Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The story of Daredevil way before the Frank Miller years, February 10, 2003
Once upon a time I bought every comic book that Marvel put out each month. Of course, that was back when comic books were about a quarter apiece. Then suddenly there was a giant proliferation of titles, the New Universe line, and everything else they could think of to throw our way. When "Conan the Barbarian" went down for the count I cut back big time and was reading only two Marvel title: Iron Man and Daredevil. I always thought there was some sort of significance to the combination, since there were relatively unique as Marvel superheroes without super-strength. I started reading "Iron Man" around the time Tony Stark starting hitting the bottle big time but "Daredevil" was the second Marvel comic I started reading after "Spider-Man." I liked the fact that Matt Murdock was a lawyer; actually I thought they should have played it up a lot more than they ever did in the comic. I suspect "The Essential Daredevil, Volume 1" is going to receive a lot of attention once the movie version opens at the end of this week. Unfortunately, readers might be put off by the fact that they are not going to find Electra, Bullseye or the Kingpin of the Frank Miller glory years in these reprints of the first 25 issues of "Daredevil: The Man Without Fear!" They will find good ol' Franklin "Foggy "Nelson, as well as Karen Page, and even Mike Murdock, along with guest appearances by Spider-Man (#16), the Thing (#2), and Namor the Sub-Mariner (#7). Reading these issues again I was struck by how much trouble DD had finding really good villains. I think borrowing Electro from Spider-Man for issue #2 was a mistake, because that works against establishing the character on his own terms (ditto with the Ox in #15). The Owl (#3, #20) seems like a second rate Vulture, the Stilt-Man (#8) seems one of the most impractical villains ever, and it is a toss up as to who is sillier, the Matador (#5) or the Leap Frog (#25). Mr. Fear (#6) is the villain who should be pop up the most as DD's obvious counterpart, but it is the Gladiator (#18, #19, #23) who gets the most storylines. However, the best stories are those where Daredevil goes up against heroes like the Sub-Mariner, Ka-Zar (#12, #13, #24) and Spider-Man. No wonder it took a long time for Daredevil to find his own villains (the Jester was my favorite until the Kingpin became the major player in the series). The front cover lists Stan Lee, Wallace Wood, John Romita, Gene Colan & Friends, which means a couple of significant artists get dumped in the "Friends" category, namely Bill Everett and Joe Orlando, who drew the first issues, along with Jack Kirby, who did layouts for Romita to ink on a couple of issues. With all due respect to the remarkable transformation Frank Miller in terms of writing and page layouts, Gene Colan was always by favorite Daredevil artist. I always liked the fluidity of his art, not only on DD but also "Dr. Strange" and "Dracula," not to mention the way he drew the ladies in general and the Black Widow in particular. The 25 stories represented in this collection are not the best Daredevil stories, but they are the groundwork for what was to come. Hopefully the fact that the movie has come out will get them to put out the next couple of volumes in this series (although we know they will stop long before they get to Miller's issues, which I believe are already available in full color reprints).
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not called essential for nothing., December 6, 2002
By A Customer
I actually owned several of these early issues at one time and it has been great reading through them again. I am a long time DD fan and love this collection. The black and white format did not in any way detract from my enjoyment. I was relieved to find the paper and ink quality has greatly improved with this collection. Some of the other essential collections for other charaters has been awful. I personally feel the stories Stan Lee wrote for these early issues were some of his best. And the art is the best of its time period. In this collection we get to see pages penciled by the great Jack Kirby, Wally Wood (who designed DD's traditional red costume), John Romita Sr., and Gene Colon. These stories are just plain fun and adventure before DD became the intense, brooding and, often times, tragic character he is today. Take my word for it: if you love DD as much as I do pick up this first volume of twenty-five issues, it will not disappoint.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wally Wood, John Romita, Gene Colan, March 10, 2003
It is so fascinating to compare the art styles of the three giants of comic art represented in this collection. After a so-so start with Bill Everett and Joe Orlando (inked by Vince Colletta), Wally Wood takes over with his eccentric, disciplined, almost scientific approach to illustrating castles, weird inventions and other gee-whiz stuff. Then John Romita brings his muscular, vibrant, dynamic and organic compositions to the title, and it really comes alive (his work looks exactly like the bright, catchy, somewhat "cartoony" classics Romita did for Spiderman as that character's best artist). Next comes Gene Colan, who's facile virtuosity, flowing figures, and unique camera angles became the definitive Daredevil "look" that originally caught my young eyes back in the '60s. Stan Lee's trademaked psuedo-hip wisecracking and underlying decency bring nostalgic warmth and amusement to my heart. Though the art has never been equaled and looks strong in black and white, this series of reprints should be in color! And not the phony computor color they're using nowadays with the little airbrushed-looking highlights, but just plain old ordinary flat comic book color like they had in the ones my mother threw out.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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4.0 out of 5 stars
It's cool. Could use a little Bullseye, Kingpin, and Mr. Hyde, though.
This is a good book. It has great art, and the characters in it are pretty cool, especially people like Owl, Stilt-Man, Mister Fear, Electro, and Gladiator.
Read more
Published on August 3, 2005 by Alex K
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by Stan Lee
by Stan Lee
by Gerry Conway
by Stan Lee
