Writing a great first issue is hard. With “#1 With A Bullet”, I wanted to examine some debut issues that worked – or didn’t – in an attempt to figure out just what makes a great first issue… and what common mistakes creators occasionally make. Today, I look at Mark Waid’s fantastic Daredevil #1 and the art of revitalizing a character who has been stuck in something of a rut. Continue reading
The internet in the last few hours has been bursting with it. The news that Ben Affleck is going to be the next Batman alongside Henry Cavill’s Superman. To get a better idea of how this will go, I just rewatched Daredevil.
Continue reading here
Well, it’s that time of the year: the time when every obsessive with an Internet connection (and some obsessives, like me, without one) make lists. Best Album of 2012 leads into Worst Album of 2012 and culminates in Best Comeback Performance in 2012 Of An Artist Who Started His Career in the 1980s But Suffered Setbacks In The 90s.
We here at read/RANT like to keep things pretty simple. We talk about what we know: comics. Also, sometimes, TV and movies. We’re Renaissance Men, capable of being interested in many things at once. But, admittedly, it’s mostly comics.
Last year, there was just a single list: The 10 Best Graphic Novels of 2011. This year, I’m splitting my Top 10 into two separate lists: Top 10 Ongoings – what you are reading now – and an upcoming book on the Top 10 Graphic Novels. There are some books that may be thrilling as ongoings, but only very good as collections – or books that had a fantastic year, but don’t yet have a collection released!
So I’m hoping this will help bring a little diversity to the lists. We’ll see. Anyway, click through for the first list: The Top 10 Ongoing Comics of 2012, then chime in down in the comments and let me know what your favorite books were this year!
This week in comics, Sword of Sorcery gets off to a shockingly good start, Brian Azzarello brings us some old school adventure in Wonder Woman, and Revival gets even creepier in an unusually strong week for comics.
This week in comics, Saga #5 finally exists just in time for Saga #6 to come out, I completely forget to pick up Avengers Vs. X-Men, and Rorschach gets the impossibly bland mini-series you always hoped he’d have.
This cover, though lovely, has absolutely nothing to do with what’s in the issue? And what, you ask, is in it? Azzarello’s best 20 pages on the title to date.
This week in comics, Batman makes a new friend, Frankenstein kills him a leviathan, and Daredevil fights… some people… for a reason.
This week in comics, discover Rotworld with Animal Man and Swamp Thing, thrill to Hawkeye, savior of dogs, and meet Superman, M.D.
This week in comics, Saga and Justice League are sold out at my shop so I don’t get to read them, Carol Danvers returns to the spotlight in Captain Marvel #1, and Mark Waid completely rocks.
Decent book. Terrible cover.
This week in comics, the Avengers and the X-Men settle their differences via walk-off (with special guest judge David Bowie!), Image wows with Dancer #1, and I confuse the plot of a major event comic with that of Zoolander to mildly comedic effect. Very mild.
Let’s dance!
This week in comics, the “Rise of the Vampires” crossover concludes, “The Omega Effect” crossover concludes, and probably some other event somewhere concludes.
If there's one thing DC knows, it's this: People like bats and sparkling vampires. Two birds? Meet one stone.
This week in comics, Wonder Woman #8 takes us to the underworld, the Avengers and the X-Men hit each other some more, and
It's important to point out that this is the greatest cover in the history of comics. Basically.
Mark Waid Daredevil #1 was one of the strongest comic debuts of the year. And though the series lost some of its manic energy and innovative style as the months wore on, it remained one of Marvel’s strongest titles, albeit one that we haven’t been talking about a lot lately. Though Daredevil #6 is far from the book’s most ambitious issue, it’s another great example of how strong storytelling, a great creative team and solid pacing can all work together to defy a character’s conventional tropes and create some amazing, memorable work.
I think that what Bendis and Brubaker did with Daredevil was nothing short of brilliant. Like Frank Miller once did, they revitalized and repopularized a character badly in need of both, making him relevant to a new era. But the question remained: where do you go from there? When he had lost so much, when he had lost everything that made him a hero… where does Matt Murdock go next? How can you ever go darker? Mark Waid and his sizable art team have an answer with Daredevil #1, and it’s a surprising – and extremely well-handled – one.
read/RANT! 