Sanctified: A Review of Daredevil #1 (Mild Spoilers)

 written by Saladin Ahmed

drawn by Aaron Kuder

colored by Jesus Aburtov

Another day, another Daredevil reboot.

This time around, Matt Murdock, who literally went down to Hell at the end of Chip Zdarsky's and Marco Checchetto's run and fought actual demons to the death (or whatever constitutes the destruction of demons), has come back to Earth as, of all things...a Catholic priest, one with no memory of his life as a lawyer by day and a costumed crimefighter by night known as Daredevil.  Instead, he attends to the orphanage of St. Nicholas in Hell's Kitchen, an orphanage which is apparently frowned upon by the Catholic Church hierarchy but which manages to stay open thanks to a mysterious benefactor, one whom Matt used to know quite well, and one who is actually watching over him. Unfortunately, someone else is watching over him too, with less benevolent intentions.

I'll say this for this new take on the character: it's different. Matt's been a number of things apart from a lawyer throughout the years. Quite memorably, he was a fry cook after the Kingpin briefly ruined his legal career.  A priest is a new path, one I don't think has been explored yet, so I'm willing to see where Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder, both eminently talented creators, take him with this new direction. I quite like the action sequences that played out here; Kuder's crisp art evokes David Marquez. They treat us to a nicely satisfying done-in-one that leaves the door open for a much bigger story, and I really like storytelling like that. 

That said, I snickered a little at the issue's big showdown; Matt's first opponent is distinctly supernatural, and he defeats it by holding up a "Rosary" and saying...the Act of Contrition?!?  I wasn't exactly looking for "the power of Christ compels you" but this still feels a little out of left field.  Still, full credit to Ahmed for actually having Matt recite a Catholic prayer in its entirety, because it's quite literally one more prayer than was ever uttered in the entirety of Chip Zdarsky's five-year run. Matt's Catholicism is pretty much baked into his character and constantly referred to by his writers, so it's refreshing that one of them actually had him reciting a known Catholic prayer, not to mention tossing out Bible quotes throughout the story.  All that said, it does peeve me that like so many artists before him, Aaron Kuder could not be bothered to learn how to draw a Rosary properly. Oh well. 

Still, the book is off to a much better start that I had thought it would be. 

8/10

Back in Black: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #33

written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Patrick Gleason 

colored by Marcio Menyz

Having been stabbed by Kraven the Hunter with a spear magically imbued with Norman Osborn's evil essence, Spider-Man becomes the darkest version of himself that he has ever been. He dons his black suit once more and sets out to take his revenge on Kraven's clone for his father's act of burying him alive lo those many years ago.   Meanwhile, Norman Osborn tries to stop Peter from trodding a road Norman knows all too well, but he can never catch him in time. 

I was in grade school when Marvel published the highly influential Spider-Man stories "The Death of Jean DeWolff" and "Kraven's Last Hunt" but they were kind enough to reprint them over the years and as a result I was able read them both. In particular, it's "Kraven's Last Hunt" that leaves the greater impression. To my mind it's one of the best Spider-Man stories ever, and I totally get why Marvel is revisiting it with this story. Zeb Wells doesn't even have to do that much this issue besides call up nostalgia from that seminal 80s story, but he deserves props just the same for evoking just the right atmosphere.  

The real star of this issue, though is Patrick Gleason, whose moody art, ably supplemented by Marcio Menyz's color palette pays proper homage to Mike Zeck's and Bob McLeod's fantastic artwork from that story. Visually, this issue is simply flawless to my mind.

Yes, Marvel have done "dark Peter" a number of times before, to varying degrees of success, but there's a different twist to this, and I am really interested to see where they will ultimately take this.

9/10

The End of Good Norman? A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #32

 written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Patrick Gleason

colored by Marcio Menyz

Ever since Nick Spencer purged Norman Osborn of what can best be described as, well, the evil inside him, Marvel has made an interesting game of "what will make him evil again?"  It's a storytelling schtick that may get old at one point, but I have to say, for the moment, I am genuinely enjoying it, much, much more than I did after Dan Slott lobotomized him at the end of his run, the effects of which were almost immediately and quite predictably undone.  It's also given Norman the chance to grow as a  character the same way the remarkable "Superior Spider-Man" mega story arc did wonders for Otto Octavius.  As messy as it got towards the end, in my opinion Nick Spencer's run will be fondly remembered for righting a lot of wrongs in Spider-Man's canon, and for giving readers this interesting little story tidbit. 

In the last four-part story arc it was Otto Octavius who took a crack at restoring Norman to his former evil self by injecting Norman with a hyper-dose of the Green Goblin serum, but now it's the turn of Sergei Kravinoff, aka Kraven the Hunter and Ashley Kafka aka the Queen Goblin...(or clones of those people) to take their shot. Kraven and Kafka have a markedly different reason for wanting to restore Norman's evil ways from Otto, who simply wished to defeat his nemesis as he had remembered him; Kafka became the Queen Goblin because she had been infused with Osborn's evil essence. Through witchcraft, Kraven has extracted it and imbued a spear with it, but the story posits that for Kafka to truly be free, the evil has to be restored to its rightful owner Norman. Also, by restoring Norman to his former self, the Kraven clone intends to give himself a quarry to hunt that would make him worthy of his late father's legacy: the Green Goblin. Kraven sets out for Osborn Industries to accomplish his mission, but Spider-Man intervenes (because of course he would)...and things take a turn.

After the positively flaccid Ms. Marvel story, Marvel has set about to hype up the next big status quo shakeup for Spider-Man, and the developments of this issue must surely play into that. It's nice to see Wells taking the story threads Nick Spencer left by restoring Kraven's death and cleansing Norman Osborn of his evil and weaving something interesting with them. I was a little disappointed at how abrupt Kraven's and Kafka's hookup was (unless it was explored somewhere else), but this story definitely shows promise.

Also, it is great to see Patrick Gleason back on art chores, and I'm glad to know he'll be around for more than just one issue this time.

8.5/10

The Next "Big Thing:" A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #31

written by Zeb Wells

penciled by John Romita, Jr., Emilio Laiso and Ze Carlos

inked by Scott Hanna, Emilio Laiso and Ze Carlos  

(additional stories written and drawn by various)

Yet again, Marvel comes up with an excuse to stuff a bunch of previews for upcoming books into a so-called "landmark" issue and jack up the price. Given that this issue is the 925th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man (following Marvel's so-called "legacy" number) apparently the occasion is worth marking with extra pages of story, even more pages of filler stories and plugs for upcoming books...and a hefty price tag.

The main story is Randy Robertson's wedding to Janice Lincoln. Given that this issue is over a month old by now I'm sure most people know how it went, but I won't spoil anything anyway. It's quite an auspicious event, given that Randy's and Janice's dads Robbie Robertson and Lonnie Lincoln, aka Tombstone, were once mortal enemies, and given that Tombstone is still a crime lord. As one would expect, crazy things happen and Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, as Randy's best man, has to don the webs once more.

Apart from this main story there are a whole bunch of other stories which, if I'm perfectly honest, I don't consider worth discussing considering that they are all basically advertisements for a whole bunch of books I have no intention of buying. All they effectively did was jack up the price of this issue to rather exorbitant heights.  

As much as Zeb Wells' writing has turned me off of late, I thought this story was quite decent; I have genuinely enjoyed how he has handled Tombstone since reestablishing him as a major force upon the book's relaunch in 2022, and with the idiotic death of Ms. Marvel gimmick out of the way perhaps this new "mega arc" he's cooking up can tell a much more compelling story. It doesn't hurt that John Romita, Jr.'s in fine form for this extra-sized issue as are his co-artists Emilio Laiso and Ze Carlos. 

Main story: 8/10

Issue as a whole: 4/10

A REALLY Late Review: The Amazing Spider-Man #30

 written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Ed McGuinness (p) and Mark Farmer (i)

colored by Marcio Menyz

Due to a snafu with the shipping at my local comics shop I wasn't able to get my hands on this issue right away, and so I put off reviewing it, and before I knew it three more issues had come out. I sourced the comic elsewhere so that I could finally give my two cents' worth.

Last issue, Otto Octavius aka Doctor Octopus was just about to inject Norman Osborn with the Green Goblin serum in the hopes of returning him to his former, malevolent state. As this issue starts, he pushes through, albeit not with the expected results. Then, Peter Parker aka Spider-Man arrives on the scene wearing Otto's old arms, and a throwdown quite unlike any other in the history of the book ensues. 

I have to say: I am so very glad Ed McGuiness is on this book because I really was this close to calling it quits after Zeb Wells idiotic stunt involving Ms. Marvel. This four-parter has been a delight to read and I quite enjoy how Wells revisits the whole "Superior Spider-Man" era with Otto and Peter. It's something Marvel will expound on elsewhere, of course, but this story in and of itself is quite satisfying, and Ed is absolutely on the top of his game.  Of course, the story ends making mention of Kamala Khan, who was still dead at that point, and while it made sense to have the characters talk about it, it only reminded me of Marvel's limp marketing gimmick, and took me out of the story if only for a moment. 

Still, this issue was a great ride. 

9.5/10

A Boatload of Fun: A Review of One Piece Season 1

 directed by various

written by various

About a little over a week since its release at the end of August, the live--action adaptation of the wildly popular anime series One Piece (itself an adaptation from a super popular manga series by Eiichiro Oda) had proven to be a runaway hit for Netflix, who produced the show. After getting badly burned by their last live-action adaptation of a beloved anime, Cowboy Bebop, I was extremely hesitant to check out this series.   In fact, I did not immediately finish the first episode because I found it a little long. I had not seen the anime or read the manga and so I had no reference point, but I still had my misgivings. 

After I got around to finishing that first episode, though everything changed.

One Piece, for the uninitiated like myself, takes place in a fictional, oddly anachronistic world which is run by a single government whose security force is a group of baseball-uniform wearing marines and whose biggest threat, apparently, is pirates.  The biggest pirate of them all, Gold Roger (Michael Dorman), is executed at the very beginning of the show and proclaims to the throngs gathered below that his fabled treasure, the One Piece, is theirs for the taking if they have the courage to hit the high seas.  Years later, the young Monkey D. Luffy (played by Inaki Godoy), dreams of finding the One Piece and becoming the new King of the Pirates. He teams up with thief Nami (Emily Rudd) to steal a map of the Grand Line, where the One Piece is believed to be, and on his journey he recruits others to his crew, namely brooding swordsman Roronoa Zoro (Mackenyu), sharpshooter and teller of tall tales Usopp (Jacob Gibson) and chef and martial artist extraordinaire Sanji (Taz Skylar).   Finding the One Piece won't be easy, with other pirates like Buggy (Jeff Ward) and Arlong (McKinley Belcher III) standing in their way, as well as the Marines, led by no less than Luffy's grandfather, Vice-Admiral Garp (Vincent Regan). 

After getting through that first episode, I found myself binge-watching the rest of the eight along with my kids. The show is extraordinarily entertaining and has superb production value. It may have helped that, not having seen the anime, I had no point of reference like I did with Cowboy Bebop, but as a causal fan of anime in general I really got the sense that unlike Bebop, which seemed to treat its source material with disdain, this show wholeheartedly embraced its anime heritage, and all the quirkiness, silliness and occasional cheesiness it entailed.  Sure, some tweaks were needed to the dialogue and story beats here and there, but this series definitely has a distinctly anime sensibility in every single episode.

It helps, I think that the showrunners, headed by Oda himself, has assembled a winning cast headed by the energetic and charismatic Godoy as Monkey D. Luffy, all of whom have fantastic chemistry together, and all of whom are really game for the series' very physical stunt sequences. 

I really immersed myself in this world because the cast and crew were so clearly invested in it, bringing to life an unlikely combination of whimsy and, well, pretty intense violence that must have been a really tough balance to strike. Everything about this production, from the cinematography to the art direction to the fight choreography and visual effects, was quite lovingly rendered, and the love shows. 

The best part was how the first eight episodes tie together and tell a story that gets a satisfying conclusion, even as it clearly sets the stage for much more to come. 

8.5/10

Post-Matt Murdock: A Review of Daredevil #14 (Minor Spoilers)

 written by Chip Zdarsky

drawn by Marco Checchetto

colored by Matt Wilson

In the wake of Daredevil's heroic sacrifice last issue, the people nearest and dearest to him look back fondly on him and can't help but feel like he's still around.  Foggy Nelson, in particular, has moved on, continuing his legal practice, but this time with the assistance of former police officer Cole North who works as his investigator and muscle, and Elektra is trying as best she can not to fall back into her old life of killing people, whether for hire or otherwise, and instead tries to keep Hell's Kitchen safe, as Matt did. Both of them, however, struggle with their loss.

I basically called it when I said in my review of the last issue that this issue, which is also extra-sized, would be spent with the supporting characters mourning the loss of Matt Murdock, though I didn't quite figure on the tease for the new status quo in the last few pages of the issue; I thought it'd be something a lot more coy than that.

Anyway as predictable as this issue's story beats were I liked seeing Foggy Nelson's new status quo with the non-lawyer North as his business partner, which is basically a new twist on Nelson and Murdock.  I may have had my issues with Chip Zdarsky's five-year run on this title, but I think that ex-cop Cole North was one of the truly good things to come out of it. I honestly hope Marvel keep him this way and not power him up through some story contrivance.  

I was less enthused by Elektra carrying on the Daredevil mantle, something she has shared with Matt for a couple of years now, but I do appreciate how Zdarsky has really tried to do something different with her character than what's been written all the years before he came along, where she'd either be stoical or tortured about her past. 

I like that Checchetto is closing out his run with some pretty strong art, the kind that was on full display in the "Devil's Reign" miniseries that remains, for me, the high point of this creative team's now-finished tenure. 

I am genuinely excited to see what Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder can bring to the table in the upcoming series reboot. 

9/10