Monday, May 22, 2017

Daredevil #20 Review - Marvel Monday




Written by: Charles Soule
Art by: Ron Garney, Matt Milla and Clayton Cowles
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: May 17, 2017
Review by: Aaron Anderson

It's here the conclusion to the Running with the Devil story arc. The answer to the question everyone has been asking since issue one. How the hell does almost everybody on the planet not know Matt Murdock is Daredevil. Charles Soule has made the readers be patient. Let us wait no longer.


It's MEPHISTO!!!!

Just kidding.
We open to Daredevil racing across San Francisco worried what he had done while under the power of Zebidiah Killgrave, The Purple Man. Matt faintly remembers going to Kristen McDuffie but he is not sure if he was there or not. To tell you the truth at the end of last issue neither was I. I actually chalked it up to a failure in the art. Because it was a weird panel sequence. One second Daredevil was in the Purple Man's lair. The next he was in Kristen's house.

You must remember Matt Murdock is telling this story from memory to Father Jordan in a confession booth. Matt told him how he defeated the Purple Man and released his five children. But he left them all behind to run across town to check on Kristen Matt's girlfriend.

Matt assumes, as we the reader did last issue, that the children must have used Killgrave's machine to wipe the knowledge of Matt Murdock being Daredevil out of everyone's mind. The kids also instilled a blocker in everyone's mind that keeps them from figuring even if they have sufficient information to jump to a conclusion. Unless Daredevil wants you to know you will never know essentially. It's ridiculous and uniquely comical and I love it.



Daredevil reaches Kristen's house just as the whammy is completed. This is where Matt finds out what has happened. Soule makes the dialogue work so well here. As Kristen acknowledges she knows Daredevil, cause he has helped her earlier, and she also knows that Daredevil and Matt work together in some capacity. It's obvious though she does not know Matt and Daredevil are the same person. In shock Daredevil takes this opportunity to act like some absent fathers that we all know and goes "out for smokes".

Now a free man Matt stops by his best friend Foggy's flat. Presumably to convince him to join him at the closest strip club. But Foggy is still all cancer looking. So Matt just shows Foggy that he is Daredevil. Shocking his memories to come flowing back. Witnessing the process happen Matt realizes what must have happened and returns t Killgrave's lair. Only to find the machine ruined, the children gone, and Killgrave tied up worse for wear.



Realizing he can now bust heads again with out any real repercussions. Matt takes full advantage, punching every punk, thug, and criminal in the face all the while screaming what's my name bitch. Everyone answers back Daredevil and the raging red renegade smiles. Till he remembers that all his stuff is at Kristen's, Instead of just buying new stuff and dipping. He mans up and tells her a lie to "protect” her, and keep his freedom all at the same time.

Father Jordan seems a bit confused. As if Matt has been wasting his time. The Father sees that Matt was protecting his girl from possibly dying because of him being Daredevil. Matt has guilt still about how he treated Kristen. So Father Jordan assigns him some penance to ease his conscious. Also tells him to continue to get rid of all the crime in New York.

Bits and Pieces:

I was glad to have Garney back on art duties. He has the noire feeling Daredevil needs. Soule's writing is stellar. He has weaved so many of his storylines into this one issue without crowding it with over explanation. It is a simple but yet epic reason for nobody to know Daredevil's secret identity.

7.8/10

3 comments:

  1. It's actually the conclusion of the Purple Storyline. Still loved the arc nonetheless, especially as one who read the Mark Waid Series this arc ties into

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  3. I realized my error yesterday. I wasn't thinking. I really need to go back and finish reading Waid's run on DD. I started it just never finished got distracted ooo a piece of candy ooo a piece of candy.

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