Like I said in Part 1, if you had to put a gun to my head and say who is my favorite superhero then it is Daredevil.
I appreciate the "down to the earth"* of the DD series. Beyond the goofy (A blind guy has powers and can "see" with sound and he was trained by a blind ninja master and his main enemy is both an ancient order of ninjas AND a guy who is very good at throwing things) it feels like it could be real. Someone swashbuckling on rooftops, dodging bullets and stringing up criminals. DD just wants to protect a neighborhood and, for the most part, sticks to that. The comic is very kinetic and acrobatic something envious for an aging professional fat kid like me.
DD also caries a billy club cane that sometimes writers will give that "snikt" sound effect to as he lets it loose. The same metallic bite a collapsible baton makes as it unfurls from the handle. This is a powerful bit of onomatopoeia. An amazing sound like skateboard wheels on pavement or the swish of a perfect basketball shot that is often dominated by Wolverine but you can actually hold the baton and make that sound. And then jump off your aunt's roof into the pool below without pretending giant steak knives are coming out your knuckles.
Did I mention I began reading Daredevil* regularly just as some damn luminaries were working on it? The earlier books, save for the Frank Miller and Romita Jr., stuff were pretty damn silly. DD's has a a ding dong rogues gallery that includes Purple Man and Stilt Man and Gladiator and Bullseye, who I know is the big bad but goodness its a guy who is good at throwing things! The Netflix series did much to revitalize these characters, save Stilt Man, who I guess is still at large.
Brian Michael Bendis and then Ed Brubaker gave it this super power noir style with even a bit of swashbuckling and then lots of pulp especially with pencils by Alex Maleev and David Aja and Michael Lark.
This whole multi year run felt gritty and painful without being pornographic nor derogatory. The panels were all about what you didn't see and then how the plot unfolded until it broke DD's mind. Which is never good because when DD's mind break he goes absolutely berserk. DD runs are so well defined by the 3-4 pages of him just dive bombing onto people's cars and reaching in to grab some thug or crooked cop by the scruff of their collar.
DD is a guy who gets beat a ton but somehow gets right back up so why can't you root for someone like this?
Also around this time I read the new Blue Beetle albeit only briefly but glad that is being made into a movie. By a Puerto Rican guy, to boot.
And the Brubaker/Aja Iron Fist reboot which is also an amazing 12-15 runs of comics albeit I think Danny Rand should be retconned to be actually Asian and not some white kid whose whole family (and his predecessor before him) just stumbled into a mystical kung-fu city.
I also read bits of pieces of the Kirkman Invicible book but this was in little waves, primarily made of Free Comic Book issues, but still felt great and fresh yet satisfyingly familiar. The Amazon series is fantastic albeit I will admit I'm less hyped as each episode goes along.
And the latest, as we get closer to 2021, is the Kamala Khan Ms. Marvel which is a great Buffy like mix of teen drama and super heroics and mad comic fandom plus clashing cultures. I am excited this character is getting her eventual time in the sun.
As an adult, someone with even less time for books and deep dives,*** I appreciate Captain America (also had a brief an wonderful Brubaker run including the "death" of the character) for the representation of what our country can/should be.
Honestly, ill dig on any superhero. Power Rangers are superheroes and so are characters like John Wick. Closest thing to a common mythos we have**** and since the geeks have won (This is pop culture now. Call someone with an opinion on Iron Man a nerd and you just exposed yourself as a hack) a great vector for daydreaming.
*Relatively. I think there is a canon issue where DD runs a pickup trucking into Thanos or Ultron or some other big galactic level baddie. Also, the usual bs of comics like resurrection and being able to afford to live in Manhattan.
**At this time I also regularly ready Green Lantern books because I wanted to like the hero but Hal Jordan is a boring space cop and I don't care much for galactic stuff so why was I reading this? Note at this time they were also printing Green Lantern: Rebirth which is a great starting point and also an amazing book. Too bad Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Scriver became problematic particular Van Scriver who IS Comicsgate and budding digital Nazi. This also kept going during the Sinestro Corps War so yeah some big dumb issues. Shame because it is a cool idea and other lanterns (John Stewart and Kyle Rayner) really deserve bigger pieces of the pie.
***When I couldn't afford too many comics and the tiny Town of Ulysses, New York library had run out of graphic novels for me to scour, I would "read" comics by diving into the Wikipedia wormhole of synopsis and then piece together panels from other blogs and google searches. This is the comics reading equivalent of making your own little latter by pouring ten sugars and 15 creams into your espresso shot. Every May, the Ithaca, NY comic shop would do a big back issue sale where most things were a dollar and here is where I loaded up on piece meal fixes.
****I want to say superheroes are American mythical figures but its hard because folks like Hercules and Prometheus don't have billion dollar IPs behind them.
No comments:
Post a Comment