Daredevil: End of Days #8 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack (Writers), Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz, David Mack (Artists), Matt Hollingsworth (Colorist)

The Story: Timmy, Ben Urich’s son, has to learn how to cope with his father’s death as he tries to piece out just what his old man had been working on.

The Review: How easily could everything have failed…With the scope of this series and just what everything Bendis and Mack tried to do here, it could have been a dud, yet this is some splendid stuff. In short, if you believe yourself to be a fan of either Daredevil or Brian Michael Bendis, you need to read this issue, plain and simple.

What we get here is a love letter to the whole mythology behind Daredevil, referencing the story of the character, the influential run that cemented what the character is about and just how it could very well have ended. Bendis and Mack do their best in bringing in what people loved about Daredevil and they succeed, taking risks such as killing arguably the most important characters in the mythos: Ben Urich and Matt Murdock themselves. Yes, Ben Urich is dead and the story is told with Timmy’s viewpoint, who has been revealed to be the new Daredevil, the one that had been trained by Matt himself.

Daredevil: End of Days #7 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack (Writer), Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz (Artists), Matt Hollingsworth (Colorist)

The Story: Ben Urich follows some more leads for the mystery behind the Mapone mystery and the secret of the newer Daredevil.

The Review: If there is one character that I always love to see Bendis write, it has to be Ben Urich. I do love how he always seems to go out of his depths in search of a story, while he seems to be always relatable and just plain interesting. This is a man that always get involved in the adventures of Daredevil, throughout the happy times, but mostly through the harder perils of the life of Hell’s kitchen protector.

Daredevil: End of Days #6 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), David Mack (Writer/Artist) Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Maleev (Artists), Matt Hollingsworth (Colorist)

The Story: Ben Urich gets saved by the new Daredevil and continues his investigation, this time trying to talk with some of the villains in Matt Murdock’ life.

The Review: It seems that Brian Michael Bendis is on fire right now. With his All-New X-Men being great, Ultimate Comics Spider-Man being still the best part of the whole Ultimate universe and set to debut Guardians of the Galaxy this month (for real, I mean, with a #1 issue), he seems to be on top of his game. He seems fully reinvigorated, with his writing skills just like when he started writing Ultimate Spider-Man and Daredevil.

How fitting it is then that one of his strongest inputs in years is his ode to the death of Matt Murdock. Having killed him right in the very beginning of the series, we have followed Ben Urich (probably one of the characters that Bendis handles the best) as he tried to solve the mystery of his death and of Daredevil uttering of the word ‘’Mapone’’. What started as a homage to Citizen Kane as Urich started to question the entourage and loved ones of Matt Murdock has quickly evolved into something else thanks to this issue, as it adds some new elements to the game that are handled quite well.

Daredevil: End of Days #5 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis, David Mack (Writers), Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz (Artists), Matt Hollingsworth (Colorist)

The Story: Ben Urich continues his talk with the Punisher in The Raft and then meet some more people to learn about Matt Murdock and the meaning of the word ‘’Mapone’’.

The Review: This limited series is a dream for those who were fan of the Miller and Bendis/Brubaker era of Daredevil. Being a remembrance of those previous times, it is a stark contrast to the much more optimistic and upbeat comic that Mark Waid is writing, yet it is a fitting homage to those eras that is showcased here.

Indeed, much here seems like a trip to memory lane for the old fans, with all of the characters that had been recurring to the Hornhead. Bullseye, Elektra, Typhoid Mary have been already shown to us, demonstrating what kind of futures they would get in the world imagined by Bendis and Mack. Here, we get Punisher, Melvin Potter (The Gladiator, an old enemy of Daredevil that turned good in Miller’s run) and a bit about Foggy Nelson.

Comic-Con 2008: Complete Progamming schedule

The full programming schedule is available now. I noticed a high increment in game related panels compared to previous years. Many people will not like this as it doesn’t have any relation from the comics.

Friday is Star Wars day. Artists scheduled for panels include Paul Dini, Geoff Johns, Mark Waid, Robert Kirkman, Eric Larsen, Jim Butcher, Kevin Smith, Frank Miller and Brad Meltzer among others.

Media & games related panels include Watchmen, Stargate, Prince of Persia, Star Wars, Spaced, Resident Evil: Degeneration, Ghostbusters, The Wolfman, American Dad, The Spirit, World of Warcraft, The Venture Brothers, 24, Robot Chicken, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow, Eureka and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along among a lot more of other panels.

A highly recommended panel is the Kevin Smith one. I don’t even like his movies, but his panels are hilarious.

Check the full list for Friday here.

For Saturday there is lots of panels to pick from: Ralph Bakshi, Joe Hill, Ben Templesmith, Steve Niles, David Mack, Dean Koontz, J. Michael Straczynski and media events for Futurama, The Simpson, Heroes, Dollhouse, Terminator Salvation, Battlestar Galactica, Pushing Daisies, Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Fringe and Starship Troopers 3.

The full list of panels for Saturday is here.

The New Avengers #39 – Review

By Brian Michael Bendis (writer), David Mack (art), Jose Villarrubia (colors)

Cover artist and Kabuki creator, David Mack sits in for this stand-alone issue of New Avengers! Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this issue’s a bit late because the image of Echo on the cover had to be re-done due to the blatant cover swipe done by David Mack. It’s a good thing, though – the new rendering of Echo is actually more in-line with how she’s drawn within the book’s interior.

Brian Bendis has been setting Secret Invasion up for a while now and this issue acts very much as a precursor (of sorts) to the upcoming mini-series. This small story is very much an Echo and Wolverine story with a dash of Hawkeye thrown in at the end. Most of it is centered around the Skrull menace, and while no Avenger is “outted” as a Skrull, we’re shown what these aliens are capable of and how they go about infiltrating a team like the Avengers. It’s interesting to see, but it’s also something we’ve already seen before in Avengers: Illuminati. We’re also shown a glimpse of a budding romance between Echo and Hawkeye, but to be honest, it all feels a bit tacked on. Even forced.
Not helping matters is David Mack’s art. I know, it’s hard to believe. Maybe I’m just spoiled and used to seeing his beautiful painted stuff, because his pencils and inks here are average – and worse, his storytelling is very mediocre. Those who are keen enough will notice a lot of “lifted” poses for the characters, especially when it comes to the fight scenes. There’s also a double page splash that feels completey wasted and devoid of any kind of energy. Don’t get me wrong, I love David Mack’s body of work but his art in this issue is bad enough to where it detracts from the story.

Consider this issue the calm before the storm. If you’re anticipating Secret Invasion, you’ll want to pick this up just to stay within the loop of things. Everyone else: proceed with caution. (Grade: C-)

– J. Montes

WonderCon 08 – Day 2 Report

It was busy at WonderCon today! Come read the latest installment of our adventures! Featuring a lot of new pics from the convention including X-Files 2, DC’s Trinity, and Iron Man news!

We’ll have another update tomorrow night!

http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/wondercon-2008/

WonderCon 08 – Day 1 Report!

WonderCon 2008 has begun! Check out what went down and the surprises that took place today!

Read the full report below. We’ll have another update tomorrow night!

http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/wondercon-2008/