Murdock and Marvel: 2001 Part 2

Episode 54 - Murdock and Marvel: 2001 Part 2

The year 2001 has a dark shadow over it, and there are elements of this year that are pretty rough, because as the year closed comic books were trying to make sense of and deal with 9/11 just like the rest of America.  But the start of the year brought a lot of great entertainment and for the first time in years sales held steady (mostly)  

This is part 2 of the podcast. that will feature the year in Daredevil, the Spotlight story and the Takeaway for 2001.

 

The Year in Daredevil 

Appearances:  Daredevil #14-26, Daredevil / Spider-Man #1-4, Daredevil: Yellow #1-5, Daredevil: Ninja #2-3, Marvel Knights #7-9 and #11-15, Black Widow #2-3, Spider-Man and Mysterio #1-3, X-Men #109, Big Town #4, Deadpool #52, Black Panther #31, Elektra #1, Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #7-8, 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time #1 and 4, Marvel Masterworks: Daredevil #2 and Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor #3. 

Writing: David Mack (#14-15), Brian Michael Bendis (#16-19 and #26) Bob Gale (#20-25) 

Pencils: Joe Quesada and David Ross (#14), Ross (#15 and #23-25), David Mack (#16-19), Phil Winslade (#20-22), Alex Maleev (#26) 

Inks: Mark Morales (#14-15) David Mack and Morales (#15) Mack and Pond Scum (#17) Mack (#18-19), James Hodgkins (#20-22), Hodgkins and Mark Pennington (#23), Pennington (#24-25), Alex Maleev (#26) 

• After the wrap-up of the Parts of a hole storyline that included a trail of Kingpin before he’s eventually blinded by Maya Lopez aka Echo, we get our first story from Brian Michael Bendis with David Mack moving over to art. The 4-book story, Titled Wake Up, is a fantastically told and beautifully brought to page by the creative team. It doesn’t really have any action and is really only loosely about Daredevil. Interesting, right? This is, without a doubt, worth spotlighting this week – so we’ll talk more about it then. 
• The other main story we get this year is called Playing to the Camera in which Daredevil is sued by rich philanthropist Samuel Griggs and wants to retain Nelson and Murdock (specifically Matt Murdock) as his lawyer. Matt reluctantly agrees as he knows he wasn’t involved with destroying the man’s greenhouse and plants and wants to figure out who’s behind it. As Daredevil, he hires a lawyer and they have their days in court surrounded by a media circus.  
• The trial ends with 3 daredevils in the courtroom - Murdock as himself holding a video tape of himself as Daredevil earlier that morning, Peter Parker in a Daredevil costume with the defense attorney and a third Daredevil who crashes a window, admits to the property damage, offers the $50k needed to fix it and then reveals his true identity as Terrance Hillman. Confused? So is Murdock and Nelson. Apparently, Hillman decided on his own to dress up as Daredevil and crash the courtroom. He then used the reveal and announced retirement to swing fame and fortune (and help out the real Daredevil). We also learn that Hillman didn’t destroy the property either and that the Ringmaster was behind everything. He was testing his ability to implant false memories in people.  
• One interesting side note about the first issue of the Playing with Camera storyline. A second story appears in the issue “My Brother’s Keeper” written by Stan Lee and Kevin Hall with art by Gene Colan. In the short story, we see Daredevil and Spider-Man during a night out. 
• We did get one more book in December from Brian Michael Bendis but we’ll save that for next year’s discussion. 
• Finally In Daredevil: Yellow we get a 6-book story in which Matt is writing letters to the late Karen Page about the early days of Daredevil and the Nelson and Murdock law firm as a way to find forgiveness for everything that happened between them. The story, by Jeph Loeb, artist Tim Sale and colors by Matt Hollingsworth, is another retailing of the first handful of issues from Daredev