Daredevil 9, Ms. Marvel 9

Daredevil 9

Matt, Foggy, and Kirsten talk about Matt potentially writing a book with Kirsten's father, an idea Kirsten is against and Foggy worries about, though the advance check is crazy intriguing. Foggy, though, worries that Matt delving back into his life for an autobiography will dig up the parts that he's done so well to push down, a fear Matt doesn't seem to share. Meanwhile, the Purple Children are living large, walking around and scaring everyone, overwhelming everyone with their feelings, magnified to a child's level, and driving some cop cars around. Though Daredevil has more experience than most at fighting Purple Man, he's overwhelmed by the children's sense of fear and despair and loneliness and rage and grief and everything Matt's buried comes back up to the surface, wrecking him and leaving him curled up on the ground under an overpass where the healing Purple Man discovers him.

This is it, everyone. Everything Mark Waid has been building to and everything we've expected to come over the last few years of Waid's run is finally coming to a head and it's masterfully done. I've been guilty, of course, of expecting this sort of thing to come much sooner but Waid's patience is important here as every issue that Waid waited to have this sort of thing happen strengthened the payoff. This issue has a great balance of fun with Foggy, Kirsten, and Matt and of darkness with the Purple Children, a surprisingly sympathetic villain for Matt, who recognizes that the kids aren't acting like Killgrave, that they're not trying to convince people, they're just blasting their kid emotions at peak levels, as he puts it. It's too much for Matt and now we have our way in to the next story. Excellent work from Chris Samnee and Matt Wilson, whose highlight here comes in a full page juxtaposing the kids feeling their emotions and memories in Daredevil's head related to those emotions. It's absolutely incredible and it defines the issue so well. Fantastic work all around, as if that will come as a surprise to anyone with this title.

Total Score: 5/5


Ms. Marvel 9

Kamala is forced to fight in just her regular street clothes as she finds she can't change her appearance in the midst of a fight with one of the Inventor's robots going after her school. She wins the fight but passes out, not healing quickly enough to keep up. Bruno manages to force his way into the fight area and finds Kamala passed out at the center. Medusa, keeping a close eye on the new Inhuman, appears and has Lockjaw transport them all to New Attilan, where Inhuman healer Vinatos helps and monitors Kamala's recovery. He also tells her when she wakes up that her healing ability seems to revert things back to their normal form, so the more she heals the less she may be able to shapeshift. Rejuvenated and now aware that she's an Inhuman, Kamala returns home and apologizes to her parents, happy to see them. That night, she goes back to the place where she rescued Vick, prepared to free the kids inside. Doyle is waiting for her and unleashes another big robot for her to fight, which Kamala defeats with the help of Lockjaw. She finds the people inside the building only to find that they weren't kidnapped, they're volunteers.

There are few books that have developed a supporting cast as quickly and as strongly as MS. MARVEL under G. Willow Wilson's direction. Wilson has done an excellent job making us care about Kamala, about Kamala's family, about Kamala's friends, and about the heroes who have crossed Kamala's path. That's extremely difficult to do, particularly when you're building an entirely new character in her own entirely new book. If a character is created in a separate book and built over an arc in someone else's book, you can use a new solo series to further develop that character. Wilson doesn't have that benefit here, meaning that she has so much work to accomplish and she's 100% accomplished it already. My girlfriend and I recently, just because this is who we are, wrote big long lists of our favorite superheroes, ranking them in order as best we could. I don't know if you guys know this, but I love superheroes. After careful deliberation, I found that I'd placed Ms. Marvel at number sixteen. That put her between Captain Marvel and Dr. Strange. AMAZING company (worth noting that after the top like, three, the difference in position is negligible because I just really like them all so much everyone). This wasn't really a haphazard list, I really did think about it a lot and gave reasons for everyone at every position (I got up to 30 heroes before putting the list down). Maybe this sounds self-indulgent (uhhhhh, have you read this blog? Because obviously it's self-indulgent and, frankly, I'd call it self-important) as I focus on my own personal opinions of this character but I think it's important to note that, after nine issues (only seven or eight, really, when I made the list), Kamala Khan had cracked the top twenty. That says a ton about this book, whether you trust my judgment or not. Great work as ever and this book just continues to be a lot of fun.

Total Score: 5/5

Daredevil 8, Elektra 6

Daredevil 8

Matt and Kirsten take in the town on a vigilante-free date when Kirsten reveals that she recently got a call from her somewhat estranged father, who lives in the Bay Area and invited Kirsten and Matt out on his boat. They accept and it goes rather well for a bit, up until Kirsten's father, a publisher, reveals that he wants Matt to write an autobiography, which annoys Kirsten. They head home with Matt sort of thinking about it (he calls it a flattering offer, which Kirsten points out is his kryptonite). Meanwhile, the Purple Man is back on the scene and collecting his illegitimate children, who have the same powers he has but who he hopes will be immune to his own powers and will therefore love him for who he is and not for an ulterior reason. Unfortunately for Purple Man, they don't love him for ripping them out of their homes and killing their mothers and they use their considerable combined powers to send Purple Man walking in front of an oncoming bus before preparing to tour the town.

The Purple Children are already proving themselves to be formidable and terrifying foes for Daredevil to go up against in short time and Mark Waid does a good job to illustrate these kids right off the bat while Chris Samnee and new colorist Matt Wilson do a phenomenal job showing just how creepy they are. Another thing I don't think I've talked about enough with this series is that Waid is doing a really nice job with Kirsten McDuffie. Obviously Daredevil is one of those characters who tends to make an impact with women and has both a slew of long-lasting relationships and one-night-stands on his resume. By and large though, I tend not to like the women writers bring in (obviously excluding ones who I do like from the larger Marvel Universe but still may not like in context of him dating, like Black Widow, Elektra kind of, and Black Cat) and Kirsten marks the first love interest since probably Echo that I've found myself liking and who doesn't seem to play the typical superhero love interest. Of course, that probably means Waid is ready to kill her off.

Total Score: 5/5


Elektra 6

Elektra has led Cape Crow, Kento, and Matchmaker from safe house to safe house, only to be attacked every step of the way by mercenaries and assassins looking to bring in the sizable fee on all of their heads. Elektra has met every challenge but finds herself worn out and running out of safe places. They reach Cape Crow's last safe house only to be attacked by the Serpent Squad. Elektra sends Cape Crow (no longer a killer) and Kento running for the house only to realize a moment too late that the Serpent Squad is a distraction and that sending Cape Crow into the house is exactly what whoever is behind this trap wants. She disposes of the Squad and rushes for the house with Matchmaker, who discovers Cape Crow's helmet torn apart by a sword before she herself is stabbed through the back by the culprit: a healed and monumentally more powerful Lady Bullseye out for revenge on Elektra.

About half of this book is a recap of their recent days interspersed with information about the assassin's guild and their extensive fees and health care plan, which Lady Bullseye utilizes. It's an effective storytelling technique as we stay with our main characters and learn a bit about them through dialogue and through their interactions with one another but also get key plot points, like the experimental and probably fatal procedure Lady Bullseye agreed to undertake to wipe out her debts to the guild and save her life temporarily, giving her a chance to go after Elektra. Though I think the art is pretty good here, it's hard to go from Del Mundo to anyone else and my love of this issue suffers a little as a result (not to mention that Matchmaker has ditched the amazing aviator cap and goggles for a more Alex-in-A-Clockwork-Orange outfit, which is a super bummer, you guys). Also, I'll be pretty upset if they kill off Matchmaker, I think she's phenomenal and I simultaneously want to learn everything about her and be given no explanation for her. It's complicated. Really like that cover, too.

Total Score: 4/5

Daredevil 1, Ms. Marvel 2

Daredevil 1
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and J. Rodriguez (c)

Matt Murdock has officially set up shop out west and he's already taken on his first client. The deputy mayor's daughter has been kidnapped with a ransom note left demanding that she arrange amnesty for a criminal in exchange for the daughter's release. Using the note and a rag doll left behind, Matt determines the likely location of the little girl and manages to take her back from her kidnappers. As he travels the unfamiliar San Francisco terrain with the help of Kirsten McDuffie via earpiece and Google Maps, he realizes there's more to this kidnapping case than meets the eye. The armed men following him by glider (more goblin glider than hang glider) seem to be driving him away from their base rather than trying to catch him and Daredevil comes to realize that the ticking he thought to be a watch the little girl had is actually coming from inside the girl. Determining that the bomb planted inside the girl isn't a time bomb but likely a radio-detonated bomb, he rushes her into an elevator in a hospital to block the radio signal. With the girl out of harm's way, he stops his pursuers and sets things right. Three days later, the deputy mayor stops by to tell him that the girl's okay and to thank him and Kirsten in their brand new law office. However, it's not all perfect here; when asked about his former law partner, Matt says "his name was Foggy Nelson," to the bemusement of someone secretly watching.

We've had enough scares with Foggy Nelson of late that I'm not going to get all nervous about this one, as it seems to me like Matt is simply spreading rumors to protect Foggy, unable to defend himself if anyone were to come calling now that they know Matt's identity. With that out of the way, it's a great first entry, fun and fresh with the same sort of revitalized air that Waid brought to the last volume of DAREDEVIL and that readers responded to so favorably. San Francisco is an interesting new place for him as it poses questions of learning the landscape and recognizing the scents as well as a completely different structure to the buildings he's leaping on. The differences in Matt's role now that his secret is out are front and center here as the deputy mayor comes right to him for assistance and he's able to show off a little bit, telling people what hints he's picking up from his sense of smell and touch, not just having to bottle it up and investigate it himself later. Obviously the secret has come with some strings too as the deputy mayor had to step in when a landlord attempted to deny Matt office space and with the whole Foggy business. It's a really good start for this new volume and one that has a very clear shift in direction. It's nice to have a book out there that can shift from an old direction that was pretty great into a new direction that will be pretty great.

Ms. Marvel 2
G.W. Wilson (w) and Alphona (a) and Herring (c)

Kamala is a bit freaked out to find that she looks like Ms. Marvel and can't seem to understand how it happened. She's therefore happy but still a bit freaked out when she quickly changes back to regular Kamala. These changes keep happening as she rushes deeper into the mist that has settled on the city. She stumbles on Josh and Zoe leaving the party and shrinks down to hide herself, still unsure how it's happening. However, when a drunk Josh accidentally lets Zoe slip into the bay beside the docks, Kamala grows in size, now as Ms. Marvel again, and reaches a giant-sized hand and arm into the water to fish Zoe out. With Zoe saved, she rushes off again, heading home to try to figure it out. She sneaks back into the house (somewhat unsuccessfully) and is immediately set upon by her brother and her parents, who knew she snuck out and who are very disappointed in her. She decides not to tell them what's been happening, at least until she can sort things out for herself.

It's weird to think, given the way the Marvel Universe was born and grew, that this form of storytelling feels little weird in the modern Marvel age. Typically speaking, the way things happen now is that an established character will get a solo series based on their popularity or on a particularly good pitch for that character. New characters are introduced, then, in team books or even in the solo series of a different character and they're established there before potentially branching out to their own book. Even NOVA, a recent series that is a rather new character getting a new solo series, spins out from the Nova history and mythos of the Nova Corps, although it's clearly a different character and even a different part of the mythos. Here, Kamala is a brand new character with seemingly brand new powers so it requires reading a somewhat different way. It's like when you start reading comics and you're not quite sure who everyone is; you have to hope that the creative team has done enough to explain these people to you. As such, we're still in that explaining phase with Kamala as her powers start to blossom and as things start to get a little weird. That said, it's not a bad issue and it has its clear defining moments for the character, particularly as she chooses to reveal herself, unsure of her new powers as she is, to Zoe and Josh because there's some heroing that needs doing. Looking forward to seeing a little more from this series as we start to get the origin out of the way.

Daredevil 35, Thor: God of Thunder 17

Daredevil 35
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and J. Rodriguez (c)

Matt rushes to the hospital with the news that Foggy's cancer has taken a turn for the worst. He gets there to find a new doctor treating him with a highly illegal but potentially life-saving drug. The doctor claims that he's associated with people who would rather keep Foggy alive and moves aside to allow high-ranking Serpent Society members in. They reveal to Matt that they have done extensive research on him and have figured out his entire backstory, right up to the moment he became Daredevil, meaning they know definitively who he is and how his powers work. Between that and the repercussions of them letting his identity and his weaknesses out into the world (not to mention leaving him disbarred and unemployed and therefore unable to foot the cost of the health insurance Foggy so desperately needs), they feel they have him pretty under their thumb, enough so, anyway, that they are prepared to hire him to defend one of their sons, who is charged with arson and twelve counts of murder. The fire that caused the deaths was a Serpent job but, the men maintain, Donald was not involved. So Daredevil has to choose to take the case and protect an innocent yet not-innocent man or walk away and potentially lose everything. He calls up Elektra to try to make up his mind, hoping that she'll spar with him to get him thinking. Before they can start, though, they run into a pair from the Serpent Society (unrelated to the Sons of the Serpent but clearly hired by the Sons of the Serpent in this case) guarding the ashes of the building Daredevil's investigating. After a quick fight, Elektra imparts some solid wisdom on DD that helps clear his mind and helps him make an unexpected decision. When Matt and Kirsten go into the courtroom the next day, he pulls off a gutsy move on the Serpents as he turns over lead defender duties to Kirsten and she sends him to the stand as their first witness. When she asks Matt's name, he offers "Daredevil."

Huge, huge shakeup to the DAREDEVIL book as this run comes to a close and gives way to another Waid/Samnee run. At least there's no doubt that the new run will be significantly different to this one now, huh? It's a bold choice for Waid and I think it's absolutely the right one to make. Waid came into a book that, as I've detailed plenty of times (most recently in my Top Books of 2013 list), was kind of a mess. Not that it was bad, just that it left its protagonist an angry shell of his former self, exposed but refusing to seem exposed, and very much on his own both by choice and by his actions. Instead of continuing the cycle, Waid broke from recent tradition and made Daredevil fun again. Of course, Waid's artists, from Paolo Rivera to Chris Samnee to Javier Rodriguez, were perfect fits and deserve much of the credit here as their crisp pictures and very sharply defined characters and bright colors went a long way to cement DAREDEVIL as something very different from its Alex Maleev/Michael Lark predecessors (for the record, I very much like both artists and they fit very well for the book at their respective times). Even in this issue, Elektra remarks that Daredevil is very "jocular," a big difference from the last time they met (which would be, if I'm not forgetting anything, SHADOWLAND, the height of angry DD). It's very true and it's perfect and now, even in this giant debacle, we're seeing a smart Daredevil who refuses to be played and who is playing his own game and still manages to have a good couple of moments with Elektra. Really nice issue, very interested to see how this last issue will play out.

Thor: God of Thunder 17
Aaron (w) and Lupacchino and Garney (a) and Svorcina and Loughridge (c)

Thor was the traitor to the League of Realms after all, with a bug slipped into him by one of Malekith's spies at the pub they went to. Fortunately, Thor had the foresight to realize that the Realm of Leagues may be better served if they banded together and used some sorcery of his own (which he offhandedly says he learned from Loki at some point) when he apparently killed Ud the troll. Sir Honeyshot and Screwbeard found Ud wandering the forests with a note from Thor on his back that explained everything and they followed Thor to Midgard, saving him and Lady Waziria from Malekith just as things looked their worst. After a long fight with Malekith and his band of dark elves, the hiding elves of Svartalfheim call on Thor to stop just short of killing Malekith, as they've come to a decision about their future. They've made Malekith their king, which, of course, enrages Thor but the Congress of Worlds has no choice but to accept. The All-Mother demand that Malekith serve the remainder of his time first unless he finds a proxy to do it for him. Lady Waziria steps forth, explaining that this is the only way to stop further bloodshed for her people. Thor knows, of course, that it only means more problems for the rest of the realms but it makes sense for Svartalfheim. Sir Honeyshot encourages Thor, though, saying that his ability to bring the League together as he did is as impressive as anything Malekith could have done. Of course, it won't necessarily help things when Malekith teams with Jotunheim and Muspelheim to form his own league, as the epilogue of the story hints.

Bold move by Aaron as the book ends and one that leaves him no end of stories to tell. I still don't love this arc as a whole but I can respect and appreciate the ending of it. I still a little feel like it's impossible to separate the book from the fantasy trope (thanks Lord of the Rings) of the unlikely banding together of heroes from different fantasy archetypes. It's also, as if there weren't enough things to compare it to, drawn to the audience's attention that this League of Realms is not entirely unlike Thor and the Warriors Three, which did not make things better (despite my affection for that group). Still, I suppose it's worth putting aside my boredom with that aspect of this issue (though not with this arc) to make way for the plot twist that is Malekith being named king of the dark elves. One of my issues with Aaron over in books like WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN and the newer AMAZING X-MEN is that it often feels like the books talk down a little to the reader. Not necessarily the ideas or the characters, but the actual writing. I didn't think it was happening so much in the first two arcs of this series so I was pleased with that but this arc has gone for it a bit, with this issue particularly summarizing and name-dropping like a pro. Every character gets a name-check and, more obviously, a quick heritage-check which feels very forced and incredibly strange as it's the last issue of a five issue arc. Trust that the audience knows these people and where they come from and why it's so crazy they're together. If someone is picking up this issue as their very first THOR: GOD OF THUNDER issue, trust that they have the internet and can look it up or throw a better splash page on the book to briefly catch people up. Otherwise it makes the dialogue seem more than a little unnatural and slows the pace of the book. In the end, it's a nice little set-up that maybe took a little longer than I'd've liked getting ether. Should be some big things coming for Thor.