CD Giveaway - 33Miles, "One Life"
Ends Aug 4, 2010
The country-pop sound established in their eponymous debut is a mainstay for this album as well, and even adds a little more southern flavor.
CD Giveaway - Phil Wickham, "Cannons"
Ends Aug 3, 2010
With an opening shot that hits the sonic pinnacle, this collection of spiritual Brit pop/rock is heavily influenced by Keane, Travis, Coldplay, and U2.
If you've been to the theater lately and saw the latest Ben Affleck flick, then you're probably familiar with the man in the red tights, the blind lawyer with heightened senses who battles crime under the costumed identity of Daredevil.
But if you don't read the comics, you might not be aware how much more Daredevil is like an episode of Law & Order than it is like a four-color slugfest. And nowhere has there been a better example of this than with Brian Michael Bendis's latest story arc, "Lowlife."
To catch you up if you haven't read in a while: The Kingpin is out of business. The territory has been split, but The Owl didn't get any and decides to take it all by force. The Kingpin's information that Matt Murdock and Daredevil are the same person gets into the hands of a tabloid publisher, who puts it on the front page. Matt Murdock sues the newspaper for slander, and the publisher refuses to back down. The publisher, Uri Rosenthal, is later found floating in his swimming pool, sans head, which has been pulled off his shoulders.
Matt, unaware that Rosenthal has been murdered, has begun a relationship with Milla Donovan, a blind woman he rescued as Daredevil from an oncoming vehicle. He's walking home with her when he notices the police vehicles outside his apartment. They have a search and seizure warrant to check Murdock's place for evidence. Evidence to tie him to the murder, that is. But they could just as easily find evidence to tie him to Daredevil.
Matt is hauled downtown where he is interrogated by policemen who just don't seem to understand the handicap they're under--something Bendis masterfully demonstrates as Matt sits alone in the interrogation room:
I want to scream.
I want to turn around and scream behind me: I can hear you!!
The two detectives who brought me here, their captain, and that D.A. are behind the two-way mirror talking about me. Watching me.
Of course, they don't know I can hear-- Every-- Word-- They-- Are-- Saying!
I can hear their fillings clacking.
I can hear the tiny spit bubbles in the side of their mouth pop while they talk.
They stand there and watch me like a zoo animal. They drink their stale coffee and they laugh at me.
They want me to crack. They want me to act guilty.
I just want to scream.
Further complicating Matt's life is Milla. She's encountered him both as Daredevil and Matt Murdock. She's touched his face, heard his voice. She knows that both are the same man.
The power of Bendis's superhero storytelling is further underscored by the fact that--when you reach the end of the issue--you don't realize until re-reading that there was no superhero in the story. Sure, Matt Murdock was there. But there was no Daredevil. No swinging from rooftops, no snappy banter during fisticuffs with bad guys. And it doesn't matter, because the reader still gets a great story about a guy with superpowers. Alex Maleev is the perfect artist to capture the feel of living in New York, although his panel layouts could be a bit more obvious--too often I had to reread a spread because I found out, too late, that it was to be read all the way across the two pages, not left page first, right page second. Had the panels not broken so neatly down the spine, such a stumble might not have occurred.
Daredevil has gone from a book that was so chronically late as to lose its readership to a book that is so hot that you only think it's late when you look for a new issue a week after the last one. For action, drama, and a superhero book you can feel good about reading in front of people who don't read comics, Daredevil is just the thing.
Daredevil has gone from a book that was so chronically late as to lose its readership to a book that is so hot that you only think it's late when you look for a new issue a week after the last one. For action, drama, and a superhero book you can feel good about reading in front of people who don't read comics, Daredevil is just the thing.
