The Matt Murdock Chronicles

(Updated July 2010)

Daredevil has now passed 500 issues of its stand alone ongoing series. The purpose of this blog is an attempt to review every issue, in order, of this fantastic series, from its early days with Stan Lee and Wally Wood, through the Gene Colan years, unto the remarkable Frank Miller run and right up to Brian Bendis and Alex Maleev and the current run by Andy Diggle et al. Well, that's the intention anyway.

For the most part, I am reading these issues for the first time. I've previously read most of Miller's run, some of Ann Nocenti's run and nearly all of 'volume two'. However, pre-Miller, I have read very few. I will post as I read (so to speak) possibly without the knowledge of what's coming next. And hopefully that sense of anticipation will come across in my blogs.

If you're new here, here's some questions you might want to know the answers to:

Will you give a blow by blow description of what occurs in each issue?

Frankly, no. Probably not. I will focus less on the page by page action and more on the themes of the issue, development of characters and the sociological background to what's being written about, particularly looking at the style of the writer. If you're looking for quick synopses of each issue, check out Kuljit Mithra's excellent Man Without Fear blog which provides issue summaries. There are other brilliant Daredevil websites out there, particularly The Other Murdock Papers by Swedish fan, Christine.

Why is this the Matt Murdock Chronicles as opposed to Daredevil Chronicles?

For me, it's simple. We buy DD (or Spidey or whoever) initially because we're excited about a man in a figure hugging garishly coloured costume fighting bad guys. The reason we stay is because of the character behind the mask. I'm much more interested in who Matt is than the hero who pounces around Hell's Kitchen. And I'm much more interested in Foggy, Karen, Natasha, the Kingpin, Ben Urich, Becky, Heather, Milla and Dakota than the villains Daredevil likes to knock around. You'll see that as you read.

Are you going to give us insight into the stylistic intentions and techniques of the artists on the book?

Er, no. Generally, because I'm a writer and not an artist, I'm more interested in the writers. I will certainly comment on a well illustrated comic or if something catches my eye. But I'm no expert on the art side of things and will probably not go into much depth here.

Surely you're just going to rehash things other bloggers and reviewers have said about the issues, aren't you?

Well, possibly. As a rule of thumb, I have deliberately decided not to read any reviews by other bloggers etc. of each issue until after I've written mine. This is to try to avoid being influenced. I just want to write about the way I see the issue. If I see that someone else has had the same idea, great. If someone sees the issue completely differently to me, that's fine too. I guess this is more a personal voyage into my perceptions of Daredevil than anything else.

So you're not going to be completely objective then?

Probably not. We all bring our own 'baggage' to whatever we do and I'll certainly bring mine. If an issue has a resonance with a certain time and place in my life, then I'll write about that - In that sense, I am not going to be an invisible, uninvolved reviewer. I'll be particularly keen to write about how the issues I read as a teen impacted upon me at that time in my life.

How do you decide on the ratings given to each story?

Again, it's hard to define. Generally, 10 out of 10 indicates what I feel is a classic story or, dare I say it, a masterpiece. These do not have to be flawless issues per se but must combine an element that leaves the reader breathless and astonished and stays with the reader long after the book has been put down. 9 is an excellent story that somehow just doesn't quite reach classic status. 8 is very good, 7 good, 6 pretty good and so on. Basically a score of 6 plus is a positive score for the book. 5 and 4 are okay to middling and 3 and below we're talking pretty poor stuff. This is all, of course, subjective and just my personal opinion. But I'm a bit of a sucker for ratings so forgive my indulgence with them.

Well, that obviously leads to the question what makes you think you can critique each issue effectively?

That's a fair point. I may get things wrong. I like to think I have a good eye for story and I've been reading comic books for over 30 years and like to think I know what works and what's original. But ultimately we're all flawed human beings and can get things wrong. However, I think it's important to say that I'm not someone who's out to 'nail' a writer or artist. Generally, I'll try and concentrate on what's positive in each book because, hell, I appreciate the effort all these guys put in.

So you're just a people pleaser then?

Yes, probably. These questions are getting very uncomfortable. Can we stop now?

Calm down, I'm nearly done. This 'reviewing every issue' thing's all your own idea, is it?

Credit where credit's due - much of the idea for this blog came from Paul Rainey's excellent 2000AD prog slog blog (see what he did there?). There are other bloggers doing ongoing reviews of comic books they own too, e.g. Fantastic Four Plaza.

Anything else you want to say?

For anyone who's a DD fan, I hope you enjoy this blog. Please let me know what you think. Ta!