Customer Reviews

Daredevil: Lone Stranger

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Daredevil: Lone Stranger collects Daredevil issues 265-275, a memorable run by writer Ann Nocenti and artists John Romita Jr. and Al Williamson. I'm happy (and more than a little surprised) that these issues were collected like this. These were the first Daredevil issues I read when I started getting into comics, so they have a special place in my heart.

The story takes place during X-Men: Inferno, the X-Men crossover event that spilled over into most Marvel titles at the time. Daredevil was just coming off the events of the Daredevil Legends Vol. 4: Typhoid Mary storyline, so he's in pretty bad shape. Of course, the best Daredevil stories are inevitably the ones where he's at his lowest point, and this is no exception. We get to see a silent, brooding Daredevil whip the bejeezus out of a host of demons, drown his sorrows at a local bar, and then leave town completely, wandering from town to town, Kung Fu: The Complete Series Collection style. The highlight of this run is issue 269, where Daredevil faces down Blob and Pyro in a small town. It's probably one of the best single-issue Daredevil stories I've ever read.

Nocenti is one of the more underrated Daredevil scribes. Her run is never going to be ranked up there with Miller or Bendis, but I think she did a terrific job and brought a lot to the title and the character. It was unusual in an 80's era comic to focus so much on "background" characters, but it is precisely that attention to everyday citizens that makes this run so memorable. I was way more interested in the lady who ran the boarding house and the kids in Hell's Kitchen than I was when Spider-Man showed up to fight Blackheart.

The only problem, story-wise, is the lack of any concrete beginning or ending. Inferno is in full swing when the book starts, and it doesn't have a satisfying conclusion (or much of a conclusion at all).

As for the artwork, this is prime John Romita Jr., back before he was drawing everyone like squared-off Lego people. His dynamic pencils and Al Williamson's inks look even more amazing now that they've been restored for this collection. The color is also quite impressive, having been retouched for the higher quality paper used here.

Lone Stranger isn't going to appeal to everyone the way a Daredevil: Born Again would, but if you're a serious Daredevil fan, or a fan of 80's era Marvel Comics in general, it's well worth checking out.

The first Daredevil comic I ever read was actually included in this collection. I remember loving the story and art, so when I saw the whole arc was included in one book, I snapped it up right away.

Ann Nocenti writes some really great tales of DareDevil wandering around the country after the events of Born Again. He's lost and trying to refind his purpose. He runs into Spiderman, the Inhumans, and Mephisto. John Romita Jr. hit his artistic stride with this run. You can see his distinct style developing and his master storytelling already there.

What really excited me about this collection was the printing; they did a marvelous job restoring the original linework and colors to all their glory. John Romita Jr.'s work has never looked so good. I have several issues from the 80s on newsprint, but the enhanced production is well worth buying the stories again!

I highly recommend this collection to anyone who likes Daredevil, John Romita, Jr., or great drama.

In this collection, Ann Nocenti finally hits stride and starts laying the groundwork for the end of her underrated Daredevil run.
With beautiful art by a rapidly improving John Romita Jr. she takes Daredevil from the lows she had sunk him into, i.e. the loss of his love Karen Page and of his Hell Kitchen legal practice. Kingpin's also back and Daredevil seems utterly defeated, as he soldiers on and almost in spite of himself aids people in New York during a demonic infestation (sic - the long-reaching arm of an X-Men event of which you need know no more here, luckily) and all over the Tri-State in subsequent issues. In the first half of the book, Ann Nocenti makes a sort of character study, trying tofind out what could drive this hero up from the pits again. Eventually, he finds his role again as protector of two girls, one a hardened animal rights activist and the other a bio-engineered supposedly perfect woman. The latter's conditioning, gone wrong in a governemnt's lab, makes her a funny and tragic counterpart to the other woman, more empowered but no less emotionally damaged. Daredevil being in such a deep depression and at the center of Mephisto's (Marvel Comics' very own Satan) machinations may prove a bigger danger than help.
Overall, this is typical 80's comics: Wordy, heavy on the philosophical and political side, cheeky in their villains and low-level science fiction.
However, there are two things raising this over the mass.
First is Ann Nocenti's ecology-driven political agenda, which may be look out of place to many Dardevil fans but which actually manages to carry the hero in new directions and still carries along much of the subtle character development and complex moral world that Frank Miller made for Dadevil, SImply put, Nocenti does philosophy and politics better than most, and her ruminations on the nature of good and evil are always quite interesting.
Second, but not really, is John Romita Jr.'s fantastic art, constantly and rapidly improving. In my opinion, even before the huge leap forward he made on Punisher War Zone later on, this is where he becomes a truly great artist, able to pace and carry a story on the strength of his work. Amazingly, the digital colours of the cover do a worse job than the compaaringly simple colours of old, which in turn let the art truly shine.
If they ever collect the remaining stories, the really great ones, you may really enjoy getting into them at the very beginning, here in this bulky collection.

I'm a big Daredevil fan but the writing in this drove me away twice - Once when I tried to read it issue by issue as it came out - and then later when I bought someone else's collection that included the complete Nocenti run. Couldn't finish it either time. I tend to enjoy both character driven pieces and/or plot driven stories but Nocenti always seems to be a cause driven writer and it gets old and preachy quick. The dialogue's sole purpose seems to be to push the cause not to advance the story or demonstrate any character development.

I actually like Romita's work but just couldn't get past the writing.

I would recommend Miller's, Bendis', or Brubaker's runs over this one.

Shame on Marvel, yes, because they didn't think yet of publishing the entire Daredevil run by this great writer, that is Ann Nocenti. The art is gorgeous, Romita Jr is in his best form here. The stories are so good that even in some points they are better than Frank Miller. Marvel, wake up, hurry, and make an Omnibus of this entire run and stop publishing trash like Secret Wars II.

I'm a little mystified at this collection. I'm definitely happy to have it, as I've been a Daredevil fan for many years and have not seen these issues in other collections, but it's not the most obvious choice for a trade paperback. Ann Nocenti writes these tales, mostly single issue stories of Daredevil wandering around the USA in an emotional cocoon after the misery he suffered in the Born Again and Typhoid Mary stories. John Romita, Jr., provides the art, which is not my favorite style (he likes a lot of lines, especially long straight unnecessary lines, and his version of Mephisto is not really in keeping with other artists' designs), but I know most readers love his work, and these examples are really good by JRJR standards.

The unusual thing about the collection, though, is that the stories don't really have anything in common other than Daredevil being emotionally reserved, and there's no clear start or end point. The first issue in the collection is even the last part of an Inferno crossover (which, by the way, is one of my favorite Ann Nocenti stories ever - no one writes nauseatingly surreal but purposeful horror like she does - and is a must-read for anyone familiar with Inferno). Most of the issues are decent but not great - there's a three-issue civics lesson about why overcrowding on farms is bad, and a one-issue fight with Freedom Force that paints the Blob as a sexual predator, and the introduction of Blackheart (who would eventually become a major character but who doesn't make much of an impression in this appearance, although Nocenti gets to indulge her horror strengths in writing his origin).

Nothing here is key to understanding Daredevil or his supporting cast, and this is definitely a book to skip if you're on a budget, but Daredevil completists will likely be entertained by this curious little journey to a little-referenced part of the character's past.