What I Bought 8/10/2011 - Part 3

I noticed yesterday that Batman Beyond 8 spelled penciler with two Ls. Normally, I see it written with one, and that's how I typically spell it, but I wonder if that's wrong. My spell-check doesn't recognize "penciler", but it doesn't recognize "penciller", either. Anyway, it's a "Titles that start with D" day.

Daredevil #1 - It took me awhile to notice how everything around DD is covered with sound effects. I originally just noticed the lack of color, which makes sense considering Murdock can't perceive color. Unless, different colored dyes and paints have a different scent, but as he points out in the second part of this issue, he doesn't really think in the same terms we do, so "purple" doesn't mean much to his brain anymore.

The first story, which combines Paolo Rivera's art with Mark Waid's writing gets us into the basics of Matt's current life. He's doing the Daredevil thing, while constantly maintaining he isn't Daredevil, and trying to help Foggy get their law practice up and running. Again. But the suspicion he's Daredevil makes his legal work difficult, which is too bad for his client Mr. Jobrani, who can't get anyone else to represent him, a fact that Daredevil decides to investigate, only to have a certain someone hurl his mighty shield at Matt's head. The other story, which teams Waid with Marcos Martin seems focused primarily on Matt and Foggy's friendship, as well as fleshing out Matt's powers a bit, and more critically, establishing that his more jovial attitude is a purposeful response on his part to the ceaseless storm of strife that nearly destroyed him over the last few years.

Waid wrote this well. I've been sort of aware of Daredevil's recent downward spiral, and without getting bogged down in details, Waid makes the situation clear enough to show how it feeds into what he's doing. As a fan of supporting casts in solo titles, I'm curious to see if Kirsten McDuffie, Assistant D.A., will be a recurring character, possibly as a friendly rival in the courtroom.

As for the art, Martin and Rivera do great jobs. They each have their own ways of depicting how Murdock perceives things. Martin tends to do close-ups on either Matt's relevant sensory equipment, or the thing he's picking up. Rivera has that black with magenta lines thing he does for the radar sense. He also has the touch with the little details I like. How DD uses the billy club to lift the bride's veil when he lands the smooch (rather than the veil conveniently vanishing), and when he grabs the Spot's arm, the end of his thumb disappears into one hole, but you can see it emerge from another one further up the arm. I love stuff like that.

I have a good feeling this is going to be the book that replaces Batgirl as the title I most look forward to each month. Fingers crossed.

Darkwing Duck #14 - That's playing off an old Batman cover with the original Blockbuster, right? I like the "Approved by some guys in Burbank" tag in the corner. The armor looks familiar to me, but all I can figure is the gray, riveted plates running vertically remind of Taurus Bulba's cyborg self.

Darkwing's run for political office is underway. Except it's interrupted by a cat in a giant metal suit. You know, more people's plans are ruined by cats in giant metal suits than you might think. Darkwing sets off the deal with yet another new villain out for his head, but finds it difficult to deal with a feline Juggernaut. Meanwhile, he's being bad-mouthed by his opposition in the mayoral race. Cat-Tankerous is stopped eventually, and clues our heroes in on how he got this super-suit, and we see there's a mysterious mastermind wearing a violet shaded light bulb out to destroy him. Uh-oh, it's the Darkwingverse version of Ruby Thursday! The rest of the Headmen can't be far behind! Watch out for Chondu the Mystic! That guy's as crazy as, well, as you'd expect a human head on a robotic spider-body to be.

Brill threw a couple of curves into the run for mayor story this month. One, that Launchpad appears to be the people's choice, and two, that DW sees being mayor as a further step in his plan to find Morgana. I thought he was just doing it to honor her wishes. He and Silvani art still working well together. I particularly like the panel after Cat-Tankerous call out Darkwing. The shot of everyone in crowd staring at DW (where in the previous panel they were all looking at the TV), and Darkwing's quiet mention of a big musical number he had planned, cracks me up.

Defenders #1 - Out of the Marvel Vault. Honestly, I loved the explanation behind this comic from Kurt Busiek in the back almost as much as the issue itself. Fabian Nicieza and mark Bagley started it as a possible fill-in for Busiek and Erik Larsen's Defenders series (of which I was a big fan), but it was never needed. Busiek was asked if he'd mind finishing it so they could release it as part of this "out of the Vault" deal, but nobody has any notes on the plot (including Nicieza), and neither Nicieza or Bagley remember what the story was about. So Busiek looked over the art and came up with something. Which is pretty cool.

Basically, 4 friends find themselves in the bodies of the Big 4 Defenders, and find themselves in a world that fulfills the fantasies of the bodies they inhabit. So all the people that usually try to smash the Hulk now want to build sand castles with him. The person dropped into Namor's mind rejects the fantasy, and in the process, Namor gets back in possession of his body, but also frees the Hulk, who liked the fantasy. They start to fighting, which frees Strange and the Surfer, and those two solve the problem while Namor and the Hulk punch each other a lot. Problem resolved, the 4 go their separate ways, except for Namor, who pauses to reflect on the experience, which was particularly painful for him.

This felt like it would have fit right in with that Defenders series, which is fine with me. It's the sort of weird thing the Defenders might face, and the friction between the Hulk and Namor is amusing. It isn't always so, when they willingly hang out, but in a case where they're stuck together, and can't get away from each other, it works. I believe I've made my fondness for Mark Bagley's art well-known over the years, and that doesn't change here. I like the underwater Statue of Liberty visual, and Strange becoming one with everything, though there's a spelling error a couple of panels before that one. A sign says "KEERER OF THE FALTINE FLAMES'. I'm guessing they were going for "Keeper".

I would have liked to seen Nighthawk, Valkyrie, and Hellcat. That volume of Defenders introduced me to each of them, and made me fans of each of them. That's not a big deal, though.