Daredevil Yellow Review

Daredevil: Yellow

            Colors, colors, everywhere!  Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale teamed up for many great story arcs which started with Batman: The Long Halloween, and Superman: For All Seasons, and soon spread their chemistry to the Marvel Universe.  These highly praised “color” books look back at the respective heroes older stories focusing on the relationships they once had.  Daredevil is the first I’ll be reviewing, and ironically this color book is written about a blind man.    

            For being a great character Daredevil isn’t talked about as much as he should be (Like Green Lantern he had a movie that was in my humble opinion horribad).  Like all comics that have stood the test of time, Daredevil has undergone many writers and has evolved as a character.  Daredevil lately is by all means a grim epic, filled with death, despair, and boxing references… lots and lots of boxing references.  While the boxing will always be a part of the devil till the end of time, Daredevil: Yellow carries nostalgia for a warmer Matt Murdock before his world collapses around him daily.  Isn’t it great for 6 issues we get to see Daredevil as something other then Marvel’s universal punching bag YAY!

Came out- 2001

Created by: Jeph Loeb

Penciled by: Tim Sale

Spoilers below- Don’t want spoilers? Scroll to ‘The Good, The Bad’:

Brief Summary:

            If you haven’t been keeping up to date with Matt Murdock’s life, his past lover Karen Page dies at the hands of Bullseye.  Like most people Daredevil feels the need to grieve this loss, and he does so by writing letters to Karen.  The story follows the letters he wrote for Karen, which dates back to his origins as Daredevil.  Well maybe not the very beginning, it felt free to just let you fill in the blanks with the origins of his powers and how he became blind; the story chooses to start with the death of his father ‘Battlin’ Jack Murdock.  It follows the rest of the origin story in broad strokes, from the day in court where Matt Murdock watches his father’s killer get off scot-free to his graduating of college.  We also get to see him in his yellow tights (which in case you were wondering he did wear… 1960’s = Win), and a surprisingly good reason to why he wore them.

            Next we see a carefree Daredevil running around looking for Slade and ‘The Fixer’, the men who killed his father.  Slade gets threatened to testify, and The Fixer dies in the subway from a heart attack which he got running from Daredevil.  Cutaway now to Matt’s best friend and business partner Foggy interviewing people for the internship job available at his firm.  After a little searching Foggy finds Karen Page, and Matt sees love at first sight... or love at first radar senses.. um never mind.  Foggy also has a thing for Karen, and let the soap opera love-triangle begin!  While this love triangle is beginning to form, we see interesting developments in both Matt Murdock, and Daredevil’s life.  Matt Murdock’s first client was the Fantastic Four, and we see the first super-brawl between Daredevil and Electro.  We also see shots to both Daredevil’s old campy self when he swings outside the office as Daredevil, and has foreshadowing for the heroes darker future when he attends Slade’s execution.

            Back to the lovers circle, we see various scenes where Jeph Loeb creates the perfect environment for all three people involved.  We see a scene where Matt beats a bunch of thugs at pool, and impresses Karen in the process.  Also there is also a scene you’d see straight out of a sappy romantic comedy where Karen helps Matt bowl, because he’s blind (I forget if I don’t remind myself about the last part).  Finally, the love triangle develops further when Foggy decides to marry Karen… who isn’t his girlfriend… because that’s normal amiright?

            The plot thickens, kind of, when Karen gets kidnapped by the Owl!  The Owl wanted to kidnap her to gain ownership of Matt’s services as a lawyer.  Daredevil decides to go to the highest point of the city and try to pinpoint Karen’s voice.  I mean if you’re going to make a retro story, you gotta have things like that thrown in here and there.  Of course, he saves her and beats up the Owl, who gets away.  The next day a jolly ol’ Foggy comes in with flowers and an engagement ring only to find Matt and Karen in each others arms flirting… awwww how nice.

            Sometime in the future Karen is reading about Daredevil and Foggy comes in furious that he has to do a job for Killgrave aka the purple man.  When they arrive at the courthouse, both the guards and Karen fall victim to the Purple Man's power; controlling them with his aura, Daredevil appears outside the courthouse to stop the villain, but the Purple Man creates a diversion by making some nearby police officers open fire on him. Escaping unscathed, Daredevil catches up with the Purple Man at a suite, and begins beating up Purple Man like a boss.  When Karen and Daredevil meet up after the battle she asks two things: 1. Why does he wear yellow if devils are red (her favorite color), and 2. If she’d go on a date with him.  Well he accepts the date, and purple man shows up and tries to be an evil mood killer but fails.

            The next day, Foggy and Matt have a heart-to-heart, and Foggy tells Matt that he can have Karen (Hope that ring is returnable). But when Karen arrives, she can only speak of her date that evening with Daredevil.  Finally it ends with current day Daredevil prowling the streets with a purpose, in a wonderful captioning that makes it feel like a proper ending, without showing Karen dying (because that’s what all you sadists wanted to see).  Anyways it explains that he's gained closure and no longer needs to wear his fathers colors.

The Good: This is going to get a bit repetitive if you read all of my reviews of the color series, but the art is superb!  It captures the retro-atmosphere perfectly, and compliments every scene.    Jeph Loeb’s writing also has high points he captures every character perfectly, and is the expert at putting emotions into characters.  The pacing is also done well, the stories don’t feel rushed or too slow.  Tim Sale and Jeph Loeb have chemistry, and it shows.

The Bad:  There is a lack of a coherent overall story, and seems to be almost pointless at times.  This story also brings nothing new to the Daredevil series, and while beautifully drawn and written, it is still a rehash of old tales.

RATING:

ART:  FANTASTIC ARTWORK!  Tim Sale does a fantastic job making the retro artwork.  The atmosphere is phenomenal, and a big leap in the drawings from what you’d see with his Batman and Superman work in my opinion.  The coloring further compliments the scenes from the bright atmospheric colors, to the dark vibe you get during the darker scenes. -10

STORY:  My problem with that approach is that there is no real meat to this story. Certain critics of this series feel like there’s no real substance. Now, I wouldn't go that far, but I do wish that there was more of an overall story here.  That being said the scripting and the pacing are superb, and the characters are portrayed perfectly. -8

DIALOGUE:  The dialogue was great; it’s the one thing that Jeph Loeb excels at.  He finds a way to being emotions in the forefront of every story.  The boxing references while normally overdone, work in well with the graphic novel.  Finally the captions are the fine point of the whole story, bringing up subtle metaphors and new perspective to some parts- 10

Entertaining:  It’s very entertaining, a great breath of fresh air from the depressing Daredevil story.  You do feel a sense of closure, but a little cheated at the end, you feel like the overall story is missing, and the ending is good but could be better.  Then again the whole series was about Matt Murdock’s relationship with Karen, and they did a superb job telling that. -8

PICK UP AGAIN WORTHY:  I’d pick it up again; it was a compelling story that gave me a whole new perspective on his early years, and his relationship with both Karen and his Father. -8

OVERALL RATING:

8.8

Enjoyed for what it is, it will probably make you nostalgic for the Daredevil of yesteryear. If you feel a little bit disappointed of the overall story, it is still fun enough to ignore that and the atmosphere portrayed is awe defining.  It’s also a great starting point for Daredevil, and if you read this I’d recommend reading Guardian Devil afterwards.

By: Scott