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kylel64's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
Jumped a half star rating for me with the introduction of Nuke
jamsl94's review against another edition
4.5
Reading this reminds me that Frank Miller can write great stuff. Though the less said about his later works the better. However the ending wasn’t as strong as the rest I felt
fogisbeautiful's review against another edition
4.0
Okay, I'm gonna be honest, when I first started this, I thought Matt was annoying. A grown man moping around like a whiny emo teen, boohoo, no one loves me (except for all these people that do love me, but we'll just ignore them because OH WOE IS ME!). But once I got in to the story and actually realized what was happening to him (physically, mentally, and emotionally) I found I could totally relate to him. And it made his inevitable comeback all the more satisfying to read :) Good stuff!
laurenslittlelibrary99's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
seanathan_port's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
unladylike's review against another edition
4.0
As a kid, I got to know the Marvel U primarily through reading the backs of Marvel trading cards and making up stories in my head based on the art. Whenever I saw Kingpin, I couldn't figure out why he was so threatening. It was actually a tad frustrating, seeing a villain who appeared to just be a boring, large human in a suit with such overpowered stats. The X-Men had their own Saturday morning cartoon, and everybody had cool, brightly coloured powers. The fact that this fat businessman was perhaps one of the most sinister masterminds to face Spider-man and Daredevil actually made me less interested in those books for years.
Now I appreciate a more layered, realistic villain with psychological depth. Some of the X-Men films have made me want to switch to Team Magneto even! And what I've seen so far of the Netflix Daredevil show, Kingpin/Fisk's right hand man, Wesley, and the woman he's courting both seem much scarier than he does most of the time.
It was really in this book that I saw the kind of power Kingpin has, and what he does to those who get under his skin.
Miller and Mazzucchelli tell a classic Rocky story of the tough, poor, local boy who was raised to Never Give Up. So we get to watch him (Matt Murdock aka Daredevil) get picked limb from limb and have his world turned upside down - over the course of around 150 pages! - only to come back and win in the final seconds.
I recently checked out the Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus, and promptly returned it to the library after reading the first few pages. I rejected it based on the sheer size of that book, combined with what looked like the art and script style typical of the late '70s/'80s which I am not fond of. Maybe I missed out on a lot of good stuff, but I never would have been able to finish it before it was due back.
This 200+ page Marvel Premiere Edition HC, however, seemed slightly more approachable, and within the first page or two, I could tell it was going to be a good story. The pacing is great, the heartbreaks, betrayals, and unnecessary civilian deaths all hit hard, but at least within the Marvel Universe, they're all distinctly personal strikes, rather than obvious super-villian/alien/whatever moves at world domination via a big gun.
Kingpin even says early on that Daredevil hasn't actually cost him much financially. The Man Without Fear's mission against crime in Hell's Kitchen, and presumably some other nearby neighbourhoods in NYC, hardly scratches the surface. What causes the organized crime boss to take increasingly more drastic, sloppy steps against Matt Murdock is his ability to survive and return, still a threat, wounded, with an even bigger vendetta. If Murdock could be bought out or snubbed out as simply as most people, I doubt Kingpin would be interested in him.
We do see some of the Big Guns come out in the last few issues, and I gotta say: the depiction of Nuke in this story is truly terrifying. In keeping with the whole Born Again motif, Kingpin calls in someone who has "never been used domestically" and who scares the shit out of Wesley, the advisor who never bats an eye at dirty work or extreme commands from his boss. The reason Nuke has never been brought within the U.S. borders for a mission? He was the only survivor of Project Rebirth other than Captain America. But instead of weighing what's right or wrong within the confusing and corrupt ranks of authority as Steve Rogers does, Nuke is a modern-day caricature of brainwashed, psychopathic patriots hopped up on drugs and given weapons of slaughtering innocent people under the banner of fighting for American Liberty.
Now I appreciate a more layered, realistic villain with psychological depth. Some of the X-Men films have made me want to switch to Team Magneto even! And what I've seen so far of the Netflix Daredevil show, Kingpin/Fisk's right hand man, Wesley, and the woman he's courting both seem much scarier than he does most of the time.
It was really in this book that I saw the kind of power Kingpin has, and what he does to those who get under his skin.
Miller and Mazzucchelli tell a classic Rocky story of the tough, poor, local boy who was raised to Never Give Up. So we get to watch him (Matt Murdock aka Daredevil) get picked limb from limb and have his world turned upside down - over the course of around 150 pages! - only to come back and win in the final seconds.
I recently checked out the Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus, and promptly returned it to the library after reading the first few pages. I rejected it based on the sheer size of that book, combined with what looked like the art and script style typical of the late '70s/'80s which I am not fond of. Maybe I missed out on a lot of good stuff, but I never would have been able to finish it before it was due back.
This 200+ page Marvel Premiere Edition HC, however, seemed slightly more approachable, and within the first page or two, I could tell it was going to be a good story. The pacing is great, the heartbreaks, betrayals, and unnecessary civilian deaths all hit hard, but at least within the Marvel Universe, they're all distinctly personal strikes, rather than obvious super-villian/alien/whatever moves at world domination via a big gun.
Kingpin even says early on that Daredevil hasn't actually cost him much financially. The Man Without Fear's mission against crime in Hell's Kitchen, and presumably some other nearby neighbourhoods in NYC, hardly scratches the surface. What causes the organized crime boss to take increasingly more drastic, sloppy steps against Matt Murdock is his ability to survive and return, still a threat, wounded, with an even bigger vendetta. If Murdock could be bought out or snubbed out as simply as most people, I doubt Kingpin would be interested in him.
We do see some of the Big Guns come out in the last few issues, and I gotta say: the depiction of Nuke in this story is truly terrifying. In keeping with the whole Born Again motif, Kingpin calls in someone who has "never been used domestically" and who scares the shit out of Wesley, the advisor who never bats an eye at dirty work or extreme commands from his boss. The reason Nuke has never been brought within the U.S. borders for a mission? He was the only survivor of Project Rebirth other than Captain America. But instead of weighing what's right or wrong within the confusing and corrupt ranks of authority as Steve Rogers does, Nuke is a modern-day caricature of brainwashed, psychopathic patriots hopped up on drugs and given weapons of slaughtering innocent people under the banner of fighting for American Liberty.
ferzemkhan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
chillcox15's review
3.0
Comics discover the aesthetic concept of suffering and it becomes great art? Not to be a cultural elitist, but like, Doestoevsky did it first. Actually pretty decent for a story arc, but comic book pacing is still pretty clipped, even when it spends a lot of time on something as pained as this. There are some less-ideal Millerisms too- a simple fear of the global south as a hive of drug-dealers, and having Daredevil done in by a 'crack whore ex-girlfriend' is a bit too much, uh, icing on the cake.
jameshousworth's review against another edition
3.0
For being in so many “top 10 graphic novels/comic series” lists, I was very underwhelmed by Daredevil: Born Again. It has just about every comic book cliche you can think of: secret identity gets revealed, hero “dies” and is reborn with a vengeance, unrealistically connected crime lord destroys every part of hero’s life with a couple phone calls, other characters from the Marvel universe show up for no good reason, hero rescues damsel in the nick of time (and somehow saves her from her crippling drug addiction!)...and so on.
I’m enough of a superhero nerd that I was definitely entertained throughout the story. But it was just too predictable and ridiculous to be anything special. Stick to Frank Miller’s Batman; skip Frank Miller’s Daredevil.
I’m enough of a superhero nerd that I was definitely entertained throughout the story. But it was just too predictable and ridiculous to be anything special. Stick to Frank Miller’s Batman; skip Frank Miller’s Daredevil.