Episode 93 - Murdock and Marvel: 2019 In 2019 Marvel Studios completed the most ambitious movie cycle in history with its 2 billion dollar Avengers: Endgame masterpiece, even as comic stores wondered about the future and politics made deeper and deeper inroads into comics and comics fandom. The Year in Comics Comics in Other Media Comic Sales Notable Comics Top Comic News Notable Passings Marvel Eisner Awards Dan's Favorite The Year in Daredevil Appearances: Daredevil v5 #611-612, Man Without Fear #1-5, Daredevil v6 1-12, Marvel Knights 20th #2, Guardians of the Galaxy #1, Spider-Man / Deadpool #47-48, Avengers: No Road Home #10, War of the Realms #1-6, War of the Realms: War Scrolls #1-3, Avengers #20 True Believers: Spider-Man – The New Spider-Man! #1, War of the Realms Omega #1, History of the Marvel Universe #3 Writer: Charles Soule (#611-612), Chip Zdarsky (#1-12) Pencils: Phil Noto (#611-612), Marco Checchetto (#1-5 and #11-12), Lalit Kumar Sharma (#6-9), Jorge Fornes (#10) Inks: Phil Noto (#611-612), Marco Checchetto (#1-5 and #11-12), Jay Leisten (#6-9), Jorge Fornes (#10) In the final storyline of volume 5, “The Death of Daredevil”, We open with Matt Murdock on the brink of death—lying in an ER after being hit by a truck while saving a child, eerily echoing the childhood accident that made him Daredevil in the first place. And as the doctors fight to keep him alive, Matt mentally resets his mission. He decides this is war with Wilson Fisk, and war requires honesty. So he tells his entire team the truth: he’s Daredevil. No more secrets. When he gets back out on the streets in his mind’s version of events, he barely has time to breathe before a bone-knife-throwing assassin attacks him. And when he limps home afterward, who’s waiting in his apartment? Elektra. They fall back into old patterns, but when Matt asks her to stay and join the team. From there, Matt and his crew move aggressively—they decide to kidnap John Wesley, Fisk’s right-hand man, to force him to spill how the election was rigged. The plan blows up in their faces, but somehow, they still manage to grab Wesley. They lose his guards, get attacked by more bone knives, and end up scrambling into a church for cover…where Fisk’s assassin, Vigil, is already waiting. Daredevil and Elektra take him on in a brutal fight. Elektra almost kills him, Daredevil stops her, and in that split second, Vigil drives a bone knife straight into Wesley’s back. The only man who could presumably tell them how Fisk did it is now dead—Elektra walks out. While out on patrol he’s ambushed by a swarm of Stilt-Men, forced into an arena, and dropped into a who’s-who gauntlet of enemies—Klaw, Ikari, Electro, Gladiator, Typhoid Mary. But Matt turns the tables, manipulating the villains into fighting each other for the “honor” of killing him. It works. At least until he reaches the roof, hoping to catch his breath, and is immediately shot by Bullseye. Matt’s seconds from dying again when he’s unexpectedly saved…by his magically created, now-fully-real brother, Mike Murdock, who claims he can help end all of this. Mike’s intel leads Matt straight to the truth: the Mad Thinker helped Fisk rig the mayoral election. With that, Matt convinces the DA to prosecute the mayor and put Daredevil himself on the witness stand. A parade of heroes testify. Fisk slips up under questioning, admits to “adjustments,” and Fisk loses the court case and he’s recalled as mayor. It’s a victory…until Vigil returns. Daredevil unmasks him—and sees his own face staring back. And that’s when the illusion cracks. We realize the entire story, every moment, every battle, every twist, has been in Matt’s head while he lies unconscious in the hospital. He’s still fighting for his life. In the quiet between heartbeats, he sees Karen Page beside him. She tells him gently that it isn’t his time. The panels go dark…until a single heartbeat rises from the silence. Daredevil isn’t dead. He’s choosing to fight. In March we get the Man Without Fear limited series from writer Jed Mackay and artists Danilo Beyruth, Stefano Landini, Iban Coello, and Paolo Villanelli. It’s a haunting bridge between Daredevil’s fall and whatever comes next. It’s a really interesting story – deserving our spotlight for this week. In April, Volume 6 starts with a new creative team – Writer Chip Zdarsky and art by Marco Checchetto. The opening storyline is titled “Know Fear”. In it we see Matt Murdock back on the streets as Daredevil—too early, too shaky, and already in over his head. Between flashbacks of young Matt talking to a priest, we watch him struggle through patrols, botch a robbery takedown, and accidentally kill one of the thieves due to head trauma. New-to-NYC Detective Cole North zeroes in on him immediately, refusing to play the usual “look the other way” game, and soon Daredevil is shot, chased, ...
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Feb 25 20261 hr and 40 mins