Pick of the Week
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Art by Marco Checchetto
Colors by Matt Hollingsworth
Letters by Joe Caramagna
Cover by Marcos Martin, Adi Granov, & Steffi Schuetze
Size: 32 pages
Price: 2.99
Mark Waid and Greg Rucka are pros. Much like the hyper capable characters in a David Mamet film, they get the job done, no matter how difficult that job is, in such a matter of fact way that it almost makes your head spin. In the case of Waid and Rucka, there’s no one to rob or bamboozle or double cross, and Ricky Jay is nowhere to be found, there are just good, solid comic book stories needing telling and they are just the men to do it.
Daredevil #11 caps off a three part story that began in Avenging Spider-Man, continued into The Punisher before coming to an end here. And in some ways it’s your quintessential comic book tale. If you’re a regular Daredevil reader you know that The Man Without Fear has acquired the “Omega Drive”, a super duper hard drive made up of unstable molecules that is filled to bursting with information on the most nefarious and silly costumed criminal organizations in the Marvel Universe like Hydra and A.I.M. Those criminal organizations have been trying to get that hard drive back from Daredevil and it’s all come to a head here as Spider-Man, The Punisher, and his new sidekick ally Lady Punisher Cole get sucked into the shenanigans.
At the heart of this story is a tried and true dramatic technique that is amazing simple: take four characters who don’t get along. who all want the same thing. and put them together to make them work with one another to achieve their goal. As you might expect, they don’t really get along all that well. Well, okay, Daredevil and Spider-Man pretty much do, it’s when you add that chaos element to the mix—in this case, The Punisher—is when things get interesting.
Daredevil, Spider-Man, and The Punisher have a long history; they’ve all teamed-up and been adversaries, in just about every combination you can put them in. This creates a nice dynamic in which you can feel the weight and weariness born of that long history, but there’s also a grudging respect, and they actually do work together quite well, despite their different approaches to fighting crime.
When you read a story like this—where the heroes face off against what is essentially an army of faceless villains—you know that the story really isn’t about good guy vs. bad guy, it’s about the relationship between the protagonists: How will they get along in order to achieve their goals? Will The Punisher be able to curtail killing anyone for this one mission? Will Daredevil punch Spider-Man if he gets called “Magoo” just one more time? But the biggest question of all is, how will the unknown element—in this case Cole—effect the mission? And that’s the central conceit of Daredevil #11.
As the issue opens, Daredevil has engineered a meeting between all of the criminal organizations that are hot on his tail. And in the midst of the chaos, the (rubber bullet) shooting, and the general made scramble for the Omega Drive, Daredevil turns his focus to Cole. Despite the fact that she’s already got the skull shirt, he wants to keep her from becoming like Frank Castle. He wants to save her before she truly goes over to the dark side. Daredevil knows that he can trust Spider-Man, and he knows that he can, to a certain extent, control The Punisher, but can he save both the Omega Drive and Cole? That’s where the dramatic tension lies in this issue.
Mark Waid, the writer of Daredevil, and Greg Rucka the writer of The Punisher, both crafted this story and each wrote the issue of their respective series while collaborating on the opening chapter in Avenging Spider-Man. What you’ve got here with this three part story is a seamless tale that accomplishes the remarkable in that it feels very much like it could have existed in any of these characters’ main books and it would not have felt out of place, tonally. A lot of the credit goes to artist Marco Checchetto, the regular artist on The Punisher, who drew all three issues and helped keep the entire thing feeling cohesive. I’ve been a big fan of Checchetto’s work ever since the first issue of this latest series Punisher and I feel like he’s only getting better with each issue. I especially love Checchetto’s version of Spider-Man who has small, sharp, and angular eyes. Credit also colorist Matt Hollingsworth, for not only helping to keep the tone of all three issues consistent, but especially for the creepy skull symbol that The Punisher and Cole wear. Within the story it’s just spray painted on back shirts and Checchetto and Hollingsworth recreate a look that very much evokes dripping white paint.
If you ask me, this is the best way to do crossover stories. There wasn’t a ton of fanfare and marketing bluster (which probably worked against it, sales-wise) there was just solid and engaging story telling from two of the best writers in the business and a rising star artist. I also liked how the story happened quickly—there was a new chapter in each of the last three weeks. There wasn’t any time to get bogged down in any extraneous elements and the story never overstays its welcome. Like the characters in a David Mamet film, Waid and Rucka (along with Checchetto and Hollingsworth) got in, did their job, got out, and are on to the next caper.
Conor Kilpatrick
“Magoo” is the best thing to happen in forever.
conor@ifanboy.com
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
Waid is pitching a no-hitter on this series, and this issue is no exception.
Yeah, he swung big and hit a home run. He left it all out on the field. All bases were loaded and he brought ’em home. Sabre Metrics
@edward – Your remarks often seem to come out of left field, When responding to comments, there needs to be a baseline on expectations. It was funny in the big inning, but now you just come off as foul.
TOUCHDOWN!
Omega Effect was great, and actually reminded me of how good Chechetto is. I dropped Punisher after issue 7, but this crossover makes me want to track down and catch up. I’m very glad I chose to get all three issues of this crossover.
Why in the world would you drop Punisher?!?!? It is easily one of the best series Marvel is producing right now.
punisher is one of my favorite books.
Sweet. So glad this “cross-over” is getting some praise. I was impressed when it was announced because it seemed like a very organic, character-driven cross-over, rather than some kind of event. And I agree with your assessment, Conor — this is a clinic in writing from character. Waid and Rucka take their craft seriously and it absolutely shows in EACH of these issues. No one should worry that this is some kind of money-grabbing stunt. This is the shit right here.
Interesting. I expected the pick to be the last issue of Moon Knight. Still, good pick. I didn’t get as much out of the story since I’m only buying Daredevil, but I still thought it was good and filled me in on all the plot that I missed in the other two books.
Great pick, Conor. I’ve been a fan of this character since the Lee/Colan days & Waid’s run has been a revelation. What’s more, he makes it look easy – there hasn’t been a single false note in any of the issues so far. One of the very best books in Marvel’s current lineup.
Well, well, well; DD at the Pow again?! I have not read my copy yet Conor however it looks like I probably should have read this issue yesterday first instead of putting it off till tonight. The covers have all been pretty bad azz since the first issue and this one is no exception! I will be reading this tonight and with a little jealousy right now since I knew I should have read this last night….DAMN! Great review and I will get back too you tonight or tomorrow morning just to compare thoughts as always.
K
Solid pick however I thought The Ultimates #9 was easily the best thing out this week that I read. It might even be the best issue of the series so far. Simply incredible.
Loved this cross over. Ive been buying all three books all all along and Spiderman daredevil and punisher just work well together always have always will. Waid has been a good writer for a long time since his cap run. But its rucka who I was never a fan off that has open my eyes to his talent in punisher. And the art is amazing. Great review and any thing with Spiderman gets my vote. My pick was ff because of the great Spiderman torch tale. Remind me of a old marvel team up isdue.
i could go with that
Pretty light week…had to pick something, I guess.
huh, suprised to this is the pick, i had rated this book a 2 out of five stars. but i guess the fact that i hadn’t read the first two chapters really adversely affected my enjoyment of this issue
same here, this issue felt much weaker than the rest of Waid’s DD run to me, but that could easily be due to the fact that i refused to buy into yet another forced crossover. Though it didn’t really feel like much came of this story arc. Did it really progress the story at all? It seems like we’re right back where we started before this crossover began, at least in terms of Waid’s DD run.
conor – this might be a blind spot for me as far as movies are concerned, but which david mamet films were you thinking of when you made that comparison in the first paragraph? because it sounds to me like you’re talking about characters in michael mann films….
The Spanish Prisoner, The Heist, Glengarry Glen Ross, Spartan, The Edge, Ronin, etc. etc.
of that bunch, i’ve only seen glengarry glen ross (which seems more like a room full of willy loman to me, so i still can’t see that one working). yep, it’s a film blind spot.
spanish prisoner *has* been on my list to check out forever, though.
I really LOVE Heist….a lot of people get turned off by the snappy back and forth dialogue and clever jargon the cons use, but it totally works for me. Totally agree with what Conor was saying…they really don’t mess around in those movies…its all got a point.
“Now lets talk about rust proofing! These old Coleco’s rust up after a couple of days. Shut up, Shut up Gil! Close the deal! Close the Deal!”
i still try and use the phrase “what’s my name? fuck you, that’s my name.” whenever i get that chance… sadly, that chance often comes up in situations where it’s inappropriate.
“Oh my shoes! And I have an evaluation at 4 with Senior Ding Dong!”
This is great! Now, I have a list of movies to watch!
I agree with what you’re saying about Waid and Rucka…they just bring a high level of quality as normal and you gotta love it. This was a solid issue and crossover thats very POTW worthy. my pic was FF, but i was looking for a little more humor this week
Is this the third or fourth time out of 11 issues? Christ, this book is great.
Also, I know not everything is for everyone, but I see no excuse for not reading Punisher and Avenging Spider-Man unless you just hate good comics.
This is the first time I’ve seen the PotW and been totally floored. I didn’t like this issue at all. The art was great but the story was flat. The bad guys were cardboard cutouts and the plot didn’t progress at all. Daredevil yelling at Cole was obviously supposed to be the focal point of the issue, if not the arc, but I thought it was a deviation from what the arc was supposed to be about. I especially disliked the whole “I spoke out loud so you’d overhear it” contrivance. For some reason I’m willing to allow some leeway to comic book characters monologuing to themselves but that whole scene acknowledging it felt like breaking the fourth wall, hammy and Silver Agey. Not Waid’s best work.
Wow, I disagree. The villains were never the point of the story — they’re pretty much meant to be a faceless mob — they’re just the pressure cooker that’s forcing all of these protagonists to come together and act. For me, the over-arching story all centers around the Omega Drive, and how each of the characters has an interest in the device — but all for different reasons. Classic case of plot developing directly from the conflicting desires of the characters.
And in this case? Yeah, the Cole/Daredevil conflict was the centerpiece of the story. Because Daredevil felt like he failed Frank Castle in the past. Failed to redeem him. So in my reading, DD was putting everything into Cole because he saw a second chance. If he could redeem her, it’s like.. regaining some fo the points lost for failing Frank in the past. I loved this whole 3-part series because it dealt with those character conflicts from each side.
The enemies never seemed very threatening and the whole buildup to the event was this supposed all powerful drive and the constant danger that Daredevil’s possession of it put him in. Because it was so easy to defeat all the criminal elements all the time this never felt like a pressure cooker at all.
At the end of the arc Matt still has the drive and the whole night of fighting the criminal supergroups was totally ancillary. I actually liked the idea of Daredevil trying to wrest Rachel from Frank in order to save her but I felt it could have happened in a better manner without Spiderman or the buildup of an event that didn’t really live up to the hype.
I totally love Rucka’s Punisher and Waid’s Daredevil but I think this was announced as one thing and it became something else.
hey guys,
i’ve been collecting this DD run but haven’t read the latest 3 issues so i had no idea about the crossover.
I’d like to pick up the tie ins in Spiderman and Punisher when i hit the comic shop this afternoon. Can anyone let me know the issue numbers? (sorry to be lazy. on my phone : ) )
Part 1 – Avenging Spider-Man #6
Part 2 – The Punisher #10
thx Conor. much appreciated : )
Nice pick, Conor. Not just because it’s mine as well. But mostly because it highlights that the classic comic book crossover can still be successful. Due to the amount of line-wide event tie-ins, many readers today have an opinion that “crossover = bad”. That simply isn’t the case. I read a bunch of people on this site say how they were reading Daredevil, but checking out for this storyline. This was a good crossover. One that grew organically out of the pages of Waid’s book, seamlessly worked with the other titles, and featured the top-notch Marco Checchetto artwork that has been so good in Rucka’s Punisher. This book proved that “crossovers are bad” is a current comic book misnomer and not the rule that many think.
Anybody know how this is being collected? I want to read it but I just switched to trades. 3 issues is too few for a trade, one would think – is it just going to be put into a volume of DD? Any word?
Marvel often puts a couple of mini-series together or adds older reprints to make up a full trade. My guess is that they’ll put these 3 issues with 2 to 3 older issues that have some combination of Spider-man, Punisher and/or Daredevil. For example, I could see them reprinting the first appearances of Punisher, which occurred in “Amazing Spider-Man”. It would give some flavor as to why those two don’t always get along so well.
Was hoping Hickman was going to get POTW again shame, I chose Ultimates followed closely by FF!
Curse you Waid & your popular blind red guy!!!
Excellent, solid issue, but the Omega Drive maguffin is starting to look a little thin – a 3 issue crossover that leaves DD in the same position as he was at the beginning is the only thing that missed this being a 5 for me.
Wow, other sites are doing things like giving this issue 1.5 stars and/or saying it’s easily the worst issue of Waid’s run so far.
I’ve yet to read it, though. Just sitting down now to do so, actually.
Just read it. Not near as bad as other folks were saying. I’d give it a 3.5 or whatever. Looking forward to Samnee’s debut next week.
Good issue. Good pick. This is the best book Marvel is publishing right now. By a long shot.
I liked the crossover, but the ending was a little… meh. At the end DD still has the drive, so the story wasn’t advanced at all. Still, some great character work by Rucka and Waid.
Id have to say DD has been strong since the new issues. I don’t see this as being a surprise to my pick of the week or anyone else’s.