Tag Archives: Kirsten McDuffie

Sep 23 2014

Daredevil 8

daredevil 8Today, Greg and Spencer are discussing Daredevil 8, originally released September 17, 2014. 

Greg: I went and saw a movie last week against my better judgment. That movie was the clunkily titled Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, a comic-book adaptation and sequel to the excellent 2005 adaptation of Miller’s hard-boiled neo-noir stories. My roommate, who shares my love of this first one, warned me it was terrible. Rotten Tomatoes warned me it was terrible. I didn’t listen. I went and saw it, and boy, terrible doesn’t scratch the surface. It’s a miserable piece of garbage. I could spend hours rage-explaining (ragesplaining?) what is so fundamentally wrong with this dreck, but one criticism stands head and shoulders above the rest: The stylistic tics and techniques are arbitrary, meaningless, and add nothing to the story. Conversely, any play with form in Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s outstandingly excellent Daredevil 8 are part and parcel of an intense, dark, and captivating story.

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Jun 20 2014

Daredevil 4

Alternating Currents: Daredevil 4, Drew and ScottToday, Drew and Scott are discussing Daredevil 4, originally released June 18th, 2014. 

Not everyone is you.

Kirsten McDuffie

Drew: The realization that there are other people with feelings and motivations separate from our own is a key moment in child brain development. As early (and often) as that lesson comes, we’re still pretty bad at understanding that people have different perspectives. We want different things, value different things, and believe in different methods for how to achieve our goals, yet it’s still hard to understand why someone would disagree with you. It’s obvious they’re wrong! Why can’t they see it? Those differences of perspective tend to correlate to differences of experience — middle aged Russians are likely going to agree with each other more than either would with a teenaged Australian — but it’s the differences within those groups that can lead to the biggest failures of understanding. That’s exactly the kind of failure Matt is confronted with in Daredevil 4, where Kirsten needs to remind him that not everyone is quite as resilient (or noble) as ol’ horn-head. Continue reading →

May 27 2014

Daredevil 3

daredevil 3Today, Patrick and Scott are discussing Daredevil 3, originally released May 21st, 2014. 

Patrick: Shortly after I moved to Chicago, I was looking for jobs and had landed an interview for a secretarial job at an accounting firm. Or… maybe it was an accounting firm, maybe it was a bank? Something with money and finances, that much I knew for sure. I practiced answering questions about myself, I wore my best suit, and walked into the interview wholly unprepared to ask for a job at an institution I knew next-to-nothing about. I had underestimated just how hard it was going to be to get this job, and my confidence proved to be my undoing, as I was heading back to my car 15 minutes later. That’s the danger of moving to a new city and looking for a new job: you simply don’t know what you don’t know, and all of your previous assumptions get thrown out the window. Daredevil 3 finds Matt Murdock overestimating his likelihood of success over and over again. How do you think that works out for him? Continue reading →

May 5 2014

Commentary Track – Chris Samnee Discusses Daredevil 1

Commentary Track, Chris Samnee, Daredevil 1

When Chris Samnee and Mark Waid closed their award-winning volume of Daredevil, they set themselves the herculean task of uncovering new ground for a new volume, living up to fan expectations, and ingratiating themselves to the newcomers that every #1 brings. More than up to the task, Waid and Samnee delivered a first issue that managed to tell us everything a new reader would need to know about the character within the context of a thrilling adventure. Much of why that works comes from Samnee’s clever implementation of visual exposition, which capitalizes on every piece of setting, lighting, blocking, and costuming as important storytelling details. Drew sat down with Chris and went through the issue page by page, so get your copy handy and join us on the Commentary Track.

Retcon Punch: To start off, can you tell us a bit about how you and Mark Waid break a story?

Chris Samnee: We usually talk on the phone before he writes anything. I get to toss out any ideas that I have, and then he throws them out the window (laughs).

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Apr 30 2014

Daredevil 2

daredevil 2Today, Patrick and Shelby are discussing Daredevil 2, originally released April 23rd, 2014. 

Patrick: If every issue is someone’s first issue, then every series must be someone’s first series. That’s precisely why Daredevil has kicked back to number one in the first place — to act as an easy access point for new readers. Mark Waid and Chris Samnee seem to be both embracing the possible newness of their readers while playing against the expectations of old readers with the character of Max Coleridge, The Shroud. Part Batman-homage, part Dardevil-mirror-match, part call-back to the scariest villain of the previous series, The Shroud is an interesting indicator of what we can expect from Matt Murdock’s adventures in San Francisco. Continue reading →

Mar 21 2014

Daredevil 1

daredevil 1Today, Spencer and Shelby are discussing Daredevil 1, originally released March 19th, 2014. 

Spencer: While we often refer to the articles we write here at Retcon Punch as “reviews”, that isn’t necessarily the most accurate term for them. We aren’t here just to tell you whether an issue is good or bad, or to rate it from one to ten; we like to talk about the book itself, about themes and characterization and the craft that goes into making a book great (or bad, for that matter). In fact, as Patrick recently mentioned, we usually try to avoid broad statements of quality about the books we write. Why am I bringing this up? Well, I wanted to give you guys this context so that you’d realize how significant the following statement actually is: Daredevil 1 may just be a perfect comic book. Or, if it’s not, then it’s certainly a perfect first issue. Continue reading →

Feb 21 2014

Daredevil 36

daredevil 36Today, Patrick and Drew are discussing Daredevil 36, originally released February 19, 2014. 

Patrick: I haven’t been reading Marvel comics all that long — in fact, just as the New 52 got me into reading Batman and the gang, Marvel Now got me into reading Spider-Man and the gang. My constant-comic-discovering-buddy Drew pointed out something profound very early on: Marvel is much more interested in reconciling the superheroes with the secret identities than DC is. Which isn’t to say that there isn’t tension between Clark Kent and Superman or that there aren’t similarities between Barry Allen and The Flash, but Marvel heroes tend to lead two rich, full lives that grind against each other constantly. Such is the case with Matt Murdock — the guy even has a history of aggressively asserting that he’s not Daredevil. The finale to Mark Waid and Chris Samnee’s phenomenal run (for now) sees Matt Murdock and Daredevil united as a single set of priorities, values, loves, vulnerabilities and friends. Continue reading →

Jan 16 2014

Daredevil 35

Alternating Currents: Daredevil 35, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Daredevil 35, originally released January 15th, 2013. 

You never attack from a direction I could guess. That’s why you don’t lose.

Matt Murdock

Drew: With that line, Mark Waid reveals exactly what has made his run on Daredevil so memorable: he’s always delivering the unexpected. I’ve repeated time and again that Waid’s work on this series — like Daredevil himself — is absolutely fearless, and it’s thrilling to see Waid suggest that that eschewing of safety or predictability is exactly what makes this series a success. The boldness of his writing throughout this run speaks for itself, but by having Matt rely on outside help from Elektra and Kirsten to implement that unpredictability, Waid reminds us that even the man without fear needs the support of equally fearless friends, highlighting the work of Waid’s own collaborators. Continue reading →

Dec 19 2013

Daredevil 34

Alternating Currents: Daredevil 34, Drew and PatrickToday, Drew and Patrick are discussing Daredevil 34, originally released December 18th, 2013. 

Drew: We tend to associate soapbox speeches with masturbatory lectures important only to the speaker — it’s an annoyance when someone gets on their soapbox — but at one time, soapbox speeches were actually considered a form of entertainment. I’m not entirely sure if the audiences tended to agree with the speeches, or if there was more of a morbid curiosity factor in play (the same type that might keep you up late watching youtube clips of The O’Rielly Factor), but the point is: there was a time when somebody would literally be on a soapbox, and people’s reaction wasn’t to just tell them to get of of their damn soapbox. I was reminded of this as I read Kirsten McDuffie’s soaring call for levelheadedness in Daredevil 34. Continue reading →

Oct 28 2013

Daredevil 32

daredevil 32

Today, Ethan and Drew are discussing Daredevil 32, originally released October 23rd, 2013. 

Ethan: There have been a couple of times now that I’ve wondered aloud about whether this or that character in Daredevil is about to die. Sometimes with tongue in cheek, like when we saw the crooked judge take a pot shot at Matt in the courthouse, or with a little more concern like at the end of the last issue, where we saw something that looked like Foggy hanging from the neck in a darkened room. I don’t know if it’s just coincidence or a concerted effort by Mark Waid to always seem like he’s killing off one of his characters, but guess what: in Daredevil 32, I think he’s really done it. He’s gone and punched Matt Murdock’s ticket.

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