I bought TWO GIANT boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch at Walmart yesterday for just $5!! Nailed it!! I swing deals like Donald Trump!!
And hey!! I would probably make a better fucking president!!!
So … y’k’now. I hereby announce my candidacy for the Office of the President of the United States.
[Thanks to Campaign Manager Pete Harrison for the slogan and poster below. Share these with your friends and neighbors!]
Based on the poem “The Lady Clare” by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
I was all set to plug my favorite Daredevil storyline following the success of Marvel’s show on Netflix; now I hesitate. I absolutely loved 1993’s “Daredevil: Fall From Grace,” written by D. G. Chichester and illustrated by Scott McDaniel and Hector Collazo. But a simple google search reveals that this is yet another thing that I loved and everyone else apparently hates. So we can file it right alongside certain 90’s artifacts like “Alien 3” (1992), “Knightfall” (1993), and “Wyatt Earp” (1994).
Man, the reaction to this was poor, despite its high sales upon release. I actually do understand the criticisms. It’s a complicated story, into which various unrelated characters from the Marvel universe are shoehorned. (A “virus” bioengineered by the Defense Department can “remake what it infects” into anything at all, granting the infected with whatever superpowers they wish. Various Marvel villains and anti-heroes arrive in New York to compete for its discovery, after its loss decades ago in the subway system is made known.)
People hated “Fall From Grace,” describing it as convoluted and difficult to follow. They said Chichester’s writing was incomprehensible and too wordy. The experimental new art style by Scott McDaniel was described as “murky” and equally hard to follow. Today, people wonder why the widely panned story was ever even collected into trade paperback. (It’s pricey, by the way.)
Maybe I’m just nuts, but … this is one of my favorite comic book storylines of all time. I absolutely would not recommend it to a reader new to Daredevil, as I recommended Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.’s “Daredevil: The Man Without Fear” on Monday. In fact, it might only really be enjoyed by someone with at least a bit of familiarity with the Marvel universe.
Yes, Chichester’s writing was lengthy and verbose. But I loved his sometimes poetic and always mood-setting exposition, and his dialogue occasionally really shined. I forgave the story for inserting characters with whom I was unfamiliar. “Hellspawn” (and his Jamaican accent?) was entirely new to me, but damn if that monster didn’t make a unique and frightening enemy for Daredevil. (He’s the demonic looking, tiger-like “doppleganger” you see pictured in the first cover below.)
And look at that art. Certainly, it wasn’t to everybody’s taste. It was abstract, minimalist, dark, and it often lacked detail. It was almost … impressionistic? But I loved it. The radically altered style was perfectly suited to this new, much darker tone and story. (There was a hell of a lot of pathos in this storyline, including torture and assassination at the hands of the government.) It was full of shadow and dark color, served the story’s mood perfectly, and it was nothing like I’d seen in a comic book before.
I couldn’t honestly recommend buying this in trade paperback, given the fact the entire world except me seemed unhappy with it. But, hey … if you can borrow it from a friend or the library, then check it out. Maybe you’ll find some of the magic in it that I did.
For the life of me, I cannot understand how “Sinister 2” (2015) is getting such bad reviews. It’s a well made, terrifying horror movie that actually exceeds the 2012 original, which itself was superb. I’d cheerfully give it a 9 out of 10.
These films have a hell of a story setup. I won’t describe it in detail here, to avoid spoilers for either movie. Suffice to say, it is disturbing, even by horror movie standards. If your standard fare is disposable slasher flicks, bump-in-the-night ghost stories, larger-than-life survival fantasies like zombie movies — beware! This film take it up a notch. (As Nigel Tufnel once expounded, “This one goes to 11.”)
The movie depicts a demon who is responsible for the ostentatious, ritualistic murders of entire families. If that isn’t bad enough, his exact modus operandi is … gut wrenching. I can’t imagine what kind of pathological muse spoke to screenwriters Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill in coming up with this s@#$. Yeesh!!!
I actually thought this was much scarier than the first “Sinister.” (A caveat — I’m pretty sure I’m alone here; it seems like nearly everyone else panned this movie.)
First, the demon’s sickening systematic methods here are examined in detail. (The first movie worked as a mystery, in which these methods are gradually discovered by an investigative journalist.) We examine in greater depth the 8MM film strips that serve as a story device. (I don’t think I am revealing too much here, as they are shown in every ad for the movie.)
Second, we have a protagonist here that we can actually care about. It is none other than “Deputy So-And-So” (nicely played by James Ransone), the supporting character from the first film, who turns out to be a surprisingly likable anti-hero. He’s got character and charm that Ethan Hawke’s arrogant true-crime writer utterly lacked in the first movie. (It was the screenwriters’ fault, not the immensely talented Hawke’s, by the way.) We’ve got a nice guy that we can care about and root for. The imperiled family here is also more likable; the writer’s family in “Sinister” was portrayed in little depth.
Seriously, this is a highly disturbing horror movie, if that’s what you’re in the mood for. The “Christmas morning” scene really got under my skin. My fellow horror fans might skewer me for saying this, but it scared me as much as anything in “The Shining” (1980). It … just … YEESH, man!!
One quick final note — at the very end of the movie, I came up with my own twist ending; I’m surprised they didn’t go with it. It contains a spoiler, so I explain it after the jump beneath the poster below.
“If writing isn’t subversive, then it’s the most monotonous wallpaper, hung in a country club stocked with equally two-dimensional people. Subversion and blasphemy are where the really potent existence is. Kick back and attack.”
— Dennis Villelmi
Perfect. The above quote contains more meaningful advice than my entire English composition course in college.
It SUCKS when I awaken past midnight full of steel resolve and grim determination because Gotham needs me, and then I remember that I am not Batman.
COSMIC.
Spellcheck informs me that it’s “plebeian,” actually.
I’m a writer, my name is Eric Nolan, and I’m a comic book nerd who’s reviewed both comics and superhero movies. And, at first, I had some reservations about Ben Affleck’s casting in the upcoming “Batman vs. Superman.”
But this is some other dude. Weird.
So you saw me rave at length last night about Marvel’s “Daredevil” series on Netflix. If you loved it, as I did, but you’re also new to the character, may I recommend the 1993 limited comic book series upon which it’s based?
“Daredevil: The Man Without Fear” was cited by the show’s creators as their direct inspiration. You can tell just by looking at it.
And it’s a terrific set of books. It was penned by one legend in the comic industry, Frank Miller, and illustrated two others, John Romita, Jr. and Al Williamson. It’s an expert recounting of his origin that is easily understood by a new reader.
Totally random thought: man, I spent a lot of money on comic books in college. Comic books and Butterfingers, seriously. There was a candy machine in my dorm that I just couldn’t stay away from.
Throughout the entire first season of Netflix’ “Daredevil,” the obsessive comic book nerd in me kept scanning outdoor scenes for The Avengers Tower. I don’t think I saw it once. But that didn’t affect my enjoyment of a serial crime thriller that was so often fantastic.
And I think that sums up the program nicely. This is only a putative part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. References to the fantastical larger universe of Marvel’s comic book movies are perfunctory and vague. The intergalactic invasion of the Chitauri lizard-men, engineered by the Norse God Loki, is referred to only as “the event” — even though the destruction in New York is part of this season’s plot setup. Characters like Iron Man and Thor are referred to dryly by a secondary bad guy who doesn’t even mention their names. And other “comic book connections” tend to be minor, obscure, and sparing for a 13-episode season. I actually gained the suspicion here that the screenwriters for this brutal crime drama were unconsciously embarrassed that their show was part of the MCU. Yes, I do know that Netflix will soon launch other related shows, for less iconic comic book characters such as Luke Cage and Iron Fist, and that this incarnation of Daredevil seems fated to join something called “The Defenders.” (Ugh.) But that thankfully hasn’t happened yet.
Even the comic book elements of the Daredevil mythos seemed to me to be underplayed here. His unusual powers (they don’t even feel like “superpowers”) rarely take center stage. His villains aren’t garish. He’s only nicknamed “Daredevil” via a news article in the final episode; nor does he don anything approaching his trademark costume until then. Wilson Fisk, our Big Bad, is never once referred to by his comic book appellation, “The Kingpin.”
And you know what? All of that works just fine. The Hell’s Kitchen we see in “Daredevil” might seem like a universe unto itself. But, given this show’s quality, even a diehard comic book fan like me can concede, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
It ain’t broke. I’d rate Season 1 at a 9 out of 10. In many ways, “Daredevil” is far superior to anything else in the MCU. This show’s distinguishing characteristic isn’t that it’s dark. It’s that it’s a well written, well directed, and usually quite well performed crime-thriller.
It has surprisingly three-dimensional, truly interesting characters who are rendered in depth and detail. This includes a few bad guys, by the way, who might have a knack for winning over viewer loyalty just by being so good at being bad. (Most people would point to Fisk, but for me, Wesley was the guy you hate to love.) Many characters are so well written and played by their actors that they seem 100 percent “real” — particularly Ben Urich and Karen Page. This is the single MCU property with the most compelling characterization and, yes, I am including the “Iron Man” films in this comparison.
Yes, everything you’ve heard about this being Marvels darkest onscreen outing is correct … and THEN some. The story is not just thematically dark; the story is itself brutal. This seems to be a corner of the MCU in which the harshest consequences result for characters at every level. Daredevil doesn’t just “take a hit” here; he gets cut up, bloodied and scarred — so much at several points that he requires the services of a (regrettably plot convenient) off-duty emergency room nurse.
Far worse is what happens to ordinary people who are heroic themselves. No good deed goes unpunished in this nasty niche of Marvel’s world. Defenseless people are shown no mercy by the story’s stronger protagonists. The murder of one beloved character is all the more chilling because we witness their fruitless attempts to defend themselves despite a complete absence of special powers or training. It’s … actually a bit worse than what we saw in that paragon of gritty superhero films, Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” trilogy.
And the crimes and criminals themselves? Yeesh. An early scene in the very first episode gives us a chilling little glimpse of human trafficking, with sobbing, kidnapped women loaded into the back of a dockside shipping container. Not long after, we witness a father being beaten in the street before his son’s eyes; the child is then snatched. The running theme here is that ordinary human evil can be more terrifying than dimension-hopping lizard-man armies or tyrannical Norse gods. Sure, this theme is something we’ve seen plenty of times before. But here, it’s just done so damn WELL.
The fight choreography was frikkin’ SWEET. It was fantastic enough to be comic book violence, but gritty and consequential enough to be real-world violence. I kept trying to figure out where a stunt double might be filling in for Charlie Cox, who portrayed Daredevil. I couldn’t. He’s … not doing his own stunts, is he?
The acting was usually quite good. Deborah Ann Woll consistently stole the show as Karen Page — the script here beautifully elevates Karen beyond her pretty pathetic comic book incarnation. (A caveat — I was reading the “Daredevil” comics in the 1990’s, and am using those as a frame of reference here; of course they might have changed significantly since then.) Karen often seems to emerge as much of a primary protagonist here as Daredevil himself. She’s got far more at stake, personally, and Woll expertly gets that across to the audience. And she’s a complex character, playing the fool for Foggy Nelson, being the the darkly driven de facto apprentice to Ben Urich, and occasionally being manipulative and ruthless in ways that our other protagonists never could. What a great improvement on the original source material. (Hint — comics are not a medium known for its feminist sensibilities.) Woll, who I remember hitting it out of the park in her psychopathic role in HBO’s “True Blood” (2008) outshines every co-star.
Nearly every other cast member was perfect or near perfect. Vondie Curtis-Hall needs special mention here for truly bringing Ben Urich to life on the big screen for the first time. His turn as the aging, jaded newspaper reporter was flawless. Urich, to me, will always be the greatest reporter in comics. (F&*$ Peter Parker and those Daily Planet pretty people; Ben was the real deal. Who cares if he was past mid-life? He was the only character in the comic books who spoke and proceeded like a real journalist.)
There were really only a couple of forgivable weaknesses that affected my enjoyment of Season 1.
First, the narrative structure … seemed “off” somehow. I see the basic underlying story here as ultimately being an deeply personal battle between two men: Daredevil and the Kingpin. (This is despite the way that Karen and Ben delightfully distinguish themselves as prime movers in the plot.) I …. never really sensed any momentum here. For a while, Daredevil and Fisk have minimal information about each other. We see Matt Murdoch in skirmishes with many underlings; these seem episodic and without greater consequence. Then … Matt quite accidentally meets Fisk for the first time, when he tries to “get a sense of” his enemy by … meeting his girlfriend? Huh? I never really got a sense of these two primary characters moving toward each other until the last episodes. Oh, well … the comics were kinda like that. But I do hope that future seasons are more tightly plotted, with more consistent tension.
Second, there really seemed to be multiple problems connected with the character of Foggy Nelson. I do think that Eldon Henson performed quite poorly in the role. Maybe he was just miscast. He doesn’t once come close to the performances of his co-stars. I also think the script did absolutely nothing to make Foggy a likable character. He’s immature, self-absorbed, and ethically rickety. His jokes fall flat; his flat “banter” with Karen is grating (and makes her look like an idiot). He’s … downright irritating. Why would Matt want him as a “best friend” or business partner? Why would anybody?
Third, I occasionally would like a more specific nod in Hell’s Kitchen to the larger Marvel universe. Maybe a truck passes by with the Stark Industries log. Maybe a kid passes by with a Captain America t-shirt. Maybe a couple of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents investigate Fisk’s employees in connection with offshore partners who are alleged to have super-powered henchman. Just something small — it wouldn’t spoil the “real” feel of our dark drama, and it would place our protagonists’ lives in a larger context.
All in all, though, “Daredevil” was surprisingly superior to what I thought it would be, even with all of its glowing press. See it.
One final note — if you’re a fan of both superhero comics and AMC’s “The Walking Dead,” then Season 2’s casting has a wicked cool surprise, if you haven’t already heard about it. Head on over to The Internet Movie Database to see who is playing whom. You’ll smile.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 