Daredevil #512 – Review

by Andy Diggle and Antony Johnston (writers), Marco Checchetto (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Daredevil’s friends deal with the fallout of Shadowland as Matt is nowhere to be found in the city.

What’s Good: I really do enjoy Checchetto and Hollingsworth’s art.  The art has often been the best part of Diggle’s run, and even a more laid-back, conversation based issue like this one, the work really shines.  It’s moody and perfectly Daredevil and as such, it has its own look.  Wherever the Daredevil franchise goes after this, I hope Checchetto, Hollingsworth, and De La Torre have a major role.

Other than that, this is an issue that focuses on examining the emotional toll Shadowland has on series mainstays Dakota, Foggy, Becky, and Kurtz.  I thought that the place Kurtz ends up in is an intriguing one that could be quite fun in the future.  It’s something you could see coming, so I guess it’s not the most imaginative turn of events, but that doesn’t change it from being a good one.  Foggy meanwhile gets some solid characterization as well.  His unflappable dedication to Matt is exactly the sort of thing that makes the character fun to read.

Daredevil #511 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Roberto De La Torre (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Foggy seeks out Daredevil and Dakota attempts to rescue Becky.

What’s Good: Last month’s Daredevil seemed to finally find itself, deciding to dedicate itself to the tribulations of Daredevil’s buddies Foggy and Dakota, characters who had been utterly neglected and whose perspectives should be invaluable.  Given Daredevil’s uneven quality of late, I wasn’t sure if Diggle would stick with this commitment, but he does.  Daredevil #511 focuses once again on Daredevil’s unique cast of friends and that’s good news in itself.

The end result is a book that feels really moody, desperate, and atmospheric.  It, unlike the main Shadowland series, captures just how dark and insane Hell’s Kitchen has become.  You really get the sense of New York’s devolving into an anarchic hell of indiscriminate and irrational violence and rage.  In so doing, this issue really makes it clear how this is something that Shadowland, the main series, should’ve doing much earlier.  The mood established this month and the depiction of Hell’s Kitchen’s madness and the price of Shadowland’s establishment and the events within are made clear this month, and it’s solid and it makes Shadowland appear all the more lacking by comparison.

De La Torre also continues to crank out great Daredevil art.  It’s dark and gritty as usual, but in capturing the riotous, insane Hell’s Kitchen core, there’s a constant sense of derangement to De La Torre’s art, owing to his rough lines and shading.  Better still, thanks in part to Matt Hollingsworth’s colours, the interiors of Shadowland remove some of the darkness in exchange for an undertone of disease and sickness.

Daredevil #503 – Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Roberto De La Torre & Marco Checchetto (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Daredevil continues to use the Hand as an instrument to battle corruption.

What’s Good: I continue to enjoy Diggle’s take on Dark Reign, which remains one of the most unique in Marvel’s stable.  While most series simply have Osborn stomping about and occasional cameos by the Dark Avengers and/or the Thunderbolts, Diggle’s book best depicts how the world and society itself has changed thanks to Osborn’s rise.  Daredevil is used to occupying his own little corner of the Marvel Universe, and much of this issue is a wake-up call that even the farthest/lowest fringe of that Universe is subject to this major shift in status quo. The series’ own isolation stands in relation to Matt’s obliviousness to the larger state of things, absorbed as he is in his own crises.  Matt, and the comic itself, can now no longer ignore larger events, which do have an effect on Hell’s Kitchen, whether Matt realizes it or not.

While the theme is great, Diggle also writes some great dialogue this month.  The conversation between Daredevil and Izo was a particularly good.  Both men seem to be speaking in veiled threats and what seems to be the same old conversation we’ve heard a million times between the two takes on a tone of menace, where we’re forced to wonder who is trying to intimidate the other.  Is Izo getting impatient enough to threaten Matt?  Is Matt becoming inflated by his leadership of the Hand?  And which character is the initiator and which the respondent?  It’s a fascinating, multi-layered conversation that bears reading twice.

Other than that, the issue gives us everything we’ve come to expect from a good Daredevil comic.  Diggle writes the kinetic, thrilling action scenes that have been the signature of his career,  Kingpin is an absolute badass,  Becky, Foggy, and Dakota are as lovable as ever, and seeing Matt hold a pep rally for his horde of devil-horned ninjas definitely gets the blood pumping.  Meanwhile De La Torre continues to put out the best work of his career, as it’s clear that he was meant to draw this comic.  It’s shadowy, grimy, and gritty in the utmost, but with no loss of detail or clarity.  It’s quite the achievement, and he makes action and dialogue scenes equally engaging.