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Wonder Woman #33 – Review

Posted on July 30, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Brian Azzarello (story), Cliff Chiang (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Among other things, Diana is queen of rejection.

The Review: Just a word of warning that there’ll be delays in reviews this week. It’s Bar Exam times in California, so at least you’ll know that I’m not shirking my semi-duties for the fun of it. Believe me when I tell you that I would much rather be spending my day discussing Wonder Woman with you guys. But since that can’t be, we’ll just have to content ourselves with this passing, though potentially enlightening, review.

I don’t much like monsters for villains, except in cartoons. They’re easy to hate and kill, but that’s not a very interesting use of a character. Needless to say, I’ve had my issues with the First Born as the main antagonist for this series. When his ultimate goal is simply to destroy everything—not for any particular reason other than just to make sure everything’s destroyed—there’s not much more you can do with him except hope his defeat comes sooner rather than later.
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Daredevil #6 – Review

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Mark Waid (story) Javier Rodriguez (art), Alvaro Lopez (inks)

The Story: It’s a whole new low of villainy when nuns are your victims.

The Review: Even though I’ve picked up quite a few Marvel titles in the last year, I can’t say I’ve decamped altogether from my DC leanings. Case in point, I’m always up-to-date on the major going-ons in the DCU even if I’m not reading any of the relevant titles. Not so with Marvel. Lately, I’ve seen Original Sin stamped all over the place, but I still have almost no idea what it’s about. Something to do with somebody blabbing crucial secrets that makes everyone miserable?

Fortunately, Waid gives me just enough to understand the spark for this current arc, in which we reverse course from Matt’s bright, bouncy adventures in San Fran back to the grim, soul-sucking investigations of New York City. Actually, in terms of crossover premises, Original Sin is very promising in that it allows each participant to deal with the ramifications of their personal revelation on their own, no interference or collaboration with extraneous characters necessary. Now, that’s a crossover idea I can get behind.
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Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Saga #21 – Review

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Brian K. Vaughan (story), Fiona Staples (art)

The Story: Usually, the revelation of your newborn son involves less homicide.

The Review: As I said last issue, the core of Saga is maintaining a typical domestic drama within a highly fantasized universe. For the most part, Vaughan succeeds in this endeavor; some of the series’ best, most poignant moments have been sympathizing with Alanna and Marko in managing their in-laws, debating the upbringing of their child, worrying over the staling of their lifestyle. Many’s the time when you overlook the galactic war around them altogether.

But always, in the background of things, the war quietly exerts pressure on the story when it’s not drawing them in outright. Almost every single character in Saga wants to live an ordinary life, and it’s always the war that gets in their way. If not for the Landfall-Wreath conflict, Alanna, Marko, and Klara could live openly and take any opportunity that comes their way, instead of settling for less. Prince Robot could have his idyllic family vacation by the sea, instead of it existing merely as a hopeless dream.
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Batman and Robin #33 – Review

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Friends don’t let friends fight evil gods alone.

The Review: I’m not a hardcore Bat-fan, but I can definitely see his massive appeal.* Despite his mortal frame, the man goes toe-to-toe alongside and against some of the most powerful forces in the universe and doesn’t even bat an eye—yes, pun intended. That kind of courage, guts, pluck, whatever you’d like to call it, always puts him on the verge of open conflict with somebody bigger than him, and it really doesn’t get bigger than the Justice League and Apokolips.

Bruce going rogue with the League goes about as well as you’d expect. He may be Batman, but getting past all his teammates by himself is beyond even him, as it should be. You couldn’t retain much respect for them otherwise. It’s also important that Bruce isn’t entirely in the right here. Vic and Arthur point out the folly of making an incursion into Apokolips and tackling something they’re not ready for, and they’re correct. The League may be party-poopers in this scenario, but they’re rightfully so.
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Superman #33 – Review

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Geoff Johns (story), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Laura Martin (colors)

The Story: Eat your heart out Woodward and Bernstein. It’s all about Kent and White now.

The Review: The special twist of Superman’s character has always been about his reputation for being the most human of superheroes despite his alien origins—which is a far cry from being the most relatable, apparently. At times, his moral perfection made him more foreign and unsettling than the fact that he comes from another planet. The new DCU has attempted to reconfigure his personality a bit, but making him more temperamental has done little to solve his self-righteousness problem.

Bringing back the Daily Planet in full force may be the answer. If you want to bring Superman down to Earth, he probably needs to interact with its denizens more. That won’t work, however, if the good folk at the Planet are thin, one-dimensional foils who exist solely to feed Clark free information. Which is to say I approve of this issue’s opening, in which the entire gang, sans Clark, sit for a team debriefing. Johns purposely stalls the plot—no one knows anything about the Ulysses situation, much to Perry’s chagrin—so as to give us a purer flavor of the Planet vibe.
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The Legend of Korra S03E08 – Review

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Joshua Hamilton (story)

The Story: Once someone invades your metal utopia, you can never feel safe there again.

The Review: By now, I’m sure most of you have heard about Nickelodeon’s plan to shift the remainder of Korra‘s episodes (after this one) to strictly online streaming. It’s a move that stops just short of canning the show outright. AV Club’s Oliver Sava has a sophisticated theory about the why and wherefore that has much to do with leaks, promotion, imprudent business decisions, all of which sounds very reasonable and I’m sure he has the right of it.

Personally, though, I think he doesn’t emphasize what I see as a critical factor for this ill treatment, which is that for most of its lifetime, Korra just wasn’t that great a show. Even if it didn’t have to compete with the glory days of Last Airbender (the ratings of which only grew with each season), Korra often failed to find compelling storylines or characters, or even a consistent direction. The tepid first season destroyed much of the confidence the show gleaned from its predecessor, and the second season reached a gruesome low of quality from which Korra never really recovered.
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Elektra #4 – Review

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: W. Haden Blackman (story), Michael Del Mundo (art) Marco D’Alfonso (colors)

The Story: Which assassin will have the better family reunion?

The Review: If there’s someone who fits the definition of antihero, Elektra does. Her methods are unapologetically brutal, her objectives not always for the greater good. In times past, she’s even been outright villain, I believe. Therefore, it’s important, for those of us who want to continue enjoying this book without feeling bad about ourselves, that we get a solid sense of where her morals land, so we’re not just getting entertainment out of a killer satiating her killer’s instinct.*

Indeed, that could be Blackman’s very purpose in kicking off the series with an arc involving a whole bunch of assassins. They provide the comparative framework we need to understand how Elektra places on the scale between good and evil. Putting her side-by-side with Bloody Lips seems particularly useful because they have the common ground of deep family tragedies in their past. The more similar two things are, the more profound their differences.
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Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

The Wicked + The Divine #2 – Review

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Kieron Gillen (story), Jamie McKelvie (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: As you can well imagine, the devil doesn’t take kindly to being imprisoned.

The Review: Not to get too socio-political, but I think current affairs of recent weeks teach us that humans have awfully short memories, which explains why history so often repeats itself, which is to say we may all be doomed. You’d think, if something repeats itself often enough, we’d learn a little something from it each time and at least make some progress. More frequently, however, we end up practically starting over each time, learning the same lesson only when it’s too late.

Fortunately, repetitions in fiction are easier to keep track of. It doesn’t take an English major to recognize that if something is cyclical, you’d best be alert for constants, so as to better observe the changes. In the case of the Recurrence (the centennial appearance of gods that forms the premise of The Wicked + The Divine), our constant is Ananke, the elderly woman with the eye-mask who greets the gods when they return and bids them farewell when they depart.
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Robin Rises: Omega #1 – Review

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Andy Kubert (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inks), Brad Anderson (colors)

The Story: Invasion of the body-snatchers.

The Review: Superhero deaths and resurrections have become so commonplace nowadays that I do believe an unwritten etiquette has developed regarding the proper amount of time that must pass before publishers and writers can start thinking about bringing a character back from the dead. From my completely unscientific observations, it seems the mourning period is somewhere between one-and-a-half to two years, give or take a few months.

And what do you know, it’s been just about a year and a half since Damian Wayne was pincushioned to death in Batman Inc. #8, and now we have a storyline titled, quite explicitly, Robin Rises. There’s a possibility Damian might not come back—the title emphasizes it’s Robin who’s rising without specifying which one—but whoever picks up that red, green, and yellow mantle, it’s Damian who’ll carry this story along. Let’s hope for a good one, at least.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #36 – Review

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Kevin Eastman, Bobby Curnow, Tom Waltz (story), Mateus Santolouco, Mark Torres, Cory Smith (art), Ronda Pattison (colors)

The Story: There are some rats even Splinter can’t stand.

The Review: As someone who considers himself a militant moderate who’d rather avoid unnecessary confrontation whenever possible, I always appreciate seeing characters who handle conflict appropriately. I wouldn’t like it all the time, of course; there wouldn’t be many stories if all problems end on a smile and a handshake. But it lends credibility to the characters when they tend to react with reason rather than hostility.

Take Splinter, whose entire personality is based on his Zen attitude toward everything. You respect him not only because he’s ostensibly the wisest figure in the series, but because he respects everyone else. Humility is as rare and powerful a quality in fiction as it is in real life. He doesn’t resent Leo’s less than total support for his plans to confront Shredder, nor does he dismiss his son’s concerns out of hand. By having Splinter take Leo’s objections seriously, Eastman-Curnow-Waltz avoid needless drama while still lending tension to the story.
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Fables #142 – Review

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Bill Willingham (story), Mark Buckingham (pencils), Steve Leialoha & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Sisters, sisters, never where there such destructive sisters.

The Review: Last issue, when Maddy came around Wolf Manor declaring that war between Snow and Rose was practically inevitable, I wondered idly how Maddy expected Snow to fight a war all by herself when Rose had an entire kingdom at her back. I had forgotten about Winter’s preparations for this very possibility back in #137, which goes to show just how involved and sprawling and foresighted Fables can be. [It also goes to show my memory is shot since bar prep began, but I digress.]

But what are Winter’s plans, anyway? There must be something more delicate going on than a meet-force-with-force strategy, otherwise she wouldn’t be so threatened by Maddy’s interference. Then again, considering the forces she’s gathered (which now includes all her wolfish uncles), the outcome can go either way: mutually assured destruction or stalemate by threat of the same.
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She-Hulk #6 – Review

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Charles Soule (story), Ron Wimberly (art)

The Story: Jen has her own demons to confront.

The Review: Exposition is a necessary evil in storytelling. Without it, stories lose context, substance, pretty much everything that gives the characters and action real meaning. At the same time, nothing slows down a story more. Part of the art of writing is doling out enough of exposition so the story doesn’t devolve into a mindless series of dramatic outbursts and car explosions, while pacing it so you don’t just bury your audience in background facts.

If a long streak of exposition is bad, it’s even worse when you’ve heard it all before. Comics have a particularly bad habit of doing this, I imagine for purposes of being accessible to the fabled new readers. It’s not a great justification; when you consider most comics tend to peak at their debut and gradually lose readers afterward, the repeated exposition seems more likely to annoy loyalists than inform the uninitiated, which is exactly what happens here. All that recapping about Jen’s blue file and the parties involved and the fact you’re not meant to say the plaintiff’s name out loud just seems redundant when the issue has a recap page to rely on.
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The Legend of Korra S03E06-07

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Katie Matilla & Tim Hedrick (story)

The Story: Family, the ties that bind and gag.

The Review: There was a long period, starting in Season 1 and gaining steam in Season 2, when it looked like Korra might turn into the least likable character in her own show—which would have been awkward, to say the least. You could forgive her hot temperament, impulsiveness, and pride, but her tendency to trust her enemies before her friends displayed such a severe lack of common sense that you couldn’t help feeling her position as avatar was ill-deserved.

But her spiritual experiences last season have done a lot to polish her personality and give her some measure of wisdom. She’s humble enough to freely admit her inability to metalbend, sensible enough for Tenzin to take her advice seriously, likable enough that even when she has the occasional outburst, she seems passionate rather than nauseatingly self-righteous. All this evolution is conveyed through Janet Varney’s centered voicing, which keeps Korra sounding firm and strong, but with gentler delivery.
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Superman/Wonder Woman #10 – Review

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Charles Soule (story), Pascal Alixe (art), Paulo Siqueira (pencils), Hi-Fi (colors)

The Story: Lois always did want to conquer the world.

The Review: A shared universe can be a headache in more ways than one. Every single time a major crisis happens in a single title, there’s this mental effort you have to make to keep from wondering why no other hero in the universe notices. This is especially the case when the hero or heroes in question don’t seem to be handling the situation particularly well. What? Everyone else is so busy handling their own problems that they can’t be bothered?

That’s what’s so puzzling about this whole Doomed storyline. Superman’s been turned into a killing machine, an entire metropolis has fallen unconscious, so why is the League and every other A-list hero not on deck, especially since Superman isn’t there? Why does it suddenly seem like the world has no other resource except Wonder Woman, Steel, and Lana Lang? This is a difficult logistical problem to ignore, but Soule clearly would prefer that you don’t think about it at all.
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Daredevil #5 – Review

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

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

The Story: When Daredevil isn’t enough to save the day, we need Foggy Nelson!

The Review: In the superhero world, much as in real life, it’s the lot of the supporting characters to be overshadowed, overlooked, marginalized by the heroes they support. The heroes can’t get along without them; how often do you see our costumed protagonists triumph thanks to the timely save or quick thinking of their faithful companions? Yet these brave men and women are rarely gratified by public admiration, even though they take relatively greater risks in involving themselves.

No one exemplifies this hapless lot better than Foggy, the very definition of everyman: average looks, flabby, intelligent, prone to fear and bravery in equal measure. As if he hasn’t already suffered enough as Matt’s best friend, now he faces the prospect of having to completely abandon his normal life for one as a hidden invalid. That’s a raw deal, any way you look at it.
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The Legend of Korra S03E01-05 – Review

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Tim Hedrick, Joshua Hamilton, Michael Dante DiMartino (story)

The Story: Suddenly, being an airbender is a whole lot less special.

The Review: So for all those who thought that maybe I Dropped this series, my sincerest apologies. I hate to turn bar prep into my personal scapegoat for all my failings, but you have to admit, it’s a good one. Indeed, it wasn’t until commenters Daniel and Del Keyes mentioned it—thanks, pals!—that I remembered there was such a thing as Legend of Korra. Seriously, my reaction was something along the lines of, “Oh, yeah…”

I picked a real bad season to forget about the premiere, too, since the show came right out the gate with three episodes, and seems set to follow a two-episode-a-week schedule from now on. So just like my bar prep, I have a lot of catching up to do. To get started, let’s do as the show does and get the return of the spirits out of the way first. It’s exactly as disruptive as you’d expect, with vining habitats randomly popping up across Republic City, but since the show can’t exactly revive the spirit-human conflict without becoming repetitious, there’s not much anyone can do about the situation except deal with it, albeit sullenly.
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Justice League United #3 – Review

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Mike McKone (art), Cam Smith & Guillermo Ortego (inks), Marcelo Maiolo & Andrew Dalhouse (colors)

The Story: Dealing with a traumatized child is a lot easier if you have psychic powers.

The Review: Last month, I suggested that Justice League United may be the least enjoyable part of Justice League United, which I meant only partly in jest. Acknowledging that team chemistry is probably a difficult thing to generate from scratch, it must be said that the JLU has very little of it. That’s not totally unnatural, given how new the team is and how unformed their personalities are, but it does make for a duller read, and there seems to be little improvement in that respect on the horizon.

Lemire’s so distracted with carrying the plot forward that we get few interactions among the cast in the first place that isn’t exposition-related, and what few we do have rise to a very tepid degree of liveliness. After Kara socks Lobo into the stratosphere, Buddy remarks, “Wow. Nice punch, kid.”

“Hey, what about my arrow?” Ollie complains, referring to the shaft he just earlier put into Lobo’s shoulder.*

Buddy, unbothered: “Meh.”
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Grayson #1 – Review

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Tim Seeley & Tom King (story), Mikel Janín (art), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: Grayson—Dick Grayson.

The Review: I’m no comic book history expert, so I can’t tell you about the actual origin of superheroes according to such niceties as facts. But I like to believe that among their closest ancestors is the spy. The idea of a person meting justice while living an apparently normal life is such an integral part of both that it’s not hard to think of them as arising from a common nucleus. So if one decides costumed vigilantism isn’t one’s thing, spywork seems like a natural alternative.

It’s thus not entirely surprising to find Dick muttering into earpieces and adopting codenames now that his public outing has made being Nightwing impossible. Besides, playing secret agent seems right up his alley. Not only is he more than qualified, skill-wise, he’s got the daredevil charm that’s so essential to the modern spy. As he dons a blond wig,* tries out his Russian, and acts out the douchey American tourist to perfection, you can tell that he’s thoroughly enjoying himself, so maybe you should, too.
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Filed under: DC Comics, Reviews | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Green Arrow #33 – Review

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Andrea Sorrentino (art), Marcelo Maiolo (colors)

The Story: Ollie gets to experience the joy of having an annoying little sister.

The Review: When the DCU relaunched, the idea was supposedly that we were in a sparkling new world, with the characters living out their early superheroic histories before our very eyes. Going by that theory, you assumed that in the first few issues of Green Arrow, Ollie had only recently started going about town in his emerald hoodie. The introduction of Diggle thus creates a slightly awkward pre-history to this early period, one even odder since Ollie never gave a hint of its existence before now.

Lemire tries his best to reconcile these two eras in Ollie’s vigilante life, using the death of his mom as a sensible dividing line. But from a character development standpoint, there are redundancies. Lemire goes through a great deal of trouble playing out Diggle’s disgust with Ollie’s indolence after his mother’s death, accusing him of being a “self-absorbed, spoiled little rich kid with a lot of fancy toys.” Given that Ollie resumed the Green Arrow identity by the first issue of this series, Ollie must have taken those words to heart. But then what should we make of his self-loathing remarks about being a spoiled kid in practically every issue of Lemire’s first arc on this series?
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Fairest #27 – Review

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Mark Buckingham (story), Russ Braun (art), Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Even a fox loses his charm once he turns human.

The Review: And we’re back! It’s been several months since the abysmal Mice and Men arc, and if I had any doubts at the time whether I was doing the right thing temporarily Dropping the series, I have none now. I’m in a much better spirit of mind than if I had forced myself to buy into Andreyko’s wandering, inconsequential storyline, and eager to check in with the less pressing side of the Fables universe, especially as we’re winding down to the series’ conclusion.

Since I’m still woefully deficient in my Fables history, I can’t confirm whether Prince Charming’s promise to provide glamours to all non-humanoid Fables was ever established before this issue, but it does lead to a solid plot for the Fables that tend to be overlooked. It’s true they don’t get enough respect; that will happen when you look like a walking sunflower in breeches or cat with a bonnet or some other anthropomorphized creature in medieval costume. Kind of hard not to see them as comical even when they have very real grievances.
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Swamp Thing #33 – Review

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Charles Soule (story), Javier Pina (art), Matthew Wilson (colors)

The Story: Jonah proves to Weeds and Wolf that sex is more rewarding than scheming.

The Review: I might have said this before—in fact, I’m almost certain of it—but one of the best things Soule did for this series was introduce us to specific members of the Parliament of Trees, then include them as part of Alec’s supporting cast. Alec has always been a decent, likable protagonist, but the additions of Jonah, Lady Weeds, and the Wolf have given Swamp Thing layers of human intrigue between its supernatural mysteries.

Almost all of that intrigue is generated between Weeds and Wolf alone, not least of all because they have such dramatically different personalities. Wolf prefers to play the long game, slowly breaking down Alec until the final stroke can be delivered. Weeds would rather eschew this Machiavellian approach for a more direct attack. It’s not hard to figure out whose plan will carry the day in the end; it’s just amazing that Weeds goes along with Wolf for as long as she does.
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Earth Two #25 – Review

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Tom Taylor (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: If you’re going to break your father’s heart, you might as well kill him.

The Review: As I read through this issue, it suddenly occurred to me that for a big, gushy superhero series that’s been around for over two years, we’ve had surprisingly few displays of superheroic power. A couple come to mind—Alan’s duel with Solomon Grundy, Marella’s airborne whirlpool—but for the most part, it’s the enemy that’s done most of the showboating. No wonder morale has been so low; it’s hard to hold out hope when all the major moves come from the other side.

And no wonder that as our heroes get bolder, more aggressive with their powers, the more you think Earth Two may stand a fighting chance after all. I’m not just talking about the war against Apokolips; I’m talking about the chances of these characters rising to the same level as their peers on Prime Earth. It’s easy to think of Earth-2’s Wonders as cheap riffs and knock-offs of more famous characters, and thus inferior product. The only way to break out of that perception is to stand tall and proud on their own laurels, and they weren’t going to do it by constantly fleeing Darkseid’s forces.
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Action Comics #33 – Review

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder (art), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: As if Doomsday isn’t enough of a problem, now there’s mass narcolepsy going on.

The Review:
Last time we visited this storyline, I said that I was on the verge of giving it up, a proposition I was only half-joking about. I just couldn’t bear the idea of buying three comics a month for however long this arc lasted, knowing I wouldn’t really enjoy them. At least with Transformers, I only kind of knew I wouldn’t like it. But after dropping Batman/Superman, economic considerations aren’t as pressing anymore, and admittedly, Pak’s starting to take the story in an interesting direction.

Don’t get me wrong; the Doomsday Superman stuff is incurably dull. There’s little psychological gold to mine from Clark’s mental war with his Doomsday conscience; it’s your typical angel-devil set-up, but with superheroes. You also doubt that Clark will ever fully succumb to his destructive urges because once he does that, even involuntarily or by accident, it’s over for Superman—either that, or everyone, including Clark, will need to have a short memory. You might as well flip the page every time you see a craggy-faced Clark.
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Batman/Superman #12 – Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Greg Pak (story), Ken Lashley (art), Tom Raney (pencils), Jamie Mendoza (inks), Jason Wright (colors)

The Story: The trip to Earth-2, Part 2.

The Review: I’m starting to realize that this title might not know what it’s talking about. The series has meandered so much that it’s been hard to make sense of where it was going. Since the first arc, we’ve had one tangential disappointment after another: a forgettable storyline with Mongul, a forgettable crossover with Worlds’ Finest, a forgettable filler issue with guest writer Jeff Lemire, a forgettable tie-in to a most unwelcome Event…you get the picture.

This issue’s return to Earth-2 seems like a desperate attempt to pick up from the only successful plotline the title has ever had, but even here, there’s not much excitement to be had. Bruce and Clark, deprived of any ability to actually interact with the parallel world, have little to do except watch helplessly as things go further and further south for their counterparts. It’s a depressing experience, certainly, but not exactly a learning one.
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Daredevil: Road Warrior #1 – Review

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Minhquan Nguyen

By: Mark Waid (story), Peter Krause (art), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: If you can get in trouble in winter Milwaukee, you can get in trouble anywhere.

The Review: Because we all love to discuss writing technique on this site, let’s talk about first-person narrative. Frankly, outside pure prose fiction, the first-person very rarely works. As a delivery mechanism for exposition, it’s largely unnecessary in any medium with visuals, and as commentary, it’s mostly redundant and distracting if the dialogue and acting is good enough. The only reason you’d keep a first-person narrative in these cases is because the audience really, really wants to hear it.

As Waid proves with Matt Murdock, you can only get that if the narrator himself is just that charismatic. Matt’s internal voice is crafted with such natural, likable care and he blends humor and sensitivity in near perfect measure. Best of all, Waid uses it to capture things that the spoken word and visuals can’t, which is saying a lot when you consider how strong his dialogue and artistic collaborators are. The joy of Matt’s narration is he only grows richer in character rather than wearisome over time, and his personality always comes through even when he’s essentially just dropping essential information:

“[I]f I could see the things that come at me in this job the way sighted people see them…they’d probably stop calling me, ‘The Man Without Fear.’ Or even ‘Daredevil.’ They’d probably go with ‘Matt Murdock, the idiot who keeps picking fights in really dumb places.'”
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