from The Other Murdock Papers still reviewed issues. She would hate Matt's uses of his senses here at the beginning of the issue. As it stands, it's an interesting idea, but it takes the broadest possible interpretation of his hearing powers (to the point the laws of physics may not agree with). It also doesn't exactly make sense. After all, Muse can talk and can be heard, so he's not a complete sensory blackhole.

I'm happy with Blindspot's arc here. If this is the end, it's a sad end, but a worthwhile one. I know people don't like the character, but I thought he had a good story and, even from a Daredevil perspective, I thought it worked well. It's a rare time that Daredevil has been a mentor to someone. And, when he is, he does a terrible job. In the non-superheroic contexts, there was the blind kid from Ann Nocenti's run that stands out. It's sad to realize that, maybe, he's not even as good a mentor as Stick and Stick is a terrible human being.

This issue is getting Five Stars for me. It's a highlight of Soule's run.
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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

[jriddle]

Daredevil #14 is the last issue in the "Dark Art" storyline and it goes out on an appropriately black note, with DD's young protege Blindspot paying a terrible price for the lives he's saved. One suspects--indeed, hopes--the story of Muse, the homicidal artist and villain of the piece, is just beginning. His last moment offers a good twist, played well.

This has been writer Charles Soule's best work on this title since assuming command of it over a year ago. As in, by FAR his best. This is still basically DD being written as an adventure-of-the-month title, which has been one of my standing criticisms of Soule's run, but this is a really, really good adventure. I hate to see it end and I'm actually doubtful about this run's future now that it has.

I've speculated that this run may have been originally scheduled to take place after the Tenfingers storyline that launched this particular DD volume. Having read this one, I'm now entirely convinced that's the case and that the unfocused, somewhat half-assed issues that fell between those storylines were originally meant to run after "Dark Art." Ron Garney was the artist on Tenfingers and "Dark Art," while those issue in between had different artists. Those in-between issues also dealt, peripherally, with matters related to how DD managed to bottle up his secret identity; the Elektra story had an unknown villain striking at Matt by manipulating Elektra's memory loss, while the Spider-Man team-up issues seemed to be ready to reveal what happened. Then that thread was just abandoned. Marvel has already announced the next DD story will pick up that thread and address that question--how and why Matt made everyone forget. This last issue of "Dark Art" also revealed what became of Tenfingers. This is definitely a direct sequel to that first storyline, those disappointing in-between issues plotted after it. So they're probably an indication of where the title is going, which ain't in the direction of "Dark Art."

This next storyline is pretty much guaranteed to disappoint, even if not preceded by those others. No matter how Soule reveals Matt restored his secret identity, it's going to be a dramatic fail. No matter how adroitly one manages it, it's still just going to be some big Reset button. I only hope he doesn't belabor it.

[Mike Murdock]

It doesn't make sense to go with complete and total assumptions and then draw negative conclusions from those assumptions.

For example, it's obvious, regardless of when this story was intended to take place (I would argue its place in time is perfectly logical since they wanted to space out things from Tenfingers and give us more time to know Blindspot), those stories were written before this story was written. Obviously, Blindspot wouldn't have been involved if they just switched the order. I'd also argue the quality has been steadily improving. I really enjoyed the ending to Blind Man's Bluff, for example.

I have no idea what the quality of the next story will be, but I don't think anyone who hasn't read it does either.
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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

[Thayrone Ibsen]

Ok. Really? Nobody is seeing the awful possibility of this so called good writer creating a Daredevil of his own, after this "dramatic" issue?

[thomam]

Anyone seen Dexter season 6 with the doomsday killers? Did this storyline kind of remind you of that?

[Francesco]

I found the ending unsatisfactory. Muse turned out to be yet another villain-Sue. 3 stars.

[Dimetre]

[Mike Murdock]

I don't think he's saying he's yet another villain, he was definitely making a Mary-Sue reference (which is a problematic term in itself).
_________________
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

[Francesco]

Exactly. The villain takes more spotlight than the hero, even as the story needed a resolution. We get it, Soule. Muse is a super cool artsy-fartsy type. But as the story ends, Daredevil is the hero and he has to take him out in a way that is satisfactory to the reader. Hearing him prattling about art as he gets taken away by an army of inhuman cops is not that.

[Mike Murdock]

That's not remotely a Mary Sue nor really a charitable description of what happened, which is he was captured fairly easily but is so unhinged that it didn't seem to matter to him.

I'm not sure he took more of a spotlight than Daredevil, just a different one. This was a personal story for Daredevil as a mentor (and, more importantly, as a failed mentor). The ending was about this failure and how he was unable to get any closure from it.
_________________
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

[Francesco]

And it sucked.

Also not interested in arguing what is or isn't a villain sue.

[Mike Murdock]

Then maybe it's best not to use such a problematic term in the first place.
_________________
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

[Francesco]

Fine, send me a list of "the terms Mike Murdock the forumgoer finds problematic", and I'll see if I can give a sh*t about it.