It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp!
My latest Comics You Should Own column is up. It's about issues of Daredevil you really ought to check out - but not the ones you might think! Go. Read. Or don't. I'm certainly not going to force you to!
posted by Greg at 3/13/2006 09:55:00 AM
7 Comments:
I'm commenting here, because I'm not logged in with the other site, so nyah!
Anyway, the last Daredevil/Bullseye fight from Nocenti is probably my favorite, and still one of my favorite issues period. The two are so confused and mentally unbalanced that in each other's costumes they act like that costume: it's a great fight scene and one that I think would be very difficult to pull off in another medium.
Good article: it made me want to touch back with those issues, and I've kind of been burnt on Daredevil of late.
I agree with you for giving Nocenti props, her run was far superior to Miller's.
Must disagree about ELektra being a good love interest, my guess is that you must have read the Elektra saga as a teenaged boy. There is no depth or genuine emotion in the whole thing.
T. - I can't remember when I first read the Elektra thing, but it wasn't when I was a teenager. Early 20s, more likely. I just think she is matched well with Matt, unlike the other women he hooks up with. The stories are decent enough (I guess I like them better than you do), but I like the character with Matt.
I call Elektra an example of reverse Chuck Cunningham. Chuck Cunningham is the older brother of Richie CUnningham that disappeared early in the Happy Days series and was simply never mentioned again. Another examples of Chuck Cunningham syndrome was the little sister that disappeared on Family Matters.
Reverse-Chuck Cunningham syndrome is where it happens in reverse and someone that has never appeared or been mentioned in continuity is suddenly introduced late in the game and we're supposed to believe they're all-important and essential to the characters. I read the Elektra saga a few years ago expecting a major romantic epic and it was basically Matt seeing Elektra and becoming obsessed out of the blue as Elektra barely says twelve words to him from her first appearance until the day she dies. Meanwhile he can't stop thinking and talking about her and how he never got over her even though he never mentioned her before EVER.
Sopranos did a reverse-Cunningham recently with Tony's nephew Tony B. (Steve Buscemi). They did it better though.
That was an extremely in-depth, well-written article. Great anlysis and critical overview of those books.
Like yourself, I have often found both Nocenti and Chichester's writing on Daredevil to be very underrated.
Since I first got into comic books at the tail end of Nocenti's DD run, I acquired most of her issues from the back issue bins. When I first learned of her Daredevil vs Mephisto arc, I must have muttered "You have got to be kiddig me!" But once I found the issues, and read them, I was stunned. She did some incredible writing in those issues.
Like yourself, yes, I often did find Nocenti's social commentary to be about as subtle as a sledgehammer blow to the head. So even though I often found myself agreeing with the general gist of her views, her rhetoric was overwhelming.
As for Chichester, before his work on DD, he was doing some good stuff on Nick Fury, bringing back Baron Strucker and reviving Hydra as a credible menace. For the life of me, to this day I still cannot fathom why he was replaced on Fury. But I certainly enjoyed seeing him import some of his subplots from Fury to DD. And he did so very smoothly, so that they seemed a natural fit.
Yeah, Chichester's work post-#300 was pretty hit-or-miss. I did enjoy "Tree of Knowledge," though. Interesting analysis of the pros and cons of the Internet, and how it could potentially transform society in very different ways. That, and in retrospect it was very prescient, seeing Strucker hoping to use terrorism to destroy democracy, not through the actual actions of Hydra, but by provoking reactionary responses from the federal government in the form of martial law.
Chichester had a good take on Captain America, one of my favorite characters. And I thought System Shock were cool villains.
Interesting stuff about Chichester. I've always wanted to track down more of his work, so I'll have to dig up his Fury.
You got a really useful blog and I really your style of writing. Keep it up
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