Daredevil Epic Collection, Vol. 12: It Comes With The Claws

Daredevil Epic Collection

by Ann Nocenti, Steve Englehart, Mark Gruenwald

Daredevil takes on all comers! The Man Without Fear faces the maniac without pain: the irrepressible Madcap! But that’s just a warmup for DD’s rematch with one of his most powerful foes — Mister Hyde! And the hits just keep coming…Klaw, Master of Sound makes some noise, Chance tries his luck, and the savage Sabretooth crosses Daredevil’s path right in the middle of the Mutant Massacre! Plus, DD’s old flame the Black Widow returns — but will Matt seize a second chance at life with Karen Page instead? Meanwhile, Hell’s Kitchen has more than its fair share of weird crime to fight — from fake Santas to voodoo practitioners to Caviar Killers. But with so many threats popping up, why is Daredevil trading blows with Black Panther and Wolverine? And can a billy club stand up to Adamantium claws? 

COLLECTING: Daredevil (1964) 234-252

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

480 pages, Paperback

First published August 9, 2022

About the author

Ann Nocenti is most noted as an editor for Marvel Comics, for whom she edited New Mutants and The Uncanny X-Men. She made her comics writing debut on a brief run of Spider-Woman (#47-50) and subsequently wrote a long run of Daredevil (1st series) #236-291 (minus #237) from 1986 to 1991, directly following on from Frank Miller's definitive Born Again storyline. She also wrote the 1986 Longshot limited series for Marvel, and in the same year produced the Someplace Strange graphic novel in collaboration with artist John Bolton. She wrote "the Inhumans Graphic Novel" in 1988. In 1993, she wrote the 16-issue run of Kid Eternity for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo.

In Incredible Hulk #291, published in September 1983 (cover date January 1984), Ann Nocenti made a cameo appearance, talking to Dr. Bruce Banner, in a history written by Bill Mantlo, drawn by Sal Buscema and inked by Carlos Garzón and Joe Sinnot. That time Ann Nocenti was Assistant Editor for Larry Hama on Incredible Hulk and X-Men.

She is noted for her left-wing political views which, particularly during her run on Daredevil, caused some controversy among some fans who didn't agree with her politics.

She created several popular characters, including Typhoid Mary, Blackheart, Longshot and Mojo, and wrote the 1998 X-Men novel Prisoner X.

Although Nocenti left comic books in the '90s after the industry sales collapsed, she later returned to the field, penning stories such as 2004's Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows.

In Ultimate X-Men, a reimagination of the X-Men comic, the character Longshot, who was invented by her, has the civil name Arthur Centino. His last name, Centino, is an anagram of Nocenti and a homage to Nocenti. The name Arthur is for the co-creator of Longshot Arthur Adams who was Ann Nocenti's artist on the Longshot Mini Series.

She edited High Times magazine for one year (2004) under the name Annie Nocenti and is the former editor of the screenwriting magazine Scenario.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm putting a 3 on this but it really had to earn it. Basically, this is the run that had to follow Daredevil - Born Again, which would have been impossible under any circumstances. Ann Nocenti writes about half of the issues and the rest are fill-ins. The artists switch almost by issue until the end with a two issue run by Rick Leonardi and three issues by JRJR. There's one issue with Barry Windsor Smith art, one with Keith Pollard, one with Todd McFarlane, one Chuck Patton, one Keith Giffen, and a couple laid out by Steve Ditko and finished by other people. There are also some by names I don't recognize.

The stories are fine, I guess. Matt is working as a short order cook by day and beating the shit out of people by night as Daredevil until he and Karen open a law clinic. Black Widow guest stars in a couple issues, as does Wolverine. Daredevil has crossovers with Mutant Massacre and Fall of the Mutants. With all the creative shifts, it feels disjointed as hell but has it's good points, especially at the ass end of the book when the creative shifts slow down. I'm hanging on to it rather than taking it to Half Price Books but it's on double secret probation. Three out of five stars.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars. So this volume starts Ann Nocenti’s run on the character. Heard a lot of people talk about her run and I was excited to finally read it. Pretty good stuff. The stories Nocenti told in this book could be seen as dark at times and very serious in tone. Characters in these arcs were dying. Some even violently. The antagonists Daredevil had to deal with were some stiff competition. From the two different brain washed soldiers, Rot Gut, the Voodoo people from Haiti, the father who made all the wrong choices, the chemical company who was dumping toxic waste all over NY which caused a kid to go blind, the guy going around killing the rich because he felt life for the poor was unfair and Bushwaker going around brutally killing mutants. Some great story telling in here. Art was solid throughout the book too. Can’t wait to see what else Nocenti has in store.

[Frédéric · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the milestone "Born again" run from Miller and Mazzucchelli there obviously weren’t no hint of a roadmap to go from there in the Marvel’s bullpen.
Ensue a series of awkward standalones or two/three-parters ranging from correct- "Rotgut", the "Kelco" run- to downright embarrassing- "Madcap", Black Christmas".

Matt now flips burger somewhere in Hell’s Kitchen by day and still plays DD at night. No introduction to this new situation, no follow-up from what happened before except one episode remotely related to super soldier Nuke. You’ll wait a dozen issue to finally get Matt’s reflections on the consequences of "Born again" on his life.
FYI, these issues are so disparate they weren’t actually published in France back then and the series came back on the racks when John Romita jr started his run with issue 250.

Ann Nocenti writes most of the scripts and it’s her trademark all right. Good and interesting social themes- probably in advance of their time- drowned under lines of pompous hipster verbal diarreah. Sigh.
And she doesn’t shy from insulting dumb tricks too, like in the "Voodoo" arc where DD is disguised as a black homeless (?!), disguise he switches out of just by taking out his trenchcoat (??!!!). C’mon! I’ve been reading comics for like 45 years now so my sense of disbelief isn’t very high but it’s not that low either.

Artwise it’s a bit of the same only better: from very good- Windsor-Smith, Romita Jr, Leonardi- to mediocre (with a terrible young Todd McFarlane issue) but overall decent.

[Malum · Rating 2 out of 5]

How do you follow up one of the greatest comic book stories ever written? Not very well apparently.

[✨! · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm gonna give this the benefit of the doubt and say that the comic is going through some growing pains. I don't even think these issues are bad, necessarily, it's just that Nocenti's intentions for the comic are completely opposed to what I like. I'm kind of impressed

I like Nocenti's decision to focus on social issues and the problems of everyday people, and I agree with her politics, but she is so dead-set on writing commentary that everything else (plot, characterization, dialogue) clearly takes a backseat and suffers for it. Daredevil himself feels incidental to his own comic, which is just plain weird. Nocenti also likes to tackle multiple topics at once, which makes the stories feel simultaneously heavy-handed and unfocused.

The stories also tend to be open-ended with intentionally unsatisfying conclusions (#241, the Christmas issue, especially stands out to me), then the next issue will go back to the status quo and leave the previous one unaddressed. It makes this volume feel very stream-of-consciousness with no forward momentum. Multiple times I would finish an issue and go "...what???" and I'd have to sit down and find the meanings and motifs myself in order to string together wtf I just read like it's an English assignment. There's definitely an audience for that kind of thing, but frankly, that is NOT me. If I wanted to analyze a piece of literature, I'd read, like, Shakespeare or something

Tbf Nocenti does start to narrow her focus eventually, it just takes. A While. She suddenly locks in during the last few issues and out of left field I started having a really good time. Matt gets a lot of cool moments (his rage in #251 really hit for me), and I'm really looking forward to him being a lawyer again. I just wish I didn't have to read like 15 issues of homework first. I'm tentatively hopeful for the next volume PLEEEEASE be good

I had a hard time rating this. 2 stars implies that this was bad, but 3 stars implies that I liked it. I went with my personal feelings in the end (this was such a slog to read I thought it would never end omfg)

[Mike Jorgensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because I wanted to read Nocenti's work on superheroes. I'm not an X-Men fan and I have enjoyed quite a bit of Daredevil so this was an easy choice!

Overall I loved it! Here are some other thoughts in no particular order!

The Good:
- Nocenti's writing is excellent. She starts off writing one-shot episodic types, but she hits her stride when she starts telling serialized stories. The X-Men crossovers aren't my favorites since I'm not an X-Men reader but I know she loves the X-Men so I let it slide.
- Social issues are dealt with in a way that makes sense for this character. Whether he's fighting corporations for their environmental practices or millionaires with excessive wealth.
- The treatment of women characters was generally strong. I suspect this was a somewhat abrupt change since they finally had a female writer on Daredevil. Karen spent one or two issues worrying about Matt but for the most part she was proactive and didn't play the damsel in distress.
- The issue with Black Panther was particularly great. We got to see what makes Matt Murdock different even from other superheroes (relentless hope and optimism for an addict.)
- Pleasant surprise: Louis Williams had some incredible pencil work. I've never heard of him before and can't find ANYTHING about him on the internet. Must have had a short career but some really beautiful art.
- Finally, I loved the title issue for the comparison between a housecat and Sabretooth. As a lover of cats this was a very fun issue.

The Bad:
- Not so much bad as cringe. Some depictions of minority characters weren't great. This isn't on the writer as much as the artists, but small portions of this were tough to read.

[Caleb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, I see why Nocenti's run is such a love it or hate it era for Daredevil fans now. To be fair, she did have huge shoes to fill coming in right after one of the best comic stories ever written, but to say this was a rocky start is probably an understatement. She does try though, and there are some good stories in here, but this part of her run leans a bit too heavily on social commentary in between latching on to the goings on of X-Men stories that really had very little to do with Daredevil at all.

That said, the art here is still really good. I think I've hit that point in the late 80's where the odds were pretty good that the art in a comic would not be a major problem anymore. Individual styles were emerging beyond the house style that most Marvel comics had through the 60's and 70's. That one we all know because, while there were certainly variations to suit certain artists, they all kinda looked the same at times. But not by this point. I'm getting to where I can actually spot it when someone new is working on an issue and it's rather nice.

But yeah, not a stellar volume, but not the worst in the run either. Just some growing pains that I hope clear up a bit as Ann gets more comfortable with writing a series.

[Thomas Gagel · Rating 3 out of 5]

High point: Neighbourhood kids teasing Daredevil so he took their skateboard and hit the halfpipe so hard they all lost their minds

Lowpoint: The blackface issue :(

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daredevil Epic Volume 12: “It Comes With the Claws”

COLLECTING: Daredevil (1986-1988) 234-252

This is the collection of stories that follows the legendary Miller run on Daredevil that changed the character forever. The first story here has madcap as the villain and I can’t imagine anyone was excited to see where marvel would take hornhead from there but I really enjoyed this volume!

The start of this volume has a rotating cast of writers but most notably for me it the fact that the first two issues are worked on by one of the Classics Steve Ditko! Really fun to see him here all these years later but the stories are just middle of the road for me.

The volume doesn’t really get going until we get the stories written by Anne Nocenti and I really feel bad that her run is followed by Millers run. While grabbing more fanfare in recent years (with books like this) the issues she wrote are never the ones that come up in conversation about “best Daredevil runs of all time”. I went to post this review to Goodreads and almost every review was about how bad this book was because it wasn’t Miller and I do understand since they threw the new status quo away it was probably frustrating but I’m not sure it deserves 1 and 2 star reviews about being poorly written, samey, and not being a top tier book. Certainly not perfect but I enjoy the ideas presented here.

Due to how these books are released I’ve actually read the following issues before this volume and while these issues are good the next volume is the peak of her run. That being said I really enjoyed the Sabretooth story from the cover and even the fall of the mutants Tie-in at the end. Having Matt removed from the law for a bit opens up some nice change but the clinic basically becomes another version of a law office so they didn’t stray very far from his roots post diner cook. This also has the first appearance of Bullet who is a good nemesis for this run. If there was anything I wasn’t interested in for this volume it was the story with Widow and the Scientist. I see how these relate to Matt’s story but I just didn’t find them as important as everything else around it.

Once Romita Jr steps in I felt completely back at home since he will continue to do the art for a while. The Nocenti/Romita Jr pairing of storytelling really deserves more recognition for being and uneven for really interesting and fun Daredevil story. Her volumes are must reads for me!

[No_One · Rating 4 out of 5]

The start of a very different, very underrated run of Marvel Comics’ best written character.

Nocenti writes with a warmth in her dialogue. She takes her plots in dark directions. She infuses her writing with clearly political musings and/or statements that are still relevant today. She also does a great job at characterizing 80s NY in its grimy like Miller did, but she has a way at making it all her own.

Super underrated and there are some standout tales here (Rotgut and Caviar killer as examples).

Her DD stories are a testament to the idea that like Batman, DD/Murdock is a character that can work in more grounded settings and more fantastical ones (as seen later in her run).

[Gaute Hjartåker · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which Ann Nocenti finds her voice.. eventually.
I struggled with this one in the beginning. After a couple of pretty nonsensical fill-ins, Nocenti begins her run, and it’s.. alright I guess, but there’s something lacking, though it’s difficult to put my finger on excactly what. It’s like she was trying to do Frank Miller, but it comes off as a weak imitation.

But slowly but surely, I feel she starts to find her own voice. It’s a voice that includes:
- Mentally unstable antagonists
- A lovable gang of skateboarding kids that Daredevil hangs out with
- The whole look and feel of Hell’s Kitchen
- And above all, a focus on social issues: Tenants getting evicted by ruthless landlords, corporations dumping chemical waste and creating environmental problems, domestic violence, single parents doing their best to raise kids with limited means.

By the end of this volume, with Matt and Karen’s pro-bono law practice and the stories of Bullet and the Kelco corporation, it all comes together, and on top of that John Romita JR finally joins as the regular penciller. These issues are excellent. Or maybe it was just me who finally tuned in to Nocenti’s frequency? Either way, if this quality holds up then volume 13 will be a blast.

Also, kudos to her for managing to incorporate Fall of The Mutants in a meaningful way, in the last issue of this volume. When the sky started booming and flying superheroes started appearing, I thought “uhh, how is she gonna square this with social issues in Hell’s Kitchen?” But she cleverly uses the mayhem as a backdrop to tell an interesting street-level story.

Recommended, with the caveat that it takes a while for Nocenti to really start Nocenti’ing. But when she finally does, it’s really good. Looking forward to reading volume 13.

[José Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it gets off to a pretty slow start with a bunch of fill-in issues, which signifies to me that they had no solid idea of where to take the book after Miller's Born Again, it picks up the pace pretty quickly by the time to get to Issue #239 with the Rotgut two-parter, and then it only gets better from there.

I had previously read a few random issues here and there of Nocenti's run, mainly in the Heart of Darkness Epic Collection, but reading it from the very beginning in chronological order is just a whole different beast.

Nocenti's writing is unapologetically open about the issues she hates that affected the world back in the 80s (and in a lot of cases, still affect us in current day). She tackles stuff like PTSD, Social Inequality, Media Circuses, Mental Health, Animal Cruelty, the Nuclear Scare, among other things and she does it so well. Sure, for a lot of people it might seem preachy and heavy handed, but I personally loved the way she tackled these issues, especially with how she writes her characters.

The central thesis of the run is Nocenti questioning whether or not a costumed adventurer like Daredevil is even needed in a world that is increasingly complex and insane and whether or not his reasons for existing are noble. It’s really fun stuff.

Overall, a damn solid start that quickly finds its footing. Deserves to be up there with runs like Miller's or Bendis'

[Miss Johnsto · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok mostly but kinda random overall especially coming right after born again which left a lot of storylines hanging. I forget which issue but it had like 10 similes in 2 pages, that’s way too many. I like Karen more in this she’s a much better character here, I miss Matt as a lawyer and I miss Foggy. I really don’t like his characterisation here and I think he needs to be reconnected with Matt again, I don’t like how apathetic he is to to people’s issues and he feels really unimportant to Matt. Matt never thinks of him really or misses him and Foggy doesn’t seem concerned about Matt being gone and his whole life falling apart, he seems kinda jealous of Matt if anything ? It might be shame from his actions but he really hates when Gloriana mentions him (it’s weird he stole Matts girlfriend too).

[Brent · Rating 2 out of 5]

While not horrible the issues in here are verbose and heavy handed. The palpable despair is frequently too much and (especially in the beginning) many of the stories feel the same. But, as it moves along there are some good ideas. It's a rough start for Ann Nocenti's Daredevil but there is room to improve.

[Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine.
Perfectly middle of the road.
Caviar killer was easily the highlight.

The stories remind me of the Grell Green Arrow run where it takes stories from the headlines and some.good political commentary.

The "newsboy legion" esque children I found quite tiresome.

[Jonathan Waugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ann Nocenti material here is so head and shoulders above the random fill in issues collected here. If she’s THIS good this early, I can’t wait to read the rest of her run. She already nails Matt Murdock and all of his wonderful contradictions.

[Federico Kereki · Rating 1 out of 5]

5 different authors, 11 (!!) artists for 19 stories... It's obvious DAREDEVIL was a second- or third-rank comic book around the 80's.

[Breiner · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 ⭐

[Cedric · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Diego · Rating 2 out of 5]

hay unos comics interesantes dentro de esta coleccion, pero los comics de los 80 son mayormente un aburrimiento tremendo con un arte horrendo

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's pretty clear reading these issues that Marvel had no idea what to do once Frank Miller left Daredevil. It's a bunch of terrible one-off stories like Madcap (who may be one of Marvel's dumbest characters.) Matt is working as a cook at a diner and there are zero subplots. Then Ann Nocenti comes on board who I have a love, hate relationship with. She has some decent ideas. They are just presented so clunkily that I can't take it. She's definitely at the forefront of a lot of social issues but then she beats you over the head with them with a sledgehammer and awful dialogue. She also keeps putting these dumb skater kids, the Flyboys, in her stories that add nothing. The art is often clunky too. It finally stabilizes at the end with a couple of issues by Rick Leonardi and then John Romita Jr. coming on board with issue #250. Romita's art is really good except for when he draws children. He's never been able to draw kids, even back in the 80s. It's all giant heads on tiny necks.

[Trev84 · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Superstition: It pricks at you, it flickers just at the edge of vision. Invisible, but you see it. Yet if you look directly at it, it vanishes.

Step on a crack and you break your mother’s back. Shatter a mirror and it’s seven years hard time with bad luck. Bad roll of the dice and it’s all over.

The power of suggestion. A prick here, a needle there. One sticks in the back of your mind, another in your gut. It’s the little things really. The black cat. You forget to knock on wood.

They sting you like so many mosquitoes till it builds and grows and your throat closes up and your stomach turns upside-down and you wretch in cold fear.

Nah. There’s nothing to be afraid of. No evil-eyes no death-curses no bogeymen. Not in the modern global village of television and burger kings and penicillin and computers and all the things that whirr and hum in the bright daylight.

Nothing goes bump in the night anymore.”

That was my favorite passage from this book. It’s not all as wordy as that, but I think it captures the mood Nocenti tries to create. There’s a constant thread of uneasiness that courses throughout her stories composed of desperation, neglect, abuse, manipulation, victimization, cynicism, and apathy. That’s what makes Daredevil such a great character, that he has to get up everyday and take on the cold hopelessness that permeates the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, and it takes both the lawyer and the lawlessness in him to do it. I think that’s why some people think this is a great run. It’s not executed flawlessly, you often have to use your imagination to smooth over some of the clunkiness in both the writing and the artwork. But there’s a rich foundation there. And if you are a fan of the Man In Red and that street level heartache, you can get yourself there with this one.