I’m confident that Calvin and Hobbes was the definite piece of literature of my youth. Calvin, a rebellious 6-year old misanthrope, was the first fictional character I truly connected with on an emotional level, the first that I could call mine. Sure I was older than him (I was eight years old when I first started reading it), I had human friends, and I like to think that I was better behaved than he was, but I saw myself in him. I identified with his anger, his rejection of the adult world that had begun to seem more and more monotonous and austere. And this future that I so

Who doesn’t love comics set in the Multiverse? These stories give writers the prestige of working with familiar characters, while simultaneously giving them the freedom to do with them what they please, creating genuinely original versions of our favourite heroes and villains. Kingdom Come, Superman: Red Son, Ultimate Spider-Man, some of the best superhero comics ever written have been set in an alternate universe. Of course, not all Elseworlds and What If? stories are remembered as classics, in fact, many of them go relatively unnoticed. This article is devoted to the forgotten and

Writer:  Jeph Loeb Artist: Tim Sale Publisher: Marvel My only exposure to Daredevil so far has been the wonderfully dreadful movie put out. My knowledge of the character is extremely limited, and therefore was surprised when tasked to read and comment on Daredevil Yellow. Long-time fans will understand when I say this book is not the best introduction to the series. While it gives a good overview of the character, much of the emotional impact requires prior DD knowledge. Daredevil Yellow is a look back of Daredevil’s adventures so far. In it Matt Murdock pens a

Daredevil is a character that has always brought out the best in creators. He lends himself so well to the writing pen that bad Daredevil runs have been scarce in the last decade. And Brian Michael Bendis is a writer that is very hit-or-miss. This Daredevil effect, however brought out the best in Bendis as he delivered his masterpiece with this quintessential Daredevil run. Frank Miller redefined the character but Brian Michael Bendis perfected him. He brought him to a higher level of depth that made the character more believable as a human being than ever. This series, above all is a

Happy (belated) Easter Sunday CTG faithful! For some of us here, this Sunday marks a pretty pivotal point in our lives: the mark of the final stretch in the countdown to Marvel’s first collaborative series with Netflix, Daredevil. Regardless of religious affiliation, I think we can all appreciate that much.      Matt Murdock, Hell’s Kitchen’s own resident street brawler/ninja/swash buckler/acrobat is himself a fairly devout catholic; in fact, his mother is even revealed to be a nun in a local ministry (see Daredevil: Guardian Devil). But that’s about

When we decided at CTG to have a Daredevil celebration leading up to the new, original Netflix series I knew immediately what arc I wanted to cover, Born Again! I only first read this tale about 5 years ago but upon closing the back cover it not only became my favorite Frank Miller story but also one of my favorite stories period. I’m a huge fan of writer Frank Miller’s work but for whatever reason I was extremely late to the party on this one. I’ve made up for it since with reading it at least once a year. The really weird part of my love for this 8 issue series is I’

When Warner Bros. announced that Ben Affleck would be the next person to wear the cowl the internet exploded. Cries and expletives filled the series of tubes that run the internet and seemingly no one approved. I was one of the few who thought, as incredulous as it was to pick Affleck in the first place, that he could do a good job as Batman. One thing I constantly repeated as a source of approval was his performance in Daredevil. Not a reliable source, since I hadn't seen the film in years. But from what I remembered, if there was anything terrible about that film (which there was) it

When somebody tells me they had a hard time reading an older comic, I assume the datedness of the comic got in the way of the story. Dialogue and art can age a book and create a stiffness a new reader might never get into the groove of. Almost nobody has trouble with a comic because it was a challenging read, so when a comic actually is a challenge, it can really, really throw the reader for a loop. Elektra: Assassin is just that comic. It certainly isn’t the most intelligent or insightful story ever written, but the abstract nature of the art and writing make it a challenge fir for

Frank Miller was always a gritty writer. If you’ve kept your eyes and ears open in the past 15 years, you’d recognize such gems as 300 or Sin City which are both Miller classics. But most people who have no idea about Miller’s background don’t know that he actually began as a cover artist for Marvel and was then given the job as penciller for the Daredevil series. This would lead to his becoming both the writer of Daredevil for almost a decade before branching out on his own to work on DC titles such as The Dark Knight Returns and Year One. During his time on the

The world was a different place when I stopped exiting the theater as Sam Jackson magically showed up as Nick Fury in the end credits scene of Iron Man. But, I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself. It's 2015 and we're 10 films deep into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, witih the second capstone film, Avengers - Age of Ultron, due to be released in a little over a month.  (Yes, I know Ant-Man is technically Phase 2, but, c'mon.)  This is meant to be the first installment of a 10-piece series ranking the films and rambling about them to you, my adoring fans.  There