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DD Book Club - Heaven is Knowing Who You Are
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fubarthepanda
Flying Blind


Joined: 01 Jul 2020
Posts: 74

PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 12:51 pm    Post subject: Daredevil #281 Reply with quote

Pretty much more of the same as last issue, but Nocenti brings the deconstruction down like a hammer.

"Daredevil does what heroes do... The heroic knee-jerk reaction -- he fights back... Nobody's perfect..."

"What if... What if I just stopped...? If I just... stopped... fighting... If you stop fighting, isn't the fight over...? Yes... Yes, yes, yes...! They can't touch me..."

She even gets in some beatnik banter:

"He's tuned in, turned-on, and hooked-up! In other words... he know's what's going down... He's on a quest. Sometimes he's noble, sometime's he lonely -- but mostly he loves to do surfin'! The Silver Surfer!"

Did get a kick out of Lucifer referring himself to "Lucy", though, as I'm in the middle of watching Lucifer Season 5 on Netflix, but this story arc has definitely gone on for at least two issues too long, and not even the late great Al Williamson can rescue JRJr's rough layouts this issue.

Even the letters column is showing signs of revolt...
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Dimetre
Underboss


Joined: 16 Feb 2006
Posts: 1366
Location: Toronto

PostPosted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 5:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So Ann Nocenti chose a theme no bigger than good vs. evil this issue. Again, Mephisto's quasi-hell is the setting, and it's as weird as Daredevil has ever been. Even though our titular hero doesn't do much this issue, I found myself truly enjoying each character's little story.

I liked how the wisest words came out of the most child-like characters. I liked Lucifer's message that everyone is their own White Knight, because that's true. However, I adored the Pope's story of Galahad and Lancelot. That was such a short little passage for the Pope, but Nocenti wrote it beautifully. And it's so inspirational. We're all imperfect, but learning from our imperfections can make us better than we would have been without them.

There are still things that confuse me. Blackheart didn't even show up last issue, but now it seems he was camouflaged as this angel named Gabriel who is winning over Number Nine. I'm also confused as to how much Lucifer knows about what's going on. He mentions that Gabriel is "about as deep as the skin he's printed on." Does Lucifer realize that Blackheart is simply wearing Gabriel like a skin? How much of this is a construct of Mephisto's, and how many of these characters would exist without Mephisto's machinations?

You can tell that John Romita Jr. enjoyed cutting loose with this surreal hellscape. I think he loves that design for Mephisto and all the little demons. However, I wish he had been more clear with this issue's ending. Daredevil's fight against the demons ends with him choosing to stop fighting. It's clear he chose to stop swinging his billy club, which was killing the demons to Mephisto's delight. Yet, did he also extinguish the torch? If so, how? There's nothing that shows him extinguishing the torch. Didn't he need that to survive? I find it unclear.

I was excited to see the Silver Surfer. He's one of my favourite Marvel characters, but I wasn't crazy about the two pages he got in this issue. I'm used to the way Stan Lee would write him, with this sense of grandiosity and seriousness. Here, Nocenti goes kooky in a way she doesn't elsewhere in the issue. "He knows what's going down! ...But mostly he loves to go surfin'!" I expect the Surfer to be treated with more weight. I can't remember what the Surfer does in the next issue, but clearly he can tell that Mephisto is up to something bad, even though he's only torturing a group of six people.

I like this better than the previous issue. It's still confusing, but I enjoyed the way Nocenti explored the good vs. evil theme. I'm giving this a 3.5 out of 5.
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 1750

PostPosted: Tue Sep 15, 2020 6:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

^ I got the impression that he realized that the demons can't touch him while he's holding the torch, so he stopped fighting and just held it up. Certainly, the flame is still there by the end. If anything, it looks brighter.

This issue continues the idea of separate stories going back and forth. I like that has Daredevil as a bit more active. It continues Nocenti's themes of heroism and violence. I don't think Daredevil really seems to have a choice when he's being attacked, but it's obviously not the correct path. It's good to see at the end where he decides to stop fighting and realizes that his journey has made him stronger for it. I don't think it's necessarily followed up on, but I think there's an argument that he becomes a bit more merciful and a bit less violent by the end of Nocenti's run (I'm thinking specifically of his fight with Bullseye, where he takes a more psychological approach to things).

Number 9's story continues the themes of beauty and superficiality. It's interesting that the nerdy angel (who is likely the one the reader would sympathize with the most, I would imagine) is named Lucifer. It's also interesting that nobody has pants or genitalia, I guess? That being said, I think the best dialogue is in her story when Lucy talks about how he feels sorry for women. He talks about how women are taught to wait for a man to save them instead of taking their own actions. In reality, he says, there are no white knights. Interestingly, you turn the page and there's a hint that there is a white knight of sorts, or at least a silver one, as the Silver Surfer appears on page. I think that's a clever way of handling Romita Jr's art. Or it might have been scripted that way, I don't know. Either way, though, it shows Number 9 break through and look past superficial beauty, which is an important step.

The only story I don't really understand is the Inhumans one. I think it's about materialism and charity, but I can't follow what it has to do with the characters. Especially since, as members of a royal family on the moon, they're theoretically in the same boat, but they take a pretty strong position that one shouldn't be like this.

I liked this one a bit more than the last one, although they are quite similar. Four Stars.
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
Posts: 1750

PostPosted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Daredevil Vol. 1 #282 - Crooked Halos

Quote:
The final battle with Mephisto is at hand! But can even the mighty Power Cosmic of the Silver Surfer stand up to the Prince of Lies -- in his own domain?


Due 9/26
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I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
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Dimetre
Underboss


Joined: 16 Feb 2006
Posts: 1366
Location: Toronto

PostPosted: Mon Sep 21, 2020 6:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Every time I think Nocenti's Daredevil run can't get weirder, I get proven wrong. Weird isn't a problem for me -- I can handle weird. I just don't think this issue added up to anything that good.

We haven't seen much of Blackheart in the previous two issues, but here we have him, off the hop, full-out rebelling against Mephisto. Even though he was only born a few dozen issues ago, he is now a political revolutionary, railing against dictatorships and totalitarian regimes. I don't have a problem at all with political messages in my comics, but this is all very sudden. Sometimes character evolution and plot points don't feel like they happen organically for me in Nocenti comics, and this is one of those times. It seems to me she wants a fresh new theme to explore for every issue, and the characters will have to adapt to that theme, no matter how unnatural that adaptation feels.

This issue's theme is the cowardice of despots. Blackheart and Daredevil make impassioned stands against Mephisto, who, in the end, is revealed to hold no power over those who ignore him and don't fear him. There is also a lot of continuing talk about good vs. evil, and how everyone is a mix of both. However, this issue is a lot of Mephisto smushing Blackheart over and over with his fist, after which Blackheart reforms.

The Silver Surfer is front and centre on the cover, but he appears zooming towards Mephisto's realm in the middle of the issue, and then at the end he shows up to fight Mephisto, but we're not shown that battle. So much is made of his appearance here, but it doesn't add up to anything. Honestly, he probably wasn't needed.

There is a couple of pages in the middle where Nocenti does away with dialogue, and just puts down narrative captions. I didn't mind it when she was describing the Surfer's thoughts as he speeds along, but when she goes back to Blackheart and Mephisto, it comes close to telling us what those characters are doing as opposed to showing us. This is a visual medium, and for a short while there I felt like it was being misused.

Then Mephisto turns Blackheart into a human and sends him to live his existence amongst humans. However we don't get to see what comes of that. Honestly, that would have made for a great cliffhanger -- just a single page of a mysterious stranger approaching a familiar supporting character. But we don't get that, which seems like a waste.

Then there's Brandy's fate. Sure, it was shocking and unexpected, but I don't think I was ever made to really care about her. The problem, I think, was her negativity. I think Nocenti tried, too late, to give her some positive qualities by having look after Pope, but even then I didn't like the way she was treating him much of the time. Now she's gone, and yes it's shocking. At least she's happy, but what do we take from it? I don't know.

Is this run with Mephisto and Blackheart the weirdest Daredevil ever got? It very well could be. That's fine. I can handle it. I just don't know what to take from it, and that's a problem, because that's kind of the point of art -- to convey a message. I do feel like Nocenti explored some cool themes, and she made some interesting points. Certainly John Romita Jr. got to cut loose and draw some crazy demons. But this issue was supposed to tie up the story and leave me with some thoughts, and I'm just confused.

I give this issue a 2.5 out of 5, and the entire story a 3.
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Mike Murdock
Golden Age


Joined: 08 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 23, 2020 7:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's interesting that Nocenti created Blackheart as a Daredevil villain, but he ends up most associated with Ghost Rider. I'm not as familiar with that version, but I've heard he lost a lot of nuance. That being said, there's a bunch of seeming development here, but it doesn't feel followed through. But there's a fun idea here that the nature of Hell of Mephisto is archaic and modern society has evolved. Honestly, though, given where things are today compared to when Nocenti was writing, I think there's merit to the classics. Still, there's a sense of Mephisto unraveling as Blackheart pushes.

Given that, the moment where Brandy dies is tough. There's a sense of the good guys winning just by being above Mephisto's games and he cheats and kills her anyway. Silver Surfer arrives just in time to the rescue, which is pretty cool. Likewise, the moment at the end with Brandy as an angel, while forced, chokes me up a bit. This also feels like the first time Daredevil expressly references himself as a person of faith.

Overall, this issue is rough. It's disjointed, repetitive, and barely focuses on Daredevil. But there are some little moments I do like. Three and a Half Stars.
_________________
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
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fubarthepanda
Flying Blind


Joined: 01 Jul 2020
Posts: 74

PostPosted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 2:19 pm    Post subject: Daredevil #282 Reply with quote

Well, the most significant thing about this issue is that it marks the end of the Nocenti/JRJr run as Romita jumps off to continue Blackheart's story in the Hearts of Darkness one-shot (sans Daredevil). According to the letters column, he was expected to return, but the fates would have him being assigned to Punisher War Zone and a second run on Uncanny X-Men instead. (He would, of course, return to DD for the Frank Miller Man Without Fear mini some three years later...)

All of that said, it seems like he knew the writing was on the wall as he turns in an artistic tour de force this issue with some incredible double splash pages of the Silver Surfer, as well as some epic Mephisto/Blackheart encounters. DD himself is literally left carrying the torch, but this was never really much of a DD story to begin with. In fact, the best thing about it is that it brings a merciful end to the Inhumans, Pope and Number Nine sub-plots (although I use the term "end" loosely as I have no idea what Nocenti was trying to accomplish here as their character arcs are mostly unfinished).

Not the best DD story arc ever, but truly the weirdest.
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