Customer Reviews

Daredevil Vol. 11: Golden Age

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At the conclusion of the previous Daredevil volume, the Widow, there was news of the release of a man named Alexander Bont, a man who was the original Kingpin before Wilson Fisk, and a man who also has a connection to Matt Murdock. As Golden Age opens, Matt is partially in his Daredevil costume and chained up, while being beaten by his old reformed nemesis the Gladiator and recorded by Bont himself. As Bendis' story unfolds, he shifts the reader through time; introducing us to a young and power hungary Bont and his first encounter with Daredevil. Now, Bont is out of jail, and looking for revenge and to regain everything he lost because of the horned vigilante, and with word out of Daredevil's identity, Bont sets his sights on Matt. This is a classic crime noir story disguised in a Marvel comic, and if it's one thing that fans know Bendis can do, it's tell a great crime story. Alex Maleev's art gets better and better with each passing issue, and his black and white sections of the story revealing the past between Daredevil and Bont helps make Golden Age simply awesome. Bendis has said that with the next upcoming stories, he is taking DD in a different and more noir-ish direction, and if it's anything like Golden Age, than longtime DD readers may finally find something that rivals Frank Miller's classic Daredevil tales.

I thought the was one of the best Daredevil arcs on the Bendis/Maleev run with the comic. I thought how the past comes to get Matt Murdock was good. The story is about pride and revenge and redemption which is well done. Bendis and Maleev defined not only Daredevil but Matt Murdock as well. If you are a fan of art as well this had a terrific run covers. The art itself is just terrific. Even if Bendis didn't get his history it shouldn't be held against him. Golden age was my personal favorite Daredevil arc. Buy it. You will not be dissapointed. End.

Completely explains the entire years before The Kingpin. Filled with human emotions and wonderful writing, I highly recomend this book to any Daredevil fan or comic fan otherwise. Wonderfully done and like all things by Brian Michael Bendis...sure to be a classic!

Don't be fooled. Even though this is a superhero book, it is a crime story at heart. Did you know there was a Kingpin of crime before Wilson Fisk? No? Well, neither did I until I was introduced to Alexander Bont. Our story opens up with Daredevil being savagely beaten while Bont films his interrogation. Using the shifts in time that Bendis is known for, we flash back to the past to chronicle Bont's rise to power and eventual fall from grace. As it turns out, when Bont was the Kingpin, his attorney happened to be Matt Murdock. Since Daredevil put him in jail many years ago, Bont is none too thrilled to find out his former lawyer is the same man that put him behind bars. I think you can see where this leads. Nevertheless, I loved the way Bendis flashes back to the early days of the Marvel universe to showcase Bont rising up from a common street thug to become the Kingpin, and his relationship with a young Matthew Murdock. Very compelling stuff! Alex Maleev also impresses with his shift in visual style to showcase this story from D.D's past. Great stuff!

Maleev here starts to experiment with emulating "old school" drawings. The images appear to be enlarged with dot colouring. This is perfect pop art.

The plot of Alexander Bont coming out of prison to wreak vengence upon DD and Matt Murdock is good. Using enhanced superpowers granted to him from taking doses of mutant growth hormone is a simple plot device to enable a nobody like him to at least gain credibility in trying to defeat DD. Using the Gladiator as well to achieve his ends is stupid, but can be forgiven on the assumption that Alexander Bont had been locked away for a long time and the Gladiator was probably his only superhero link to the outside world.

To keep it short I'll just say the ending of this five issue arc was very anti-climatic. Maybe it was befitting of the character (Bont, Alex Bont) and the whole arc to demonstrate the futility of revenge or whatever, but it does not it makie it any less anti-climatic, especially considering it takes four issues (most of it spent on flashbacks) to set up the final showdown. Overall this arc spends a fair amount of time introducing a (run of the mill criminal) character.
There's probably a message in that about how life goes on and no one man's actions can ever make too much of a lasting impression on the world around him, no matter how hard he tries to save it (DD) or destroy it (Kingpins) because they'll always be someone else in the future doing the same thing...
One of the weaker Bendis arcs.

Also this arc introduces a new White tiger, Angela Del Toro (introduced in former issues as a FBI agent), and shows Daredevil "mentoring" her. Well let's just say DD is no Batman and the mentoring is extremely rough and very short. She appears later in the Murdock Papers and her own (bad) mini series.