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On today’s Comic Book Club News, Daredevil gets a new status quo at the end of Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s run. Batman meets Superman for the first time, again. And Basic Instinct gets a comic book sequel.
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Episode Transcript:
Daredevil gets a new status quo.
Batman and Superman meet for the first time, again.
Basic Instinct comes to comics.
This is Comic Book Club News for August 16, 2023.
Daredevil Gets A New Status Quo… As A Priest:
True to form, in the final issue of Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s run on Marvel’s Daredevil, Matt Murdock has a new status quo. Spoilers on for Daredevil #14. The one-time vigilante is now a wandering priest, devoid of the memory of his time as Daredevil.
The circumstances that led to this point are pretty complicated, but here’s the short version. After deciding to end crime once and for all by trying to reform a group of villains, Daredevil messed up. To fix his mistakes, he traveled to hell, fought several demons including one called The Beast, and ultimately led dozens of souls trapped in the demon dimension — including his friend Foggy Nelson — to safety.
When we pick up in issue fourteen, Foggy is practicing law and believes Matt to be dead. Elektra, Daredevil’s lover turned wife, has taken on the identity of Daredevil, and no longer kills people. And as she discovers at the end of the issue, Matt is back alive, as a priest, though without any memory of his previous life.
The final tease of the issue finds Murdock struggling as his radar sense starts to break through… But whether it does or not is TBD. Zdarsky leaving Murdock this way is a classic baton pass to the next team, something that Daredevil writers have been doing since Brian Michael Bendis revamped the title: leave the character in a seemingly impossible place to get out of, and see how the next team handles the plot.
That next team? Saladin Ahmed and Aaron Kuder, who will take over the title in September. Good luck, next team!
Batman And Superman Meet For The First Time… Again:
In this week’s issue of DC’s Batman/Superman: World’s Finest, #18 written by Mark Waid with art by Travis Moore, Batman and Superman meet for the first time… Again.
Spoilers on! In the issue, we see Batman investigating a series of disappearances in Gotham City that look to be the fault of The Riddler. Superman gets drawn into the mix when the riddles The Riddler is riddling seem to be riddled, we mean written, in Kryptonian. The big reveal at the end of the issue is that The Riddler is being manipulated by Kryptonian criminal Jax-Ur. When we leave them, Jax-Ur has escaped the Phantom Zone and trapped Batman in his place.
This marks at least the twelfth time the story of Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne’s first meeting has been told in comics. And true to form for DC’s constantly rebooting continuity, every time they’ve met, the story has been different. That starts with their first on-page appearance together in 1941’s All-Star Comics #7, stretching to the issue released today.
There are a number of changes in this new iteration, including the inclusion of The Riddler, as well as a very beefed-up Jax-Ur. The latter is normally presented as a Kryptonian scientist instead of a brawler with a chin beard. The story is clearly just getting started, but the big question is how this new take will influence the current continuity of DC Comics. Whatever happens next, there’s one thing that’s clear: this isn’t the last time we’ll see the first meeting of Superman and Batman.
Basic Instinct Comes To Comics:
Are the ’90s back? No, we’re not talking foil covers and comics creators hawking sneakers. Instead, we’re talking about erotic thrillers, like Paul Verhoeven’s 1992 thriller Basic Instinct, which is getting an official comic book sequel.
The title will be written by Sam Freeman, with art by Vanesa R. Del Rey, and focus on an artist inspired by Catherine Tramell’s icepick murders from the movie. Per Deadline, who first reported the news: “When a security guard at the exhibition space is murdered on opening night, the art director responsible for the opening is thrust into an investigation that forces him to question his own involvement.”
The original movie starred Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas, and was a sensation when first released, thanks to its graphic sexual content. Will 2023 comic book audiences feel the same about this return to Basic Instinct? That’s what publisher Sumerian Comics is banking on. The title will be released November 1 in comic book stores everywhere.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. And frankly, I preferred Sliver.
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