Aug 14, 2024
To be honest, I am not a fan of this run and to be even more honest, I'm not a big daredevil guy, which it's really a pity. By far the most important man in comics, that came out of my country(which influenced his art) did his best work on Daredevil. But as far as my credentials go I've read everything from 2016 and sparsely some of the stuff before that like some of Waid's tenure, Guardian Devil, Man Without Fear, and some other issues from here and there. So why am I saying this? Well, it's superheroes, things are interconnected and sometimes that interconnectivity is exactly what makes the comics and with Daredevil I'm not deep into that. Or maybe I'm not the target audience, because even if I see that this comic is not that well regarde
d I honestly think it's the messiest comic coming out of the big 2 rn(I don't read everything), and that's bar none. I wanna stress that, not the worst, but just the messiest because there are still things I think are done in a very superb way. And since this is somewhat of a closer I will talk about the whole run to this point, as well as this particular issue.
It's really easy to get lost in Matt's thoughts here and that's a huge compliment to the way Ahmed writes his monologue. I know matt has a flair for dramatism, for internal struggles and this comic keeps that tradition. Matt's monologue is a story in itself with his own valleys and peaks and rhythm, it's like music. Add the complementary art of Kuder to it and the comics turn into poetry. And I know not everybody likes Kuder here, but i think he is saving the book in a big time, exactly because his art adds to the monologue and strengthens it's punch, delivering in isolation some amazing, really powerful panels. And it does that with intricate shadows and positioning and at times some stuff in the background, even movement just a lot of it feels really deliberate. It's not as hitting all the time, but it uses that well when once in pretty much every issue, it turns it to eleven with the details, the scale, and the creativity, so much so that the writing could not match those moments. That's a pity because the writing does the opposite to the art, of what the art does to the writing. It weakens it, where my problems start really.
As I said I think Ahmed is very good at this one singular thing here and this comic is so far of one singular thing. Btw I am not saying Ahmed is one trick pony or something. I think his Black Bolt is a modern classic and shows that he can handle a story that progresses with unfamiliar territory to its said hero, as well as writing poignant narration, but just this comic i feel like it's battling itself. Like constantly it goes against it's biggest strengths or just everything it does. I guess you could make the argument that is similar to Matt's battle with himself. For 12 issues we had so many plots and so little meaningful progression. From issue one i was most excited about Matt being a priest. The first issue had this really great atmosphere about the church, of warm and the kids, they had potential, as well as Matt in this role and don't get me wrong the first issue had some worrying things, but it had a promise. and 11 issues later, we hardly made any progress with that plot. I don't even mean progress in the classical sense, we hardly got any exploration of it. Honestly, I do not feel any way towards the church by this point, it does not seem like a priority, the characters there do not feel like characters and that's because we don't spend any time there and what's why when that kid learned that matt is daredevil seemed shallow to me. Again it's a pity because Zdarsky left space for new stories, for different stories with the character and that chance by this issue was completely wasted because everything is back as it was. I'm not that mad(not pun intended) that everything is back, I am mad because of the way it was done, which was cheap. Even when moments were built up, it felt short, it did not feel satisfactory at all for me. The build-up felt more necessary than organic and that's because it starts out of nowhere and kinda ends there. Even if the monologue is good, it does not carry any weight for the future, it encapsulates a moment beautifully, no doubt about it, but that moment is not carried in time at all, it feels forgotten after one issue. That's just Matt's emotional state, constantly changing without building it up for a longer period of time.
There is more to it, but I want to talk about this issue. This was an improvement, it addressed my issues with the run and how it constantly jumps from one place to the other, and this way it does one step forward and 2 backward. But even then how we got this, how matt suddenly felt it, it's strange since we are constantly with his thoughts and it was not addressed by him before that. Like he has time to describe what Elektra's smell does to him, but not to say how tired by multitasking is. Greed as the Final Sin is pretty good Fisk is a great fit and i liked that it was kinda like Mister Frieze's boss fight, matt was trying all the methods he used, which were very dumb, very action movie, no brain moves, which was also a complain of mine and it was not working because he had to change himself to fix that, to accept it. It made Greed seem like a bigger problem to Matt and by the end of the issue that was pretty much proven and let's say jealousy and explanation for it, in a way, encapsulates this whole run, The issue does some lifting of the problems before, but again it felt like using an eraser, it does not really erase them that well, after it was done. It gives more meaning to Matt's whole journey of choosing life again and how by living you always are hurting someone and when you think about his interaction with Foggy, things connect really well. I think that is the longest streak of stacking stuff to make something better this series had. Still, I do not think the scene with his dad was needed, it felt like too much and it was not well integrated, even if on the art front was very impressive and again filled with inspiration. That's what I am saying because the writing does not match those impressive art moments, they seem more like a flex than actual important moments. Also, the issue ends with an interesting premise, one that seems logical, but still, I am not sure how it will turn out. Overall a slightly rushed issue, it did not feel as big as it should have been, it is also maybe kinda rushed, but it is better than most of Ahmed's tenure. more
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