COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS : DAREDEVIL (pt. 7)

And we're back!

In Daredevil #231, we see a rejuvenated Matt Murdock slowly begin his ascent back to being a hero again.

First, he rescues Ben Urich (and Ben’s wife) from an attack by Kingpin’s enforcer (that’s how good Born Again is – the scene where Matt saves them is awesome, but I don’t see how I have enough room to feature it).

Later, he shows up to foil a plot by the Kingpin to have a psycho in a Daredevil costume murder Foggy Nelson (Kingpin doesn’t know he has a chance for two birds with one stone, as Karen Page was staying with Foggy at the time).

Beyond a memorable psycho villain, this scene is also marked by some great storytelling by Mazzucchelli and, of course, that dramatic last page, which I would easily count as “the” moment here, as we see that while Karen Page might need Matt Murdock, Matt Murdock sure as hell needs Karen Page just as much!

COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS : DAREDEVIL (pt. 6)

Today we continue our look at what is most likely the greatest Daredevil story ever told, Born Again, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli.

Enjoy!

When last we saw Ben Urich, he was having his finger broken by one of the Kingpin’s enforcers ("every time you speak Matt Murdock’s name aloud, we break one of your fingers") while Urich watched as the enforcer crippled the crooked cop that was ready to tell Ben the truth about the frame job on Matt Murdock.

Interspersed in the next issue, we see how this affected Urich, all leading up to a really great moment at the end.

Mazzucchelli really shined on these Urich panels, with his depiction of Urich’s reactions to everything.

I love how once again the Kingpin’s actions would have worked had he not gone one step too far. That’s a great little piece of writing right there by Miller.

COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS : DAREDEVIL (pt. 5)

The problem with doing Born Again by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli is that there are certain moments that I think you “have” to mention, but at the same time, they’re only, like, one page deals, so I almost feel bad to take up a whole installment just for what essentially amounts to a couple of really cool lines. But you know what? Those lines are just so darn cool that I have to do it.

At the end of Daredevil #229, there is a series of vignettes where we catch up on all of our characters.

We see that Foggy Nelson and Glorianna O’Breen are, amusingly enough, actually seeming to enjoy life MORE now that Matt Murdock is out of their lives. That’s a particularly cruel bit that Miller does – a sort of reverse “It’s a Wonderful Life,” where Foggy becomes a lot happier when he is without his partner, who does seem to bring down a whole lot of crap down on Foggy (see the latest issue of Ed Brubaker’s Daredevil for an examination of this same theme).

Matt Murdock is trying to reconnect to his boyhood memories – first by trying to visit the home he grew up at and next by going to the gym that his father worked out at (his dad was a boxer, in case you didn’t know). This ends with Matt being revisited again by the mysterious nun who helped him at the beginning of this issue (in a beautiful sequence by Mazzucchelli and Miller that I just don’t have space to feature – that’s how good this storyline is – there are really great bits that just can’t make the cut).

Ben Urich is investigating Matt Murdock’s frame job with the main witness against Matt, an “honest” cop. In a striking sequence, the Kingpin sends someone to put a crimp in Urich’s investigation.

Finally, Karen Page has taken up with a crazy crook because she figures he will at least protect her from Kingpin’s goons, who are out to kill her because she is a connection to them (for selling Matt’s secret identity). She is just totally zoned out, as all she cares about now is doing whatever it takes to get to New York, where Matt will “save her.”

Okay, so Miller and Mazzucchelli give us an update on all the characters, and then, for the first time since Kingpin said to himself “There is no corpse” last issue, we see Kingpin. It’s beautifully paced by Miller – we can tell that the Kingpin has been thinking this to himself constantly since we last saw him. “There is no corpse.”

And Miller possibly tops himself with his great “There is no corpse” line from last issue with today’s “And I — I have shown him…that a man without hope is a man without fear.”

Classic.

COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS : DAREDEVIL (pt. 4)

Okay, so when we last saw our hero, Matt Murdock’s life has just been ruined by the Kingpin due to information acquired from drug dealers in Miami from Karen Page, former girlfriend of Matt Murdock and current drug addict. Murdock thought everything was just a terrible coincidence until Kingpin blew up his apartment. Now he is extremely unhinged, but he at least knows that the Kingpin is behind it all.

So in a state of practically insanity along with not being in the best physical condition exactly (he hasn’t been sleeping, etc.), Matt decides to confront the Kingpin directly. He’s been dreaming of beating the Kingpin nearly to death all issue long, figuring that he will FORCE the Kingpin to give him his life back.

This then leads to perhaps the best exchange in this series (there are so many, though, it’s hard to pick just one), as the Kingpin sits back and waits to hear about all the gory details of his plan to not only murder Murdock, but to frame him for murder at the same time.

Only, once again, Miller manages to end a tale that is filled with terrible things with an ending that, while still awful, keeps ringing with a sense of almost triumph. To be able to do that in back to back issues is quite striking - he manages to keep the downward spiral going while still giving readers hope for the future.

COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS : DAREDEVIL (pt. 3)

Today we begin a look at what is most likely the greatest Daredevil story ever told, Born Again, by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. It might last longer than a week, as there are a lot of cool moments, and they just keep coming with greater frequency as the series continues its slow build towards the ending.

Enjoy!

Born Again began in Daredevil #227, when Frank Miller, Daredevil’s greatest creator, returned to the title to write the comic alongside the incumbent artist, David Mazzucchelli, who was at the time only beginning to show us the greatness that he was capable of.

In #227, Karen Page, Matt Murdock (Daredevil)’s former girlfriend is now addicted to drugs and doing all sorts of dirty, nasty stuff (pornography, whoring, etc.) to feed her habit. Finally, she sells Daredevil’s secret identity for a fix.

The information makes it way up to Daredevil’s nemesis, Wilson Fisk, the so-called Kingpin of Crime.

For the rest of the comic, Fisk systematically “destroys” Matt Murdock’s life - taking away his job, his law license, his money, his reputation, basically everything.

Matt tried to fight it, but for all he knows, he is just having the most horrible month ever - he has no reason to suspect that this is all due to a super-criminal.

Until, of course, the final pages of Daredevil #227, which are practically breathtaking in the way that Miller presents the beginning to this story arc, in the way that even at the start of the tale, when all looks bleakest, he manages to get a slight matter of “triumph” mixed in. It’s a beautiful scene.

Read on to see it…

COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS : DAREDEVIL (pt.2)

Today we look at the fight that led directly from yesterday’s classic Bullseye/Elektra fight.

Enjoy!

After killing Elektra, there’s a great bit where Bullseye appears to figure out that Matt Murdock is Daredevil. However, using weapons to kill people is a bit more Bullseye’s area of expertise and not seeing through ruses, so he easily falls through a decoy set by Murdock to make it appear as though Murdock and Daredevil are in the same place at the same time.

This leads then to their climactic fight, which writer/artist Frank Miller and finishing artist Klaus Janson do beautifully…

What an amazing scene, particularly the train track page.

If I had to pick one “moment,” I guess I’d go with the bit where Murdock accurately predicts that Bullseye will never kill again.

COOL COMIC BOOK MOMENTS : DAREDEVIL (pt. 1)

Frank Miller introduced the assassin Elektra in the pages of Daredevil #168, his first issue as writer/artist. Now, in issue #181, he showed the long-awaited showdown between Elektra and the other notable assassin of the comic, Bullseye.

And wow, Miller and Klaus Janson (who finished Miller’s pencils) did an amazing job depicting one of the coolest fight scenes you’ll see in a comic book, and they shocked many a reader by the fact that only one of the pair lived after this fight…

The “moment” of the fight is likely when Bullseye kills Elektra with her own sai, but boy is there a lot of other great bits, including the amazing range of emotion that Miller gets out of Elektra after she knows she has been killed. The way she wills herself to walk to Matt Murdock’s doorstep - it’s chilling.

Hmmmm…I think tomorrow I will give the aftermath of this fight, from later in this issue!