The History of Daredevil

[Flight]

I'm now a big Daredevil fan thanks to Bendis and I love reading Miller's old stories through Trade Paperback but I've never come across anything inbetween.
Can anyone fill me in on what happened during the '90's for Daredevil?
Is it worth seeking out? Any specific arcs that you love?

The X-Men and Spidermen fans talk constantly about the 90's but for all the wrong reasons. Why doesn't this period of Daredevil never come up for discussion?

[Expletive Deleted]

Ann Nocenti's "Typhoid" arc is particularly good. It's in a trade of the same name, I believe. It follows Miller's "Born Again" pretty much directly.

As for the '90s . . . Daredevil didn't sink to Clone Saga depths, but it wasn't particularly good. It was just sort of mediocre '90s stuff. The Kingpin was taken down by Matt and SHIELD, Elektra came back, Matt got a new costume and a new secret identity . . . stuff like that. There were a couple of trades (FALL OF THE KINGPIN and FALL FROM GRACE), but they're out of print.

Towards the end of the decade, things went back to normal and Karl Kessel and Cary Nord had a fun little run. Bright superhero action, basically. That degenerated a bit over the next few writers, and led into the Smith/Quesada revamp.

[Hombre]

Compared to what happened to Daredevil in the 90s out of a misguided attempt to make the character cooler than the rest, the Clone saga is a monument to the fun and joy of comics. The only things worth saving are a couple of issues written by G.A. Herdling and the brief return of Gene Colan.

That being said, after Miller there was Mr. Denny O'Neil, whose brooding work with David Mazzucchelli is definitely worth seeking out. The whole Ann Nocenti period is a poetic exploration of philosophical and social themes, of the illusion and disillusion of a single man struggling with his loss and uncertainty and of a Nation whose underlying dream for many had turned into a nightmare.

But I think it is just plain absurd to hold that Daredevil was nothing before Frank Miller. Stan Lee himself, towards the end of his run had begun to paint Matt Murdock as a man whose world was falling apart. Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman and others continued to write DD in the 70s, and those compelling, tense stories set the tone and paved the way for everything that came after.

[Schmakt]

Compared to what happened to Daredevil in the 90s out of a misguided attempt to make the character cooler than the rest, the Clone saga is a monument to the fun and joy of comics. The only things worth saving are a couple of issues written by G.A. Herdling and the brief return of Gene Colan.

That being said, after Miller there was Mr. Denny O'Neil, whose brooding work with David Mazzucchelli is definitely worth seeking out. The whole Ann Nocenti period is a poetic exploration of philosophical and social themes, of the illusion and disillusion of a single man struggling with his loss and uncertainty and of a Nation whose underlying dream for many had turned into a nightmare.

But I think it is just plain absurd to hold that Daredevil was nothing before Frank Miller. Stan Lee himself, towards the end of his run had begun to paint Matt Murdock as a man whose world was falling apart. Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Marv Wolfman and others continued to write DD in the 70s, and those compelling, tense stories set the tone and paved the way for everything that came after.

very well said for the most part. :)
Didn't Foggy FINALLY learn that Matt was DD in that late 90's run? I kind of dug Fall From Grace as well... although not too keen on the armor. The return of Karen Page also came about during this period, which, frankly, was a GREAT setup for that first Smith arc.

I loved Nocenti's run with JRJR on pencils... that's when I first started really getting into DD...

I also thought Lee Weeks did a nice DD (early 90's)
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1636/400/1636_4_0293.jpg

And those stories weren't THAT bad. Chichester had some good stories in him and a decently long run. Not overly impressed with the issues b/t 300 and 319, and the post Fall stories just... seemed to try too hard or something.

Warren Ellis authored issue 343, however, and that wasn't bad. I usually like DeMatteis, but the story arc to bring back the red tights was a little too much. I do like Nord's art tho. She might not be sexy, but he definitely draws a CUTE Natasha. The Paris thing at the end of the series was interesting but, well... it should have been better. :-/

[chicagokmc]

daredevil during the mid to late 90's was beginning to fall into the trade paperback schema - decompressed storytelling with 5-6 part stories, before it was the "in-thing" in comics. some of those stories - fall from grace, tree of knowledge and humanity's fathom, weren't all that bad. the switch to the red/blue padded costume was nothing to write home about, either.

[riotgear]

very well said for the most part. :)
Didn't Foggy FINALLY learn that Matt was DD in that late 90's run? I kind of dug Fall From Grace as well... although not too keen on the armor. The return of Karen Page also came about during this period, which, frankly, was a GREAT setup for that first Smith arc.

I loved Nocenti's run with JRJR on pencils... that's when I first started really getting into DD...

I also thought Lee Weeks did a nice DD (early 90's)
http://www.comics.org/graphics/covers/1636/400/1636_4_0293.jpg

And those stories weren't THAT bad. Chichester had some good stories in him and a decently long run. Not overly impressed with the issues b/t 300 and 319, and the post Fall stories just... seemed to try too hard or something.

Warren Ellis authored issue 343, however, and that wasn't bad. I usually like DeMatteis, but the story arc to bring back the red tights was a little too much. I do like Nord's art tho. She might not be sexy, but he definitely draws a CUTE Natasha. The Paris thing at the end of the series was interesting but, well... it should have been better. :-/

Yes, Matt finally revealed his identity to Foggy, and for a while, he was PISSED. Making snide comments during meetings, etc. As for the art, I thought the best was when was Nord was doing it. I would love to see Christoph Nord & Joe Kelly team back up on the series. I loved that run.