Daredevil: Yellow

Grade: G
Title: Daredevil: Yellow
Author: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale


I am so glad to be back! I hope y'all didn't miss me too much! I will try to be faithful with my blog, but I think it is only fair to warn you that I have a lot on my plate this year (I am just getting back to school, which means teaching and taking classes - lucky me). However, I have so much fun reviewing things, you know that you will be hearing from me frequently! I am glad to be working with Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale again (they are the guys who wrote Superman for All Seasons). You know my real love for them comes from their Batman comic books (one of which I will be using in an upcoming paper that I will be presenting at Purdue) like Batman: Haunted Knight.

This is my first Daredevil comic to be reviewing, and I am glad to do it because the Daredevil character has generated some excellent stories. However, as you can tell from the grade I gave this particular comic book, this Daredevil certainly did not change my life, although it is pleasant enough. In fact, that is the exact word I would choose to describe Yellow: pleasant. The story harkens back to the classic All American story - the love story.

The presentation of the story is good - a very simple feeling story that is presented simply. In fact, that is what I love about it. It is a story rich with feelings that are easy to relate to, but there were just some elements in the story that felt awkward and out of place. For example, Loeb and Sale are attempting to give homage to the long history that has surrounded Daredevil, like the fact that his first case was helping the Fantastic Four, but in this story it doesn't fit and distracts from the story rather than adding to it. So, little digressions like this detract from what should be the main purpose here: storytelling. Even if storytelling wasn't the main purpose, there should be a more convincing reason for including elements like that, which simply feel painfully out of place.

However, in many ways it is a good origin story about Daredevil. That is why you see him garbed in yellow (his color is traditionally completely dark red). This color comes from his father's old boxing robe that he constructs into his costume. I like that Loeb and Sale broke away from the classic Daredevil to dress him in yellow, and you know that I love the art of Tim Sale! That is one of the best assets of Yellow because his simple, clear style fits well with the simple nature of Loeb's storytelling.

Nevertheless, I just did not find the simple story in this Daredevil to be compelling enough. I am not sure what exactly it lacked, but I think that it didn't develop certain points fully, which made the whole story feel rushed at times or even a little disjointed. I am afraid that this will happen with a lot of comic stories that are tied up in the mess that is the long long long history that makes up the Marvel universe. Part of me loves the idea of all the continuity between the superhero stories, but I think that usually it just leads to awkward mentions of things that don't always fit in the story.

All in all, this is a diverting book. I would say it is worth a read, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend that you buy it, which is why I am not going to give you a link to purchase it. Instead, I would suggest you go to your local library and rent it! Don't worry, if they don't have it you can always inter-library loan it, which means they borrow it from a neighboring library that does have it! Until next time; go enjoy some art!