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A review by dantastic
Daredevil: Guardian Devil by Kevin Smith
3.0
When Daredevil winds up responsible for a baby who may or may not be the anti-Christ, things quickly spiral out of control
Way back in the day, I'd largely left super hero comics behind until my favorite director at the time, Kevin Smith, signed on to write an arc or two. This is his first arc, issues #1-8 of Marvel Knights Daredevil.
So when I first read this, 20+ years ago, I was a tremendous fan of Kevin Smith and held Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti in high regard, and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. Tastes change, though. Firstly, it's the wordiest comic I've read in a long time. Part of it might be that modern comics don't have much meat to them but I think another part was Kevin Smith writing a property he had great affection for and trying to strut his stuff. The first issue in particular is a wordfest. He eases into things after that but it's still more work than I like to do from a super hero comic.
The art is fine. The Quesada-Palmiotti partnership was still at full strength. Joe Q's art has never been my favorite but I don't think the art has aged badly in any case. Not my cup of tea but not the worst Daredevil artist by a long chalk.
The story itself doesn't really come together for me. The big bad's motivation doesn't ring true and it seems like he goes through a lot of trouble for someone he's only fought once or twice before. I feel like maybe the story has too many moving parts. Again, it might be part of Kevin Smith's immaturity as a writer at that point, trying to shoehorn as many things in as possible.
Yeah, it sounds like I'm shitting on this but I did still enjoy it after forgetting 80% of it since initially reading it in singles a couple decades ago. There's great Daredevil action and some good Miller-esque angst. It also felt like there were actual stakes. I'm surprised one of the deaths in this has yet to be undone. The other was undone before six months elapsed, IIRC.
I still liked this, despite my perceived problems with it, just not as much as I did when I was in my early 20s. 3 out of 5 stars.
Way back in the day, I'd largely left super hero comics behind until my favorite director at the time, Kevin Smith, signed on to write an arc or two. This is his first arc, issues #1-8 of Marvel Knights Daredevil.
So when I first read this, 20+ years ago, I was a tremendous fan of Kevin Smith and held Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti in high regard, and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. Tastes change, though. Firstly, it's the wordiest comic I've read in a long time. Part of it might be that modern comics don't have much meat to them but I think another part was Kevin Smith writing a property he had great affection for and trying to strut his stuff. The first issue in particular is a wordfest. He eases into things after that but it's still more work than I like to do from a super hero comic.
The art is fine. The Quesada-Palmiotti partnership was still at full strength. Joe Q's art has never been my favorite but I don't think the art has aged badly in any case. Not my cup of tea but not the worst Daredevil artist by a long chalk.
The story itself doesn't really come together for me. The big bad's motivation doesn't ring true and it seems like he goes through a lot of trouble for someone he's only fought once or twice before. I feel like maybe the story has too many moving parts. Again, it might be part of Kevin Smith's immaturity as a writer at that point, trying to shoehorn as many things in as possible.
Yeah, it sounds like I'm shitting on this but I did still enjoy it after forgetting 80% of it since initially reading it in singles a couple decades ago. There's great Daredevil action and some good Miller-esque angst. It also felt like there were actual stakes. I'm surprised one of the deaths in this has yet to be undone. The other was undone before six months elapsed, IIRC.
I still liked this, despite my perceived problems with it, just not as much as I did when I was in my early 20s. 3 out of 5 stars.