Daredevil: Korkusuz!, Cilt 8: Altın Çağ

Daredevil (1998) (Collected Editions)

by Brian Michael Bendis

İşte olay budur. Elinizde tuttuğunuz, okuyup okuyabileceğiniz en iyi çizgi romanlardan biri belki de. 1940 ve 1960’lı yıllar ile günümüz hikayesinin geçtiği iki günü içeren yıl arasında gidip gelen inanılmaz bir hikâye örgüsüne sahip. Yazımı böyleyken, çizim cephesinde de Alex Maleev, dönemin kara film-ucuz roman karışımı atmosferini yansıtmak için birbirinden farklı üç görsel tarz arasında geçiş yaparak on parmağında on marifet olduğunu gösteriyor bizlere. Bendis ve Maleev ikilisinin elinden çıkma bir anlatım harikası, belki de şimdiye kadarki en iyi işleri. Çaylak suç savaşçısı Daredevil tarafından alaşağı edilmesinden önce 20 yıl boyunca New York şehrindeki suçu organize eden bir adamın yükselişini, düşüşünü, aldığı intikamı ve en nihayetinde de ölümünü anlatan, yapboz gibi bir hikaye. Aynı zamanda çizgi romanların “Altın Çağı”na bir saygı duruşu.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Crime, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alexander Bont, the Kingpin before Wilson Fisk, is finally out of prison and wants revenge on the man who put him there: Matt Murdock!

Volume 11: Golden Age isn’t as good as previous books in Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Daredevil run, but it’s not a bad read either. It’s basically just a straightforward mob/revenge story which felt a bit too unoriginal for my taste.

The dialogue is strong but the plot pretty much plays out as you might expect without any surprises. Matt training up the new White Tiger didn’t do anything for me either – Bendis making a callback to his vastly better Daredevil book, Out, possibly to elicit more favourable feelings towards this lesser volume?

Alex Maleev’s art is good but it’s nothing fans haven’t seen many times before. I liked that the colours varied to reflect the different time periods: black and white, four colour/dotted process, and full colour. Though I don’t get how Bont aged decades while Matt remained perpetually youthful! He must be secretly taking Infinity Formula…

Golden Age is certainly not a bad comic and still held my attention, but the story and writing isn’t as sharp, exciting or layered as in other Bendis Daredevil books. It feels like the creative team were basically out of ideas at this point and had settled into serviceable mediocrity, waiting for a new team to take over.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe this was always the weakest storyline in Bendis run. An amazing run and the weakest is still good. But very old mob boss wants revenge but the twisty turns are too cliche to really love it. Cool to see White Tiger Legacy passed down though.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before Wilson Fisk held the title of Kingpin of New York City's crime, there was Alexander Bont. Bont was put away by Daredevil early in his career, ending Bont's reign and leaving the path open for the rise of Fisk. (I gather that this is the end of Bont's "golden age" of the title; I suspect it's also a nod to Bont's rise back in Marvel's Golden Age, and also that Daredevil wore his yellow suit when taking Bont down.) Bont has just been released from prison at age 93 and wants to settle things with Daredevil, who he now knows is Matt Murdock. Bont manages to get Matt in a compromising position, while an interesting development with Matt's FBI investigator is shown in flashback.

The most distinctive thing about this volume is the art and the implied timeline of Bont's rise and fall, shown in three different styles (1940's, 1970's, and present day 2005) and indicating that Daredevil was somehow operating in the '70's. It wasn't a distraction and I liked the switching of styles, but I did find myself wondering how "20 years ago" before 2005 is supposed to be the '70's and how Matt was Daredevil 20 years ago. Maleev also makes Bont look exactly like Robert Duvall in his most recent years, which was a nice touch and went a long way toward hearing Bont's voice. The development of FBI agent Angela del Toro and her connection to Matt when she tells him she now possesses the White Tiger amulet and asks for his guidance was very well done, playing into the volume's conclusion. In all, it was a nice slice of invented history and another good use of Matt's exposed identity causing him problems.

[Jaye Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kinda mid. I get what they were doing here but it just didn't work.

It goes through different timelines about the baddie who was the kingpin before Wilson Fisk. Which is all well and good but then time moved for him and everyone else but didn't for Daredevil and it was so weird??? The art style changed for the flashbacks and it was awful to look at, so scratchy.

That entire plot was ass BUT I did really enjoy the subplot of the detective woman coming to Matt for guidance because she was given the white tiger amulet. Her trying to work out exactly why he is a costumed hero and if she can be and him leading her on a chase on the rooftops?? Iconic.

I appreciate the way Matt Murdock gaslights everyone because he's certainly NOT Daredevil, of course not. Why would you say that?

[Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, verging on excellent.
The story was a bit too A to B for me, but there were some additional details that showed the layered history of hell's kitchen, which were fun, and having the many flashbacks in time done in a different art style was a really nice touch.
The best part of the book for me was DD being the reluctant mentor to a possible new White Tiger.
All in all, this book was a very quick and surprisingly enjoyable read that never lost focus and managed to deliver a bit of drama along with the ass kicking.

[Matty Dub · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s starting to be a struggle to look at this art, I just can bring myself to appreciate art that relies so heavily of photo references, so much tracing! The story really doesn’t hold up because of the various timeline, Bendis goes back and forth between past me present aging everyone except Matt, it just not well done at all. Despite that, it’s still entertaining and he dosn’t have too heavy a hand on the dialogue here. 2.5/5

[Gavin Abdollahi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basically a fairly entertaining history lesson/revenge story on the... Kingpin before Kingpin? Didn't really feel that way, though...
Oh, and also an introduction to a knew... White Claw, was it?
Not as good as Bendis' first couple o' volumes, but still ok.

4/5 Stars.

[Eve O. Spellman · Rating 4 out of 5]

- * = Cussing

[emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

not my fav volume but i appreciate matt and foggy’s effort to just gaslight the entire kitchen into thinking matt isn’t daredevil despite all the damning evidence

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tom jedenasty runu Bendisa to przede wszystkim zabawa formą. Niezwykle świadoma, dorzucająca do tego kilka linii czasowych, z których każda ma inny styl graficzny. Mamy tu fragmenty czarno- białe, które cofają nas jeszcze do czasów przed drugiej wojny światowej i pokazują początki imperium Alexandra Bonta, czyli gangstera, który przetarł ścieżkę dla przestępczego imperium Kingpina. Fisk zatem nie był wcale pierwszy, bo to Bont trząsł całym miastem jeszcze za czasów gdy Wilson raczkował. Zaraz obok mamy stylizację na komiksy z tytułowej "Złotej Ery", gdzie rysownicy używali charakterystycznej, ziarnistej krechy. To sentymentalny powrót do tego co było. Fantastyczny.

Bont jest też głównym antagonistą tego tomu, choć na dobrą sprawę jaką krzywdę może wyrządzić Mattowi 93-latek... Okazuje się, że dużą. Bont ma własną, chorą motywację, choć de facto jest sobie sam wszystkiego winien. W końcu życie ze zbrodni to dochodowy kawałek tortu, ale ryzykowny i ktoś w to się bawiący musi zdawać sobie sprawę, że kiedyś skończy i to niezbyt dobrze. To zatem staromodna zemsta, którą ma się nacieszyć pod koniec życia. Gorzej, że wplątuje w całą kabałę osobę, która wydaje się najgorsze czasy mieć już za sobą. Znanego nam skądinąd Gladiatora, który szantażem zgadza się założyć kostium raz jeszcze... Historia pokazuje, iż jest on postacią bardzo podatną na manipulacje.

Autor bawi się osią historii, przeskakując między epokami i przestawiając nam poszczególne etapy życia poprzednika Kingpina. Bardziej niż kiedykolwiek miałem jednak zaburzenie ogólnej chronologii. Jak to się stało, że główny antagonista zestrzał się tak mocno, a Matt zdaje się tkwić w bańce czasu, która nie postarzyła go ani o jotę, co najwyżej doprowadziła do zmiany koloru kostiumu. Ja wiem, że się czepiam, ale... Bendis nas przyzwyczaił do przyziemności i realności tego co się dzieje. Taki "zgrzyt" z ogólną całością był dla mnie aż za mocno widoczny. Zwłaszcza, że między tymi historiami na bank minęło więcej niż dwadzieścia lat... Więc nasi herosi powinni mieć coś koło pięćdziesiątki... Świetnie spisuje się na tym tle Punisher MAX, tam Frank jest starym zgredem, którego czasy świetności minęły dawno. I tam jestem w stanie bardziej wierzyć w bohatera, mimo przerysowanej przemocy... Skoro usiłujemy być autentycznie to bądźmy tacy do końca...

Bo i sam finał tej opowieści jest konsekwentny w stosunku do tego co widzieliśmy wcześniej. Stary jak fiknie to będzie musiał zmierzyć się z tym co sobie nagrabił, zwłaszcza że do gry wkracza ponownie narkotyk dający super moce zwykłym ludziom. Fajnie natomiast Bendis zarysował początek nowej bohaterki, która dostała w spadku po zmarłym tragicznie byłym "Białym Tygrysie" pewien amulet. Jego następczyni herosa zapowiada się wyśmienicie i liczę na pociągnięcie tego wątku dalej.

Mimo, że cała historia jest naprawdę sprawnie zarysowana, to na tle poprzednich tomów nie ma co startować. Nie ma tej świeżości. Nie ma genialnych pomysłów. Nie ma fantastycznych dialogów. Bo o ile zabawa kolorami czy stylami jest fajna, to nie zakryje faktu, iż całość jest szablonową historią o zemście mafiozy. która nie przynosi większych zaskoczeń. Bendis do tej pory nas nie licho rozpieszczał, więc w tym przypadku trochę ponarzekam. To nadal solidny kawał fabuły, ale oczekiwałem czegoś więcej. 3.5/5

[Ben Perry · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.75 stars)

I don’t know why issue 66 was in both the previous volume and this one, but who cares, it’s a great issue!

This was really fantastic, a very compelling story that is both a self contained plot, while contributing to the overarching themes of the Bendis run. Bont isn’t a villain I’ve ever heard of before, but he was really great, the gimmick of telling his story through 3 distinct eras, all shown with unique and beautiful art styles that reflect the time period was made very cohesive via the art, as well as the non linear story, being intriguing, and effectively communicated with a well written structure. The revenge plan to expose Daredevil’s secret identity once and for all and then execute him by blackmailing Melvin was very tense, and I like how the added context as the story progresses makes it all much more emotional and interesting. Also the White Tiger side of the story, where his niece wants to know the truth about why vigilantes do what they do, was very intriguing yet, sweet, as Daredevil gets to take on a mentor role, where she gets to discover why her uncle did this, and save Daredevil in the process, I really enjoyed it. There’s so many details I just loved, like Melvin’s daughter being used as blackmail, the relationship between Matt and Bont, and the return of the gross Owlsley mutant drug, that ended up killing Bont.

The whole story of seeing the old King Pin’s career start from a young man swiftly killing superheroes, to an old psychopath going any length for revenge, is fascinating, the call back to Daredevil’s history were cool, and the framing device was incredibly satisfying. Definitely, a must read.

[David Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Don't be fooled.

Even though this is a superhero book, it is a crime story at heart. Did you know there was a Kingpin of crime before Wilson Fisk? No? Well, neither did I until I was introduced to Alexander Bont.

Our story opens up with Daredevil being savagely beaten while Bont films his interrogation. Using the shifts in time that Bendis is known for, we flash back to the past to chronicle Bont's rise to power and eventual fall from grace. As it turns out, when Bont was the Kingpin, his attorney happened to be Matt Murdock. Since Daredevil put him in jail many years ago, Bont is none too thrilled to find out his former lawyer is the same man that put him behind bars. I think you can see where this leads.

Nevertheless, I loved the way Bendis flashes back to the early days of the Marvel universe to showcase Bont rising up from a common street thug to become the Kingpin, and his relationship with a young Matthew Murdock. Very compelling stuff! Alex Maleev also impresses with his shift in visual style to showcase this story from D.D's past.

This is a classic crime noir story disguised in a Marvel comic, and if it's one thing that fans know Bendis can do, it's tell a great crime story. Alex Maleev's art gets better and better with each passing issue, and his black and white sections of the story revealing the past between Daredevil and Bont helps make Golden Age simply awesome.

[Jean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did I just give a Bendis/Maleev Daredevil three stars? Yes, yes I did. Because it's a short arc and padded with a lot about Alexander Bont, the kingpin of Hell's Kitchen before Wilson Fisk (and, in this run, Matt as well.) Using an experimental format of showing Bont's rise to power in black and white, and Daredevil's past with him (and Melvin Potter aka Gladiator) being presented in sort-of vintage dot-color, it recaps their history with one another and... it's underwhelming.

Really, this was only ever going to be of interest to a die-hard DD fan, and even I felt my attention waning. In the present, Bont, using Potter, captures Matt and has Melvin beat the ever loving crap out of him, and then decides to expose him. There isn't much here. Matt's in peril, and then he's... not, saved partially by bureaucracy and Agent Del Toro, who's also found herself the new inheritor of the White Tiger amulet's power (Tamora Pierce wrote an exceptional run of comics about Del Toro as the character, but that was pretty much the extent of her time as White Tiger before Marvel gave the mantel over to her niece Ava Ayala.)

The end! It's well done, but not particularly interesting.

[Alberto Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Es una historia no tan centrada en Daredevil, que dicho sea de paso se encuentra en sus primeras etapas como vigilante de Hell's Kitchen que continuaba con su traje amarillo. Narra realmente el descenso del previo imperio criminal de Nueva York de ésta época y concluye con el ascenso de Kingpin, figurativa y literalmente hablando. Habla de las disputas internas dentro de las mafias que controlaban la ciudad, donde Daredevil iba rebotando de un lado a otro en su faceta más detectivesca interrogando a los golpes, y es una buena vista a que la ciudad también es un factor fundamental en la mitología del superhéroe, salvando las distancias, pero siendo similar a Batman con Gotham. Puede leerse de manera independiente al tomarse como una antología, por lo tanto, es una lectura que puede leerse en cualquier punto y calzará perfecto en el lore de Matt Murdock.

[47Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew that a Daredevil story with less Daredevil is going to better than previous volumes? The achronological style only adds to the story.

Alexander Bont was the Kingpin before Fisk. Though he is an old man, his strength is still considerable. He blames Daredevil for his imprisonment, so he wants revenge.

With Gladiator's help (Bont's enforcer), he captures and tortures Matt. It looks so easy when SOME characters capture the guy. Gladiator makes mince meat out of Matt and then shows his broken body to the people on the street. Del Toro, a federal agent looking into Matt who sparred with him using her newly inherited White Tiger amulet, jumps in to save Matt from Bont who is using MGH. The superstrength comes in useful, but it also kills him. And right before delivering the killing blow to Matt. But he can't be killed, he's the main character.

[Trevor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the only part of Bendis's Daredevil run that hasn't worked for me. Told in non-chronological order, like the excellent Daredevil, Vol. 4: Underboss, this story is about Bont, a [new] enemy from Daredevil's early days in the costume who has returned for vengeance. Meanwhile, Daredevil is training Angela Del Toro, the new White Tiger, who will go on to have a failed solo series and then be replaced by the mode successful Ava Ayala. Nothing here really works particularly well.

[IamT-Rex · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10
Listen Bendis at this point in the run has written 40 issues and these last five are good but they don’t carry on the dramatic weight of what came before this book. The whole fallout and aftermath of Matthew Murdock’s identity being leaked and how he became the kingpin is just so much more fascinating and this book is just a fun little adventure. Not though up to the insane quality the previous part of the run is where it is redefining what a Daredevil book can be. This is still good though just not as groundbreaking as the rest.

[Cheeno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the interchange from original Kingpin's past and present is well drawn. The writing is also very New York ganster drama. I just found Daredevil scenes lacking in quantity and quality. It's really more about Bont, a once greatest mafia boss of New York now facing a world he doesn't know and left with none.

[Bassie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a nice little story. I liked the different art forms, and the Gladiator was well portrayed. However, the story hardly had any memorable moments. It’s nice they refer to the Golden Age, but this age in comics does not mean much to me. Just a ok book, with a cliffhanger foretelling the next book will probably be better.

[Néstor Vargas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Again with a pause from the main story, Bendis does a great job giving us more context on Hell’s Kitchen past, the origin of the former Kingpin and his vengeance crusade. Maleev’s art style changing a bit from age to age is fantastic.

[Ignacio Cerón · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*. Ameno, se lee en un rato, aprendes cosillas del Daredevil antiguo y casi (muy casi) puede leerse de forma aislada.

[Fabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the switching art styles throughout the years but not too much of a fan of the storyline. Could’ve done better…

[Breiner · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 ⭐

[Cyril · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was a good one.
3.5 stars

[francesco · Rating 3 out of 5]

The series kind of built to something and mostly everything in omni 2 has felt like filler

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an improvement from the last volume. I liked the various art styles that Maleev used throughout. The Daredevil show pulled a fair bit from here in interesting ways.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Expectations.

Sometimes, it's all about expectations. A mediocre book by one of my favorite authors is a greater disappointment than a poor book from a writer who's new to me. And a great book by a new author can be a greater thrill than an equally great book from an author that I know.

Which isn't to say that Daredevil: Golden Age is great, mind you. It's just that Marvel and DC have churned out so many steaming piles of dung in the form of graphic novels, that a relatively good one comes as a positive shock.

As this one was. To my amazement, it was actually well-written, funny, and even pretty intelligent. It managed to avoid the many cliches of the genre. I was - I'll admit it - even a bit impressed! And that's all the more surprising to me because I've never been much of a fan of Daredevil as a character.

To the specifics: the book deals with some of the history of Daredevil and Hell's Kitchen, the area that he...protects, I guess you'd call it. The art style is very reminiscent of the style used in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One; I call it it the prune face school of art, because most characters look like an implosion of wrinkles like the villain Pruneface in the old Dick Tracy comics. The exception is the hero(es) and their romantic interests; they're relatively smooth and cleanly-drawn. As you might guess, I'm not a huge fan of that particular art style.

The storyline itself has been put through what I like to call the Ronco Plot Disjoint-O-Matic. That is, the plot jumps back and forth between relatively ancient history (many years ago), less-ancient history (some years ago), recent history, and "now". The art style changes to reflect the era that's being represented, which is actually a nice touch; I liked it. Ancient history was black and white, and it worked well for me.

But while I understand the use of flashback and telling the story out of chronological sequence, I think that tool was overused here.

That was the bad side of the book from my perspective, neither complaint being particularly damning. The good side? The dialog never insulted my intelligence. The "ancient history" segments were actually refreshing; instead of battling each other, the heroes actually battled crime - organized crime. And yet Bendis was able to make that interesting. The whole thing had more of a "real" feeling to it than 97% of the comics that I've read (leaving out Alan Moore, that is).

Now that I think of it, there was a bit of a hero-vs-hero battle - but it's impressive that I didn't realize it until this moment. Even so, it was very well handled. In fact, it was part of the best sequence in the book: a delightfully terse and convincing explanation of why some people put on tights and fight crime.

It may be worth mentioning that Spiderman make a short appearance, and adds a very nice touch of humor to the book.

All in all, if you're tired of the cliches of the superhero genre (or of poorly handled cliches), I'd say that Daredevil: Golden Age is well worth checking out. It's not utterly self-contained; clearly it's part of a continuing story. But even though I'm relatively ignorant about the character, I found it easy to follow the plot and very enjoyable. I plan to check out other books in the series.

In a fractional system I'd have given this a 3.5. To be honest, it might even deserve a 4.0...but I'm trying not to be swept away in reaction to my original low expectations.

[beau · Rating 4 out of 5]

7.5/10

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oop dee doo! This is good comics right here. Amzing story structure jumping from the 40's, 60's and a period over the course of the past two days, and the past year in the present. Maleev shows he's no one trick pony switching between three distinct visual styles to reflect noir-pulp imagery from the time period portrayed. The jigsaw puzzle story is of the rise, fall, revenge and ultimate death of a man who ran organized crime in New York City for two decades before being taken down by the rookie crime fighter Daredevil. Brilliant stuff, the best work from this pair so far. Highly recommended.

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout his run on Daredevil, Bendis makes copious usage of flashbacks to tell the story-of-what-happened and the story-of-what's-happening-now simultaneously. But he's even more ambitious in this volume, telling three stories simultaneously, and Maleev and Stewart use three distinct art styles to illustrate them.

Even though the actual plot is rather run-of-the-mill, the pacing and flashing back and forth is done extremely well, so it actually ends up being an incredibly engrossing read. A strong point, even on an very strong series.