Customer Reviews

Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Omnibus (v. 1)

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If you enjoyed 300, Sin City and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, witness where Frank Miller got his start. Collecting Miller's historic, early 1980's run, the Daredevil Omnibus presents one of the greatest examples of serialized superhero comics. While the collection starts off slowly, it quickly build up steam with the introduction of Elektra, through the clashes with Bullseye and culminating with the conflict against the Kingpin.
Along with inker, embellisher, penciller and colorist Klaus Janson, Frank Miller created one of the greatest runs in this character's history, perhaps even overshadowing Stan Lee, Bill Everett and Wally Wood's work from the sixties. This may be the only example where character was so successfully reinvented, surpassing even what these great creators had done before. Miller's style and design mature significantly as the issues progress, while the stories change from standard Marvel fare to the first modern day "crime comic". Further, the recoloring (seemingly based on the original palate) brings vibrant new life to this run.
Additionally, the Omnibus contains an extensive interview, Miller's pencil breakdowns and Janson's colorguides for issue 190, giving a rare glimpse into the creative process. A steal at twice the price.

I call this my Daredevil bible.
It has a really nice Red hard back cover with black Daredevil drawings on it.

The book itself containts over 30 colored issues of Frank Miller's run on Daredevil which includes some really classic moments for the character.
I noticed in the Marvel: Age of Apocalypse books it almost looks like the images were scanned from a comic, this is not the case here. All the pages are crisp and clean almost as if you have the original edition.

There is also a section in the back that has interviews and classic covers and sketches.

The price of this book is a bit much. Honestly if you aren't a hardcore DD fan I wouldn't suggest buying this particular item, I would go for the much cheaper soft cover editions. If you are a big DD fan then I suggest buying this.

I'm not gonna try to sell you on this book 'cause if you're looking at it you're already a Frank Miller fan. So... before I purchased this book I wanted to know what issues were contained therein! Above there are claimes this book contains DD issues #158 thru #191; this is only sort of true...

This most wonderful book ACTUALLY contains:

Daredevil #158 - 161 and #163 - 191 as well as the DD story from
What If...? #34!

Cool bonuses are: ALL of Franks DD trade paperback reprint covers, thumbnails and color guides for issue #190, a new introduction and an 1981 interview w/ Frank and Klaus,Frank's DD page from Fantastic Four Roast #1, AND Frank's intries from the Offcial Handbook of the Marvel Universe!

You know you want it True Beliver!

'Nuff said!

In the early 80's, Frank Miller took a tired, lost superhero with low sales and proceeded to reinvent crime comics forever. Dispatching with the standard superhero sensibilty and owing a great debt to Will Eisner's The Spirit, Miller created a new milieu in which the flaws of both Daredevil and his alter ego, Matt Murdock were write large, his supporting cast was fleshed out and his gallery of villians expanded to include ninjas and gangsters.

Along the way, the typical hero-villan confrontations became wrought with far greater emotion than had been previously shown. And, yes, the violence quotient was ratcheted up exponentially.

These stories famously became the basis for the Daredevil movie but here they are in their definitive form. The hardcover collection has all of Miller's Daredevil output from the early 80s. In them, you can see the pre-cursor for Miller's own Sin City. Additionally, Miller's pencils were never better than here. Unlike his future efforts, the style does not overwhlem the substance here. His pencils and Klaus Janson's inks mesh in a manner that occurs only a few times in comics history, joining the great penciller-inker teams like Kirby/Sinnot, Swan/Anderson and Byrne/Austin.

The only minus: it does not include the final portion of Miller's DD output: the classic "Born Again" series he wrote in the mid-80s simultaneously with another little thing he was working on called "The Dark Knight Returns". However, that's carping. This is meant to show Miller's work on the monthly when he was expected to write it forever. Of course, that never happens. But, at least we'll always have this omnibus to remind us of what was...

Oh, yeah, and there's also Elektra!!!!!!!!!

Before Sin City, before Dark Knight Returns, there was Frank Miller's Daredevil. In my opinion the best thing he ever did. He took a "B" rated super hero comic, that was being published bi-monthly, and turned it into one of the best selling monthly books of it's time. The ideas that Miller introduced in these stories are still resonating in the Marvel Universe today. He turned Daredevil into a super-bad ninja warrior. He made the Kingpin a major villain with unlimited underworld clout. He transformed Bullseye from a two-bit hood into the world's greatest assassin. And most noteably, he introduce Matt Murdock's ninja assassin love interest, Elektra.

These are some of my favorite comics of all time. The stories are a brilliant blend of super hero adventure and film style action and pacing. Not as light and upbeat as some of the books of the time, but not as dark and depressing as the "gritty" stuff Marvel is publishing these days. While I really liked some of the early adventures of DD by Stan Lee, Wally Wood, John Romita etc., for me Daredevil begins and ends with this legendary run. Nuff said.

I own all of the original Daredevil's in what might be the greatest comic book series of all time. When this was released I immediately ordered it so that my sons could relive the experience without touching the precious (and valuable!) originals. As I knew, they both devoured the edition like a starving survivor lost in the desert would consume food and water. This is food and water for all thirsty and hungry Miller fans that never read Frank at his youthful, artistic and brilliant best. Be daring.....buy it and don't put it down until slaked. You will never regret buying but will regret not.

As the artist for Spectacular Spider-Man, the then basically unknown Frank Miller took on the job as penciler for Daredevil; which was one of Marvel's more maligned titles at the time. Eventually he also began to write the book, and that's when the magic really started to happen. What's collected here in this Daredevil Omnibus is Miller's complete, legendary run on Daredevil in which he reinvents characters from the ground up. Adding some spice to creator Stan Lee's original vision of Daredevil's origin, Miller is also noted for the introduction of Elektra; the ninja assassin and Matt "Daredevil" Murdock's life long love who is now his adversary. In these issues, Daredevil also takes on Wilson Fisk, AKA the Kingpin, who before was a minor Spider-Man villain, but was also rebuilt from the ground up thanks to Miller. Oh yeah, there's also that insane assassin named Bullseye who plays a vital role in one of the most unforgettable moments ever in a mainstream comic book to come out at the time. I could go on, but there's so much to be found here that you are better off seeing and believing it for yourself. The only real downside is that some of the dialogue doesn't hold up well by today's standards, but the heart of Miller's storytelling packs a punch that only the creator of Sin City and Dark Knight Returns can deliver.

I've seen all the original issues that make up this book for sale in bargain bins for $1.00 each (or 12 for $10.00), so if you're just looking to read the stories, you can save a bundle buying the actual comics.

You can't do better than Miller's DD. 'nuff said. Better than Dark Knight. Better than anything. Worth whatever price. A desert island collection.

Get this one and enjoy the ride! Reprints Miller's classic DD stories starting with issue 158. Miller's early Punisher rendition is still the best! The coloring and paper quality is excellent --- although this volume is somewhat pricey. In my opninion, Miller is one of the VERY few artists to capture the essence of Daredevil. If you're a Miller or DD diehard, this one is not to be missed.

Note: There are a few extra goodies in this volume: A Miler interview and storyboard layouts.