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Underground > Comic Books >

The Writings of Ed Brubaker

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11:27 / 24.04.06

Well he did it whilst inner monologuing about his ninja skillz so I assume he used them.
Do you really need it spelt out to you? I mean, the guy trained with Electra, fercryeye.

Haus of Mystery

12:26 / 24.04.06

This really is the fucking dinner. Punisher, Bullseye, Kingpin and Daredevil in the same prison at the same time?
I admire Brubaker's chutzpah.
Also: Love the way, anytime Frank needs to get inside he just breaks a crim's neck in front of a policeman. Let's hope it's Ennis' punisher doin' the bird...

16:57 / 24.04.06

I noticed that too, Stone (Matt getting out of his cell easy as 1-2-3)...maybe his super-hearing allows him to lockpick really well as long as he has a paperclip or something (he can hear when he's close to making the tumbler switch over, or something like that...?)?

17:02 / 24.04.06

Meh. Fill in the blanks kinda detail. Maybe one of the guards let him out.

19:44 / 24.04.06

So we all reckon ninja skillz aren't enough to get through locked doors then? I'm glad you lot aren't writing the comics I'm reading.

Personally I like that Matt displays the occasional mysterious ability, and I like that Brubaker isn't wasting valuable panel space with boring expository detail.

21:38 / 24.04.06

Really? Cos I remember you going daft over Batman escaping Gorilla Grodd's campfire, boboss, which obviously was just a lockpick or something cool. Swiss army knife in his gloved fist. He knew he'd be captured, and had a contingency plan. Because he is Batman.

This... bothered me a teeny bit, conversely. Okay, ninja skillz an' 'at, but still - big bars. Prolly a lockpick and all, I think.

21:47 / 24.04.06

Who's looking for spell-outs or boring exposition or whatever? "Fill-in-the-blanks" is not really Brubaker's style. It fits with Morrison's stuff, but Bru is usually alot more straightforward. Glad the magick cell-escape worked for you Bob, but I would've appreciated something other than a simple "presto!" That bit pulled me out of an otherwise grounded story. A story I quite enjoyed btw, and I'm excited to see where it's gonna go.

09:29 / 25.04.06

I did make a fuss about the Grodd scene, but because it was so badly articulated (a not infrequent criticism of the Morrisonian school of storytelling). I think we were supposed to have some idea what was going on there and the art/writing failed to get the message across. Also, it was a pretty important moment - the hero's escape from the villain's trap. I'm not sure the same can be said of a trained ninja slipping out of his prison cell - I mean, it's not exactly a significant plot point, or a triumphant moment.

Now that Stone's articulated his position a might better, I have a little more sympathy with it. Sometimes it is the little details going awry that drag us out of a story, especially when the story in question is gritty and grounded. For me, however, both Bendis and Brubaker have managed to integrate the world of superpowers and ninjas into DD, and part of that integration is to leave ninja matters fuzzy and unexplained and mysterious. Take Matt observing the DD survival group meeting unseen - how the Christ did he do that? It was never explained but it was a cool little detail that conferred on him a little bit of that ninja mystique. I read the cell breakout the same way (particularly as he'd just mentioned his ninja skillz).

12:42 / 25.04.06

Take Matt observing the DD survival group meeting unseen - how the Christ did he do that? Ehhh, by wearing a cap.

14:49 / 25.04.06

funny how he broke two different people vertebraes in the last page of last issues of Captain America and Daredevil, issued the same day.
synchronicity...

The Natural Way

11:11 / 26.04.06

Yes, just want to add my voice to the 'this is great!' gang. And, yes, while I thought boboss's Grodd-confusion wasa bit silly at the time, I totally sympathise with his incredulousness re ninja skillz and the lack of understanding thereof. Elektra Assassin would be waaay shit if the reader didn't just the mysterious stuff as a given.

14:08 / 26.04.06

but yes, enough about how we didn't see how Matt gets out of a locked cell, the book ROCKS. I'm very curious for Brubaker to get back to the plot thread of 'how Ben Urich feels confident he is going to play a key role in 'saving' Matt Murdock.' And just what does 'saving' Matt mean in this case...? We saw a tiny bit of Ben and Dakota North (cool character, I remember her Tony Salmons-illustrated mini back in the 80s) doing stuff but not very much, this latest issue.

00:07 / 06.05.06

I don't want to start a new thread about this, but did anyb'dy else get the new Gotham Central trade today, 'Unresolved Targets'?

Because I think mine, and possibly all of them, have a fuckup on p.106, where Driver and Cornwell are gesturing at one another, but no words come out. It'd be really quite odd if they were just exchanging four or five gesticulations. Bit of a disappointment, in an otherwise excellent trade, if so. And if it's in all of 'em, well "..there are whispers. The word incompetence has been used."

Also, assuming I'm correct, can someone pm me or whatever the outstanding dialogue? It'd be story page 12 of #19, the original ish, if that helps.

21:27 / 07.05.06

Brief shout out to my man Are Being Stolen By Bandits (always liked that as a ficsuit) for coming thru as a TRU GOTHAM SOLDIER for me. If anybody else encounters the same problem, hit me up, and I'll happily supply you with the missing dialogue. It is a really good comic, especially if you like a) Homicide: Life on the Street and b) Batman, and, frankly, I'd think any young man worth his salt should do both.

I'd also be interested to learn if this is linewide or an occasional printing problem, as in the case of the latter, I could hopefully get an exchange.

23:59 / 24.05.06

OK, Bru's DD just gets better and better with every issue. The new issue rocked COMPLETELY; I giggled with delight and actually gasped out loud at one point.

Frank's scene with Matt = fantastic.

Kingpin's scene with Matt = equally amazing.

And it looks like Bru's not going to stretch this out much longer in terms of immediate pot-boiling-over plot developments. Next issue: the stuff hits the fan.

01:04 / 25.05.06

I read the cell breakout the same way (particularly as he'd just mentioned his ninja skillz).

Ninja skills are the new "a wizard did it" and I'm not taking the piss. Ninjas are awesome and I'm willing to accept that as an excuse for coolness. Sometimes you need to see how The Bride learned how to punch through six feet of soil if it's cool, sometimes you can just let her escape from a super-gorillas bat-b-que (if it's well articulated).

17:11 / 04.06.06

Marvel mentioned in recent convention discussions that Bru & Sean Philips are doing an ICON (Marvel creator-owned) comic called CRIMINAL. Guess they're still jonesing to do something like Sleeper...

18:56 / 29.06.06

Okay, are we not talking about the latest ish because we're all agreed that Bru's DD really is the best comic, tru fax nuff said?

19:03 / 29.06.06

I never really know what to say about them, they're just solid blocks of Marvel goodness. This ish some of the dominoes set up start to get knocked down - love, particularly, Castle sitting having a read, pausing only to kill perps, waiting for Matt. (Incidentally, that con who gives him shit an issue or two back when he arrives at Ryker's? Brubaker.)

19:07 / 29.06.06

Incidentally, to broaden the purview out again - an interview with Bru on Criminal, as mentioned by Finder, looks sweet as.

19:09 / 29.06.06

Yeah, there really isn't much to say other than "thank you very much, Mr Brubaker".

A couple of thoughts:

I never thought I'd see DD, Bullseye and the Kingpin fighting side by side. Twas good.

And Bru's Castle is deffo one of the best things about this book.

Mister Six, whom all the girls

19:38 / 29.06.06

Just a brief note to say that if you lot have not picked up the Scene of the Crime, you're missing out on something very special.

The miniseries is drawn by Michael Lark and features an intelligent detective story as well as telling a very sad tale about family and getting lost (in the existential way of speaking). In a lot of ways I think it's about Ed Brubaker as a person as well.

I am teetering on picking up DD and enjoy his Cap stories but this is just amazing work and still getting missed by readers.

12:35 / 30.06.06

Decent short interviewnage with Bru on DD.

18:52 / 30.06.06

I think Alex's fight scenes were a little stiff in some places

*Boboss: hands on hips, chest out, BELLOWING*

ED BRUBAKER AGREES WITH ME!

18:59 / 30.06.06

Course, I reckon Bru's politely understating his true feelings.

He also says in that interview that a ridiculous villain from DDs past will be returning. I'm hoping it's Stilt Man. I love 'im. There's just something so nightmarish about a weirdo running round the city peering through windows and commiting heinous crimes.

I really must stop enthusing quite so rabidly.

19:21 / 30.06.06

In that DD interview, Bru also says Mike Murdock is coming back! Joy!!

19:28 / 30.06.06

Er, is Mike Murdock actually Matt? I've tried digging some sense out of the Wikipedia entry and a few random sites, but so far I'm not getting very far.

Regrettable Juvenilia

23:06 / 30.06.06

There are preview pics of Stilt Man from, funnily enough, the new Matt Fraction-written Punisher War Journal series...

I also loved this issue of Daredevil - of all the 'superheroes' who writers have tried to make dark and gritty, DD seems to work best, but I still found it pretty shocking - this sense that he's increasingly less bothered about the prospect of Frank Castle PUNISHING PUNKS, that he's willing to cut a deal with Wilson Fisk, etc.

18:35 / 01.07.06

Yes, Mike Murdock is the fictional brother Matt Murdock dreamed up in some Gene Colan-drawn issues from the 70s. I forget why Matt created this 'importance of being ernest' fictional relative. And of course, Mike Murdock looked pretty much exactly like Matt (as I recall, Matt would walk around saying he was Matt's brother, Mike). I don't remember how they explained why Mike was blind too (or just wore dark glasses all the time).

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

18:37 / 01.07.06

Er, is Mike Murdock actually Matt? I've tried digging some sense out of the Wikipedia entry and a few random sites, but so far I'm not getting very far.

Mike Murdock is an inspired bit of Stan Lee weirdness: Back int he early days fo the book, Karen Page was getting too close to figuring out Matt was Daredevil, so he messed up his hair, wore a more modern jacket and started talking like a beatnik and said he was Mike Murdock, Matt's twin brother. That's right, a twin Foggy never knew about when from their four years in college as roommates, and there were no records of him ever existing.

It was an amazingly weird idea that Lee kept in the book for over three years.

Gawds I love the Silver Age weirdness.

22:37 / 01.07.06

'nother Daredevil interview.

Yes, it is Saturday night.

08:35 / 03.07.06

the new Matt Fraction-written Punisher War Journal series...

that sounds interesting - any links or owt?

10:54 / 03.07.06

nevermind - found some info on fraction's image site bit. funny photoshoppage of frank with a tache.

14:37 / 07.07.06

Bru's first issue of Uncanny X-Men is out...I really like the idea of the X-Men going off into space again to have Shi'ar adventures. It seems like Bru doesn't quite have the characters' voices down (for example, Beast doesn't really sound like Beast, dialogue-wise - he just sounds sort of generic comic book character)...however, it's not quite as bad as when Bendis doesn't get the voice of characters and just imposes his own Bendis-speak on 'em.

Decent art by Billy Tan, though, whose stuff doesn't look as Image-cliche as it used to...

Regrettable Juvenilia

21:14 / 28.07.06

Okay, are we not talking about the latest ish because we're all agreed that Bru's DD really is the best comic, tru fax nuff said?

I really hope so! Lots of big things in the final part of Brubaker's first arc. Annoyingly, it seems I never posted my "his heart was still beating and he was stable in the ambulance, therefore Foggy is still alive" theory at the time I had it, and then Brubaker's commitment to showing the effect of Matt thinking Foggy was dead made me change my mind and decide it wasn't a terrible idea after all and he really was dead as dead can be. (Let's hope Vaughan is doing the same stunt in Runaways, eh?)

Plus, it's not Hawkeye under that mask.

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