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Express Review – The Woman Without Fear

 Here's a train I'd like to jump on, just to see where it goes. When I heard that Daredevil 25 was out again as a second printing I was intrigued. Daredevil has always been a fascinating character to me, both as a reader and collector. As a collector, second prints in the past were like crushed stale potato chips, first prints are typically where it's at and that usually holds true even now. Something strange has been happening in the already bizarre world of comics though, and my theory is that because second prints are now often released with new cover variants you just can't guarantee which print might fetch the higher price. If a book is hot nowadays it's probably worth picking up the 2nd print, if the cover is a decent variant. 

Daredevil 25 2nd Printing (purchased)

Daredevil 25's creative team (Chip Zdarsky writing & Marco Checchetto drawing) overall did good work on the issue. The first half of the book had good pacing and had sufficient dialogue and visuals to support some forward story movement. The book broke down and fell flat when the 1st appearance of Elektra as Daredevil was shown. The suit design is excellent, but it had almost no lead up and she just appeared in the new costume, followed by a decontextualized action sequence that seemed forced by both the the writer and artist. 

As a collector this one is going to be important as there is no doubt about the first appearance of Elektra as Daredevil. However, I think the faults in this book land with the writer, it felt called in and casual. If I catch wind of a potential key in this run I will pick it up, but the train I was excited to jump on turned out to be a slow bus. Adding some more panels and dialogue would have allowed for more context and connection to the reader. Oh and one more thing while we are talking about writing. I think if you are writing a book that does not allow swearing/cursing or whatever you want to call it just leave it out. Writing in symbols like #@$*! to replace swear words is not effective writing, you're supposed to be creative, find another sentence or word. When I read that kind garble in the dialogue it makes me check out of the story for a minute. 

Bottom line: Collect this one, don't collect all of it. Unless you are a diehard Daredevil fan, in which case just keep on truckin.

Stay focused fellow humans!

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