Daredevil #32 – Review

By: Mark Waid (story), Chris Samnee (art), Javier Rodriguez (colors)

The Story: Daredevil refuses to engage in a monster mash.

The Review: By now, everyone’s heard the news that Waid’s run of Daredevil will all too soon come to an end, right?  It’s a bit unclear what brought about this dismaying change, and even Waid’s own remarks on the matter don’t enlighten us much.  Whatever the reasons, it’s a blow to anyone who’s been enjoying the back-to-basics approach Daredevil has been taking to superhero stories, traversing across a whole range of genres: mystery, sci-fi, adventure, and human drama.

Now you can add comedy to the list, as Waid subverts the rather dark ending of last issue into a farce, with the Jester being the appropriate butt of the joke.  It’s rather brilliant that the Jester does wind up making us laugh, though not, perhaps, in any way he intended.  His attempt to prank Matt in the most painful way possible results in nothing more than puzzled amusement (“What were you trying to accomplish here.  Fail.”), while Jester shrieks in fury, ignorant of his own arrogant presumptions:

Freedom Fighters #8 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Travis Moore (penciller), Trevor Scott (inker), Allen Passalaqua (colorist)

The Story: What does the spirit of America do when it’s angry?  It punches you in the face.

The Review: By all accounts, this is the third series (the first two being minis) featuring the Freedom Fighters and written by the Gray-Palmiotti team.  The minis both had the problem of starting strong, then having the story fall part toward the end.  You’d think with that kind of experience, Gray-Palmiotti would have a firm handle on executing their plotting by now.

As it turns out though, this first story arc winds down just as anticlimactically.

Uncle Sam’s reappearance should have heralded the team getting its act together and taking down the Jester in all-American style.  Instead, his teammates spend the issue KO’ed while Uncle Sam has to finish the job himself.  And despite being a metaphysical concept come to supernatural life, Sam doesn’t have much in the way of skills and powers except a terrific right hook.  It makes for a fairly repetitive fight sequence, that’s for sure.

It doesn’t help Uncle Sam and Jester punctuate their punches with babble about American ideology and politics.  Let’s face it—very few people in general have a firm grasp on political science or the implications of their political beliefs.  If I may be so bold to say it, comic-book writers and readers probably have even less.  Can comics be a medium for political discourse?  Sure.  Superhero comics, not so much—check out Law and the Multiverse for just some of the wacky ways superheroes fly in the face our already jittery laws.

Freedom Fighters #7 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Travis Moore (penciller), Walden Wong (inker), Allen Passalqua (colorist)

The Story: By the power of Paul Revere’s lantern, General Sherman’s sword, and the Arcadians’ helmet of war, I summon the spirit of America!

The Review: The sad truth is cancellations never have a direct relationship to the title’s quality.  Even if an ongoing series is awful, as long as it brings in good money, it’ll survive.  Cancellations only happen when a title doesn’t sell, whether it’s so infamously terrible, hardly anyone can stand it; so flavor-specific, its audience isn’t enough to support it; or so underexposed, it never got on its feet to start with.

Freedom Fighters honestly falls in the middle category.  As a title that enthusiastically embraces its “Rah-rah-America!” nature, it winds up very niche.  We live in an era in which most people aren’t much interested in everyday patriotism except for special occasions.  Comic book readers, being increasingly older, more intellectual individuals, are even less likely to take nationalism seriously, so this title can’t help but come across endearingly sincere, but inescapably silly.

Gray-Palmiotti also make their work harder by attempting to bring in actual politics to the story, which always risks messiness.  The more experience you have in real politics, the more you realize that it’s way more complex and rich than the divide between liberals and conservatives, security versus democracy, which gets played up here.  Being so oversimplified damages the title’s integrity: thoughtful readers dismiss it, naïve readers get misled by it.

Freedom Fighters #6 – Review

By: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (writers), Travis Moore (penciller), Trevor Scott (inker), Rob Schwager (colorist)

The Story: As it turns out, the Freedom Fighters discover, there may be some truth to the whole mutant sewer creatures thing.

The Review: With most superhero teams, writers claim from time to time that such-and-such character is the “heart” of the team—usually a few weeks before killing them off.  After the immediate shock and grief is over, the team usually ends up functioning much like it did before.  But Uncle Sam has been a staple of the Freedom Fighters for so long he truly their emotional center.  You really can’t imagine the team without that tall, lanky, bearded Yankee on their side.

So it’s been interesting seeing Gray and Palmiotti handle Uncle Sam’s absence from the Fighters.  The impact of his “death” kind of got lost at first, what with the team being forced to continue the mission at hand without him.  But with every issue, the team has lost direction, even under the capable leadership of Miss America, until now you’re just longing for Uncle Sam to come back and make everything all right somehow.

It’s great that Gray-Palmiotti are bringing back some of the sticky issues from their original Freedom Fighters miniseries.  After all, the team was formed by some abominably shady forces and for a time operated without much deference to justice or mercy.  Under Uncle Sam’s reformation, they’ve slowly made their way back to respectability, but their actions toward the Jailbreakers this issue show that they’re toeing the line to being ruthless operatives again.

The confrontation between Phantom Lady and Miss America hits all the right points, but there’s some confusion as to who’s to blame for what went down.  Looking back at those earlier scenes, it won’t occur to you Joan doesn’t try her best to be accommodating to their enemies.  In fact, since Stormy’s the one teleporting people to safety, it seems she’d be more responsible for whatever breach of integrity they might have made.  This vilifying of Miss America—especially her coercive attitude toward Doll Man at the end—just comes off a little sudden and forced.