The
Royal Mail finally condescended to bring me my comics, so, y'know,
reviews of a few comics from the pack, a light one this week and both
by Mark Waid (not that I'm complaining, I bloody love Mark Waid
comics)...
Daredevil
#2
I
could certainly bitch about how this issue in no way addresses #1's
cliffhanger but I'm not going to. A mystery like that will probably
be better for a slow boil and in the meantime Matt and Kirsten's hazy
and undefined relationship is more than interesting enough for me.
Besides, arguably the #1.50 one-shot gave us enough clues for the
time being.
As
to what this issue is doing it's another pleasingly direct issue of
Mark Waid Daredevil. Someone's kidnapping Mafiosi, Matt Murdock's
contact Deputy Mayor Charlotte Hastert brings him the case and away
we go! If this seems like damning with faint praise it is not. What
superhero comics need right now are a few more series like this
because we've spent damn near two decades now de-constructing,
reconstructing and subverting this art form to the point that there
really is mileage in writing “standard” superhero stories with
modern techniques.
Aside
from that the issue sketches in some more of Matt's life in San
Francisco, consciously fails to define his relationship with Kirsten
(so she's probably going to live a while longer) and even introduces
one of San Fran's native heroes to the mix. Marvel's San Francisco
has a storied (if spotty) history so seeing that come into play was
nice. There's a lot of foreshadowing, mainly name-dropping the Owl
who we know will be a big cheese in this series from #1.50 and you're
confident in where things are going but then Waid pulls out a last
page twist.
Original
Sin #0
What
did this issue do? It made me care about a character I had no
previous knowledge of and added layers to one I've known practically
my entire life.
It
didn't look like either was going to happen to start with. The issue
is mainly the new Nova, Sam Alexander, soliloquising about his
relationship with his absent, alcoholic father in the general
vicinity of a more-silent-than-usual Uatu. Since I'd never read a Sam
Alexander story and barely read any Nova stories this wasn't a
promising start. I mean that's as basic an origin as you can get, the
only real distinction is that a young man has daddy issues.
But
this is Mark Waid writing and as we deal with four paragraphs ago
Mark Waid does simple only so he can pull the rug out from under you
with something clever and makes Sam's origin actively relate to
Uatu's character. As an origin primer it's a good choice because
really the only other thing this telling has going for it is one
small different detail from the standard telling so giving it
emotional weigh gives me another reason to stick around.
Yes,
it's true that Uatu's strong silent act does not quite ring true.
Just a week or so back he was keeping Hank McCoy up all night (in
All-New X-Men #25, by talking, what did you think I meant?) and he's
never been big on keeping to his non-interventionist vows.