Daredevil Message Board

[Francesco]

So, long story short. I buy this comic here.
DD & Cap: Dead on Arrival, by Faraci (story), Villa (art), and D'Auria (colors). Cover by Gabriele Dell'Otto and Claudio Villa.

I expected a few more pages. It's barely a few pages more than a regular DD issue.

Basically, the story (its specified that it is set prior to the events of Avengers Disassembled and Secret Wars) deals with the "apparent" return of Philip Wallace Sterling, the infamous Death-Stalker, who longtime DD readers may remember as a formidable DD opponent.

For reasons that I won't spoil you, Sterling reappears alive and well. What's his objective then? Why of course, revenge against Matt Murdock, guilty of um... err... having forced him to...accidentally kill himself (Daredevil #158) by materializing through a gravestone (I know it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, but consider this guy was an obsessed scientist, a guy who creates stuff for time displacement, he surely doesn't have a normal reasoning).
The Death-Stalker, besides the ability to materialize and dematerialize in our plane of existence at will, wears a pair of gloves that grant him a (most of the time) lethal touch.

Sterling reappears in New York, and kidnaps a dozen or so of citizens. He leaves some witnesses with a message: Daredevil will have to meet him at St. Stephen's graveyard, and spontaneously let the villain kill him. Otherwise, Sterling will proceed to kill the hostages.


But there's more. SHIELD, who had previously retrieved the Death-Stalker's gloves, detect the inexplicable return of the villain. They also learn that, because this return has f*cked with time-space continuum, Sterling has to be taken alive. Otherwise, a time paradox will occur, which, as they teach us at school, is no good to integrity of our universe.
Who will Nick Fury choose to face this hard, yet delicate task? Thor? Dr Strange? Iron Man? A task force of level-8 SHIELD agents? No! Steve Rogers, the blue-eyed, ever-loving Sentinel of Liberty. Why? Don't ask me. I would've chosen someone else, given the opportunity, but I've never been a SHIELD director or a Marvel EiC, so what do I know?

Faraci's writing is good, especially in the part where he neatly recaps the past story of the DS (including his early past as the Exterminator, and his mother's successive attempt to avenge him in Daredevil #208). The story adds something new, and fits perfectly in the continuity (which, is not everything, but always adds a nice touch). Good job also with his handling of the personalities of DD and the DS. I wish I could say the same for Cap, who on the contrary was depicted with very little psychological depth.
The narration, for a good part, is told in captions, showing the thoughts of the heroes and of the antagonist.

What's disappointing about the writing is that the story is too much straightforward. Also a bit cornish is the resort to device like the mess in the time-space continuumTM and the even more cornish obligatory fight the good guys always have when they meet TM. That's right. DD and Cap meet and fight each other in this book. Oh, well.
A couple of errors also in the description of their respective powers and abilities (correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that you can take down Cap if he blocks you with his vibranium shield).

The art is great. Claudio Villa's pencils provide the bodies with a plasticity reminding that of Colan's art. A way of depicting figures which, we DD readers, accustomed with Maleev's and Lark's art, could find a bit unusual. Great depiction of different scenes, too.
The colors, by Fabio D'Auria, make Villa's art even more amazing and realistic. Together, they also managed to create some intriguing ways of depicting particular effects, like DD's vision through radar sense, the misty setting of the cemetery, the hallucinations and Sterling's memories of his past.

Is DoA worth buying?
Well, overall it is, if not for the story or the writing (which are nothing exceptional after all, having their pros and cons), for the magistral art.

That's all folks, sorry for my macaronique english.

[Forrest]

Thanks for the update! I definitely want to get my hands on this book!

Also, thanks for warning me on the story. (I won't expect much. ) Still, the concept of seeing a new comic with Daredevil, Deathstalker and pre-Civil War Captain America makes me happy, especially from the art I have seen so far.
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"Flash is back. Worlds will die again!"

[Francesco]

[Forrest]

I'm not afraid of getting a copy in Italian. This weekend (when I have $), I'll check out EBay.
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"Flash is back. Worlds will die again!"

[Francesco]

An admirable devotion. Keep in mind that the original title is "Devil e Capitan America: Doppia Morte".

[daredevilryan]

I've just finished reading the amazing Brubaker Captain America omnibus, so was looking for any good team-ups between Cap and DD. Just to let everyone know that I found this story in English in a trade called "Marvel Europa". It also contains a Wolverine story and a story about Spider-man in Venice.

Haven't read the story yet, but I agree that the art does look good!