Binge Projects – Seven Inches of Your Time

“Daredevil” Season 1 Episode 8 Recap, “Shadows in the Glass”

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 22:02:01 +0000

Daredevil Week(s) continues with the arrival of Netflix’s Marvel’s too many apostrophes’ Daredevil. David has shepherded us through Frank Miller’s classic run, two of DD’s most famous origin stories and the not-classic Daredevil movie. Now the billy club has been passed on to me.

“Shadows in the Glass”

After seven sterling episodes, Daredevil keeps getting better, with “Shadows in the Glass” clocking in as my favorite to date. It’s a Kingpin-centric episode, ceding the spotlight to the tremendous Vincent D’Onofrio, as Marvel’s best villain they’ve created since 2011’s Thor with Loki.

So many comic book movies or just movies with a hero and an arch-nemesis posit that these men and women are two sides of the same coin, that they have more in common than they want to admit. That one decision or one moment neatly defined them as a hero, or as a villain. Daredevil luxuriates in the grays between good and evil, and instead of what normally feels like posturing and building a rivalry out of nothing, succeeds in making you believe that Daredevil and Kingpin are similar, frightfully so.

We see the stark contrasts of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk’s morning routines. Fisk, every morning when it’s still dark outside, wakes from a nightmare. Then he makes like the Hannibal of Hell’s Kitchen and cooks up a fancy omelet for himself. Afterwards, he selects a suit from one of the innumerable in his massive walk-in closet, matches it with an accompanying dress shirt and selects his cuff links, the unaccompanied cello suite no. 1 from Yo-Yo Ma gaining in intensity in the background. It’s operatic, sweet sweet Marvel music, as the Kingpin looks at himself in the mirror. Instead of seeing the dapper crime pin we now know, he sees a horrified bloody kid staring back at him.

This kid is quite obviously himself, and we explore the blood on his hands and face, the blood that Wilson Fisk painstakingly tries to rinse off himself every morning, but never goes away. The permanent musk of evil that permeates his past, present and future.

Marvel has never created a villain like this before; they’ve never taken the time to explore the inner workings of the Big Bad. Instead, each movie merely cuts and pastes a new CGI-laden Heavy with MacGuffin-murky aspirations (and now, with an even bigger Heavy in the background pulling the strings; Thanos is the other side of Kevin Feige’s coin). Maybe they think they don’t have the time, but even on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Agent Carter, their villains are predicated on twists (The Clairvoyant!), reveals (TRAITORS!) and secrets (HYDRA!), without the care devoted to characterization.

Matt’s morning is no less painful: he can’t see his reflection, but if he did he’d see the fresh blood on his face and hands, and perhaps the blood that he’s been soaping off himself since the accident. Since his father’s death, since Stick. He limps through an apartment in tatters, the outward reflection of his inner turmoil. Wilson Fisk goes to pain-staking measures to keep his environs pristine to protect himself from lapsing into the chaos and anger, that when he does, results in car door beheadings.

They both handle their dreary lives in different ways, but they’re both living dreary lives. Matt and Wilson have different morning routines, but it all boils down to the same: they’re both alone.

After being alone on her crusade against Union Allied, Karen has brought in Ben Urich, Foggy Nelson and now Matt Murdock. Murdock cautions against their tactic, that they need to steer the battle onto their turf: the court of law.

Fisk has dealt with the Russians, but following the death of Black Sky, he has a new problem: Nobu (Falling Skies’ Peter Shinkoda) and the Japanese. Wesley wonders why he continues to be a part of their organization, and Fisk merely states that Nobu is a “necessary evil.”

We jump to the past, where (duh) Willie Fisk’s Dad is a dick. Bill Fisk (The Wire‘s Domenick Lombardozzi) is running for city council, working with Rigoletto, and instead of fighting in the ring like Jack Murdock, he fights with his wife. He also gives his pudgy son (a surprisingly really good Cole Jensen) a beer, desperate to make his son a man at all costs, who quickly spits it up. We now can make the assumption that DD is a better drinker, considering Matt took a sip of scotch and only made a face.

The Willie Fisk flashbacks veer dangerously close to being over-the-top and cliche (deadbeat, drunk dickhead Dads are sadly commonplace in superhero lore), but Domenick Lombardozzi brings unreal intensity and fearlessness to portraying just the worst human. Daredevil just takes a bit further. We know Bill is going to hit his wife and Wilson’s Mom, and something awful will happen from there, but the route we get there just is a bit more brutal and intense than one would expect, which could be said for Daredevil in its entirety. After finding out that his son got bullied, Bill tracks down the punk who did, dragging Willie along with him, and just starts wailing on the teenager, forcing Wilson to kick the kid over and over, a warped stepping stone to becoming a man in Bill’s mind.

In the present, Officer Blake has woken up, posing a problem for Fisk, since Blake likely won’t be so enthused about taking a bullet and nearly dying. Because of the city wide vigilance for the Man in Black, the security for Blake is beyond even Fisk. He doesn’t own all of the cops after all. His solution? Officer Hoffman (Daryl Edwards), Blake’s partner, who can get to him. Hoffman grew up with Blake, the two are partners and the best of friends. “How much are those years worth?” Fisk asks. Gulp. Hoffman has no choice, not really, but still cracks: “How long till I do something to piss you off?”

Hoffman goes to Blake, with a meatball sub AND a needle of death. He injects Blake, who wakes up as he does it. Nobody gets off lightly in this show. Hoffman apologizes, but it’s too late. That’s when not-DD bursts in, knocks out Hoffman, and manages to get a confession from Blake before his death. Of course, Blake’s death is pinned on DD, with Hoffman able to claim he was accosted, using the same ploy for his benefit that he and his partner used when we first were introduced to them.

Meanwhile, Nobu isn’t the only one getting frisky with Fisk: Leland’s bitter about being attacked by the Man in the Mask, concerned that he knows about his involvement. He also mentions his son Lee in passing, and you can bet your ass that a season 2 will involve his son becoming The Owl to avenge his father’s death (that will likely happen by the end of this season 1).

Every time we get a snippet from Fisk’s depressing past, we see Wilson wake up, and start the routine over again, getting at that egg protein breakfast. We don’t see Murdock wake up again; this is Fisk’s episode. Or maybe it’s Madame Gao’s (Law & Order‘s Wai Ching Ho) episode, because she’s brilliant every time we see her, and I love that she is the person Fisk respects the most. Gao comes to him TO HIS PRIVATE HOME (not only without an invite; nobody’s supposed to know about his castle in the sky), and basically makes Wesley useless. She knows that Fisk can speak Chinese, and she can also speak English, and has known from the start. Fisk excuses Wesley and the two talk, Gao concerned with Fisk’s direction, that he’s become sloppy and emotional like the Russians. She warns him to restore his house to order, or she’ll deal with Leland and Nobu directly. Will a 1,000 year old Chinese woman really squeeze out the Kingpin? I wouldn’t bet against her. After she leaves, Fisk flips a table and when Wesley returns to calm him down, Wesley continues to be useless. It’s the first time we see Fisk treat Wesley rudely on the entire show.

But Wesley’s the man for a reason: he brings Vanessa to his place. Fisk wants her to leave, but she doesn’t back down. He’s afraid, he admits, and then tells him his story.

Every morning, Fisk wakes up and stares at his white walls, at his white painting. This connects beautifully with the flashbacks, as Bill forces his son to stare at the wall and think about what kind of man he wants to be. He’s 12, tops, but it’s never too early. He should be a King, not a “fat pussy.” Marlene, Wilson’s Mom, stands up for her son, and her reward is a beating. That’s when Willie Fisk chooses what kind of a man he wants to be. He stands up, grabs a hammer, and hammers his father to death, yelling “keep kicking him” over and over as he pummels his father’s corpse. It’s a shocking moment even when you know it’s coming, and it’s made crazier by his Mom’s calm reaction. “Get the saw.”

Vanessa, like his Mother, has a chillingly calm reaction to what she hears. “You’re not your father, you’re not a monster, you’re not cruel for the sake of cruelty,” she purrs, talking Fisk down. With her power over Wilson, Vanessa may very well be the most dangerous character of all.

The next morning, Fisk wakes up from his usual nightmare, but this time, Vanessa is beside him, and there are two omelets on the kitchen table. Wilson is no longer alone, and as we find out, that makes all the difference, leading into the best ending of the show thus far.

The Man in Black comes to Urich in one of the most moody, gritty, rainy scenes of the show, which is saying something. He gives Urich a name for his King and a story for his paper. While the evidence is he said she said, Fisk losing his anonymity would be a powerful attack on the Man Who Would Be Kingpin.

But Fisk strikes first, as we get a brilliant voice over from Urich, the powerful words from the story of a “man in the shadows” that he’ll never print. For Fisk goes public before he can be outed. Wilson switches the narrative, pledging aid for Hell’s Kitchen and promising to save the city in such a way that Oliver Queen would be proud, attacking The Man in Black. You “can’t live in the shadows” or be “afraid of the light,” a powerful lesson that Wilson Fisk has learned, turning the tables on our hero.

Matt Murdock is devastated, shocked, and alone. Similarly, Daredevil stands alone in the MCU, forging its own path outside of Infinity Gems and acronyms, and stronger for it. Unlike Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which only succeeds when it uses the greater universe its a part of, Daredevil is better for removing itself from it, an insular and breathtaking piece of art.

“Daredevil” Season 1 Episode 7 Recap, “Stick”

Andy — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 20:39:16 +0000

“Stick”

Daredevil was so successful right off the bat because it threw the audience right into the action. While he wasn’t (and still isn’t) called Daredevil, the Man in the Mask was more than a competent fighter. He was already fighting crime. Marvel eschewed the traditional origin story at the top, and instead, sprinkled it across the first three episodes in pretty damn effective flashbacks.

But how the hell can Matt Murdock fight? How is he such a badass? Well, part of the answer finally comes in the seventh episode of the series, where we’re introduced to Stick (The Silence of the Lamb‘s Scott Glenn), the also-blind, also-badass gruff mentor to a young Matt Murdock. One scene with Glenn and we know immediately how Daredevil is so awesome from the moment we see him.

“Stick” opens in Japan, with a man in the shadows chopping the hand off and then the head, of a panicked Japanese man. The man in the shadows asks after “Black Sky,” a mysterious weapon being transported to New York.

Foggy’s busy ranting about “the devil of Hell’s Kitchen.” He’s a “terrorist without the ist,” and he wants to punch him, believing him to be a coward, turning into the J. Jonah Jameson of this show for a scene. Matt believes the MIB should be defended in court and not in the press. He’s right, but also pretty darned biased, and we all know life doesn’t work like that.

Foggy’s antsy and wants to do something, and that apparently means starting a law firm softball team, which would be awesome, even though they have 3 members and one of them is blind. He invites Karen to go to the batting cage, but she rebuffs his offer for a “thing.” Foggy thinks she’s up to something, because everybody is (except for Foggy, who’s gloriously transparent).

Last episode, DD got the name of “Leland Owlsley,” the accountant in charge of the money dealings in Fisk’s empire. He pays him a visit. When Matt hears someone using a walking stick approach, he’s distracted enough for Leland to taze him and drive off. Leland had a chance to finish this show right then and there (though Stick wouldn’t have let him). But still, you’d think Leland would maybe shoot/attack DD while he’s down, considering how much trouble he’s caused and how much he’d be rewarded by Fisk. Instead, Stick does the wise/ass/gruff mentor thing.

In the past, Matt’s living with nuns, a sitcom waiting to happen, and they’re desperate for help with this poor screaming kid. Enter Stick, a man who wants cash to help. Immediately, he changes Matt’s attitude: that he’s lucky to be alive, to have these gifts, and that nobody’s going to feel sorry for him and he should stop feeling sorry for himself. It’s a no nonsense approach to the ice cream social. Speaking of, Stick hilariously points out the flavors inherent in the dessert: can taste the specific diaries, the dirt off the hand of the server, the chemicals…no wonder Stick is so skinny. I’d never want to eat anything if I had that kind of knowledge. Ignorance is bliss when it comes to food chemicals.

Then, the training montage begins, because Matt needs “skills for war.”

Ben Urich, meanwhile, is pulling the gruff mentor routine on Karen Page, with an eerily similar message: “Stop complaining.” It’s a hard case, and complicated, they just gotta “straighten out that spaghetti.” Okay, so Stick would never say that.

Apparently Detective Blake is in a coma, surviving the gun shot. Daredevil loves comas. On the subject of the vigilante, Urich pontificates: “There are no heroes, no villains, just people with different agendas.” Urich just drops truth all goddamn day.

Apparently, Stick’s been absent from Matt’s life for 20 years. Why is he back now? Well, to save everyone from a horrible death, silly. He follows Matt to his apartment, disappointed to see the kid gone soft, because he has a bed and “soft stuff.” Women are a distraction, he barks, then goes for a crappy German beer, hypocrisy incarnate. Stick warns him that he needs to cut loose all relationships, friends, women, whatever. “They will suffer and you will too. Relationships aren’t for you and me.”

Of course, that’s because Stick projected his entire life and mantra onto a 9 year old boy. Daredevil started with a 9 year old boy sipping scotch at the behest of his bloody Dad. Now we see an old man beat the shit out of said 9 year old boy (who can still do crazy kicks and leaps!). I haven’t mentioned Skylar Gaertner at all through my recaps, and while I think he’s been great for a child actor in most respects as “Young Matt,” when he gets emotional, the overacting is painful, as it in the aftermath of their training.

After time has passed in the flashbacks, Matt gives Stick a bracelet, made from the ice cream cone wrapper from their first bonding moment. It’s touching, and that’s the problem. Stick crumples it up and abruptly ends their training. “I expected more of you,” he says, shattering Matt Murdock.

Stick also attacks Matt’s “no kill” belief, that they’re essentially “half-measures” that will come back to haunt him. Stick wants his help to take down Nobu (the head of the Yakuza/Hand presence) and the Black Sky. Matt offers help, but only if Stick promises not to kill anybody. He does, but not without a comeback: “Pussy.”

Page visits Ms. Cardenas, bringing groceries. Cardenas wants to pay her back, but Karen wants information instead. Before she does, Cardenas continues to tout our boy Foggy, telling Karen that she can tell he loves her by the way he looks at her. Karen clearly feels uncomfortable, and it makes me wanna cry that she’s leading on Foggy like this. Cardenas then describes a bald man and a tattooed guy that hung around the building as enforcers (but not Enforcers).

I’ve touched on it previously, but I’m continually impressed with how Daredevil handles languages, and bilingual speakers, and infusing Hell’s Kitchen with its melting pot of ethnicities and languages, and not force feeding us subtitles. It feels more real because of it.

After their rendezvous, Karen’s IMMEDIATELY accosted by said bald and tattooed men, and it looks bleak, until FOGGY TO THE RESCUE. He throws a softball at them, then attacks them with the bat, and then Karen finishes one of them off with some mace. They really need to start this softball team. It’s a wonderful moment, but instead of being thankful for her life, Karen wonders why he’s following her. Because he’s WORRIED about you (and kind of creeping, to be fair).

At the docks, not-DD goes about taking down the not-Yakuza. Nobu opens the crate, and “Black Sky” turns out to be a young boy. Stick aims and takes a shot with an arrow at the boy. DD deflects it, allowing the boy and Nobu to get away.

Well he gets away from Matt; not from Stick. While Matt was dealing with Nobu’s men, Stick went and killed the boy. This betrayal puts them both over the edge: “I needed a soldier, you needed a father.” The two have an intense, brutal and thrilling fight (one of the best in a series chock full of them), after which, a bloody Stick grunts, “Maybe there’s hope for you yet.” He makes to leave, but before he does, he leaves Matt with his wooden sticks. “You’re going to need them.” I love how important and dignified these nondescript wooden batons are treated. They’re like the equivalent of Buffy’s stakes.

In the wreckage of their fight in his apartment, Matt finds the bracelet his younger self gave to Stick. Aw. I love emotional and physically abusive relationships.

The two big takeaways from the episode are this: after saving her ass, Karen brings Foggy into the fold with Urich, introducing him to Urich’s playing cards map of the city’s crime scape.

The second: Stick is going to be a big player the rest of the season (or next), if not immediately. He meets a massive scarred man, in front of a fire, “no idea” if Matt will be ready when “the doors open.” The guess is that this is Stone, one of Stick’s other pupils, and a fellow soldier in the war against the Hand (the secret ninja organization that Nobu most definitely works for). It’s the first Easter Egg-y larger picture ending of Daredevil, and arguably, its most compelling.

“Daredevil” Season 1 Episode 6 Recap, “Condemned”

Andy — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 22:48:17 +0000

“Condemned”

An episode of Daredevil wouldn’t be complete without an interrogation; this episode has countless, following the massive bombing of Hell’s Kitchen, with not-yet-Daredevil caught in the middle.

He and Vladimir (Nikolai Nikolaeff) are pretty much screwed, with the cops surrounding them. But they’re cops, Hell’s Kitchen red-shirts, and after another awesome fight (Daredevil has better action than ANY show on TV), the two manage to escape.

Vlad, of course, doesn’t want to escape with the Man in Black. He thinks he killed his brother, and wants payback. While the rest of the episode around them doesn’t operate this way, in many ways, Vlad and Matt find themselves in a classic bottle episode, and the results are incredible. Matt tries to clear things up, that Fisk killed Anatoly. He wants to put Fisk on trial. Vlad’s counter proposal? “Suck my dick.” Their back and forth is tremendous throughout (“I don’t speak asshole,” Matt retorts), with Nikolai Nikolaeff taking a character that seemed as stereotypical and ridiculous as his real name and making him a multi-faceted and even sympathetic villain. The more time you spend in this twisted, dark Hell’s Kitchen, the more you realize there isn’t a wasted moment or character on this show.

Foggy and Karen have survived the explosion, and manage to bring an injured Ms. Cardenas to the hospital. In a brief melding of the two worlds, Claire whisks Ms. Cardenas away. We also learn Foggy is bleeding and hurting big-time himself, once his heroic deeds have been completed and he can think of himself again. Foggy’s the best.

Vlad, however, is fucked up. He’s been shot, stabbed, exploded on, yet he clings to life somehow. To save him, Matt calls Claire for help stabilizing the wound. “It’s not as easy as it looks in the movies,” she spits, but hey, this is TV. Rather, this is Netflix, and the solution becomes cauterizing the bullet wound with flames (the bullet’s still inside him, mind you). It’s another ingeniously brutal moment in the show, but Vlad’s screams alert a nearby cop. The poor cop, a new recruit and someone not on Fisk’s payroll, joins the interrogation brigade, and gets tied up. But before being gagged, he manages to call in the situation, putting Daredevil well up shit creek.

The cops arrive for what has been termed a hostage situation, and before they can just blow the building up and solve their problem, Ben Urich arrives on the scene. The man knows police procedure, and would know if anything iffy takes place. Fisk’s solution? Invite all the media, make it a circus, with Daredevil at the middle of it. Fisk is brilliant; this episode especially showcases his artful skill as a tactician, a Puppet Master behind the scenes.

Vladimir points out Daredevil’s hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of every superhero who doesn’t kill. He won’t kill Vladimir, but he also won’t let him die even though that’s what he desires. He’s only keeping him alive for information. Matt thinks he’s different, but “you’ll get there.” You’re a “man like us,” Vlad threatens. I mentioned earlier that I hoped this show wouldn’t tackle Daredevil’s unwillingness to kill, but I was wrong. It’s never been tackled this powerfully, or as darkly, that Daredevil’s own demons might overwhelm him. It feels more Shakespearean than comic book/CW.

While Nikolai manages to somehow own it, Vlad’s ability to not die borders on superhuman. He almost dies, flatlines, and incurs all kinds of punishment a completely healthy person wouldn’t be able to bounce back from, let alone someone already on the brink of the afterlife. This episode is essentially an extended and dramatic interpretation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail‘s “I’m Not Dead Yet” scene.

He manages to fake DD out by pretending to die (which fools all of us, since he should be dead), before engaging in an impressive (that he can move at all) fighting scene that knocks them down an entire floor. Matt gets knocked out, but when he comes to, Vlad’s still there, unable to move, but still alive, waiting to stab Matt with biting sarcasm. Except again, he’s about to go, for real this time…until Matt resuscitates him, hammering at his chest, Jack from LOST style. Vlad’s body needs to be sent to all of the research facilities.

In the midst of the two sides of the same coin (maybe?) Matt/Vlad one-act play, there’s a wonderful scene with Foggy in a hospital bed, determined to go out and find Matt. He’s worried about him (and should be). But Karen stops him: you’ve played hero enough for one day. She pecks him on the cheek. “Helluva first date,” Foggy grins. “I’ve had worse,” Karen says, as she exits. I love these moments on their own, but my favorite part? When the camera zooms out to reveal that they’re sharing the room with another family, that this private moment wasn’t so private after all.

Vlad and Matt’s stand off is interrupted by Wilson Fisk himself, bringing us the first interaction between DD and the Kingpin. Even if it’s over a comm device, it’s chilling. Again, Fisk suggests they’re not too different.

And Fisk clearly has the upper hand. When DD rebuffs his offers to capitulate, Fisk promises he’ll pin the bombings on the masked man, kill Vlad and “call the day a push.” That’s pretty much exactly what happens, and feels more than a push for Fisk. It feels like a victory. He hires a sniper to shoot Officer Blake, adding more fuel to the fire, as the Masked Man becomes branded a terrorist in the media, Condemned.

Throughout the episode, Matt has been talking with Claire, and she calls him with the news of his outing as a villain. Matt apologizes to her, that she was right, that he can’t love her, and that she should stay way. It’s heartbreaking, since Claire is wonderful, even if we’ve seen so many variations of this scene in comic book adaptations.

Our boy can’t catch a break: the cops are going to go in, and the only possible escape is through the sewers. Except he can’t lift the grate on his own. Luckily, Vlad has super powers and helps. There’s still little hope, with a cop army nearby (a ruthless one who kills the innocent cop) but Vlad decides to play hero, to defend the sewer while DD can escape. Just as importantly, he gives our masked man a new name to use in the war against the Kingpin: Leland Owlsley.

“Daredevil” Season 1 Episode 5 Recap, “World on Fire”

Andy — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 21:59:51 +0000

“World on Fire”

In the opening scene, Daredevil expertly navigates its superhero baggage. “You’re not one of those billionaire playboys I hear so much about?” Dawson’s Claire Temple coos, and she could’ve been talking about anybody. But she’s not that lucky. Then she spells out the series’ logline playfully, “lawyer by day, vigilante by night. How does that work?” Really fucking well, it turns out. Last episode, the not-Night Nurse-but kinda Night Nurse and Daredevil switched roles: Matt took her home and cleaned her up. The next morning, Claire wipes away the condensation and looks at her bruises in the bathroom mirror. It’s a simple, powerful and unapologetically artsy moment, one that would seem out of place in any other Marvel show or movie, but in Daredevil it’s just another beautiful moment. Sure, we don’t need Claire to blurt, “you see so much,” to Matt, as he matter of fact-ly explains that he can hear her bones move, but it’s forgiven when we finally see what he sees, “a world on fire,” a red, constantly shifting impressionistic painting. Claire probably would hit people too if that’s all she saw. Matt asks her to stay with him until he knows she’s safe, “helluva a way to get a girl to move in,” Dawson making lines sing that would have doomed most actors. Then they kiss for the first time, Temple “wondering when you’d do that.” Wesley meets with Vladimir, the last surviving Russian brother, wondering where Anatoly is. He doesn’t know his head has been hacked to goo by Wilson Fisk. In a ballsy maneuver, Wesley and Fisk have framed the man in the mask, bringing in his body, the MIB’s mask in his pocket as a calling card. That seems silly, but it works; Vladimir just needed an outlet for his rage and vengeance. Meanwhile, Fisk meets with Madame Gao, Nobu (Peter Shinkoda) and Leland Owlsley, explaining the situation. That he “knew the Russians would have to removed.” They were too unpredictable. The promise of a greater share in the profits soothes most of their ire. Bob Gunton’s dry and sarcastic Leland Owlsley and Madame Gao’s over-the-top laughs make every scene with them a treat. Of course, every scene is a treat with Daredevil. The fight choreography is exceptional, and beautiful, and “World on Fire” has another terrific moment to pair with the Hallway scene at the end of Episode 2. The Russians have captured a singing Chinese guy, and from his POV, we see Daredevil attack, in a swirling circular shot of the battle. The cops eventually arrive, and the man in the mask escapes, leaving one Russian in the hands of Officer Blake (Chris Tardio) and Officer Huffman (Daryl Edwards). Unsurprisingly, Fisk also owns the cops in this city. When the two officers interrogate the kidnapped Russian, he squeals, saying Wilson Fisk’s name. After figuring out whose turn it is, one of the officers punches the other, and then kill the Russian for revealing their boss’ name. Another front on the war comes to light this episode, with Elena Cardenas (Judith Delgado) walking into Nelson & Murdock. She and her neighbors are being forced out by Armand Tully, who started construction on the building and then had their workers move out right in the middle due to BS fears for their safety, leaving the building in a mess. Daredevil doesn’t stoop to translating every language, or telling the audience everything that’s said, and it’s been a brilliant way to showcase Hell’s Kitchen’s melting pot of ethnicities. Cardenas is the MVP of this episode solely for calling our favorite sidekick “Senor Foggy,” the greatest nickname of all-time (and dangerously/hilariously close to the Mexican chain Senor Frogs). Foggy and Karen go to the law firm that Nelson and Murdock interned at, and spurned to start their own firm. That would be L&Z (Landman & Zack), where they meet Marci (Amy Rutberg), a bitchy blonde that Foggy used to date. She pushes Foggy around, backed by the powerful leverage of her firm…until Foggy retaliates brilliantly, cutting her down to size, happy to bring them to court, knowing that he and his client, in fact, have the leverage. It’s probably the best moment Foggy has had on the show, and more fodder for Karen to realize that Foggy isn’t so easily jammed into the friend zone. Right?! Foggy is a Boss this entire episode, visiting Ms. Cardenas and her apartment with Karen, and upon seeing the disaster zone, resolves to put on his plumber hat and help out. In way of thanks, Cardenas makes the two dinner, leaving them alone to eat it. Ms. Cardenas is the best wingman in Hell’s Kitchen, and even Karen can’t deny: this is a date. A lot of love is in the air this episode and on this show, but it’s not necessarily for our main hero. Fisk meets Vanessa for a second date, and she explains she’s not into liars. Fisk promises he’ll be honest, that she can ask anything, and we know he means it. He loves this girl, and it gives us another wonderful layer to Vincent D’Onofrio’s performance, as Marvel has found their best villain in all the MCU after Loki. D’Onofrio portrays him as a socially challenged, shy man with a stilted, halting speech, suppressing his pent-up aggression like we would suppress a sneeze. The danger is never far from the surface. Vanessa challenges Fisk, sharing sexual anecdotes to gauge his response and to shock him, and asking after Wesley and his organization (“he’s more than an assistant; he’s a friend”). I hope before the season ends we uncover Wesley’s backstory; Toby Leonard Moore’s measured performance has made his character as indispensable to the show as he is to Fisk. Vanessa has also brought a gun to the date Turk Barrett pays Vlad a visit, revealing to him that he heard about an SUV with blood and brain spatter in a chop shop, “owned by a big bald white guy.” He claims that the Man in Black works for Fisk, and this is all Vlad needs to gear up for war. Vlad offers up a 1 million ante for the one who can find Fisk, and back at the restaurant, it appears that Fisk’s waiter wants that money. Instead, Fisk was baiting Vlad all along, bringing the Russians into the danger zone. He and Vanessa watch as Fisk unleashes his next plan to “unlock the city’s potential,” to wash away the city’s ugliness and rebuild. The man-who-will-be Kingpin is a “man with a dream,” and in many ways, it’s not a bad one, or a faulty one. But his methods leave something to be desired if, you know, you have morals. His methods involve watching Hell’s Kitchen burn. To do so, he unleashes a bomb, set off by a blind Chinese man (with help from Madame Gao), destroying city blocks in the process. Including hitting Ms. Cardenas’ apartment, and tragically interrupting Karen and Foggy’s date. Though, to be fair, it was veering into uncomfortable territory anyway. Foggy was talking up Matt’s prowess with women (he’s a “sexual Rain Man”), and Karen, clearly fascinated with Matt, lives out her fantasy with Foggy, having him touch her face, like how Matt does with women to “see them.” It’s going to be heartbreaking if Karen’s truly just leading Foggy along. But the blast changes everything, Wilson and Vanessa looking on from a skyscraper, the “world on fire” below, seeing the world how Daredevil does. You’d think putting Foggy and Karen in mortal peril and killing the entire Russian mob would be a satisfying cliffhanger. But no, this episode dollops on another with Daredevil coming for Vlad, who managed to survive the bomb, swapping fisticuffs. It doesn’t matter who wins; neither does, as the cops have them surrounded.

Binge Buddy: Netflix’s “Daredevil” Recap, Episode 4 “In the Blood”

Andy — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 23:34:35 +0000

Daredevil Week continues with the arrival of Netflix’s Marvel’s too many apostrophes’ Daredevil this morning. David has shepherded us through Frank Miller’s classic run, two of DD’s most famous origin stories and the not-classic Daredevil movie. Now the billy club has been passed on to me.

Over the course of however long I can do this until life gets in the way, I’m going to binge the series. In between each episode, I’m going to read an issue of Frank Miller’s classic run on the comic book title that shaped the Man Without Fear into the character we know of today, starting with Daredevil #168.

I’m going to recap it live (at least for me), while watching it. I’m not entirely sure what will spill out of me.

“Into the Ring” Episode 1 Recap

“Cut Man” Episode 2 Recap

“Rabbit in a Snowstorm” Episode 3 Recap

“In the Blood”

Eight years ago, Anatoly (Teen Wolf‘s Gideon Emery) and Vladimir (Nikolai Nikolaeff) were in a Siberian prison, clinging to life. But they’re escaping for America using the ribs of their freshly dead inmate to claw their way out. I never thought when we were first introduced to Vladimir and Anatoly that we’d ever really know anything about them, or differentiate them, let alone get a flashback sequence involving them. It makes the Russian brothers seem badass, but after this episode, we learn that Siberia is NOTHING compared to Hell’s Kitchen.

The Russians have their hands full with the “Man in Black” (because every comic TV show has to have a BS name for the hero before they become their moniker), and it’s starting to affect the whole operation. Wesley wonders how a masked man could be such a problem; it’s not like he has an iron suit or a magic hammer haha lolz. Wesley offers his employer’s help, but the Bros. know that that means “takeover.” They rebuff his advances, while also revealing that the MIB is asking after Fisk…by name.

“You’ve been busy,” Claire says, when DD comes to her for medical assistance. She suggests body armor, the second time she’s made a really keen observation about his outfit. The two have become flirty while she patches him up, and to make her feel even more like a mistress, Matt gives her a burner phone to call him on. How sweet. It’s funny that Claire still calls him Mike, after her ex that lied to her all the time.

Matt stupidly tells her about Wilson Fisk; there’s apparently no record of the man. He shouldn’t be giving her more information that can get her killed, and it’s obvious that that rooster is coming to roost this episode, because the Russians plan a visit to the coma’d Semyen, the man who saw Claire in episode 2. Apparently all any coma patient needs is a little adrenaline to wake them up, and this is precisely what they do, to alert them of Claire’s existence.

While Matt has chemistry with Claire and Karen, the love story Daredevil explores is between Wilson and the gallery owner from the past episode, Vanessa. The whole episode, D’Onofrio toes the line between creepy and sweet, and does so beautifully, where you can’t help but feel like he’s just this awkward, lonely, sheltered man who isn’t used to dating. He manages to ask her out, and she can’t because she’s working. She makes a comment about how she’s had men buy all her paintings to convince her to go out, to which Fisk responds, “a woman that can be bought isn’t worth having.” That seals the deal: Italian food is coming.

And people are coming for Claire! NOOOOO! Instead of being right there, Matt’s listening to a hilarious “butcher story” from Foggy. But he gets a call from her new phone, and knows something’s up. He goes to Santino (Moises Acevedo), the poor young man who found Matt in the trash can in “Cut Man.” He manages to tell them that they took Claire away in a Taxi, and even the Taxi company. What a saint.

On today’s episode of The Wire, Page goes to an auction, to spy on who’s buying Union Allied’s stuff. Urich’s also there, smooth as silk, recommending she buy something cheap or else she’ll be found out. He slips away, so apparently the rules don’t apply to him. And I’m fine with that. Ben Urich is the man.

Claire’s getting beat to shit, interrogated for the MIB’s real name, when the lights are cut. She starts to laugh, almost maniacally. “You want to know his name? Ask him yourself.” Then Matt mows them down like so many red shirts, saving Claire in the process. She manages to smack someone with a bat, because you’re not going to keep Rosario Dawson for too long.

This is all intercut with a romantic dinner between Wilson and Vanessa, where we get some back story about our brooding brute. He grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, dreaming of going somewhere else. That turned out to be a farm in the middle of nowhere, and he realized that this city was “in my blood,” that he wanted to make it a better place…for people like you. This is a great angle to play, because both Matt and Wilson both see Hell’s Kitchen as their neighborhood, their home, with dueling viewpoints on how to make it better. The date’s going swimmingly, until Anatoly barges in to the restaurant, raving about the MIB, admitting that they need their help. Uh oh.

Urich and Page meet at a diner after the auction. She bought $3,500 worth of old office equipment, and had to put it on the company card. It’s better than the alternative (death). After telling her about the unfortunate fates of several of his past sources (including one becoming his wife), Ben instructs her to sign the agreement. She might not be able to say anything, but of course, Urich’s not signing it with her.

The roles have reverse: Matt patches up Claire, at his apartment (he has the experience with dear ole Dad). Matt apologizes; he put her in danger. “Tell me it’s worth it.” Matt admits he doesn’t have a plan, that he’s only making things worse, and it almost feels like an Arrow episode, until Claire puts his hand on her heart, admitting that she’s more scared than she’s ever been, and that he needs to help her and everyone else in the city. Because it’s poor form to touch a woman’s chest without telling her your name, Matt finally reveals it.

Meanwhile, Vanessa’s pissed, not exactly impressed with whatever Fisk is. Amazingly, you feel bad for Wilson; he didn’t want to screw this up. He cares for Vanessa, and if she doesn’t feel the same way, she’ll never see him again, he promises. And you know he means it. This is a villain with class and respect for women. Vanessa, and the audience, “doesn’t know how she feels” about him.

But he doesn’t have respect for Anatoly; no sir. He pays a visit to the Russian, and while it took four episodes to see the Kingpin get his hands dirty, it’s a glorious, unnerving sight, as Wilson just PUMMELS Anatoly, with the guy DECAPITATING HIM WITH A CAR DOOR. Is it wrong how much I’m loving this show?

Afterwards, Wesley offers his boss a handkerchief. Wilson wants him to send his head to his brother. “It’ll start a war,” Wesley says. “I’m counting on it.” Hey now. There are NINE EPISODES left.

Binge Companion: Netflix’s “Daredevil” Recap, Episode 3 “Rabbit in a Snowstorm”

Andy — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 22:56:20 +0000

I’m going to recap it live (at least for me), while watching it. I’m not entirely sure what will spill out of me.

“Into the Ring” Episode 1 Recap

“Cut Man” Episode 2 Recap

“Rabbit in a Snowstorm”

What’s stunning about Daredevil is how fully realized this world is, and how unabashedly dark and violent it is. I was expecting a hard PG-13, or maybe a soft R, perhaps. It’s certainly more than that.

An off-kilter man walks into a bowling alley, and it’s not the start of a joke, but some insanity. The alley’s almost closed, so he can’t play, but John Healy (Alex Morf) wants to play with Mr. Prohashka, who has a deal with the business to bowl whenever he wants. Alone. Healy doesn’t take the rejection well, kicking the crap out of his guards and then amping up the violence to a level we had only hinted at, breaking Prohashka’s arm in the circular bowling queue thingy (the technical term). We see some bone and normally that’s when you’d expect the show to pump the brakes…instead Healy uses a bowling ball to bash the man’s face in. You don’t see it, but still: holy Hell(‘s kitchen).

It’s a compelling opening, but it’s intercut with a smash cut flashback to 36 hours earlier, where Turk Barrett (a great and to this point under-utilized Rob Morgan) gives Healy a gun and promises it won’t jam. It does, which leads to bowling ball as blunt force trauma. It’s never followed up on, but I suppose it’s not necessary to: Turk needed to ensure Healy would be caught, and a gun would’ve been a lot quicker. Instead, Turk is forced to ask for a lawyer when the cops arrive. Guess who those lawyers are gonna be?

Before that however, we get another brief interlude between Matt and the Priest from the pilot, who offers him a latte before work. Matt denies it, teasing out this relationship longer and more vaguely than we probably need it to be.

Then we cut to the world’s last honest newsman Ben Urich (a fucking brilliantly cast Vondie Curtis-Hall), meeting with an Italian mobster, overlooking the city. The man intimates there’s a new player in town, and that the old guard is changing. Riggeletto retired…in pieces, and this guy’s heading to Florida before he meets the same fate. While he owes Urich a favor and clearly respects him, his advice is to “take a pass.” There are “no rules, not anymore,” and he might as well be talking about the Netflix corner of the MCU. “Some fights just get you bloody,” he says, because even after the last of the Jack Murdock boxing flashbacks, we’re never escaping that motif.

At our favorite law firm, Karen reveals to Foggy that after a day of free work…she’d like some money. Matt comes in, bruised and beat up, and he explains it away with his blindness. “You need a dog,” Foggy suggests, and for a moment, I imagined Daredevil having a puppy sidekick, DOUBLE DOG DARE-DEVIL. After almost dying in bliss, the slimy Wesley (breakout performer Toby Leonard Moore) waltzes in, wanting to put Nelson and Murdock on retainer for his employer. He of course refuses to share any information about him, but offers a boat load of cash to do so. Matt not enthused, but he didn’t see the number of zeroes on the check (he can’t see guys). Then Wesley has the audacity to ask if all their clients get to work for the company or just the pretty ones. Karen’s freaked, everybody’s freaked, since he shouldn’t know that.

Foggy agrees to meet their new client Healy anyways, but he gives Foggy the creeps enough to walk away. But, of course, ever the contrarian, Matt forces them to take the case. Foggy gets no say in the business, after all.

Urich’s not listening to the nearly departed mobster: he’s excited about the new story, exposing a new player in Hell’s Kitchen. But his editor doesn’t give a shit. They need a story that will sell papers, and apparently that means fluff pieces on what color the new subway line should be. I feel like, if anyone was going to read a newspaper, they’d be enticed by a crazy crime conspiracy. But nope. Urich also receives a dig; he’s a dying breed, making half what most are on blogs, who are working in their underwear. For the record: I’m wearing pants and unless Urich is an intern, the finances are off too.

But I love this gritty 70’s crime vibe, and the moment Urich arrives, he adds not only another angle, but more urgency. His subplots bristle with intensity and feel like Marvel’s The Wire in the best way. Plus, he garners so much affection in about one frame; he visits the hospital and is able to finagle an extension for his sick wife’s stay. He’s such a paragon of virtue that he doesn’t even dangle the cheese blintz before negotiations. He gives it to the head of the hospital after. If there’s a higher moral standard, humanity hasn’t discovered it.

It took three episodes, but Daredevil finally refers to New York/Hell’s Kitchen as “my city.” A lot of milestones are met in this third episode: it’s of course the first appearance of Ben Urich, and our first glimpse of courtroom drama. And I like what I see. The case never bogs down the narrative, and the episode is never about the case (it’s more about the jury and Matt sensing that someone has been blackmailed), and I was hanging on every word of Murdock’s closing statement, even if it was a statement on good and evil. What isn’t?

Karen, meanwhile, is offered a non-disclosure agreement and a lump sum of 6 months salary. Considering she was a secretary, that can’t be that much money. She pays a visit to Daniel Fisher’s wife (the wife of the man who died in her apartment), who’s unsurprisingly not enthused to see her. She’s packing things up to get the hell out, which is the sensible decision for Italian mobsters and widows alike. She’s already signed her agreement, and suggests Page to do the same. “Let it go,” she says. Twice, and damn/love you Frozen for changing those three words forever. In fact, I don’t think you can ever use those words without invoking that song.

So far, all of these characters are operating exactly how you want them to operate, and how you expect them to operate. That means Karen pays Ben Urich a visit, offering up her story to a man that took down the Italian mob when she was in diapers.

After the jury is hung, Healy gets out. So Murdock’s alter ego gets to take him to task. It’s another thrilling fight, and FINALLY, we get the name. The name of the man he works for, the all important mysterious employer: Wilson Fisk. Sure, we knew the man who will be the Kingpin was behind it from the start, but the he-who-must-not-be-named gimmick slow play was a stroke of brilliance. Like in a horror movie, you’re often scared by what you don’t see.

The moment is made even better and more bonkers, when Healy, realizing that he’s doomed himself and everyone else he’s ever cared about, impales his forehead on a spike. It’s #@$ed up.

This leads directly to the episode’s final milestone: our first glimpse of Wilson Fisk himself. We see the back of the imposing Vincent D’Onofrio, leering at a painting in a swanky gallery, a gradients of white painting called “Rabbit in a snowstorm,” named after a children’s joke. “It makes me feel alone,” Wilson mumbles, drolly to the gallery owner Vanessa Marianna (Man of Steel‘s Ayelet Zurer). Comic fans will know exactly who Vanessa is, or will be.

Binge Companion: Netflix’s “Daredevil” Recap, Episode 2 “Cut Man”

Andy — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 18:09:27 +0000

I’m going to recap it live (at least for me), while watching it. I’m not entirely sure what will spill out of me. But here it goes.

“Into the Ring” Episode 1 Recap

“Cut Man”

It’s dark, sirens are going off, and blood is all over the streets. Just another night in Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil already grooving to its gritty beats.

Except the blood belongs to Daredevil himself, fucked up in a trash can. And just like that, we’ve hit the moody credits.

The young guy who found him earlier, returns, with Rosario Dawson in tow. They take Matt to her apartment. It’s night, and she’s nursing him, with the clear intention that Rosario Dawson is playing Night Nurse. Except, we find out that her name is Claire Temple, an entirely different character from the comic books.

She removes his mask, and he’s not moving, until he gasps and comes back to life, refusing to go to the hospital. He claims that if she does, that the same people who did this to him, will kill anybody in his way to get to him. This paints the image of them just spraying a hospital full of bullets willy-nilly, when I feel like they’d probably just go to Matt’s hospital bed, kill him, and leave. But still, point made. Then…

Murdock falls back down and out, and into flashback zone, where Young Matt watches his Dad lose another fight on the telly. He goes to the kitchen, waiting for his injured and battered father to arrive.

Sidenote: I love that flashbacks are being utilized whenever Daredevil gets knocked out, or pummeled. In Daredevil #168, this is actually exactly the device used by Miller to retell DD’s origin and splice Elektra into the proceedings.

Jack returns beaten to shit, and Matt gets the first aid kit out (which has playing cards in it…which may be a Bullseye reference), a depressing routine in full swing. He’s used to stitching his Dad up. Jack even offers his (like 9 year old?) son a little scotch so his hand isn’t shaking this time around. And Matt takes a swig. Marvel, Disney’s marvel, has its name on a property that shows a well underage kid DRINKING SCOTCH. We’ve entered an all new sector of the Marvel Universe, and I love it.

Matt’s in trouble with Pops because he watched the match instead of doing his homework, but Jack’s the real one in trouble, because he has a wad of dough, clearly throwing the fight. We get some Murdock truths/family words which wouldn’t have felt out of place in Unbroken: “It’s not how you hit the mat, it’s how you get up.”

Back in the present, Foggy sings loudly (Foggy just is loud), believing himself to be alone in the office. But Karen’s there, and it’s hilarious. I love Elden Hensen, though he certainly has a different, less bumbly countenance than the Foggy comic book fans will be familiar with. Also, in this scene Foggy and Karen seem to have some serious sexual tension. Interesting. Foggy wonders why she isn’t off doing “poppers and flapper dancing.” He couldn’t be more out of touch, and it’s great. Realizing that they neither have lives and that Karen desperately doesn’t want to go back to her apartment, it’s off to bar hop!

Matt wakes back up again, and Claire calls him out wonderfully: “Your outfit kind of sucks by the way.” She didn’t have a dying man on her couch in mind for her night off. Told to rest, we’re back to the past, with Young Matt freaking out after the accident, still screaming “I can’t see,” and getting attacked by sound.

Quickly, we’re punched back to the present, where in addition to not being able to see, now Matt coughs, “I can’t breathe.” His lung is filled with air and has collapsed. She fixes him up, and then basically demands to know what’s up, because if he dies, she’s screwed.

As we saw at the end of the pilot, the Russians kidnapped a boy, and are running a human trafficking ring out of Hell’s Kitchen. They pulled the boy two days ago and Matt thought he was smart for finding him so fast…but that was the point. It was a trap, and they were waiting for him, and he walked right into it. Claire, of course, wonders how and why the hell a blind man is trying to dole out justice. “There are other ways to see,” Matt says, another motto for House Murdock. In response to his vigilantism, Claire points out: “No offense, but you don’t seem to be very good at it.” She’s the best kind of honest.

That’s when Matt’s senses kick in: someone’s coming. He smells cigarettes and cologne on the third floor, looking for him. This episode probably has a little bit too much back and forth between the present and the past, or at least, they weren’t subtle in transitioning, always with these Murdock truisms. Claire’s amazed he can even stand up, and Murdock admits, “I’m very good at taking a beating. I got that from my Dad.”

Back in the ring, Jack’s at the boxing club, sparring. Matt’s learning braille. That’s when two grimy suits come in, calling Jack over, they’ve got him a match with Carl Creel (the man who will be Absorbing Man and will show up on Agents of SHIELD 2×1). Jack’s psyched, but there’s obviously a catch: he has to throw the fight in the fifth round. But if he does, they’ll make a boatload of money. Jack passes, but they convince him, that if anything, the accident means he needs the money that much more.

In the present, Matt grabs a knife and prepares for a fight, but Claire pushes him aside and meets a man claiming to be Detective Foster. She explains she hasn’t seen the “Man in Black,” which makes me think of Johnny Cash, Will Smith and LOST before it makes me think of Daredevil. He walks off, but Matt knows he doesn’t believe her. That’s when we get a great moment: Matt drops a fire extinguisher down several flights of stairs precisely on the dude’s noggin.

Sidenote: In the comics, Claire Temple is the ex-wife of one Bill Foster, who becomes Goliath. She’s also a love interest for Luke Cage, who will be appearing in AKA Jessica Jones in 2016. That the criminal pretends to be a Detective Foster could simply be an Easter Egg, or something that comes to roost when the real Detective Foster comes knocking. Of course, in the comics, Bill Foster is a Doctor, not a cop.

While Matt’s beat to shit, Foggy and Karen are getting hammered, arriving at Josie’s, a favorite dive in Hell’s Kitchen. Karen clarifies that this is definitely not on a date, but they still flirt, and Foggy tells her to allow him to fool himself that she’s into him. It’s cute, they drink more, all to get away from the awful fact that Karen can’t get Danny’s blood out of the carpet.

She no longer sees a city. She sees dark corners. “I look around this room and all that I see are threats.” I don’t blame her, but this is where we see how much Foggy loves this neighborhood, and how much he knows it. He points out the regulars, the honest and the not-so-honest ones, clearly trying to help the community. It’s an expert way to showcase this characterization.

Meanwhile, Matt takes “Detective Foster” to the roof. Claire’s not having it, straight manning the shit out of him, and wondering how a blind vigilante can have so many abilities. Matt wonders why she helped him. Apparently, at the Metro General Hospital, she kept hearing about the “Man in Black,” that he’s been saving lives and doling out punishment to those who deserve it. The “word’s getting around.”

“I want to believe in what you’re doing,” she says, but Detective Foster is chained to the rooftop of a building, prepped for interrogation. Matt knows she’s scared, and that’s when we get closest to a “Man Without Fear” line: “You can’t give into the fear…[if you do] men like this win.”

Speaking of, Jack has a new robe for the fight, and it’s “really red,” blessed with the moniker Battlin’ Jack Murdock. Matt points out, “The good thing about red is you can’t tell how much you’re bleeding,” which is a super sad thing for a kid to point out to his Dad.

Realizing that, Jack changes his mind: he puts all his money on himself against Creel, and instructs his bookie to put the money into his son’s account. Then he calls a woman (Matt’s Mom?), leaving her a message, warning her that he’s going to need her. “Just once I wanna see Matty hear someone cheer his old man’s name.”

While Jack readies for an inexorable origin story death, Foggy and Karen are super drunk, providing the only brevity in the entire episode. They arrive at Matt’s place, banging on his door, trying to get him to hang out. No dice, so they walk side by side, giggling in the night.

Back on the roof, Claire Temple rocks a cheap/quickly put together but impressively creepy white outfit, and Daredevil interrogates “Detective Foster.” Claire gets into it, telling Matt a good place to stab him. Awesome.

Then DD starts beating him, claiming that he’s not only doing this to save the boy. “I’m doing this because I enjoy it.” After dangling him off a building, the thug finally reveals the kid’s location. Matt unceremoniously throws him off the roof into the same garbage bin Claire found Matt in to start the episode. “He’ll live,” he says, though he certainly didn’t seem too concerned if he didn’t. I do hope we can skirt the whole will he kill/won’t he kill hero thing that’s been done a million times.

Before DD heads to save the kid, he tells Claire to relocate, because they’ll come looking for her, and he gets her location, because he’s a Man Without Fear of rejection. Plus, he’ll need patching up, if he survives what’s coming.

“I don’t believe you enjoy this,” Temple says, as he walks away.

TO THE PAST! Matt watches/listens to the match at home, and his Daddy wins. Matt cheers. Jack quickly makes a run for it, but never leaves the locker room, closing his eyes and taking the bullet he knew was coming.

Matt waits in his customary spot in the kitchen, but his Dad never comes home. Matt makes his way to the ring, and finds his Dad in the alley. We’ve all seen this so many times before, but it doesn’t make it any less upsetting.

But DD takes out his pain on the Russians, as our episode ends with a really well shot, punch-a-thon, with Daredevil flitting from room to room, the camera only glimpsing the hallway. He can barely walk by the end, but he carries the boy out of there. This is also when I realize there’s definitely a little throaty Daredevil voice/mini Batman-thang going on.

And that’s the end. I would say that this episode doesn’t stand on its own as well as the first episode, but the pace feels right, and the mood and atmosphere is off the charts. This really is the dark corner of the Marvel Universe, and it’s great to finally get a chance to see it.

Binge Companion: Netflix’s “Daredevil” Recap, Episode 1

Andy — Fri, 10 Apr 2015 16:43:44 +0000

I’m going to recap it live (at least for me), while watching it. I’m not entirely sure what will spill out of me.

And so it begins.

“Into the Ring”

We open on the streets of New York, in day light, which I imagine will be a rare sight going forward. A middle-aged white man looks disoriented, he almost could be blind, but that’s the dazed and terrified look of a father, sensing something terrible has happened to his son. Meet Jack Murdock (John Patrick Hayden).

His son Matt lies prostrate on the concrete, beside a bunch of chemicals, his eyes burning and scarred, his vision lost forever. The boy pushed an old man out of the way of the careening truck, saving his life, essentially the inverse Spider-Man origin. “I can’t see,” he screams, hopefully the campiest moment we have on this show.

“Bless me father, for I have sinned.” We start in a confessional in church, hitting that Daredevil/religious theme early. Also, in this first monologue, I’m already completely sold on Charlie Cox as the adult Matt Murdock, describing his father and his boxing career. His Grandma claimed the Murdock boys had the “devil in them,” which didn’t make me snort because of Cox’s delivery.

“I’m asking forgiveness for what I’m about to do…” Murdock trails off, and the priest grumbles, “that’s not how this works.” This show is traditionally not how Marvel has worked either, thrusting us immediately in the action, a speedy origin story unfolding parallel.

Daredevil almost arrives in the night fully formed: the only thing missing is his trademark red outfit. Now, he’s in all black, with a black mask tied over his eyes. When he saves a slew of girls from being sold into the sex trade or a new Taken movie, the violence has a sense of urgency. It’s brutal but balletic; it’s definitely not ABC.

The credits are great: SO MUCH RED, blood dripping down Lady Justice (blind!), and the streets and buildings of Hell’s Kitchen, pooling into Daredevil. I’m so in right now guys.

Foggy wakes up Matt, but our dutiful sidekick/fellow defense lawyer is proudly off to “bribe a cop,” gifting cigars for an old friend/enemy officer’s mother, “who will outlive us all.”

Hell’s Kitchen is cheap, thanks to the Chitauri, and it’s the new home for Nelson & Murdock. They just need clients.

Cut to: Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), bloodied, in front a bloody corpse, holding a knife, absolutely freaking out as cops come in and cuff her. New client/love interest!

When they come to visit Karen, they admit: they’ve been practicing law for…7 hours. Karen Page would be their first client. She doesn’t have any money, which is enough for Foggy to leave, but Matt thinks the arrangement could benefit both of them. Wink wink, but not really, but kinda.

Apparently, the dead man was Daniel Fisher, a co-worker, a nice man with which she had a few drinks. Next thing she remembers, she woke up on the floor next to his body. “You have to believe me,” nearly delirious. But Murdock believes, listening to her heartbeat, a human lie detector.

Someone new in town has taken over the books from the local crime boss (can you say Kingpin?) and his “lapdog” is terrifying, blackmailing a Mr. Furnum to do his bidding by showing they have eyes on his daughter.

Foggy and Matt bicker, for what will likely be many times, about taking a deal. Considering the evidence stacked against her, Foggy thinks they should take anything. Matt smells something fishy, wondering why they haven’t charged her with such overwhelming evidence. Something else is going on. Foggy sighs, Matt has a knack for beautiful women with questionable character. Heh.

That night, Karen gets attacked in her cell, nearly choked to death by a miserable Mr. Furnum/the guard, until she claws his eyes. Hell yes. This gets her out and into Murdock’s offices, where she reveals her tale: she happened upon an e-mail at her company Union Allied, that has profited from the west side’s reconstruction following the fight in New York. The e-mail reveals a pension fund with a lot of money that isn’t exactly a pension fund, you know criminal stuff.

Page is a wreck; she was drugged on her date, and knows Daniel killed because of her. She isn’t safe…so Matt takes her to his place, and he has a massive over-arching loft apartment. Thanks to a Blade Runner-y advertisement and construction and whatnot, he got it for cheap. I love how the Avengers movie is being used in this show.

Karen changes shirts/gets naked in front of Matt because he’s blind. Lucky!

Matt wonders why Karen wasn’t killed in the first place, and guesses that Karen still has the file, that this is why she wasn’t killed. She lies and denies it.

VILLAIN MEET UP! In an empty high-rise somewhere in the Westside Reconstruction, Leland (Bob Gunton), the man who will/would be The Owl, Wesley (Kingpin’s second in command), Russian gangsters Vladimir and Anatoly and Chinese drug lord Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho) talk about their villainous plans, upset that Wesley’s boss doesn’t show up. “Don’t say his name.” Wesley claims they’re handling the Union Allied problem, and it’s clear all the crime bosses are operating through Union Allied and in on it.

Karen slips out of Murdock’s apartment and back to hers, like a moron. She retrieves the bluetooth, and promptly gets attacked and is about to be killed when Matt arrives. During the scrum, they end up toppling out the window, knocking him to flashback land, where Young Matt gets told to go to school, because Jack doesn’t want his son to end up like him, his face puffy and bleeding on the table. Jesus. “Get to work,” he says.

And this unleashes a great rainy, gritty battle. Daredevil, of course, wins, grabs the bluetooth, and because it’s not safe with anybody, he sends it to the New York Post (and presumably Ben Urich!). The next morning, the Union Allied cover up is in the papers, and Wesley, on the phone with our Mysterious Crime Boss/Wilson Fisk, is cleaning up the mess and removing their implication in the events.

Fisk tells him to start a file on Nelson and Murdock; “they might prove useful.”

Karen’s happy as a clam, and as a thank you, has made a meal for Foggy and Matt that she was told to only prepare for her future husband (foreshadowing?!). The three are as giggly as we’ll probably ever see them, and Page offers her help with the law offices. “I’ll work for free.” That’s how you get hired in this economy.

Our first episode ends on a series of shots, intercut with Matt at the decrepit and dark Fogwell’s Gym, hitting a punching bag endlessly, a poster for a fight advertising “Carl Crusher Creel vs Jack Murdock” on the wall. As he fights, we get a glimpse of the entire Hell’s Kitchen criminal network: Leland’s still happy, transferring illegal funds from account to account, Furnum’s daughter walks in on her poor father murdered during laundry day, representatives of what is probably The Hand have a nefarious grid plan in Hell’s Kitchen, drugs are being manufactured and overseen Madame Gao, and Vladimir and Anatoly kidnap a kid.

Daredevil, standing on the top of a building, in a classic comic book pose, hears the city all around him, focusing on the screams of the kidnapped child. He puts down his mask. “Time to work.”

What a pilot.

Daredevil Week: ‘Man Without Fear’ and ‘Yellow’

David Youngblood — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 21:51:50 +0000

Daredevil Week rolls on here at Seven Inches, as we’ve arrived at the last day before the new Marvel/Netflix series debuts. And since the new Daredevil show will examine the hero’s origins, I’m finishing off our look at classic DD comics with a pair of origin stories: Daredevil: Man Without Fear, the five-issue miniseries by Frank Miller and John Romita Jr., and Daredevil: Yellow, the six-issue mini by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.

Man Without Fear is usually regarded as the more seminal work, frequently cited as one of the character’s greatest classics and as the definitive DD origin story. It’s also a big influence on the new Netflix show, making it even more important. But at the risk of being overly contrarian, I didn’t like it at all. I’ve already covered the other four big collections of Frank Miller’s DD work, and Man Without Fear is actually my least favorite of the five. Even Vol. 1, which has terrible writing for much of it, at least ends with a strong flurry and has wonderful art by Miller and Klaus Jansen throughout. MWF is still bad writing, but with less redemption and ridiculous art by John Romita Jr.

I think MWF suffers more from the comparison when you read it, like I did, right after Miller’s other DD work. Everything in it feels like worse versions of his stories from his original run. Things that worked well for Miller in quick flashbacks years earlier are expanded and changed here, and become worse for the wear. The origin is ridiculously on the nose. Kids chant “Daredevil” at Matt as a boy. His father’s boxing costume is literally an exact version of DD’s later costume — if you think that’s an exaggeration, it’s really not. Why would a boxer wear a mask? Because that’s how dumb this story is. With that background, it’s amazing that anyone doesn’t know Matt is Daredevil as an adult. “Hey, do you the guy whose childhood nickname was Daredevil and whose father wore an outfit exactly like Daredevil’s might have something to do with Daredevil?”

The stupidity doesn’t end there. Miller seems to think that DD needs to be even darker and edgier for this origin, so he has Matt kill some people. The best (read: worst) of them being when he accidentally murders a stripper who, as far as we’re told, was doing nothing illegal. Matt is sad about it for, like, a minute, then he just moves on with his mission. Whoops, sorry about that, innocent dead lady, but I need to get back to throwing bad guys through skylights with 100-foot drops! The worst part, though, is probably the expanded part given to college-age Elektra, who was a fairly normal young woman living an abnormal life in the flashbacks Miller wrote in his original run. In MWF, she’s literally insane, murders a whole lot of people in cold blood, and her “dates” with Matt consist of getting him in trouble and almost killing him and herself. The entire dynamic that worked so well in Miller’s original run is gone; Elektra and Matt had originally had a sweet but brief romance, and a big part of what had worked so well in that original version were Matt’s emotions in seeing the innocent young woman he’d once known now driven by loss to become a deadly assassin. But in the MWF retcon version, it’s perplexing why Matt would have any fond memories of his whirlwind insane romance with Elektra, and the loss she goes through feels irrelevant because she was always a psycho killer anyway. Oh, and John Romita Jr. is the worst, especially in drawing Elektra:

It’s not like Miller’s art in his original run shied away from sexualizing Elektra, at all, but the above page from JRJR looks especially ridiculous to me. I assume she’s supposed to look sexy and/or scary, but she just looks gross. And JRJR’s version of Matt usually seemed bulky, as opposed to the lithe gymnast style that Miller tried to use. From that, we got the retcon insertion of Matt’s new first costume, an adaptation of which will also be in the new show:

For some reason, those sneakers just crack me up when placed with the rest of the black ensemble; the effort is to make Matt look tough and intimidating, and then he puts on some regular white tennis shoes to finish it off. Anyway, despite my feelings about MWF in its comic book form, I still think its loose adaptation can work really well in the show. With the exception of Elektra, who isn’t going to be in Season 1 anyway as far as we know, most of the MWF story is stuff that theoretically could work, but just falls very flat here to me. Clean it up, cut certain areas and add others, and this dark DD origin could still be very cool. For instance, the rise of Kingpin to crime boss is reduced to about two pages in MWF, while all indications point to it being a major emphasis of S1 in the show. Changes like that still leave me optimistic about the new live-action DD, regardless of my feelings about this comic.

But where I have a mild disdain for Man Without Fear, I love the slightly less appreciated Daredevil: Yellow, which I would currently have as my favorite non-Miller Daredevil story (though I have a couple notable gaps in my DD reading). The pairing of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale did several stories, including Batman: Long Halloween, Batman: Dark Victory, and Superman for All Seasons. The success of Yellow led them to do a series of color-themed Marvel stories — Spider-Man: Blue, Hulk: Gray, and the aborted Captain America: White — each with similar structures of the hero looking back on early days while dealing with loss. But Daredevil: Yellow was my favorite of all their collaborations.

As many people have pointed out over the years, a lot of Daredevil stories essentially try to make him into a Batman knockoff. Miller’s run certainly had heavy aspects of that; even going back to the 1960s, other than his blindness, DD’s premise has basic similarities to Batman: no physical powers, murdered parent(s), one-man war on crime. But Yellow veered away from that, at least in tone, even while retelling the same story elements. The biggest key is that the Loeb/Sale Daredevil actually has fun. He’s not haunted by and obsessed with his heroic mission, in the traditional Batman style. He’s more of a swashbuckler, fighting crime but making a quip here and there in the process; after his initial quest for revenge, what keeps him going out as Daredevil is that he finds he enjoys it. This is a somewhat rare version of the character who’s actually happy in his early days. One of the main plotlines is a silly but fun love triangle between Matt, Karen Page, and Foggy, that becomes a square with Daredevil entering as well.

Which is why the story is all the more heartbreaking. Yellow is a flashback story, told by a grieving Matt as he copes with the loss of Karen, who’d recently been killed off in a story by Kevin Smith and Joe Quesada. Loeb and Sale weave a combination of mournful regret and youthful adventure that makes the past feel all the brighter and the present all the more bittersweet. It’s a delicate emotional balance that’s hit perfectly and still reverberates with me every time I read it.

Yellow isn’t made for gritty TV adaptation the way that Man Without Fear is, and I doubt we’ll ever see DD’s yellow costume in the show. But if you want the best comic-book look at Daredevil’s origins, I would argue that Daredevil: Yellow is where you’ll find it.

Daredevil Week: Frank Miller Vol. 3 and ‘Born Again’

David Youngblood — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 20:38:13 +0000

Welcome back to Daredevil Week, where we’re counting down to the release of the new Marvel/Netflix show Daredevil with a look back on some of the character’s most famous moments. Yesterday, I looked at the first two volumes of Frank Miller’s famous run on the comic book, and we continue today with another dose of peak Miller.

We pick up with Vol. 3, which collects Daredevil #185-191, 219, What If #28, and the Daredevil: Love and War graphic novel. It also marks the end of Miller’s run as the regular writer and penciller of the book. The main crux of the TPB involves the war against The Hand, but early on, we get a particularly fun spotlight on Foggy. Foggy at his best makes for a truly excellent civilian sidekick of sorts, a lovable buffoon who’s occasionally brilliant. Miller only gave him a couple spotlights, with the one in this volume being the most fun. Foggy tries on his own to unravel a conspiracy, making his way through the underworld with some legitimate moxie, but also a lot of help from Daredevil, who follows him around unseen to take out would-be attackers before they can hurt him. Foggy selling himself as the badass tough guy “Guts Nelson” was the character’s highlight of the series.

The big subplot in much of Vol. 3 revolves around Matt’s continued relationship with the socialite Heather, which throughout Miller’s run felt like a storyline that someone meant to end much earlier but forgot to, and so it just drags along. The pair ends up engaged, with an extreme lack of enthusiasm from both sides. In Vol. 3, this has morphed into something of an emotionally abusive relationship, with Heather too beaten down to walk away from it, and Matt too caught up in his obsessions to even notice he’s the abuser. The charitable reading of this whole situation is that it’s an attempt to add shades of gray to the good guy, something Miller always has enjoyed, but if that’s the intent, it’s never fully developed — in part because Matt never has to even notice his flaws; Foggy, with an assist from the Black Widow, rectifies the situation for him. A less charitable reading would be that Miller had a tendency to use women not as fully realized characters in their own right, but as something closer to props; maneuvering them in ways that their suffering is really just a means to an end for invoking some response in the male protagonist. If you subscribe to such a reading, then you probably also see it in Miller’s treatment of Karen Page in “Born Again,” of the women in Daredevil: Love and War, and maybe even in his final treatment of Elektra in Vol. 2. With either interpretation, it’s at least a conversation worth having. Miller has produced some brilliant works in his life, but most of them are not without problematic aspects.

But like I said, Vol. 3 is really about the war against The Hand, and to an arguably equal or greater extent, about Matt’s continued preoccupation/obsession with Elektra. And it’s in that story that the best of Miller shines through. Daredevil becomes a party to more ancient war involving The Hand and the group led by his former mentor Stick, who returns to show the full extent of what a badass the character is. The aforementioned Black Widow gets to play a big role as an ally in the battles. The final issue of this war is among Miller’s very best on the title, with death and resurrection, sacrifice and redemption.

With issue #191, Miller ended his regular tenure on the title. That final issue was a stand-alone piece, but really embodied a lot of the ideas that he tried to bring to DD. As Matt revisits his old nemesis Bullseye, he reflects on a recent encounter and the damage that gets inflicted upon the innocent bystanders to fights between good and evil. It’s a distillation of what it means to be a hero in a world of blurred lines, and how to fight the good fight while holding onto your soul.

Miller would, of course, end up returning to the character and book for isolated stories. In Daredevil #219, he tells a weird and random story where Matt visits a small town and helps them clean up violence, while never appearing in costume. The Daredevil: Love and War graphic novel finally revisits the subplot of Vanessa Fisk that Miller left dangling during his original run. Bill Sienkiewicz provided his wonderfully unique painted art for the story, which had some strengths but ultimately failed to resonate the way Miller’s best stories had. In What If #28, Miller provides the alternate reality story of what if Matt Murdock had joined S.H.I.E.L.D. after losing his eyesight and gaining his powers. It’s a rushed and rather unexciting story, but I did like Matt’s S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform:

It was the infamous “Born Again” story, from Daredevil #227-233*, that saw Miller’s most triumphant return to DD. Rather than also drawing himself this time, he partnered with artist David Mazzuchelli, who nailed it.

(*As a sidenote, Marvel’s TPB collection of “Born Again” also includes Daredevil #226, which contains some very helpful setup for the circumstances present during “Born Again.” However, because #226 wasn’t technically part of the “Born Again” storyline, Marvel placed it after the conclusion of #233 in its TPB, which is pretty stunning idiocy. So if you ever get that TPB, do yourself a favor and flip to the back (carefully, of course, to avoid any spoilers from the end of “Born Again”) and read #226. It’s not strictly necessary, and not even a particularly good or interesting issue, but it is helpful — and much more helpful if read before #227 instead of after #233.)

“Born Again” is usually lauded as the greatest Daredevil story of all time, and it probably is. At its heart, the story reminds me of Miller’s final issue as the regular writer, #191, in that it’s very much a deconstruction of what it means to be a hero. But “Born Again” goes far further, forcibly tearing the entire paradigm down to expose its vulnerability, then rebuilding it with tender care.

The premise involves Kingpin learning that Matt Murdock is Daredevil, then using that information to systematically ruin his life. It’s not enough for Kingpin to kill Matt (though he wants that, too); he wants to take everything away from him first. And boy is he successful; watching Matt’s downfall is an amazing experience. It’s not that the idea of the hero losing everything was that revolutionary, but Miller’s great success in the story is how much he makes you feel the pain of Matt’s descent as we watch him go mad from his fall. Ben Urich has a great arc himself. And present throughout is Karen Page, Matt’s original 1960s love interest who had left the book by the time Miller originally came on, and I’m not sure Miller even mentioned her name in his original run. Here, she’s a critical player, and while you can definitely argue that Miller’s treatment of her is problematic in some ways, she has a pretty impressive redemption arc; far more than even Matt, she goes through hell trying to get back to her old life.

And with such a fall, of course, comes the rise. This leads to the greatest line in Daredevil history, as Kingpin realizes he failed to finish off Matt and silently reflects on the hero, from whom he took everything and may have only made more dangerous in doing so:

“What is it about Murdock? He was a minor concern – a promising talent to be observed and cataloged and even occasionally flattered – and perhaps, one day, to be turned to the Kingpin’s way—but he is more than this. Now he is much more than this. He always was. And I—I have shown him…that a man without hope…is a man without fear.”

It probably wouldn’t make a lot of sense for Season 1, but if we get more of Daredevil on Netflix in the future (which seems highly likely), I demand to see Vincent D’Onofrio say that line.

The only reason I hesitate even a slight amount to immediately crown “Born Again” as the top DD story ever is that I’m not sure it quite stuck the landing. The villain Nuke is brought in as the final obstacle, and Miller certainly conveys his particular brand of insanity quite well. But the Nuke element plays more to themes of extremism and patriotic corruption that felt out of place with the rest of “Born Again” to me. Captain America has a heavy guest star role at the end, and indeed, the final act feels like more of a Cap story story than a DD one.

But there’s still so much greatness to this story: what happens when we lose everything, and how do we bounce back from our toughest defeats? That’s always been one of the core tenants of Daredevil as a character — a man who lost his sight, lost his father, but found a way to soldier on to become something greater.