Art Attack: July 2011's Coolest Covers

-Dale Eaglesham draws a great Puck, but the real beauty of that Alpha Flight cover is the upside down maple leaf as the light through a window (that sentence was heartfelt, but still somehow hilarious to me as I read it back).

-My man Paolo Rivera snags cover artist of the month honors this go around by showing his versatility with two completely contrasting pieces that both incorporate clever side bits. His Amazing Spider-Man cover is in his lush painted style with a playful take on the title placement while his Daredevil employs the more traditional drawn style he'll be using on that series but with the clever little touch of DD taunting us by using his own billy club as a blindfold--love it.

-If there's one thing I've learned compiling these each month, it's that Batman seems to just bring out the best in artists. Whether it's Chris Burnham having him kick English schoolgirls in the face or that striking David Finch traditional pose, the character consistently shines through. And look at Red Hood's head exploding on Guillem March's Batman and Robin!

-Speaking of characters bringing it this month, digging Neal Adams' classic take on Captain America as well as Olivier Coipel's gritty version, as well as Marcos Martin's mischievous Daredevil (have I mentioned that book is going to be amazing?).

-Fantastic Four #1 almost always makes for a great homage, but using Frankenstein and Howard the Duck? Thank you Michael Kaluta.

-Black Bolt has one of the best costume designs ever, Mark Bagley knows how to create beautiful pin-ups--'Nuff Said.

-Did you really think there wouldn't be at least one Dave Johnson cover here?

-Kevin Nowlan's Flashpoint: The Outsider cover is just so weird I can't help but like it.

-I believe the minimalist approach Salva Epsin took on Generation Hope will really pop on the stands.

-Thank you Tony Moore for keeping the streak of rad Venom covers alive.

ALPHA FLIGHT #2 by Dale EagleshamAMAZING SPIDER-MAN #665 by Paolo RiveraAMERICAN VAMPIRE #17 by Rafael AlbuquerqueBATMAN AND ROBIN #25 by Guillem MarchBATMAN BEYOND #7 by Dustin NguyenBATMAN INCORPORATED #9 by Chris BurnhamBATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT #4 by David FinchCAPTAIN AMERICA #1 by Neal AdamsCAPTAIN AMERICA #1 by Olivier CoipelDAREDEVIL #1 by Marcos MartinDAREDEVIL #1 by Paolo RiveraDARK TOWER: THE GUNSLINGER - THE BATTLE OF TULL #1 by Michael LarkFEAR ITSELF: DEADPOOL #2 by Ryan StegmanFEAR ITSELF: FEARSOME FOUR #2 by Michael KalutaFF #6 by Mark BagleyFLASHPOINT: BATMAN - KNIGHT OF VENGEANCE #2 by Dave JonhsonFLASHPOINT: DEADMAN AND THE FLYING GRAYSONS #2 by Cliff ChiangFLASHPOINT: THE OUTSIDER #2 by Kevin NowlanGENERATION HOPE #9 by Salva EspinHELLBLAZER #281 by Simon BisleyINVINCIBLE IRON MAN #506 by Salvador LarrocaRED SKULL #1 by David AjaUNCANNY X-FORCE #12 by Esad RibicUNCANNY X-FORCE: FEAR ITSELF #1 by Simone BianchiVENOM #5 by Tony Moore

The Definitives: Daredevil

So the first issue of Shadowland is in stores this week, and I am excited.

I mean, I’m excited because I work at Marvel and also have already read the issue plus know a bit of what’s ahead, so I know it’s going to be a fun ride, but that aside, as a fan, this kind of “street level heroes event” is an idea I know I’ve kicked around with my buddies for years and wager similar discussions have taken place in other comics-reading circles, so it’s neat that it’s happening. It’s also under the capable guidance of three stellar in editors in Steve Wacker, Tom Brennan and Alejandro Arbona, so the pedigree on this baby is solid.

With the story making Daredevil a central figure in a world he’s typically on the fringe of, I thought this might be a good time to give DD some love with my favorite tales of The Man Without Fear. Truth be told, I’ve come close to pulling the trigger on this particular Definitives a few times but backed down since I kinda figure everybody has the same handful of classics in mind when it comes to Daredevil; but giving it some thought, maybe that’s not the case as I’ve come to discover there’s far more great material on the character than I once believed—much of which I likely won’t even cover here—and even if there’s some overlap, so what, good comics is good comics.

And these are good comics.

“Badlands”
My favorite standalone stand alone story—and quite possibly my favorite story period—in Daredevil’s history doesn’t have Matt Murdock putting on the costume at all or even speaking a single word. The premise is pretty short, sweet and simple: the first part of the story sets up a corrupt hellhole of a town in New Jersey, the rest is a blind man riding in and cleaning things up. It’s not unlike a vintage Western flick, except it really taps into the essence of Daredevil and is a nice primer if you don’t know the character and just want the bare bone essentials that run beneath even the red suit and bill clubs. No surprise it’s written by Frank Miller, the guy who essentially made Daredevil relevant (and his own career in the process). The art comes from one of my all-time favorites, John Buscema, and captures the feel of despair as well as hard-won triumph as only he could.

“Born Again”
While I by no means didn’t enjoy the aforementioned Mr. Miller’s first run on Daredevil, I’m certainly not as into it as many other folks; I’m more impressed by the elements he lays out that have since become so coded into the character’s DNA and the rapid evolution of his work, but to me it does read like work by a guy just hitting his stride as opposed to a more seasoned pro. Probably for those reasons, I’m a much bigger fan of Miller’s return engagement on the book a few years later with “Born Again.” Nowadays, the whole systematic deconstruction of a hero’s life in order to build him back up later stronger and more resolved is far more commonplace in general and also seems to happen to Daredevil pretty much yearly, but Miller did it first and in my opinion still did it best. For me it’s not the ninja stuff or Catholic overtones that finally separated Daredevil once and for all from being the second rate Spider-Man he started out as, but that ability to walk the line of utter despair partly into insanity then emerge from the other end as an even bigger bad ass the likes of which Spidey could never hope to be. This story absolutely made The Kingpin as it’s pretty scary how handily he dismantles Matt’s existence, plus we get that amazing sequence with the Avengers and Nuke that clearly demonstrates why Daredevil can hang with the A-list of Marvel. Also, it should probably go without saying, but David Mazzucchelli’s art is tremendous.

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear
The third and final Frank Miller entry on my little list and what I think most people consider to be the definitive telling of Daredevil’s origin. In many cases when creators go back and try to flesh out a Silver Age origin told in 15 pages to a five-issue saga, it falls flat because often time the original telling was elegant in its simplicity and there’s really nothing more that needs to be said. However, in this case Miller had already basically taken the Matt Murdock that Stan Lee had built and reinvented him from the ground up in stories set years after his genesis; this was just grounding all those cosmetic changes a bit more solidly and making the transfer of ownership more or less official. The early stuff with Matt and his dad is pivotal, but the series really hits its stride when Elektra is introduced. This was the story that finally after many years helped me get the appeal of the Elektra-Daredevil romance, in that it was not the stuff of fairytales as comic book relationships often are, but instead a case of two people stuck on horribly violent paths able to find solace in one another for a fleeting moment that they’re going to spend the rest of their lives attempting to regain. This was also the work that converted me to being a John Romita Jr. fan after not getting him at all on Uncanny X-Men; his cartoonishly imperfect figures and tremendous depth of linework suited the tone of the story so perfectly and made me both re-evaluate all his stuff I’d written off before as well as eat up everything he’s done since.

“Guardian Devil”
This is a “greatest hits” story done right by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. It’s got pretty much every character and element—except for Elektra and I guess Typhoid Mary—who has played an important role in Daredevil’s life up to the point it was written (Kingpin, Bullseye, Karen Page, Black Widow, Mephisto and Foggy Nelson all put in appearances), but they are all used to advance a completely new and dynamic story, not just to show up, get beat up/made out with and then not mentioned again. I just re-read this very recently and despite knowing how it all ends was just really impressed with Smith’s capabilities as a mystery-weaver in addition to his skills writing comedy and action, not to mention those heady religious and personal issues DD and his cast must contend with. Quesada totally found his sweet spot drawing Daredevil as the shadows and acrobatics alone really allowed him to open up and play the way he likes to as well as turn in some of his best stuff. I don’t want to dwell too much on many more details as this is a story I think deserves a look from those who may have skipped straight from Miller to Bendis and so much of the good stuff is in the slow unraveling of the plot, but it’s really high quality stuff with incredible human drama.

Daredevil: Yellow
In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve never actually read the original Silver Age run of Daredevil, but it’s not something I’m in any great rush to dive into as obviously there was a need for pretty drastic reinvention by the 80’s and also because the character’s earliest appearance in old Spider-Man comics I did check out recently didn’t exactly blow my mind. However, I did think Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s brief visit to Matt Murdock’s early days as part of their “color” series was a neat perspective on a different kind of Marvel character. As with Spider-Man: Blue and Hulk: Grey, Daredevil: Yellow focuses on the hero of the piece and a lost love from more innocent days, which in this case is Karen Page. But while the romance element is fine and dandy, I think Loeb’s greatest accomplishment in this series is providing a bridge of sorts between the Lee and Miller takes on Daredevil, showing Matt’s attempts to be a more lighthearted swashbuckler but how in private he’s such a different and worn out kind of hero from the start and the pronounced strain that façade puts on him. Sale is at his finest here and it’s cool that they went with the barely-used original yellow costume both because it gives him more avenues to explore and also he really makes it his own.

Daredevil by Brian Michael Bendis & Alex Maleev
There’s no one story from Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev’s five-year run on Daredevil that stands out as being the most important of the bunch for me, and I think that’s a testament to their work, as they really did create an epic that spanned nearly 60 issues and pretty much avoided the valleys in favor of if not constant peaks that at the very least consistent high quality. Bendis redefined the character of Matt Murdock almost as powerfully as Miller did, but in far more subtle ways from his language to his more primal way of dealing with adversity. In a medium where the bulk of the protagonists fly or swing above humanity, Bendis really grounded Daredevil as a hero of the people, one as capable of terrible violence as he is of great empathy. For his part, Maleev has absolutely created the modern template for how Daredevil is supposed to look with his grainer, darker more realistic and painterly style; a DD who looked too far askew from the way Alex Maleev drew him in this day and age just would not feel right. Bendis and Maleev were very bold with Daredevil, recognizing the great potential that the character has always had to be a proving ground for creators on the rise and not resting on the laurels of the work Miller and his contemporaries did, instead forging their own way; the reverberations of their work is still being felt today and likely will continue to be for some time to come.

“Daredevil” The Movie
It was awesome.

My Five Favorite Marvel Legends (That I Own)

While my Marvel Legends collection doesn’t come close to rivaling my Flash figure army, I do try and grab one for the home team whenever I’m at a convention or see a sale at a toy store, a task made pretty easy by the fact that I really dig this line.

Though I don’t have the cash to be the completist I’d like to be when it comes to Legends, I’ve still got my favorites and the ones I either found cheap or can’t remember why I bought them (well, I got Emma Frost and X-23 for Megan because she liked them; I’m not sure why I have a Beta Ray Bill—oh right: BECAUSE HE’S A HORSE WITH THOR’S POWERS).

This is the part where I ask my friends who know way more about toys and how to write about them to humor me…

HONORABLE MENTION: NOVA
I’ll be honest: I’m not as over the moon about the Nova figure as I should be given that it’s a Nova figure, however, as I just said, it’s a Nova figure, so it’s still pretty awesome and thus gets an honorable mention. I also dig that they went with the classic costume.

HONORABLE MENTION: DAREDEVIL
I waffled a few times on whether DD was number five or not, but it ultimately comes down to the fact that at least 60% of what makes the figure cool is the neat stained glass window display I can hang him on my wall with, so it’s almost like he used a performance enhancer.

5. THE THING
You can’t pose or move The Thing around much, but you don’t need to because he’s a big, bad ass looking rock dude who stands out amongst your collection no matter where you plop him down. One of my favorite head sculpts of the whole series, as something about those eyes and that scowl really capture the character perfectly. Also, his broken wall backdrop is generic, but for whatever reason, it works.

4. CAPTAIN MARVEL
Despite no particular interest in the character himself besides a barely cursory one, I think Captain Marvel’s blue, red and gold costume is easily one of the best designs maybe of all time, so a figure that gets it right as this one does is a guaranteed hit for me. Little details like the starburst and Nega-Bands being just the right shade of gold to stand out but not overwhelm are the icing on the cake. I also like that he’s pretty easy to pose and you can go with either the arms akimbo or “looking off into space” look (I chose the latter).

3. BULLSEYE
Another great costume that thrives on simplicity, another translation Marvel Legends did seamlessly. You’d think a basic black and white color scheme would be tough to screw up and easy to ace, but the way the lines on Bullseye’s suit jump out rather than blend in, particularly around his neck and shoulder, show how the right craftsmen can use the simplest tools to make magic. That super-pissed off look is the biggest component to both making the figure pop and also infusing the character’s personality right in there; there’s an even angrier variant out there, but this one does it for me.

2. HAWKEYE
One of my favorite characters, another of my favorite costumes, and thus of course one of my favorite Marvel Legends (and among the first I ever got). Unlike some of the other figures I just mentioned, Hawkeye does have a lot of intricacies to his look, and the folks who made the figure are exacting down to every nook, cranny and piece of chainmail; something as seemingly trivial as using rubber for the flap that hangs off his tunic rather than a harder plastic really makes a difference—don’t ask me why. But the best thing about Hawkeye is, of course, his accessories, which include a full quiver of trick arrows highlighted by one with a tiny Ant-Man hanging off it. The one downside to Hawkeye is he’s a bitch to pose, but once you get the right one, if you just leave it alone, he looks great.

1. IRON FIST
As with most material possessions I value above other similar objects, I probably can’t tell you precisely why Iron Fist is my favorite Marvel Legend that I own, he/it just kinda is. Again, great costume, but not necessarily better than Captain Marvel’s or Hawkeye’s. He also has a cool pose—vintage Kung Fu—but not so much cooler than others. The flame fist accessory is a nice touch, but it’s no Ant-Man arrow (he also comes with more flames that I’m not sure how they fit on the figure, so they’re just lying around my house somewhere). Yet, for whatever reason, when I look at all my Marvel Legends, Iron Fist is the first one that catches my eye. Maybe it’s that yellow and green are such an odd and ostentatious color scheme? Maybe it’s that he’s got a big ass collar and giant v-neck? Who knows, but I know what I like, and I like this figure.

Hallmarks of the Silver Age part two

Picking up from where we left off...

1963: Iron Man
It’s possible 1963 may have been Marvel’s biggest year of the Silver Age, with Doctor Strange making his debut and both the Avengers and X-Men coming together while the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Thor and the Hulk all continued to churn forward, introducing new villains and supporting characters as they went. However, I place Iron Man at the head of the class for this one, and would have done so even without the character’s recent big screen success (though that certainly doesn’t hurt). Just as Thor did with fantasy, Iron Man introduced the realm of technology into super hero comics in a way not done before; yeah, heroes and more often villains often wielded fancy weapons of some sort or another, but Iron Man was really the first high profile comic book character who relied solely on technology to provide him with his “powers,” with invention and innovation playing a huge part in his ongoing adventures. On the human side of the coin, Tony Stark was in many ways Bruce Wayne done over Marvel styles, with the same crazy wealth and playboy persona—though his was not a front—but also with his feet firmly planted in the clay of hubris and the unawareness of the idle rich. Iron Man was a richly flawed character from the start, and he’s never really completely reformed his ways, but he has persevered as a good guy in spite of them, which makes him a compelling character. It’s also worth noting that few tropes in super hero lore have been re-used as often as “guy in a suit of armor,” but not other similar character comes close to Iron Man’s success and popularity.

As a recently enlightened Doctor Strange fan, I was tempted to consider Doc here almost on the strength of Steve Ditko’s visuals alone—coupled with being comics’ most prominent magic-wielder—but like how Thor and Hulk get eclipsed by Spider-Man, so too does Strange by Iron Man. The Avengers was just the Justice Society or Justice League done Marvel style, with all the biggest names coming together, and while it’s proven a vital franchise, there wasn’t much innovation behind it and unlike with the year the JLA was created, there was actual competition here. The idea of misfit heroes embodied by the X-Men and Doom Patrol, both created in this year, took Spider-Man’s plight somewhat to the next level, but the latter have never really managed to hit it big, and the former have succeeded not really in much part due to its original incarnation.

1964: Daredevil
Way before the likes of Frank Miller, Brian Michael Bendis, et al. came along to reinvent him into Marvel’s hard-luck kid and most hardboiled costumed hero, Daredevil was in many ways a sort of second rate Spider-Man, ripping off his counterparts acrobatic moves, witty repartee and other trademark qualities in hopes of lightning striking twice. It was a success in some regard as DD remained a viable star who could support his own ongoing series until the 80’s where his renaissance took place, but he never achieved Spidey’s success, nor could he really be expected to given that he basically inherited all his big brother’s hand-me-downs. However, it’s not like Daredevil just exploded two decades after his creation without there being anything there, as Stan Lee, Bill Everett and their collaborators certainly invented a unique protagonist and took some pretty significant risks in his realization. The idea that a hero with a major handicap like blindness would swim as opposed to sink with an audience chiefly composed of young boys who were highly unlikely to find such a setback sexy or appealing certainly could have been enough to shoot the idea down, but Daredevil’s creators persevered and indeed his unique standing as comics’ first and most well-known blind hero—though not the last—laid the groundwork that gave Miller somewhere to start and that has always set him apart from his contemporaries enough to keep him noticed. Major credit must also go to artist Wally Wood, who created one of the medium’s sleekest, coolest looks by modifying DD’s somewhat gaudy original yellow togs into that slick red costume.

The other most significant creations of 1964 were both villains: Spider-Man’s true archnemesis the Green Goblin, and the Justice League’s evil counterparts the Crime Syndicate; both have endured and made for some excellent stories, but neither rates above Daredevil.

1965: The Inhumans
While both Marvel and DC were thriving in terms of the ongoing adventures of their existing characters, 1965 was a bit of a lean year for new characters in comics. However, I’d tag Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s introduction of the Inhumans in the pages of the Fantastic Four as being the most noteworthy new arrival. Though nobody has ever found quite the perfect recipe to making the Inhumans true headliners—though Paul Jenkins made a damn good case—so many creators come back to them time and again wanting to give it a shot because the characters possess some intrinsic quality that makes them quite appealing. I’d say a large part of that can be attributed to Kirby doing some of the finest design work of a remarkable career, particularly with Black Bolt, whose costume has few peers when it comes to sheer radness. The bizarre and intriguing mix of personalities and powers within an extended family unit also presents an irresistible hook for fans and inviting challenge to writers and artists.

Speaking of great looks, the bizarre Metamorpho also hit the scene in 1965 and parallels the Inhumans somewhat in terms of being a consistently popular character with both fans and creators who has never really reached that upper echelon. These days Donna Troy is better known as being the greatest symbol of continuity’s potential damage, but years before her first retcon she was significant as the first female sidekick who really stuck.

1966: The Black Panther
This was maybe the toughest call of this little exercise, as three pretty iconic and impressive characters all debuted as part of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s ongoing Fantastic Four tour de force in 1966, but at the end of the day, I’ve got to go with the Black Panther. Obviously the major consideration here is that he’s the first African-American hero who really broke through comics’ color barrier and emerged as a legitimate star, but that aside, T’Challa really is a pretty great character on merits aside from that as well. The concept of the warrior king was hardly a new one in either comics or fiction in general by the time Lee and Kirby created the Panther, but I’ve always liked the way they made him a thinker first and fighter second—a trend pretty much every subsequent creator handle the character has continued and improved—who had an edge over opponents who outmatched him based on his ability to keep his cool and strategize. The idea of a technologically-advanced civilization in the middle of Africa may not have been born with Wakanda, but certainly Lee and Kirby gave this particular fictional nation more spark than any others. Ultimately though, great character or not, the Black Panther will always be most remembered for being a trendsetting black character not only due to his coming first (or darn close), but also for the respectability he has garnered.

The other guys I had under consideration for 1966 were the cosmic duo of Galactus and the Silver Surfer, introduced in perhaps the best Lee-Kirby collaboration ever. The Silver Surfer is one of the most incredibly tragic figures in all of comics, Galactus is the amazing realization of two of the medium’s most epic minds working at their biggest scope and both sport, again, great Kirby designs, an had they just been introduced a couple months earlier they would have been shoo-ins; oh well.

1967: Batgirl
While Wonder Woman has always been recognized somewhat de facto as DC’s top female character—and the biggest female character in comics history—I daresay the Barbara Gordon incarnation of Batgirl is not only more affable in many ways, but has also left a more fondly remembered impression on a wider audience (within comics at least; despite Yvonne Craig’s best efforts, she can’t topple Lynda Carter on her best day). At first thought, the idea of a teenage girl slipped into the grim world of Batman may seem an odd fit, and during some periods it would have been, but Barbara came about during the Dark Knight’s more innocent Silver Age days and acclimated perfectly. In the long view though, just as Robin gave Batman a necessary counterbalance to his darkness in the Golden Age, Batgirl added a just as crucial element of renewed enthusiasm as the 60’s began to wind down. With a great costume and that neat link to the civilian side of Gotham as Commissioner Gordon’s daughter, Barbara gained an acceptance among male fans many female characters never enjoy—and was probably the first crush for more than a few—and was certainly also a more than decent role model to young girls with her pluck, independent spirit and ingenuity. Her translation to various forms of multimedia (Alicia Silverstone aside) also demonstrates the character’s enduring value.

1967 also saw Steve Ditko leave the Marvel nest definitively with his creation of The Question perhaps his best-known character from outside the House of Ideas and another chance for him to explore his fascination with the ideals of right and wrong. Vic Sage has become a neat vessel for creators like Denny O’Neil to play with over the years and benefits from strong roots put in place by Ditko.

1968: Franklin Richards
As you’ve no doubt gathered by reading this list (and likely by being a comic book fan), a lot of first took place in the pages of Fantastic Four, including the first time two teammates entered into a lasting marriage, followed in 1968 by the Invisible Girl giving birth to Franklin Richards, the first child of super heroes after a fashion. Certainly Franklin has not always been the most beloved character, but his continued presence (and lack of aging—save for time travel hijinx) in the FF’s world over the last 30 years both speaks to a core of quality and the fact that once again Fantastic Four is not quite like most other comics. Some creators have also done some pretty neat stuff with Franklin over the years—not just in terms of Chris Eliopoulos’ laudable all-ages efforts, but in the Marvel Universe proper as well—including current FF scribe and major Franklin fan Jonathan Hickman.

Two other enduring figures who showed up in Avengers during 1968 were the yin and yang of the Marvel robotic set, Ultron and the Vision, with one becoming an implacable villain who has become only more terrifying with time and the other carving a niche as a unique hero and touching examination of humanity’s nature.

1969: Black Canary
DC wrapped the Silver Age as it had begun it: by taking a Golden Age concept, applying some polish, and creating a new superstar. In this case, the elevation was done in the form of Dinah Laurel Lance, the second and more well-known Black Canary. Though at the time the Canary was thought to simply be the same lady from the 1940’s migrating over from Earth-2 to Earth-1 following the death of her husband, she immediately displayed a new take-charge personality in fitting with the rising feminist movement, and we would learn years later via retcon this was in fact the daughter of the heroine who served in the Justice Society, so we’ll go ahead and recognize her first appearance as being in 1969. Regardless of her origins, the revitalized Black Canary represented a new breed of female characters who didn’t need the powers of Wonder Woman to break out of the role of damsel in distress, and gave the Justice League a feminine counter to the similarly non-powered Batman and Green Arrow. The romance between Arrow and Canary would also quickly become one of the most intense and popular in comics, opening up a whole new world in the 70’s.

Across the street at Marvel, Stan Lee and Gene Colan gave Captain America a new partner who couldn’t be more different from his original teen sidekick Bucky: the street-smart, mature, high-flying Falcon, who also happened to be a black man. Written with a combination of savvy and passion by Lee and successors, Falcon would prove popular enough to share billing with Cap on his series for several years.

Well this was fun and educational for me, so I hope you all dug it—anybody wanna see me tackle the 70’s next?

In defense of the Daredevil movie

One (possibly) balmy evening in February of 2003, my college chum Tim Stevens and I set out to our local Connecticut cinema to take in the Daredevil feature film. Both of us comic nerds of the highest degree, we weren't sure what to expect, as it was still early yet in the New Golden Age of Super Hero Cinema and strikeouts came as frequently as homers.

103 minutes later we exited in giddy amazement, feeling we had witnessed an incredible achievment in moviemaking that would vault the Man Without Fear into mainstream legend and make Ben Affleck billions of dollars.

The very next day, we coaxed several of our friends into seeing Daredevil with us for the second time in two days and we were jonesing for another hit after less than 24 hours and eager to share the wonder with our brethren. Imagine then our disappoinment when after we enjoyed the movie even more the second time we were greeted by our cohorts with at best "Meh" and at worst comments not suitable for print.

For six years now I have been trying to figure out why comic fandom and the world did not embrace Daredevil as Tim and I did. Why was this flick that we loved shunned by the folks who made the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises into multimedia juggernauts?

The easy answer for me at first thought was that I simply was never that into Daredevil as a character pre-movie, so maybe my lack of attachment and veneration made it easy for me to overlook liberties taken or missteps in the comics-to-film translation. However, Tim was (and is) one of the biggest DD fans I know, so that wouldn't fly.

Some have told me Daredevil is guilty of trying to cram too much story into too little time (you've got the origin as well as large portions of pretty much everything Frank Miller did plus bits and pieces from Kevin Smith and others' runs as well). However, I was pretty impressed at the job writer/director Mark Steven Johnson did with that compression. I thought the use of flashback to get the origin and other stuff told then still end up at the big action climaxes without heels having to be dragged was top notch work.

I've also heard complaints about Ben Affleck's performance as Matt Murdock, and this may well be a case of me not having a huge ingrained fondness for the character as I mentioned, but I thought my fellow Bostonian did DD justice. Affleck is a long-noted real deal fan of comics in general and Daredevil in particular, and I thought that enthusiasm showed through in his performance as he seemed both to be having a blast and also very concerned about getting the portrayal right. I enjoyed his balance of brooding and wit as well as the way he made Murdock, very much a blue collar hero, as relatable and down-to-earth as his character in Good Will Hunting.

The rest of the cast ranged from quite impressive to at least passable in my view as well. I maintain that Colin Farrell's Bullseye is one of the great unsung cinematic super villains, as he threw himself into the character's manic quirks with reckless abandon and ended up creating a weird cousin to Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow that I thought fit perfectly into the larger tapestry of the film. Jennifer Garner's Elektra may be the weak link of the bunch and certainly bears little resemblance to the bad ass broad from the comics, but she hardly sank the plot, held up her end of the romance, looked good and had great chemistry with Affleck (which obviously makes sense in retrospect). Michael Clarke Duncan was obviously a departure from the classic Kingpin, but he's pretty scarcely used anyhow and carries himself like a fucking monster (he certainly looks like one), so that was fine with me too. Jon Favreau was scene-stealer as Foggy Nelson, Joe Pantoliano was good cavalry as Ben Urich, and hey, Ellen Pompeo didn't forget her line as Karen Page. Even journeyman actor David Keith pitched in a nice heart-wrencher as poor ol' Jack Murdock.

Perhaps Daredevil was just a bit too over-the-top and didn't take itself seriously enough for some people, and I get that. In the comics, from Frank Miller on the character and his series have been a borderline noir saga of a guy who is constnatly having shit end up terribly for him, from every romance he gets into ending tragically to his career being in constant jeopardy, etc. Folks expecting that probably weren't ready for Matt Murdock and Elektra having a flippy fight on a children's playground in broad daylight or Bullseye killing an oldy lady on an airplane with complimentary peanuts or every time Ben Affleck tried to do a tough guy voice. But y'know what? I loved that the movie didn't get too far into the grim and gritty. At the end of the day, this is still a genre about guys running around in spandex, and I've got no beef with a movie being a little goofy and overwrought as long as it's still entertaining, which I feel Daredevil certainly is.

One thing I really can't understand (and to be fair haven't heard much of) is complaints about the action sequences or fight scenes in Daredevil. From the choreography to the use of effects (at first I thought all the CGI rooftop stuff was better-suited for Spider-Man until I realized it looked awesome) to film geek stuff like the lighting and color (the contrast of Daredevil's red suit against the flames when he sets Josie's bar on fire looks amazing) it all kicks ass in my mind. Every time DD locks figurative and literal horns with Bullseye or briefly at the end with Kingpin, there's a street-level intensity among the graceful ballet of violence you don't typically see much outside of say The Dark Knight. All the performers more than carried their weight when it came to physicality and Johnson pulled it all together nicely.

The minor quibbles from Johnson ripping off The Crow with the flaming DD symbol (I love The Crow too, so I don't care) to Elektra getting beat too easily (Jennifer Garner made a good job at convincing me she had a shot against Bullseye but not that much) I can't really even both to argue against. I more remember the cool ways they found to portray Daredevil's radar sense or the numerous continuity winks Johnson threw in (Stan Lee, Frank Miller and Kevin Smith cameos as well as numerous throwaway character and locale names) or the fact that Matt Murdock actually goes through a real hero's journey over the course of the story in having to learn the difference between vengeance and true justice.

And yeah, those fucking Evanescence songs got in my head too; I didn't mind.

End of the day, Daredevil stands up as a rad movie, super hero or otherwise, in my book, and as I've demonstrated here, I stand by that conviction.

As an ending coda, I will say that both Tim and I screened separately the movie for our then-girlfriends/now-wives and they both loved it. Perhaps Daredevil has more value still as a romantic compatiblity barometer, which just makes it even more awesome.

Bullseye.