Book Review: Daredevil vs. Bullseye by M. Wolfman et al.

Daredevil vs. Bullseye written by Marv Wolfman, Jim Shooter, and Frank Miller and pencils by Bob Brown, Gil Kane, and Frank Miller

This book has separate stories of Daredevil fighting one of his iconic villains, Bullseye.

In the first story, Bullseye makes his first appearance. He show up killing a rich man who won't pay a ransom to be spared. Prepared for this, Bullseye starts a media campaign to support his extortion/murder campaign in the hopes that future victims will pay up immediately rather than face his infallible aim. Bullseye is an expert marksman using virtually anything--guns are okay, but he can use bricks, pens, trash, virtually anything, as a lethal weapon. Daredevil has enough enhanced abilities to dodge the attacks, but can he take down a ranged enemy when he (Daredevil) is more of a melee guy? Bullseye goes for the jugular and the exposure when he fights Daredevil at Madison Square Garden while the circus is in town. The story is exciting but the dialogue is voluminous and slows down the action a bit. Also, it was clearly written in the late 1970s, with a lot of the hip and trendy lingo of yesteryear. It was an entertaining introduction for the iconic character.

In the next story, Daredevil is trailing an incognito Bullseye, hoping to corner him and find out who hired him to assassinate Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson a few issues back (and not in this volume). Daredevil switches to street clothes and follows Bullseye into a gun store. He foils the robbery but gets beaned when Bullseye throws a golf ball at him. The injury causes Daredevil to lose his radar sense. Daredevil is called out by Bullseye to a TV studio for a duel to the death on air. If Daredevil doesn't show, he'll kill the three daytime talk show hosts. Even without his radar sense, Matt heads off to the confrontation. The battle features a lot of on-again-off-again moments of Daredevil's radar sense, which seems more tied to making the fight more dramatic than to any actual physical cause. I found this less interesting than the first story.

The next story has Bullseye on the verge of a surgery to remove a brain tumor. When the tumor becomes painful, he sees everyone as Daredevil and wants to slaughter them all. He kills the hospital staff and wanders Manhattan, vacillating between trying to keep control and trying to take down Daredevil. Daredevil shows up and has a chance to kill Bullseye but his better nature kicks in.

After the surgery happens, Bullseye is in prison planning to kill Daredevil. Bullseye finds out that he's been replaced as Kingpin's main assassin by Elektra, so Bullseye targets her too. When he makes his escape, lots of fighting ensues. Bullseye's inner monologue is fascinating (Frank Miller wrote it) as he works his way through all his problems. More problems happen as he fights Daredevil, who has a very hard time not killing Bullseye.

The final story has Daredevil giving the extended monologue while he plays Russian Roulette with Bullseye, who is completely paralyzed in a hospital bed. Daredevil is pulling the trigger for his enemy as he tries to make sense of the situation, especially after dealing with a legal case where the son of his client is obsessed with Daredevil. It's another poignant moment in the narrative.

This is a mixed bag of stories, some being more interesting than others.

Mildly recommended, though more strongly if you are a Daredevil fan.

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Vol. 1 by M. Wolfman et al.

Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Volume 1 written by Marv Wolfman and Archie Goodwin and art by Carmine Infantino, Ron Wilson, and Sal Buscema

The origins of Spider-Woman, aka Jessica Drew, are given here along with a lot of other goings on. The book starts with a run of issues from Marvel Two-In-One, a series that featured two superheroes, one of which was usually The Fantastic Four's The Thing, aka Ben Grimm. He's visiting London with his blind girlfriend Alicia and they run into all sorts of problems. One problem is Spider-Woman, who is working as an assassin for Hydra. As the story goes on, she starts to pull out of that situation, trying to live on her own. But that's after almost half this book goes by with the focus mostly on Ben Grimm in London worrying about his girlfriend (who gets captured and goes through a lot of trouble from Hydra). The depiction of London and Londoners is very stereotypical and not too interesting. And, as I said, Spider-Woman is a side character until she gets her own comic book, which does not start until half-wya through this volume.

In her book, she tries to get a normal job to pay for food and housing but has a very hard time since she has no real background or references. Also, she's beautiful but weirdly off-putting, especially to women. Her investigation into her past sets up her origin--she was the human child of Jonathan Drew who worked with a guy who became the High Evolutionary. Young Jessica was dying, so they introduced spider-DNA that saved her life but turned her into something of a monster. The High Evolutionary was working on turning animals into humans, so she's a bit of a departure for him and she doesn't fit in with his hybrids. Eventually she is kidnapped by Hydra, who brainwash her into being an assassin. After getting out from under their thumb, she is on a journey of self-discovery (her previous life was "erased" from her memory by Hydra) and revenge for her father.

She manages to get things settled and fights crime, both organized and random, but not too many super-villains. The writers throw in some romance with a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who interacted with her during the London story, though that seems more like filler to show she has some ordinary life. I found the stories just average, with no outstanding character moments or action. She has a very interesting origin but they haven't quite figured out what to do with her.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Marvel-verse: Spider-Woman by M. Wolfman et al.

Marvel-verse: Spider-Woman written by Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald, Gerry Duncan, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Jen Van Meter, and art by Carmine Infantino, Steven Grant, Salvador Larroca, and Barry Kitson

Spider-Woman isn't just some Peter Parker clone. Jessica Drew was the daughter of scientist Jonathan Drew who teamed up with another scientist, Herbert Wyndham, to conduct unlimited research in an isolated area. Young Jessica was exposed to radiation. Combining Drew's expertise in spiders (who are highly resistant to radiation according to this book) and Wyndham's knowledge of evolution, they are able to preserve her life. Jonathan mysteriously drops out of the story and Wyndham goes crazy, calling himself "The High Evolutionary." He evolves lower animals into humans, though they don't get along with the human/spider hybrid that Jessica becomes. She escapes, only to fall into the clutches of Hydra. She's brainwashed into being an assassin for Hydra but leaves that behind, trying to strike out on her own. Jessica has a hard time finding a regular job (with no background or references) but she resists the temptation to turn back to evil. 

This book contains a couple of different stories. The first is her origin as a superhero in the 1970s. After all the backstory, she's in London starving. She struggles with stealing to eat and finding any work at all. She's being followed by a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who, naturally, falls for her. They don't get along. The next story jumps ahead to Spider-Woman in Los Angeles, where she runs into Peter Parker, who happens to be on a press junket to some scientific labs. They tussle as Spider-Woman and Spider-Man. Jessica is not up on her superheroes and assumes he's an imitation of her! They come to a peaceable end without revealing their identities to each other.

The book then jumps to stories from the 2010s. In a bit from the A + X saga, she teams up with X-Man Kitty Pride to thwart the Absorbing Man from stealing a bit of non-terrestrial metal that will make him overpowered. The next story is set during a big crossover battle. The Avengers (which Spider-Woman has joined) head to outer space with a coalition of of goodies and baddies to fight the Builders who have a seemingly unstoppable fleet. The Avenger split into two spacecraft, with Spider-Woman on a different ship from Clint Barton/Hawkeye and Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel. Jessica dated Clint at one point and had a bad breakup. He's now extra-friendly with Carol, who is also a former close friend of Jessica. So Spider-Woman has mixed feelings about them. The action is exciting and the side of soap-opera is much less interesting. The story has some nice personal moments, especially with Black Widow.

I enjoyed the earlier stories better. They are self-contained and look at Jessica as she seeks a new and better life, a redemption from her past. An evil character turning to good is a favorite storyline for me. The later stories are parts of larger narratives and feel incomplete taken out of their contexts. I like the art better in the later stuff but the story is more important to me.

Mildly recommended.