Daredevil Message Board

[kodave]

Can anyone help me out with some reading order questions for Daredevil? This mainly involves minis/GNs.

I am trying to read Daredevil mostly chronologically. Here is the reading order I've devised thus far for the books I've read/want to read:

Daredevil: Yellow
Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus
Love's Labor Lost
Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion
Typhoid Mary
Fall of the Kingpin
Guardian Devil
Daredevil / Echo: Parts of a Hole
Daredevil / Echo: Vision Quest
Daredevil by Bendis Omnibus Vol 1
Daredevil by Bendis Omnibus Vol 2
Daredevil by Brubaker Omnibus Vol 1
Daredevil by Brubaker Omnibus Vol 2

Where would the following books fit into the above scheme?

Daredevil: Ninja
Daredevil: Redemption
Daredevil: Battlin' Jack Murdock
Daredevil: Father

I realize that none of them are absolutely essential to the main chronology, and a lot of people give those four books mixed reviews, and that also some of those stories involve flashbacks or even tweaks in continuity. But at best guess where would they fit in?

[Darediva]

They don't really fit in any particular point, honestly. I think I might have answered this over on CBR earlier today.

Read all the other stuff first because all of these are just tangentially connected to the main stories. Don't worry about trying to slot them in anywhere particular. Doesn't matter at all.

Happy reading! Looks like you have some good stuff ahead of you.
_________________
Alice




Those who throw dirt merely lose ground.

[kodave]

[theunrealstudios]

read it like this IMO if you want to get it all in order:

starting with the origin stories:

-original marvel masterworks: Daredevil (stan lees 60's work)
-Battlin' Jack Murdock (a deeper interpretation to his dad that alters continuity slightly but a good read giving Jack his devils due)
-Man without fear (the first change to the continuity, if anything was going to be cannon after stan lee it'd be Millers work)
-Daredevil Yellow (from college to facing off against classic early villains it's practically a modern updated version of stans work)
-Daredevil Noir ( alterante reality non cannon)
(all that i'm aware that are the most important)

as far as i'm aware of those are book dedicated to the origin

[theunrealstudios]

from there we'd go to to the later work spanning 70's to 80's

i won't get into classic volumes as they go on and on. As for the trades, i could be mistaken but i'm pretty sure we start as early as from:

-Frank miller volume 1
-Frank miller volume 2
-Frank Miller volume 3
-love and labours lost

now after this i'm pretty sure we get into

Born again (all DD fans must read)

-Typhoid Mary
-Lone stangers picks up directly after

[theunrealstudios]

*continued* we get into 90's

-Fall of the kingpin (last rites)

- Fall from Grace (not sure if it can still be found in trades anymore)


then came the Marvel Knights relaunch
starting with:

Guardian Devil -smith

-Daredevil Yellow (sorry I take that back, although an origin story it NEEDS to be read after guardian devil as it takes place directly after)

- Parts of a hole - mack

-echo: vision quest

then we get into Benids

-Bendis Omnibus 1

- Daredevil: redemption (this can be read after "out")

- Father (this is a tricky one, my guess is after you read "hardcore" and before you read "king of hells kitchen" in Omni 1 that's an event that happens in that one year period of time.

- Bendis Omnibus 2

[theunrealstudios]

*continued*

-Brubaker ominbus 1

-brubaker omnibus 2

and finally before current stories in shadowland we have

-Daredevil: the devils hand

*sigh* done.... and that's the chronological list! (off the top of my head on the trades)

as for "Daredevil Ninja" and "Daredevil VS Punisher" i heard bad reviews so i didn't bother with them.

hope this helps your reading experience.

[nott4141]

Agreed. Yellow should come after Guardian Devil, since the reason for the flashback to Daredevil's orgin story told in Yellow is spawned by the events in Guardian Devil.

If someone, who never read Daredevil before, wanted to stay in a logical story order, I think Guardian Devil then Yellow.

[AP]

Honestly, I would recommend not reading Man Without Fear until much later. It was written as a script for a possible DD movie and makes a fair bit of changes to established continuity, parts of which could be accepted into continuity and others that have not or have partially been accepted. From what I remember, the only writer that’s wholeheartedly accepted it as part of continuity is Bendis as he makes several references to it in his run. It definitely doesn’t gel with what Stan wrote or even some of the stuff Miller wrote! Reading it as part of the origin story in mainstream continuity will cause a lot of confusion. For me, it falls into the same realm as the DD movie, Ultimate DD and DD Noir: not part of mainstream continuity but an enjoyable alternate take on what could have been.

If you want to read it chronologically, I'd make a few tweaks to your reading order (based on the books that you have listed:

-Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion: Spectacular Spider-Man #27-28
-Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus
-Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion: Love And War
-Love's Labor Lost
-Daredevil by Frank Miller Omnibus Companion: Born Again
-Typhoid Mary
-Fall of the Kingpin
-Guardian Devil
-Yellow (set earlier but it does work better when read after Guardian Devil)
-Daredevil / Echo: Parts of a Hole
-Daredevil by Bendis Omnibus Vol 1: #16-50
-Daredevil: Redemption (this one is hard to place. Definitely happens after he is outed)
-Daredevil / Echo: Vision Quest: #51-55
-Daredevil by Bendis Omnibus Vol 1: #56-65
-Daredevil by Bendis Omnibus Vol 2
-Daredevil by Brubaker Omnibus Vol 1
-Daredevil by Brubaker Omnibus Vol 2

As far as Daredevil: Ninja and Daredevil: Father go, I don’t know. I’ve heard Daredevil: Ninja was bad and based in the summary I read I have no interest in it. It seems like Bendis wants to forget it so it may fall into the realm of “not part of mainstream continuity" in a lot of people’s minds. I can tell you firsthand that Daredevil: Father is bad. Just plain bad. Written by Quesada? No thanks. Read it after you’ve read the good stuff. I also didn’t care for Battlin' Jack Murdock. Parts of it were good, but I really wouldn’t recommend reading it until you’ve read the material that definitely fit in mainstream continuity. From a continuity aspect, it doesn’t gel perfectly.

Everyone has their own opinion on when these should be read. For me, continuity and story sense come first, so that is where my list is coming from. This is how I read it and it worked great for me, the only difference being I read Man Without Fear early on and I really regret that. It caused a lot of needless confusion and was a great distraction while reading the other books because I was trying to reconcile the continuity differneces in my mind. Then I heard it wasn't intended to be in continuity and my brain felt better. But what worked for me might not work for you so do what you feel is right.

[kodave]

I wasn't looking to do absolute chronologically - just pretty close to it (hence why I threw the two Echo books together because I don't want to bother with stopping reading the Bendis run to switch books).

I'm also not looking to read everything DD ever - pretty much just what I listed and wanted to know where those other four books fit into that timeline.

For the record I read Man Without Fear (and those Spider-man issues, for no real reason), then Yellow, then the Miller Omnibus. It read fine that way. I had previously read Guardian Devil a couple of years ago so maybe that made Yellow gel better at the front of the reading order in my mind, but I plan on re-reading Guardian Devil as I move on.

Father, Ninja, Battlin' Jack Murdock, and Redemption seem to be getting mixed reviews and more importantly they don't really affect the core of the Daredevil line. I'll just stick to the 6 Omnibus books, Yellow, the few trades I listed that fill out some of the more important events from the 90s, and the Smith and Mack trades near the beginning of the current volume. If I need more Daredevil in my life it seems like I can just go back to those other stories after.

And for what its worth I don't know that I'd particularly care for the early Daredevil stuff either. That's why its not on my list.

[Francesco]

Daredevil father is set during the period of Bendis' run, when DD had overthrown Kingpin and was controlling HEll's Kitchen more proactively.

[theunrealstudios]

Francesco Posted:

"Daredevil father is set during the period of Bendis' run, when DD had overthrown Kingpin and was controlling HEll's Kitchen more proactively."

that's what i figured since it makes mention that he sued the newspaper, there's talks of him being outed and he seems to be more aggressive (what with thug turning himself in because he's so scared)

as for Kodave:
Redemption and Battling jack (of the ones you were asking for) are both terrific books and i highly advise reading them. redemption is a poor DD book but an awesome matt murdock one as it deals with the law system and it's flaws in heavy tones. Battlin jack shows all the rage and suffering of Jack and i'm glad i read it. it made him so much more interesting as a character. give them a shot, you might like them.
[/quote]

[Francesco]

Yeah, also when the FBI agent comes to visit Matt Murdock to give him a clue to the serial killer, he mentions that he's helping him despite his colleagues wanting his head, implying Matt had already outed himself as Daredevil and that the FBI is trying to incriminate him.

[theunrealstudios]

Right! that's right, his daughter. Forgot about that.

so that's pretty much the order unless anyone has claim to disagree.