#//she's a side muse yeah but she deserves main character status

[hopes-memorial]

"Hmm... what does he mean it's too dangerous to climb... I've done this a bazillion times before..." She's mumbling to herself while looking up at at tall tree. "But... Masa isn't here right now..."

[daresplaining]

not sure if you have been asked this before but how would you rate the daredevil runs from miller to soule, and why?

    It has taken literally a thousand years to answer this, and I apologize– it’s just a huge question, even skipping all of the pre-Frank Miller runs (thank you for that, by the way– maybe I’ll rank them in a separate post, because I love a lot of the pre-Miller stuff!). Every reread brings with it new insight, and so my preferences are ever-evolving. That said, here’s how I would rank the main Daredevil runs from Miller onward (I’m not including annuals, mini-series, or novels, and I’m skipping the really tiny one-or-two-issue runs for the sake of brevity):

1. Mark Waid Daredevil volumes 3 and 4 are, for me, a perfect encapsulation of everything that makes Daredevil great. It’s all there! Smirking, swashbuckly Matt pulling off badass feats to save the day? Check! Dark, emotionally turbulent Matt trying to cope as the world falls apart around him? Check! An excellent supporting cast? Check! Fantastic hypersensory moments? Check! Great stories? Stunning art? Stilt-Man? Check! Everyone needs to read this run. It’s pretty much perfect.

2. Brian Michael Bendis I’ve learned that my Daredevil preferences tend to lean light(er…), but dang, Bendis writes a heck of a noir comic. He balances intense crime drama with striking character moments, changes the status quo over and over again (in a good way), and gives Matt some of the best zingers he’s ever had. (Seriously. Bendis’s Matt is really funny.) He also gave us Milla Donovan and Angela Del Toro, and for that I am eternally grateful. And whooo, that Alex Maleev/Matt Hollingsworth art… This is a classic, enduring run for a very good reason.  

3. Karl Kesel/Joe Kelly Okay, I’m cheating here. These are two separate runs. But they happened back-to-back, had the exact same tone, and were great for all of the same reasons, so I usually squash them together. If Karl Kesel and Joe Kelly have a problem with this, they can take it up with me (preferably in person– I have a lot of comics for them to sign.) These runs are fun. The Daredevil pendulum swings from light to dark and back again, and these guys landed on the upswing, after Matt had reconnected with his quippy, swashbuckly past. They feel old-fashioned, nostalgic in the best possible way, not afraid to be a little silly while still delivering solid, character-rooted stories. And it helps that the cast of characters is top-notch. Karen is around, trying to re-start her life while juggling humorous relationship issues with Matt. Foggy’s family drama is on full-force as Rosalind Sharpe and Candace come to town. Misty Knight stops by, as does Natasha Romanov. Kathy Malpher, one of my favorite minor DD characters ever, has lots of panel time. Deuce the Devil Dog is there. And it all ends with the breathtaking DD #375, which has got to be one of my top five favorite issues of all time. If you haven’t read these runs yet, go do that and thank me later.  

4. Frank Miller Darkness is only effective when interspersed with some light, and lightness is only effective when injected with some darkness, and Frank Miller (pre-”Born Again”) hit that perfect balance. It’s noir. It’s deep. It’s intense. It’s also some of the funniest Daredevil material ever written. Please go back and read “Guts”, or “Hunters”, or the Power Man and Iron Fist crossover. Let me say it louder, because I feel like I’m alone here: I love Frank Miller’s Daredevil because it is FREAKING HILARIOUS! And it goes without saying that “Born Again” is also stunning– definitely one of my favorite DD stories. And he gave us Stick and the peerless Elektra Natchios (three different versions of her, in fact) and the world has never been the same.

5. Denny O’Neil Denny O’Neil had the misfortune of getting sandwiched between Frank Miller’s two runs, and I feel like that’s the reason he doesn’t get the attention he deserves for some truly fantastic comics. Uh… weird comics, in a lot of cases, but heck, I like well-done weirdness. O’Neil added an international angle to the comic. He sent Matt to Japan and Italy (and even- gasp- New Jersey) and brought in Glori O’Breen, a great character even with her slightly over-the-top accent. He reconnected Matt with Natasha Romanov for a few beautiful one-shot team-ups. He killed off Heather Glenn in a horrible way, but did it with such grace and style that it didn’t feel entirely gratuitous. And he’s responsible for “The Price”– one of my favorite stand-alone issues. Plus, the fact that he was working with David Mazzucchelli didn’t hurt either.  

6. Ann Nocenti Superhero comics– superhero comics writing in particular– has been a white male-dominated profession for far too long, and there are far too few women who have written Daredevil. I hate to start a discussion of Nocenti’s run with “Look! A woman!” but it’s worth pointing out because look at this list. Seriously. (And for anyone unfamiliar with the pre-Miller runs, I assure you, it’s more of the same.) Ann Nocenti’s run is fantastic for the ways it really digs into the heart of the material. She took the post-“Born Again” landscape and ran with it. This was the period that tied Matt to Hell’s Kitchen, and Nocenti made that plot point stick by showing us the fabric of the neighborhood, bringing in characters like the Fat Boys, placing Matt and Karen within the community with the founding of Karen’s free clinic, and turning the Hell’s Kitchen of the Marvel universe into a living, breathing place. In contrast, she also took Matt out of the city, and in doing so, wrote some of my favorite Daredevil stories. She wasn’t afraid to address pressing social issues. She wasn’t afraid to tell stories that were just plain weird. And her run is utterly unique and complex as a result.

7. Ed Brubaker/D.G. Chichester Yeah, okay, this is really cheating. These are two completely different runs, but they are nevertheless tied because of the same factor: I adore some parts, and dislike other parts. “The Devil in Cell Block D” (the first arc of Brubaker’s run) is phenomenal. I re-read it a lot. So is “Last Rites” (by Chichester). Chichester wrote two of my favorite stand-alone issues: “34 Hours” (vol. 1 #304) and “Just One Good Story” (vol. 1 #380). Brubaker gifted us with the awesomeness that is Maki Matsumoto (A.K.A. Lady Bullseye), and Master Izo! Chichester gave us D.A. Kathy Malpher, one of my favorite DD characters ever (bring her back, Marvel! Where did she go?)! Also, his hypersensory writing is visceral verging on gross– which, for me, is ideal. However, Brubaker’s run went downhill a bit after the first arc. I mentioned the light/dark balance in regards to Frank Miller’s run, and Brubaker went all dark. (I consider it the darkest DD run yet.) It’s great storytelling, but not my style. And while I love his shorter arcs, Chichester’s longer work– “Fall From Grace” and “Tree of Knowledge” in particular– don’t do it for me. I find them overly convoluted and lacking substance. Also, while Scott McDaniel draws my favorite rendition of the radar sense, he’s my least favorite DD artist. D.G. Chichester + Lee Weeks 4ever.

8. David Mack I like “Vision Quest” a lot more than “Parts of a Hole”, though that’s somewhat due to the artist switch partway through the latter. “Parts of a Hole” did an excellent job of introducing Maya Lopez, and has a lot of great moments, but “Vision Quest” is practically a piece of fine art. It’s stunning, both narratively and visually. I consider it more of an Echo comic than a DD comic, but it still belongs on this list.  

9. Charles Soule I haven’t had a chance to reread this run in its entirety, since it just ended, and I really need to do so because I’m having a hard time figuring out my feelings on it. There are aspects of Soule’s characterization of Matt that I disagree with. The sensory writing varied in quality, and we clearly have different perceptions of the radar sense. There was a distinct shortage of female characters– and, in fact, of side characters in general. And the mind wipe was a huge misstep, since it erased so many of Matt’s long-held friendships. In a comic that has traditionally drawn much of its power from its strong supporting casts and Matt’s dynamics with them, that decision has caused serious lasting damage. However, there’s also a lot I loved. Sam Chung, though (I feel) underused, is a great character in his own right, and he also provided the chance for us to see Matt in a long-term mentorship role– something I’ve wanted for a while now. Muse was a fascinating and terrifying antagonist. And Soule’s perspective as an actual lawyer added extra zip to many of his stories, whether it was putting Matt in the mayor’s office (finally!) or sending him to the Supreme Court in what may be my favorite law-centered DD story ever. But the real reason Soule’s name is this far up this list is because of the “Double Vision” arc (or, as I call it, “Mike Murdock Must Die 2.0″) which is sheer brilliance, and to my mind, one of the greatest Daredevil stories ever told.

10. Bob Gale “Playing to the Camera” does not get nearly as much credit as it deserves for being a genuinely hilarious superhero law-based comedy of errors, and a bright spot amid the angst-fest that is Daredevil volume 2. My major complaints are that it’s too short and I dislike the art.

11. Andy Diggle I don’t dislike “Shadowland��. I don’t love it, but it’s a cool story concept that suffered– as events often do– from storytelling spread too thin, across too many characters, in too short a timespan. (Though I need to know if he came up with the “Matt Murdock dared evil… and lost” tagline, because if so, that wordplay would rocket him right to the top of this list.) I prefer the lead-up to “Shadowland” to the event itself. But I love DD: Reborn (yes, I said I wasn’t going to cover mini-series, but it’s essentially part of the main comic because it bridges the gap between two volumes. I say it counts). I’ve always enjoyed stories that take Matt out of NYC, and Reborn is a fun adventure story that gets back to basics and serves as a great bookend for volume 2.  

12. Scott Lobdell I like “Flying Blind”. It’s quirky and unusual (which I appreciate), and Matt is written very well. I just don’t love it. It’s one of those arcs that slides right to the back of the memory and only returns to the forefront when you’re reflecting on the first time Matt ever saw Foggy, or wondering if Matt’s bad French in Brubaker’s run is left over from his SHIELD-implanted fluency. It’s a neat idea, but could have been executed in a more engaging, lasting way.

13. Gregory Wright This short run went right out of my head the instant I finished it the first time, and upon rereading it has remained fairly unmemorable. The art is hit-and-miss, and the story– while perfectly fine– isn’t anything exciting or innovative. There are some great hypersensory moments, it’s worth reading, but I don’t have much to say about it beyond that.

14. Alan Smithee “Alan Smithee” is a pseudonym used in the entertainment industry by writers who don’t want to be associated with a certain project. The commentary on manwithoutfear.com states that this run was actually written by Chichester, who used the pen name as a way of protesting his abrupt firing from the comic. I treat it as a separate run, since that’s clearly what he wanted. I always tend to group the Wright and Smithee runs together in my mind because they take place one after the other, are both very short (only 5 issues each), and are very similar in both tone and quality. I like the art in Smithee’s run more, and the writing is solid. However, the whole thing is colored for me by the horrific and unnecessary death of Glorianna O’Breen, a character I love. I’m perfectly fine with characters dying if their deaths are well-written and impactful (heck, I’ll be honest– I love a good death), but Glori’s demise just seems gratuitous, and is therefore not appealing to me.

15. J.M. DeMatteis This run is super weird, but not in an interesting way. It leans toward the religious, which is not my thing, and it relies on the dead sex worker storyline from Man Without Fear, which is really not my thing and should have stayed out of the main continuity. It’s good to read, because it’s a major shift in Matt’s life and sets up the fabulous Kesel/Kelly runs, but… eh. That said, Matt battling his different identities in a graveyard while getting heckled by Stick, and yellow suit DD running around creating mayhem, are 100% my things… so credit where’s it’s due.  

16. Kevin Smith You may have noticed that “Guardian Devil”, the first arc of Daredevil volume 2, the run that rescued the series after its cancellation and brought Matt Murdock to the forefront of the Marvel street-level universe once more…! …is rarely ever mentioned on this blog. That’s because I really don’t like it. At all. I’m grateful to Smith for bringing readers back to DD, but would be happy if he never wrote these characters again. His run is poorly paced, out-of-character, and covers themes/topics/etc. that I personally don’t enjoy. I forced myself through it because I’m a Daredevil completist, but I haven’t read it again. I probably will someday, just to make sure I remember all of the key plot points, but… not yet.  

[veratro-blog]

Really  LONG  CHARACTER  SURVEY.     RULES.  repost, don’t reblog !!     TAGGED.  no one in particular.    TAGGING. @oceanxcbeauty @wingsofhubris @seafled @saecris @canisbitch && anyone else that wants to do it.

BASICS.

FULL  NAME : Night Hellebore NICKNAME :  Nuit AGE :  18 BIRTHDAY :  November 20 ETHNIC  GROUP : Mistralian NATIONALITY :   Mistralian LANGUAGE / S* : Remnant’s equivalent of English. He knows the basics of French and a few Latin words.  SEXUAL  ORIENTATION :  homosexual ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION :   biromantic RELATIONSHIP  STATUS :   taken by Ebene Darwitch nearer the end of his first year at Beacon, and single by the end and onward. SOCIOECONOMIC CLASS :   lower class HOMETOWN / AREA :   Mistral CURRENT  HOME :   Beacon PROFESSION : hunter in training

PHYSICAL.

HAIR : black messy nest of long hair with a blue tinted fringe. EYES :  dull grey NOSE : regular. FACE : smooth and averagely sized, not much definition on the cheekbones. LIPS :  pale regular. COMPLEXION : fair skinned. BLEMISHES : none. SCARS : light scars on knee and a small burn mark on his left hand thumb. TATTOOS :  right arm shoulder and chest with an abstract image of a panther running through a field of stars, which are a specific constellation that Night finds pretty. HEIGHT : 6′  WEIGHT : 140 lbs BUILD : Slight, with some lean muscle. NOTABLE FEATURES : A panther tail, dark black fur. ALLERGIES : bullshit USUAL  HAIR  STYLE :  insanely messy and all over the place, typical bed head look but styled to look that way. Long fringe and slightly shorter sides. USUAL  FACE  LOOK : content. Doesn’t have resting bitch face. USUAL CLOTHING : sleeveless hoodie cut diagonally across and separated into black and white, with the hood being black. Black slim fit jeans and similarly coloured combat boots don his lower half. As for accessories, he wears a thin chain around his neck that connects to a vial filled with lavender petals, and when not wearing his weapon he wears several bracelets. On his jeans, a chain stretches across and around his right side and carries vials of dust usually.

PSYCHOLOGY.

FEAR / S : Nyx’s nightmares. The effects of Nyx’s Nightmares has been known to cause shell shock in the most damaged people’s minds, Night worries that if one day Nyx needs to use Night as part of his semblance, the fear he would experience would be incomparable to anything he’d ever experienced before. Also, the middle of the ocean, open spaces. ASPIRATION / S :  to find someone who he can share his life with in comfort, without the pain of the real world. To be with his brother forever and to have a lot of close friends. He wishes to be talented and respected alike, and wants to better himself as a hunter in order to achieve the respect he feels he deserves. POSITIVE  TRAITS :  academically intelligent, optimistic, patient, loving, tolerant, good listener, modest. NEGATIVE  TRAITS :  quick to judge, lazy, defeatist, doesn’t stand up for himself, poor memory. MBTI :   ENFP-T (campaigner) ZODIAC :   scorpio TEMPEREMENT :  phlegmatic SOUL  TYPE / S :  hunter, caregiver, thinker ANIMALS :  swan VICE  HABIT / S : stress smoking, fidgeting, incapability to sit still, clicking fingers randomly..

FAITH : atheist. GHOSTS ? :   yes. AFTERLIFE ? :   no. REINCARNATION ? :  maybe. ALIENS ? :  definitely yes. POLITICAL  ALIGNMENT :  he hates politics. ECONOMIC  PREFERENCE : he does fine as is with minimum wage job considering he’s a faunus and all. SOCIOPOLITICAL  POSITION : n/a EDUCATION  LEVEL : Hunter in training.

FAMILY.

FATHER :   Jaime Erebus MOTHER :   Lavender Hellebore SIBLINGS :   Nyx Hellebore EXTENDED  FAMILY :   Paternal grandparents and large extended family in Vale, maternal cousin in Mistral. NAME  MEANING / S :  Night, the colour of the sky, and Hellebore, a flower representing scandal and calumny.. HISTORICAL  CONNECTION ? : Bagheera the panther from the Jungle Book.

FAVORITES.

BOOK :  he never liked reading as a kid, he struggled to maintain focus. The only book he’s ever really read is the book of the language of flowers. MOVIE : superhero films are the one for him. And anything to do with space too. 5  SONGS : Jet Black Heart, RUN, Missing You, A Sky Full Of Stars, Work For It.

DEITY :  he wishes. HOLIDAY :  Remnants equivalent of Christmas/Easter/New Year. MONTH :   November SEASON :   Autumn PLACE :   Mistral, where his mother is buried beneath a great willow tree. WEATHER :   clear skies and no breeze. SOUND :  bird song. SCENT / S :  lavender. TASTE / S :   profiteroles. FEEL / S : Ebene’s jumper. ANIMAL / S :   felines.  NUMBER :   3. COLORS :  midnight blue.

EXTRA.

TALENTS :   fighting, leadership, balance, flexibility, agility, moderate artistic capability, guitar, piano, singing, emphasising with others, comforting others BAD  AT :  directions, taking heavy hits, inspiring others, arguing, stopping himself from thirsting over hot dudes, commitment, forgetting where he puts things. TURN  ONS : everything. TURN  OFFS : intimidatingly huge people.  HOBBIES :   flower arranging, performing musically, running. TROPES :  panther stereotypes, lonesome likes to climb trees and lazy.  AESTHETIC  TAGS :  midnight blue, smoke, night, black, dark,  QUOTES : (1) “ Now, now. I know how you feel. But you must remember, Mowgli. Greater love hath no one than he who lays down his life for his friend.” - Bagheera (2) “ This is the law of the jungle it's old and it's true as the sky And the wolf that should keep it may prosper but the wolf who will break it must die. For the strength of the pack is the wolf and the strength of the wolf is the pack.” - Bagheera & others 

FC INFO.

MAIN  FC / S : Jong Won Jin ALT  FC / S :  Sadao Maou OLDER  FC / S : N/A YOUNGER  FC / S :   N/A VOICE  CLAIM / S : Lu Han GENDERBENT  FC / S :  N/A

MUN QUESTIONS.

Q1 :   if  you  could  write  your  character  your  way  in  their  own movie ,   what  would  it  be  called ,  what  style  would  it  be filmed  in ,  and  what  would  it  be  about ? A1 :  A movie similar in style to Final Fantasy XV: Kingsglaive mixed with Harry Potter, with things happening fairly fast and being rather beautiful and showing off all the magic of this world before it turns dark and transforms from light hearted to desperate and fast as the movie or movie series continues.

Q2 :   what  would  their  soundtrack / score  sound  like ? A2 :  I love the soundtrack for Doctor Who, so maybe something along those lines for the first half of Night’s story, which then transitions into something much darker and heavier as the going gets tougher.

Q3 :   why  did  you  start  writing  this  character ? A3 :  It was actually in like year 10, when I was about 14 me and my friend started watching RWBY and we made up ourselves a bunch of teams and it was just for fun as we created weapons and stuff and used our elements that we discovered on an online test and were really proud of as semblances for these characters. We then morphed a bunch of our other friends into characters and soon we had 3 teams of 4. And at the time we were just sorta throwing ideas around about RWBY and stuff until one day I decide to write a story about these characters and my friend was kinda pressuring me into putting us into story form and at first I was like, yeah it’ll be cool, but I soon realised I wanted something more serious than that, and rewrote every single character and only maintained some of the major traits. I didn’t want to feel like I was writing a story about them so I changed their names their personalities and their backgrounds and carried on. Then it came to tumblr roleplaying and I decided that in order to develop Night, the oc I based off of myself at first, I needed to make him as different to me as possible. And tumblr is really helping me do that, now I don’t feel trapped in this mindset where I feel like I’m writing in some vain perspective about myself, and Night has become an entity separate to me but still close to me, and I feel a lot more freedom to change him into something greater.

Q4 :   what  first  attracted  you  to  this  character ? A4 :  I’m just incredibly proud of him. The backstory I’ve created for him has taken me almost a year to formulate, and I’m still not quite 100% certain on the details, but I think for what it is currently it deserves some credit.

Q5 :   describe  the  biggest  thing  you  dislike  about  your  muse. A5 :   I think the biggest thing I disliked originally was how self insert Night felt. Now though, after I’ve changed him up a whole lot, that isn’t an issue, so I suppose the biggest thing now is how uninspiring he is. Like I don’t really write him as much of a leader despite being one, but maybe that’s just him being lazy. I’m not really sure.

Q6 :   what  do  you  have  in  common  with  your  muse ? A6 :   Now? Not much apart from some elements of the backstory. I chose to do that because I think it’d be easier to write a character going through similar things to what I’ve gone through. Other than that, probably our patience and tolerance. 

Q7 :  how  does  your  muse  feel  about  you ? A7 :  “awkward, and terrible at breaking habits.”

Q8 :   what  characters  does  your  muse  have  interesting  interactions  with ? A8 :   Nyx, his brother, as they have a strange sibling relationship. Timber Wolfe, his closest friend and wisest person Night knows, but she’s got the mind of a 27 year old. 

Q9 :   what  gives  you  inspiration  to  write  your  muse ? A9 :   every oc blog I see on tumblr. 

Q10 :   how  long  did  this  take  you  to  complete ? A10 :   two days lmao.