Daredevil Noir

When I first read this collection in a single-issue format, I was a little disappointed, and definitely amused by the pointlessness of taking Marvel's most consistent noir character and trying to make him.. more noir, somehow. The whole thing seemed stupid, and while I love noir and I love Daredevil and don't pass up chances to read either type of story, I didn't get it. This seemed like a standard Daredevil story, but in the 1930s and with a more shadowy version of Bullseye who doesn't appear on panel for a while (a very effective way to build up the menace of the character, by the way).Tonight, though, reading this collection in one sitting, I think I get it better. This isn't about making Matt Murdock more like Sam Spade. It's about challenging the classic noir story by making it more Daredevil.Most of this story owes a great deal to Dashiell Hammett, as the framing sequence is a beautiful scene of a protagonist and an enormous antagonist having a controlled but furious conversation in an office, much like Spade's interactions with Gutman in The Maltese Falcon. We also get a nod to the Falcon with Eliza, a beautiful woman who hires our heroic private detectives, and we see a glimpse of Red Harvest when Murdock protecting Eliza leads to images of chaotic gang warfare.For all the homages to classic noir, though, this story challenges them with the special abilities that make Matt Murdock unique. He's a human lie detector, which is a neat parlor trick in the regular Marvel Universe. In a noir story, though, where human interaction pulses with lies and a yearning to trust someone while knowing that this is impossible, a human lie detector has something of a disadvantage. He can't let himself be morally grey, he can't dance the conversational dances that his enemies have mastered, he can't plan for the scenarios in which he can be fooled and manipulated. Unless, of course, he wears a mask and pretends to be someone else. That's what makes this story so compelling; Sam Spade doesn't lose control, Philip Marlowe doesn't lose control.. but Daredevil exists here for the sole purpose of losing control, in a way that elevates both the noir story and the Daredevil story.There are plenty of reasons to enjoy this book: the gorgeous art that evokes the 1930s and stays rainy and grim, the narrative that churns through plot points and keeps bringing us back to the framing conversation, the genuine surprises along the way... I encourage readers, though, to love this collection not as a Daredevil comic lost in a speakeasy. Please see it instead as a noir story challenged to live with a mask.

I am loving the Marvel NOIR line.The thing about Daredevil is this : he's already a Noir type character. He's someone that does detective work, deals with gritty violent street crime, and is always getting worked over by beautiful dames. So Daredevil in the NOIR line isn't really a "re-imagining" like it is with X-Men NOIR, Punisher NOIR, and Spider-Man NOIR. Most re-imagining of Daredevil is really kinda more of the same thing with tweaks, like in DAREDEVIL:YELLOW by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale and THE MAN WITHOUT FEAR by Frank Miller & John Romita Jr.This is similar to those stories.I didn't really like how Kingpin and Halloran right away knew Daredevil's alter-ego without any sort of reveal or twist. And as for the Bull's Eye Killer twist, it was more like just kind of a "meh..." moment rather than a "WTF-I-never-saw-that-coming" sort of reveal.As for the good things---I loved how Hell's Kitchen looked even dirtier, grimier, and grittier than it's ever looked before. The setting pieces were very well done where it really did feel like looking 70+ years into the past. I liked the Daredevil costume design as with the short-sleeves and the Masquerade-type mask. And I really enjoyed the portrayal of Kingpin in that he looked realistic. He wasn't overly huge like in ULTIMATE Spider-Man or too small. He was believable as a real person who could not only have the power over crime, but has the physical presence to hold that power through sheer force of will.In conclusion, I enjoyed this story overall. But like I mentioned earlier is that this is more of a minor tweaking of Daredevel's origin, than a re-imagining.even so...Make Mine Marvel-NOIR

While post-Frank Miller Daredevil is almost already noir, some of the twists here are classic. That said, this just doesn't do enough with the set up despite some very interesting twists. The art is properly atmospheric.

Very good story. The book was smaller (the actual size of the book, not the length) than I expected. About 1/3rd smaller than your average graphic novel. But it is very remenisent of the Bendis and Maleev Run. Very good take on the charecters and the art work is great. Just wish the actual book was a bigger size. Still, it came in good condition and it got to my house within a couple of days. Its worth checking out if you are a DD fan or even just a fan of noir.

Didn't live up to the other noir I've read and ended like the end of a 2 part episode where the showdown is ready to go down but you have to wait till the next episode to actually see it...only there is no next episode. Also the art was a little too dark for me... and I don't mean like graphic dark or anything, I mean it was so dark I had a hard time seeing what was happening

This retelling feels authentic, even as it strays from canon and reinvents Murdoch, and the world around him. Very enjoyable.

Thanks

wish marvel can do more DD else world's stories. this one is great but too short..

the book is smaller than usual Marvel books and printed on recycled newspaper, very bad quality, waste of money. i thought this is DC specialty but i was wrong

Die Noir-Reihe von Marvel greift einen Superhelden auf, nimmt ihn aus seinem gewohnten Kontext und versetzt ihn in die Welt von Korruption, Depression, Gewalt und Selbstjustiz der 30er und 40er Jahre. Mir "Daredevil Noir" musste Autor Alexander Irvine inhaltlich gar nicht so viel ändern, denn diese Themen ziehen sich durch nahezu alle Daredevil-Comics. Dennoch ist der Comic ein erstaunlich gutes Werk, das sowohl den selbstzweifelnden Charakter Daredevils als auch die dunkle Noir-Atmosphäre hervorragend einfängt und kombiniert.Leichen pflastern die Straßen von Hell's Kitchen, alle Opfer des Bull's Eye Killer. Dies erregt die Aufmerksamkeit vom Matt Murdock alias Daredevil, der sich auf die Suche nach dem Killer begibt. Zugleich bittet eine genretypische Femme fatale Murdock, der als Assistent für seinen Freund und Detektiv Foggy Nelson arbeitet, sie vor ihrem Ex-Freund, der sich durch den Verkauf von Alkohol und der Anwendung von Gewalt zu einem mächtigen Mann der Unterwelt aufgeschwungen hat, zu beschützen. Zu allem Überfluss hat es auch noch Wilson Fisk alias Kingpin auf Daredevil abgesehen."Daredevil Noir" ist eine geschickt verschachtelte Geschichte, in deren Verlauf sich die Wege der Akteure immer wieder kreuzen. Die Geschichte ist spannend und intensiv. Die Bilder sind beeindruckend. Die Zeichnungen sind dunkel, spielen mit Licht und Schatten und erinnern teilweise an eine düstere Variante der Pop Art. Die Bilder sind nicht nur Ergänzung zum Text, sondern erzählen genauso viel wie die Dialoge, sodass sich aus Text und Zeichnungen ein inhaltlich und optisch stimmiger, einander ergänzender Comic ergibt. Einziger Wermutstropfen ist die Länge des Comics: Er ist leider viel zu kurz.