DAREDEVIL BY ED BRUBAKER & MICHAEL LARK ULTIMATE COLLECTION VOL. 2 (Marvel, 2012; Softcover)
Collects
Daredevil
Nos.
94-105 (cover
dates April, 2007- April, 2008)
Writer:
Ed Brubaker
Artists:
Michael Lark (Penciler), Paul Azaceta (additional Penciler
#103-105), Stefano Gaudiano (Inker), Tom Palmer (additional Inker
#104), and issue 100 hallucination sequences by Marko
Djurdjevic, John Romita, Sr., Al Milgrom, Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex
Maleev, and Lee Bermejo
Colorists:
Matt Hollingsworth with additional coloring by Paul Mounts
(#103), Dean White (#100), and Stefano Gaudiano (#100)
Poor
Matt Murdock. Things go from bad to worse for ol' Daredevil this time
out. He may be a free man who has fooled some of the public into
thinking that he is not Daredevil, but every villain knows the score
and is intent on making him and his loved ones pay. His wife, Milla
Donovan, is the target this time out.
We
see lots of great vintage villains throughout this book, from the
Gladiator to the Enforcers to Mister Fear. Mister Fear is the main
adversary for Daredevil this time out, and I never pegged him as a
big leaguer until now. Neither did The Hood for that matter. I loved
seeing the Wrecking Crew working separately and together, as I have
always been a sucker for them. Blame it on the original Secret
Wars mini-series.
As
always, Brubaker brings the goods, resulting in a bleary eyed morning
the next day. I usually don't start reading comic books until my kids
go to sleep, maybe around 9 o'clock. I could not put the book down,
having to stay up well past my bedtime to finish it. Like any late
night that was worth it, I have no regrets. Michael Lark and Matt
Hollingsworth's hard-edged pencil and color art perfectly compliment
the white-knuckled proceedings.
Issue
100 was great, featuring a drugged/gassed Daredevil hallucinating and
reliving various parts of his life, or warped versions of them at
least. His hallucinations are all done by different artists (listed
above), and I loved it. I guess the kids would call this a “comic
jam”.
Daredevil is pushed to his outermost edge, and you see more and more cracks in his sanity with each new twist. I am happy that this run lives on through collected editions. In the bad old days this run would have came and went, and as Ed Brubaker's fame grew and word circulated at how good this run was, everyone would be scrambling for however many copies of each issue existed. The result would be expensive back issues, or at least 2-3 times cover price, none of which the creators or Marvel would have seen a dime of. I do not miss going to comic shops and digging through back issue boxes one bit. Someone hurled an insult at us trade waiters as “couch potato comic fans”. Us so-called trade waiters mock the floppy buyers. Can't we all just get along?
Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.
The
OCD zone- I love these chunky trade paperbacks.
DVD-style
Extras included in this book: (All 1 page
unless otherwise noted.)
Daredevil
#100 variant cover by Lee Bermejo
Daredevil
#100 variant cover by Michael Turner
Daredevil
#94 cover inks by John Romita, Sr.
Daredevil
#96 cover sketch by Marko Djurdjevic
Daredevil
#97 cover sketch by Marko Djurdjevic
Daredevil
#98 and 99 cover sketches by Marko
Djurdjevic
Daredevil
#100 cover process by Marko
Djurdjevic (2 pages)
Daredevil
#100 wrap cover presented as a
single shot vertically.
Paper
rating: 5 out of 5. This book boasts some thick glossy coated
stock paper.
Binding
rating: 4 out of 5. Perfect bound trade paperback. The binding
always seems more solid on these chunky trade paperbacks than it does
on the skinnier ones. I have no idea why, and I'm not saying that I
am correct about it, but that's how it seems to me.
Cardstock
cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. As always, nice laminated cardstock that is scuff resistant and should help to ensure a
lifetime of reading enjoyment when handled with reasonable care.
so do you have any opinions on the bendis daredevil?.
ReplyDeleteNope. I've never read it, nor do I have any plans to.
Delete