Review: Daredevil - Guardian Devil

Collects: Daredevil V2 #1-#8
Writer: Kevin Smith
Penciller: Joe Quesada

STORY
Matt Murdock's life could be better - his girlfriend Karen left him (again). And as if this wasn't enough, a teenage girl, who somehow knows of his secret identity of Daredevil, wants him to protect her baby. To make matters even better: She claims to have conceived the little boy without having sex! Could he be humanity's newborn savior? Matt tries to find out more about the child and is contacted by a mysterious figure named Nicholas Macabes, who proposes an even more disturbing theory: He claims the baby is the antichrist.

Matt comes into conflict with his deep-rooted catholic faith. But there are more bad news ahead for the blind hero: Foggy is involved in a murder case - as the suspect. And Karen comes back, infected with AIDS. As it seems caused by none other than the baby - wtf?

REVIEW
This was my first exposure to Daredevil and I was more than sceptical. I wasn't impressed by the Affleck-movie, hated all of Kevin Smith's films and never was a friend of Frank Miller's work (there are some exceptions of course), who had a great role in defining this character. Despite this reservations I was completely blown away by "Guardian Devil"!

The plot is a competent mystery story with a twist that doesn't disappoint. Matt's religous issues, his lovelife, his social circle and his vendettas are all masterfully woven in. We get some great action pieces, emotional quiet moments and quirky dialogues. Quesada's pencils capture all these scenes greatly with an especially engaging trip to Dr. Strange's mystic world.

In short: This is everything I want from a comic.

RATING: A

Review: Avengers Disassembled HC

Collects: Avengers #500-#503, Avengers Finale

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Pencillers: David Finch (Avengers #500-#503), Oliver Coipel (Avengers Finale)

STORY

Shit hits the fan at Avengers Mansion: Mysterious attacks decimate the world’s team of super heroes. Tony Stark (USA's current Secretary of Defence) goes nuts in front of the UN. She-Hulk fights her own allies. Somebody obviously messes with our friends. Somebody with the ability to bend reality. Somebody they know…

REVIEW

First of all, let me say this: This isn’t a very good comic. The story seems rushed, the art suffers from David-Finch-syndrome (all characters look exactly the same) and the end is one of this anticlimactic deus-ex-machina-moments. And yet I like it!

"But why", you ask? Because two years ago, when I was searching for an entry point into the Marvel universe, I found it in this comic event. This comic was supposed to be, as I would put it, some kind of "soft reboot". In 2004 many Marvel series were stagnating creatively. So the powers that be decided to infuse them with some fresh blood and provide the readers with a new, easy-to-understand status quo. The series with the greatest need for innovation certainly was "Avengers". For one of Marvel’s flagship titles were put on the back burner for far too long. The team was crowded with C-list characters nobody really cared about. So Bendis did the necessary thing: In just four issues he managed to throw all excess parts of the "Avengers" overboard and to set things up for more exciting stories to come.

But you have to break an egg to make an omelet. And to form a new "Avengers" team you have to disband the former. Naturally some heroes die in the course of this - in one case a fan favorite. Just as naturally, the fans were furious. This is understandable but I had the advantage of not having much of a relationship with most of these characters, so for me these deaths really served their purposes: to set the wheels in motion for the things to come. And boy, the pay-off was great: Many wonderful series and events (like "New Avengers", "Young Avengers" and "House Of M") spun out of this "Avengers Disassembled".

The plot itself was therefore no real issue for me - the execution was. This book is a typical example of the old Bauhaus-principle "form follows function". Bendis obviously knew where he wanted to go with this run, but didn't bother much about how to get there. There isn’t much suspense in this story. It is also very annoying that the Avengers themselves don't have to do much - except for being present. In the end all problems are solved by Dr. Strange - who isn’t even on the cover!

So, in the end this is what the open-minded reader gets: An okay-ish story with some okay-ish character moments, okay-ish action scenes and okay-ish art. But - as I said - it’s the perfect place to hop on the "Avengers" trains. And that’s a ride you don't want to miss.

RATING: C-