Daredevil Visionaries Vol 1 Guardian Devil v 1
Sunday, September 6th, 2009Daredevil Visionaries Vol 1 Guardian Devil v 1
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Greatly impressed
This was a very impressive piece for DD, I had been a fan for years, but with certain elements that were added, I found this to be a rendition that brought DD back into the original foundation. My ties with Daredevil go back to the Fall of the Mutants, in which he protected his home turf and suffered dearly for it – that was the Daredevil I knew, and during the years he had lost some of his way. In this piece he gained back a lot of his strength, especially his hard shell and emotional core of stability. He was always a softie, a tough guy with heart of gold, and in the last decade he had lost that humanizing touch and became something of a robot. A few preceeding writers tried to bring it back, a couple story lines worked in humanizing him for a short time, but overall, he had the right feel, never had the right mix of compassion, humanity, and vigilante protection – not simply vigilante justice, but vigilante protection. Daredevil has always been the type of hero that would prefer carrying people out of his neighborhood as a message then leaving them as a bloody stain on the sidewalk for others to gawk at. He is a protector, not simply a method of vendetta. So I have found it odd that for years he has been drawn as the tough guy who beats on everyone and leaves the innocent to fend for themselves, because that’s antithetical to his originations.
This is one of the storylines that brought DD back to his originations, it may have used a second rate (even a third rate) villian, but that was the point, why suspect someone who ranks so utterly incapable in the eyes of others? If you’re going to go out with flare and style, make the biggest production as possible, right? That was the theory behind Kevin Smith’s selection of villian and the entire story arc, and in my opinion, it was beautifully written, scripted, pencilled, coloured and drawn. There were a few flaws, but extremely minor in comparison to other storylines in previous years relating to various titles.
5 Stars almost made me a Daredevil fan
I admit that I’m not much of a fan of Daredevil. I don’t know why, but for some reason he never drew me in. But I saw Kevin Smith wrote it (and Queseda was the artist), and since I love his writing in his movies, I thought I’d check this out. It’s really good. Though I’m still not a ‘devil fan.
3 Stars Adequate story let down by the graphics
This story is OK only. Daredevil and all are mesmerised by Mysterio who, having been diagnosed with a terminal condition, decided to go out by staging a grand operatic finale taking it out on poor Daredevil, a proxy victim of his nemesis Spiderman.
I didn’t care for the introduction of Dr Strange as this is a story with religious overtures and the demon that Strange summoned is just over the top. Neither did I care for the appearance of Bullseye, who, if Marvel is not careful, will fall into the Batman/Joker routine. The treatment of Karen Page’s character is also disappointing. She comes across as a walk-on character, despite the lengthy thought balloons attributed to her. The intent of the story (and Bullseye introduction) appears to be to kill off her character.
Contrast the above exact same elements with “Born Again” which has a far superior storyline (and graphics).
The last section of this graphic novel is the most disappointing. The overly complex fight scene with Mysterio, and the overdrawn epilogue on Karen’s death, reflection etc.
The graphics are OK only. The slightly cartoony style jars with the dark mood of this story-line. The lettering of Karen Page’s thought balloons are too small.
5 Stars Great stuff……
First off, I was’nt in tears, as one reviewer has claimed, but I was in awe of the great writing and artwork!
I read “Daredevil: Guardian Devil Vol. 1″ for one reason, because Kevin Smith wrote it. I like his comedy and movies, figured his first attempt at writing the entire story for a graphic novel was worth reading!
This novel has a nice (intro) written by Ben Affleck and a nice (afterword) written by Kevin Smith!
The story is excellent, I’m not a huge comic fan, so I was’nt fully aware of Daredevil’s backstory, but I didn’t need it, the novel explains it easily!
Along with Kevin’s great story, this novel also features alot of classic characters such as:
Spiderman, The Thing, Bullseye, Black Widow, Mephisto, Dr. Strange, Kingpin and Mysterio
Good stuff, recommended!!
2 Stars I don’t think so…
I noticed that most of these reviews were written shortly after this arc came out. Now, almost ten years later, I think it deserves to be looked at again with fresh eyes. After having read what came after, with Bendis+Maleev and Brubaker+Lark, this just doesn’t measure up. And quite frankly, it doesn’t measure up to the last couple of years of Volume 1 either. I’m glad Kevin Smith came in and created a lot of hype since it meant getting Volume 2 off to a good start, but I think the hype is bigger than the quality.
Smith’s material comes off as needlessly preachy in the “Catholicism department,” and the plot is a little wacky. I also have problems with the pointless death of Karen Page (I guess that’s a bit of a spoiler, but I guess most people picking this up in 2007 would know about that). I also can’t stand Joe Quesada’s art, but that’s just a personal preference.
Daredevil is an amazingly versatile character that works as both fun and upbeat (like under Kesel and Kelly, respectively), and as dark and gritty (Miller, most of the people that followed Miller, Bendis, and Brubaker). I wouldn’t say that Smith doesn’t get the character – he obviously loves the character – but I think many other writers understand him better.
If you’re completely new to DD, you might as well skip this whole chapter. At the very least, it doesn’t add anything important to the mythos.
