Treasures Found
I am cleaning out one of my most important book shelves, the one that houses all of my old Daredevil comics. There’s a fair few, so I am slowly savouring the joy of taking them all in and skimming covers, panels, and creative teams. In this experience I have come across a few little treasures. These are the two highlights.
I have an old issue of What The..?!, number 11, and it is priceless, I swear I read it once every year. What The..?! was an old joke comic from Marvel that took the piss out of everything and had some funny jokes. A few at least. This one has a story about Daredevil meeting up with Ghost Rider on New year’s Eve, because the Spirit of Vengeance is filling in for the Spirit of New Years, see making with the funny already.
Ol’ Hornhead is sad that his life is in such a shambles since Nocenti and Romita Jr took over his title and destroyed everything he loved, so Ghost Rider takes DD through what it would be like if different creative teams had him.
-They make a joke at DD’s first yellow costume.
-They joke that John Byrne would reset the entire title back to the awkward start, like he had done with Superman at the time.
-There are a couple of alternate DD’s that are written by Claremont and then a tangled DD drawn by McFarlane which is actually pencilled by Liefeld. It’s all pretty funny.
- It ends by pointing out that a sad and miserable DD makes for some big bucks, just like it did Miller-style. DD is then squished by Robodevil - Man Without Gears (as Frank Miller was just then writing the second Robocop movie).
But the kicker of the issue is the house ad on the back page.
It’s a sale on Mutant Seeds. Some hilarious stuff, there should be more ads like this in regular titles.
I also came across what must be one of my favourite covers of all time. Seriously, there is something about it. Original series What If: Daredevil Became An Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.? I get the feeling the cover is by Frank Miller, but I can’t get any confirmation on that. The story is co-scripted and drawn Miller, and it is pretty decent with Nick Fury taking in the young Murdock but HYDRA taking his father hostage. But it’s the cover that gets me. Look at it.
Murdock in that S.H.I.E.L.D. outfit just makes me want to see this series. I think DD going in to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. and getting his own red themed suit would be a wicked look. Then I would have him hook up with Emma Frost, because she’s love the challenge, and face off against my reimagining of Man-Bull, or more rightly put, how I think Man-Bull would be now. A freak who has tried numerous surgeries and still looks hideous and cannot live a normal life. It would be an awesome run, I swear. One day.
So they were some blasts from the past as I dusted the shelves and sorted the comics. That’s why single issues can be fun, you don’t that sort of experience with the trades.
Posted on July 6th, 2009 by ryan
Filed under: comics
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