Daredevil Message Board

[Kirika]

Hi all. As always, my conversations at the comic shop have led me here to see what you all think...

Yesterday, I spent a good portion of my afternoon with another DD fan talking about how disconnected Daredevil seems to be from the rest of the Marvel U (Secret Invasion in particular). He contended that it was just plain stupid to not have any of this come up as a major issue in Daredevil due to the facts that A) the main destruction is right in the middle of NYC and B) because he would have something say about his former lover being all skrully. He also said that he believes that if DD was in more of the main events he might have a bump up in popularity.

I have to say I wholeheartedly disagree. I love the fact that Matt and his alter ego are nowhere near the Secret Invasion storyline. I don't want to have to read five other Marvel titles to get one story or at least my fav characters place in it. I am always relieved to get a break from the skrull drama when I pick up DD. I vote that Marvel keeps Daredevil as far away from these giant, messy events as possible.

So what do you guys think?

[harryhausen]

Well, I agree with you, K. And I'd be willing to bet that almost everyone here will, too. I think the main Marvel events get mentioned (the Hood has shown up, Elektra as a Skrull was just mentioned last issue, etc.) just enough to make it seem legit, without having to read that stuff.

DD is the only Marvel book I collect these days. I'm buying Secret Invasion just out of habit, but this final issue is the last I'll be buying any of that stuff. And Fraction (and Land, ugh!) has destoyed the X-Men. I'll read older Marvel (Claremont trades, anyone)?, but that's about it.

I think the Marvel editors know that DD is its own little comics world with a fan base that likes it this way. I hope they keep it like that and I don't have to read any stories about DD battling demonic vacuum cleaners again any time soon!

[james castle]

I think that one of the greatest things about the Marvel Universe used to be that it was actually a universe. I was reading old X-Men comics and it was actually pretty cool how connected everything was. Not just in event type things but so far as I could tell the X-Men would, say, bump into Spider-Man in Japan if Spider-Man happened to be in Japan that month too. I've always thought that that kind of thing is incredibly cool.

I also always like events sort of spilling into Daredevil. I actually liked the Inferno stuff. Fall of the Mutants had a really cool effect on DD where it just showed Matt dealing with the street level effects.

That said, all that is over now. Now that Spider-Man and Wolverine are simply everywhere all the time the illusion of a coherant universe is gone. In those circumstances I'm glad DD exists in his own little pocket universe.
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JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

[harryhausen]

I liked Inferno fairly well, too, JC. After all, that was our girl Nocenti, right? It was just the example I plucked at random........

And I think you said it well, a connected universe would be great, if all the components were good. I'm always falling prey to that notion when I'll start to buy an entire family of books (Batman, 'Tec, Robin, Nightwing - for instance), but it never pans out. It seems almost impossible to keep 4 or 5 connected books all at a high level of quality. In fact, can any of you think of a time when that was the case? That a shared "sub-universe" was of a high quality?

[jumonji]

I think the book is perfect as it is now. There's still a shared universe out there that gets a nod every now an again, and really great guest appearances of the kind we've seen with the latest arc. But when there's all that crazy stuff going on that really doesn't fit the style of the book in any way, shape or form, I think it's best to ignore it as far as possible.

To Kirika's customer I'd say that it's definitely plausible for the events of Secret Invasion to no be commented on since that whole debacle is over within a few days to anyone who's not an Avenger with a paranoid streak, and the big fight scene in NY might not have happened yet in DD continuity. As far as Elektra is concerned, I guess he might have thought about it. We just don't know, do we?. We'll see if the fall-out of SI creates a situation that absolutely needs to be commented on. If it does, I suppose that should get a nod too. Just a nod though, nothing more.

I think the vast majority of DD readers appreciate that it's not all tangled up in other events and I don't necessarily think he'd get a bump in popularity if he was. Getting good word of mouth is probably much more important.
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The Other Murdock Papers

[FatalRose]

Valiant Comics was probably the only company that had a cohesively connected universe with proper continuity. I would not mind DD being involved so much in other things but it's all just to messy now as all of you alluded to earlier.
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http://www.1emulation.com/forums/index.php

[Dash]

DD seems to be too involved in his life to care much for some thngs. During some of the other crisis' like the Civil War, he was in jail and Danny Rand was impersonating him, then he went abroad. There was a few nods, but nothing major.

So DD does stay out of alot of that mess. But some of it is because he's so involved into making his life a mess, why outsource.

[Kirika]

[Francesco]

I think that it is wrong to have DD partecipate directly into the major events for the sake of it. And almost certainly, he wouldn't get any boost in popularity. Daredevil is a different type of book, it appeals to an audience entirely different from that to which these events are aimed to.

The only result of having DD more involved would be counterproductive: it would force regular Daredevil readers to have three or four months worth of stories devoted to entirely different themes, with the risk of them losing their affection to the book.

Certainly, if the particular story behind the crossover event allows for it, it could be done. But let's face it, the big events of these last years didn't allow a neat way for Daredevil to fit in. Any attempt would've seemed forced.
In my opinion it's way better to have a storyarc centered around Daredevil's own sub-universe than making forced link to a crossover event that has entirely different themes, especially if said event is characterized by a nonsensical plot.

[james castle]

Daredevil's direct participation rarely makes much sense either. The last event I read was House of M. In the big final battle there's a shot of DD jumping into the fray with his cane raised over his head. The problem with DD is that, aside from that shot (which is how he's generally portrayed in all these battles) what happens next? The sad but true fact is that DD really can't hold his own against the more super super heroes. How exactly would DD fight, say, Quicksilver? Most of the X-Men or Avengers could KO Daredevil in a second. Once there's whole teams involved it's nuts.

Which is just another reason why it's so much better when he's "part" of the events but dealing with the local issues. Matt dealing with the chaos in the streets caused by a major event is way more satisfying than seeing one shot of him leap to what would, in (comic) reality, be certain death.
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JC

So why can't you see the funny side?
Why aren't you laughing?

[Francesco]

Yeah, but that would be true also for non superpowered folks like the Black Widow, Ronin, Captain America or Hawkeye (who are shown to participate significantly in such superpowered brawls), so personally, I'd be willing to stretch my suspension of disbelief about that.

[jumonji]

[Francesco]

Certainly, I don't expect those low powered folks to take a laserbeam in the chest and survive to it or to catch trucks being thrown in the air. If you start with that premise, it's pretty obvious they wouldn't work. That doesn't mean they cannot provide a way of support in the battle.

About DD being particularly at a disadvantage, I think it depends on how much you think he gets dishoriented in crowded, noisy places.
I think that such situations could throw him off quite a bit, but totally disabling him? I don't buy that, sorry.

[jumonji]

[Francesco]

FACTOR A) That was an extremely loud sound in an enclosed environment.

FACTOR B) That didn't make Daredevil stop fighting.