The Motocross Era (Volume 1, # 319-342)
This section covers the 'New Look' or 'Motocross' Daredevil, a two-year stretch that is arguable considered one of the low points of the series.
Daredevil #323: "Fall From Grace Part Four: Conflict"; 23 pages
Writer: D.G. Chichester
Artist: Scott McDaniel, pencils; Colazzo and Rankin, inks
Daredevil and the cyborg Siege protect Bisento from Venom, who wants to use the About Face Virus to cure his weaknesses. Meanwhile, the Big Apple Advocate makes a decision about whether to reveal Matt's identity, and the Snakeroot perfect their artificial Elektra, Enrynis.
Ugh...the Motocross years.
It's hard to describe the sense of sheer, draw-dropping shock that hardcore Daredevil fans met this sudden change in the status quo back in 1993; the change was so rapid, and the stories so lacking in plot that it was akin to being punched in the gut. Not surprisingly, the reaction to the change was fairly violently against it, and the changes were quickly reversed in a six-part storyline penned by J.M DeMatties, but at the time of this issue we were told this is your Daredevil, so get used to it (a pretty depressing concept once you see where "Fall of Grace" was going to, but....). We'll delve into the origins of the change and the intended purpose when we get to the first issue of this story (and hopefully with an interview with D.G. Chichester himself), but let's look at the issue as it stands.
And as it stands, it's pretty dire. In an earlier review, I commented on Chichester's overreliance on guest-stars, and here's a prime example. This issue is taken up almost totally by a series of fight scenes between Daredevil, Spider-Man villain Venom, who at that time was being repositioned, for some bizarre reason, as a super-hero) and a generic wise-ass cyborg named Siege who is nowhere near as interesting as Chichester thinks he is. There is some lip service paid to the plot, but when all is said and done all this issue is is a 23 page trip down a blind alley while Chichester lines up all his toy soldiers for the coming finale (something he does next issue as well). There are some other, brief scenes that sort of advance the actual plot: a flashback that establishes how General Kenkoy became Budo of the Snakeroot, some more glacial advancement of the situation with Advocate deciding to expose Matt, a rather curious scene where Foggy tries to get Karen Page, now an anti-porn crusader, to talk to Matt about his recent behavior. But they do little to hide the fact that nothing moves forward in this issue.
There's also some some brief teasing of the return of Elektra to the Marvel Universe--something that was pretty controversial at the time--although why it stirred up a hornet's nest of fans and not the ham fisted attempt to place the always portrayed as out-of-continuity Elektra Assassin miniseries into continuity didn't puzzles me to this day (thankfully, said attempt has been quietly forgotten). I'm willing to bet Elektra's re-introduction into the MU as a major player was an editorial decision and not Chichester's, but it's too his credit he gives it his best shot. He actually does a pretty good job working with the character--at least until the ill-advised Annual a year later. And it's a nice twist that Daredevil ultimately wins against Venom not through brute force but through using the logic of his lawyer's brain to convince the creature he's better off by overcoming his weaknesses.
But when you boil it down, this issue shows pretty much every weakness Chichester has as a writer, and only a few crumbs of his strength. The willingness to ignore established character's psychology, the shoehorning-in of guest stars who have no reason to be here, the overpowering presence of the Snakeroot (who, quite frankly, don't fit this story nearly as well as the plain ol' Hand might). And Chichester's tendency to use a kind of verbal shorthand to move things along really blooms here to the point where the climax of this storyline and all of the next will make little or no sense even to those following the book closely. But that's the hazards of dealing with the Motocross-era run; it's a prime example of how storytelling got shunted aside in the 90's in favor of vivid artwork.
And about that artwork: McDaniel had been slowly experimenting with a style prior to "Fall From Grace" that emphasizes a lack of outlines, negative space and distorted figure work. That experimentation reaches its pinnacle here, and while it's decidedly distinctive, even beautiful in spots, it's also confusing--especially during some stretches of the fighting where McDaniel tosses normal panel composition out the window in favor of what appears to be ragged holes in the 'space' of the page. McDaniel is one of the reasons this issue doesn't quite dip into the brown, but it's hard to argue that his new style wasn't part of the problem. Later, on DC's Nightwing , McDaniel ratcheted the weirdness while keeping a lot of the power, making for a much more pleasing version of his work.
The saddest thing about this issue isn't that it's bad. It's that it's actually one of the better issues during a run that is damn near unreadable the longer it goes on.
Daredevil #334: "Fathoms of Humanity Part Two: Bearing False Witness"; 19 pages
Writer : Gregory Wright
Artist : Tom Grindberg, pencils; Don Hudson, inks
Matt decides to investigate the reasons why a pair of Underdwellers have been framed for the parking garage bombings plaguing the city. However, before he can make much progress, he's intercepted by Bushwaker. Meanwhile, the King plots revenge against the Man Without Fear, and Joshua continues to appear to be more than an old vagrant.
And speaking of the Motocross era...
By the time the supposed 'New Look' Daredevil had reached its one year anniversary, the bloom was way off the rose. The incoherence of both "Fall From Grace" and "Tree of Knowledge" drove more disgruntled fans away than they attracted new ones. The sense that the creative team was not quite sure what to do with Matt's new identity of 'Jack Battlin' was strong (although, as I learned later from D.G. Chichester, this lack of a strong background for Jack was due more to editorial interference than anything else). Most importantly, the creative team of Chichester and McDaniel was becoming increasingly frustrated by the interference of the new 'shop system'-style editorial departments, which made them answerable to two, three or more superiors rather than one. The last situation would lead to Chichester removing his name from the storyline of the 'New Look' character, but that was still a few months down the line.
So rather than move forward on a third storyline, Chichester and McDaniel briefly moved on to an Elektra-based miniseries, leaving the mess they had inadvertently made to editorial assistant Gregory Wright. Wright spun a storyline, "Fathoms of Humanity," (credited as "Humanity's Fathom" on the covers) that bears the distinction of being even more incoherent and bungled than the two before them. After all, both of the Chichester stories at least had a life to them, and contained the odd glimmer of good ideas; "Fathoms of Humanity" has none of that, and less.
Granted, the lack of coherence that is a hallmark of the 'New Look' stories is here in spades. In fashioning this story, Wright seems to have put together a bunch of elements from past Daredevil stories (the Underdwellers that were a minor part of Miller's run, the Bushwacker from Nocenti's tenure, the somewhat callous and incompetent Foggy from the O'Neill stories, and even the lackluster Devourer character Wright introduced in an earlier Daredevil Annual ) and determinedly forced them together into a story none of them really should've been in. There literally is no rhyme or reason to the goings on here, and some of the characters are drawn in such a way the reader might easily mistake them for others. The best example of the latter situation is the presence of The King, the grotesque albino ruler of the Underdwellers that Daredevil dethroned in #180; because colorist Eva Grindberg chooses to use a green palate in his scenes, he looks more like the Kingpin--who, in later pre-Motocross issues, was depicted as living amongst the homeless.
It's pretty amazing how Wright apes every aspect of the New Look style and manages to botch it entirely. The speeches--which Chichester manages to keep contained to specific points in the narrative--go on at incredible lengths. In some moments they're reminiscent of the worst of the Nocenti stories, where characters would expound on philosophical positions for pages at a time. Of course, Nocenti managed to make the bulk of these speeches come off more or less natural; Wright's ham handed prose draws attention to the polemic nature of his views.
Art for this issue is provided by Tom Grindberg and while he's a very good artist elsewhere, here he falls down on the job. There are whole pages where characters literally change from panel to panel (just look at the mess on page eleven, where Foggy Nelson doesn't look even remotely the same in each of seven panels; I will be merciful and not mention Daredevil's on-again off-again stubble), and one can't escape the whiff of this being a rush job. Even though McDaniel at this phase was a little over-enamored of whacked out compositions, his choreography had a fluidity and grace to it; Grindberg's fight scenes are static and stiff by comparison.
I really have to wonder why Marvel editorial continued on the 'New Look' path to the point of allowing shoddy work like this through. It's worst than the above referenced issue #133, which at least has a 'so bad it's good' sensibility. At its core, this story, along with the other four parts of "Fathoms of Humanity" commit one of the biggest sins be being thoroughly bland in its attempt to be part of the hip, gritty style that was prevalent in the early 90's. Certainly, it should be avoided (unfortunately for all of us, we've still got more of these issues to slog through at the Companion ).
Daredevil #334, second story: "Quiet Time"; 4 pages
Writer: D.G. Chichester
Artist: Scott McDaniel and Hector Collazo
Elektra stops a rapist from striking in Staten Island, and warns the neighbors trying to ignore what's going on to be more vigilant.
Billed as a 'teaser' for the aforementioned Elektra mini-series, Root of Evil , this barely qualifies as a vignette. The very self-conscious parallels to the infamous Kitty Genovese case are really, really driven home here--the victim is even specifically named 'Kitty,' which is about the depths of characterization she's given. In all, it's kind of hard to say much about the story, which certainly does nothing to entice people to pick up the miniseries--Elektra comes off as a female variant on the vigilante characters that popped up with alarming frequency at the time. Even with McDaniels' kinetic artwork (and for once, the piece benefits from his tendency at the time to come up with whacked out layouts; here it emphasizes the suddenness and chaotic nature of the assault), this is a forgettable piece.