{"id":11113,"date":"2016-03-07T13:46:46","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T18:46:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/?p=11113"},"modified":"2016-03-07T15:24:04","modified_gmt":"2016-03-07T20:24:04","slug":"top-comic-book-adaptations-no-1-daredevil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/2016\/03\/07\/top-comic-book-adaptations-no-1-daredevil\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Comic Book Adaptations: No. 1 – Daredevil"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"daredevil\"<\/a>When I was in high school, they showed me <\/span>Citizen Kane<\/span><\/i> and told me it was the greatest movie ever made because \u201cevery single shot was a purposeful decision.\u201d I never quite got Orson Welles\u2019 greatness, but that sentiment that every little detail was given attention in order to create a magnificent whole is exactly how I felt about <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

No line of dialogue, no moment of choreography or action, no camera angle, no piece of lighting or sound, no plot point, no minor nuance of a side-character is taken for granted in <\/span>Daredevil. <\/span><\/i>Every single piece of the puzzle serves the next. More importantly, the elite technical and artistic elements aren\u2019t just there to showcase the phenomenal talents of those who made <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i>, each one is further enlightenment to the show\u2019s themes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that our main character is blind gives the artists in charge of aesthetics so much flexibilityto play with shadows and light and in so doing they created with practical effects the same thing achieved through heavy doses of animation by <\/span>300 <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Sin City; <\/span><\/i>a moving, breathing graphic novel. Never is the audience forced to look at a bland beige corridor or a standard office room. Every scene is bursting with color or conversely extreme blacks that turn characters and cityscapes into mesmerizing silhouettes.<\/span><\/p>\n

The neon lights and reflections off glass, the out of focus city lights in the background, and expert use of pure blackness carve out a show that doesn\u2019t look like anything else. It feels like a 10-hour-long <\/span>Citizen Kane, <\/span><\/i>where every bit of these remarkable style decisions inform our understanding of what it\u2019s like to live Matt Murdock\u2019s life or those of the people around him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps my favorite side-character in the show is the city of New York, specifically Hell\u2019s Kitchen. The fact that the show was filmed on location in the city it is supposed to take place in makes <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i> feel simultaneously like the most grounded and \u201creal\u201d adaptation of all time and also the most stylish and faithful adaptation of the profound artistry that invented these characters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether it serves to reflect Murdock\u2019s abilities or disability, the chaos of the city, or the moral dilemmas at hand, every tiny element of Daredevil<\/em> glows in its own right well making everything else around it better.<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of morality, Daredevil<\/em> has plenty to offer beyond just an unmatched viewing and listening experience. We can argue over the difference in their methods all day, but both Murdock and Wilson Fisk believe that the ends justify their means. The decision to live outside the law to achieve their goals is one they share. Furthermore, Murdock admits to \u201cenjoying\u201d what amounts to torture in order to get the information he needs while Fisk is adamant that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t enjoy being cruel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a comment on the way Americans treat extreme interrogation versus murder and the comment is far more effective than films like <\/span>Zero Dark Thirty<\/span><\/i> which tend to glorify the \u201cends justify the means\u201d on one side.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a scene about midway through the overall narrative of <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i>, Fisk is giving a speech to the public in which he reveals his goals including his overarching desire to \u201csave the city.\u201d In any other story featuring a \u201cgood guy\u201d and a \u201cbad guy\u201d the audience would have been left with the obvious conclusion that he is just lying, because bad guys who kill people tend to be one dimensional on film.<\/span><\/p>\n

But instead, Murdock uses his heightened senses to detect that Fisk is telling the truth, and the look on his face when he realizes that he and his adversary have the exact same goal, and not as a talking point but in their hearts, is a mixture of absolute confusion and pure horror.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fisk isn\u2019t the boogeyman. He isn\u2019t some straw man that can justify breaking all the rules to bring down. This nuance blasts away at our entire national discourse, not just in politics but the way people in the world tend to assume that those who disagree with them on big topics are doing so because they are evil, or stupid, or lying, or not objective like we are. <\/span>Daredevil <\/span><\/i>refuses to treat its characters, even the most brutal ones, as caricatures.<\/span><\/p>\n

Vincent D\u2019Onofrio is so stellar in his performance that by the end of the season the audience still finds themselves feeling bad, and maybe in some small way rooting for The Kingpin of Crime even though we have personally witnessed him take a man\u2019s head off with a car door. Still, at the end, I find myself with a feeling often reserved for the hero: \u201cJust run off with the girl and get away from all this. You don\u2019t need to do this. You guys can be happy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

How D\u2019Onofrio and Charlie Cox weren\u2019t recognized by any major awards is beyond embarrassing for the industry. The first time I saw a screenshot of Cox as Murdock my first thought was \u201che is way too small and I\u2019ve never heard of this guy, I doubt he is good enough to play a character this nuanced.\u201d By the end of his first monologue in the first episode – delivering a \u201cconfession\u201d at church – I was over all that. <\/span><\/p>\n

I would put D\u2019Onofio\u2019s performance right up there with Ledger\u2019s in <\/span>The Dark Knight<\/span><\/i> but if we\u2019re comparing the Top 2, Cox blows Christian Bale\u2019s Bruce Wayne out of the water. And I\u2019m not anti-Bale and have zero problems with \u201cbatvoice\u201d but that\u2019s just how good Cox is in <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i>. Rosario Dawson also delivers an award-caliber performance as does another newcomer-to-me Toby Leonard Moore who is splendid as Fisk\u2019s only trusted friend, Wesley.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daredevil<\/span><\/i> is just as good as <\/span>The Dark Knight<\/span><\/i> in terms of each individual category you could give an award to, and at times is even better. And there\u2019s eight hours more of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

The only criticism I have of this show\u00a0is that it can be pretty brutal which will turn some people off, and there is <\/span>no way<\/span><\/i> they should be able to drink as much as they do with as little money as they make. When you are down to those complaints, you are really nitpicking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daredevil<\/em> makes comments on modern journalism (or the death thereof) and how the law can be used to do evil just as it can sometimes need to be skirted to do good. And then the show asks us to truly consider the consequences of justifying our actions to ourselves especially considering a central theme that the information flow can often keep us from even glimpsing the real truth.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, if the show is so great, and so well crafted, and so smart and insightful, and so unmistakably gorgeous to watch and listen to \u2026 why was it shut out of award season? I cannot say because I do not know. But the 98 percent approval rating from critics who actually did watch the show suggests that we still have a long way toward legitimizing the form in the mainstream.<\/span><\/p>\n

You couldn\u2019t get 98 percent approval for oxygen in this country so my theory is that just not enough people saw <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i> since almost literally everyone who did agreed it was phenomenal.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been talking a lot throughout this list about who these adaptations are for. The big budget movies (<\/span>Dark Knight<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Avengers<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>X-Men<\/span><\/i>) all need to appeal to wide audiences, some of whom might not have been fans in the first place. Smaller endeavors like the CW shows can\u00a0focus their content much more specifically toward hardcore fans and do crazy stuff like making King Shark a regular character.<\/span><\/p>\n

What <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i> accomplished in Marvel\u2019s partnership with Netflix was to find a middle ground where a more adult and contemporary tone can be taken (as opposed to network TV), but where the budget and process weren\u2019t so grand that they couldn\u2019t afford to take too many risks. <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i> is the perfect combination of a cop-law-and-justice procedural, an action thriller, a political commentary, and a comic book. It doesn\u2019t have a legacy yet, and those who hand out hardware missed it altogether (and prompted me to boycott both the Emmy\u2019s and Golden Globes), but if the question is what piece of live-action art best combines the most compelling elements of comic books and film, <\/span>Daredevil<\/span><\/i> is my answer. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is <\/span>the<\/span><\/i> greatest comic book adaptation of all time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Complete 35-part list for best comic book adaptations ever!<\/p>\n

Part 1 – Daredevil<\/a> \/ Part 2 – The Dark Knight<\/a> \/ Part 3 – V for Vendetta<\/a>
\nPart 4 – The Flash<\/a> \/ Part 5 – Sin City<\/a> \/ Part 6 – The Crow<\/a>
\nPart 7 – Agent Carter<\/a> \/ Part 8 – X-Men: Days of Future Past<\/a> \/ Part 9 – Captain America: The Winter Soldier<\/a>
\nPart 10 – Guardians of the Galaxy<\/a> \/ Part 11 – X2: X-Men United<\/a> \/ Part 12 – Iron Man<\/a>
\nPart 13 – The Avengers<\/a> \/ Part 14 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)<\/a> \/ Part 15 – Superman (Richard Donner)<\/a>
\nPart 16 – Hellboy<\/a> \/ Part 17 – The Incredible Hulk<\/a> \/ Part 18 – X-Men: First Class<\/a>
\nPart 19 – Spider-Man 2 (Sam Raimi)<\/a> \/ Part 20 – Thor<\/a> \/ Part 21 – Ant-Man<\/a>
\nPart 22 – The Dark Knight Rises<\/a> \/ Part 23 – Spawn<\/a> \/ Part 24 – Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season Two<\/a>
\nPart 25 – Avengers: Age of Ultron<\/a> \/ Part 26 – Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan)<\/a> \/ Part 27 – Captain America: The First Avengers<\/a>
\nPart 28 – Batman (Tim Burton)<\/a> \/ Part 29 – X-Men (Bryan Singer)<\/a> \/ Part 30 – Spider-Man (Sam Raimi)<\/a>
\nPart 31 – Smallville: Season One<\/a> \/ Part 32 – Hellboy II: The Golden Army<\/a> \/ Part 33 – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, 3<\/a>
\nPart 34 – 300<\/a> \/ Part 35 – Man of Steel<\/a>\u00a0\/ Extra Part – Final Thoughts<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I was in high school, they showed me Citizen Kane and told me it was the greatest movie ever made because \u201cevery single shot was a purposeful decision.\u201d I never quite got Orson Welles\u2019 greatness, but that sentiment that every little detail was given attention in order to create a magnificent whole is exactly<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":144,"featured_media":11118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405,338],"tags":[2773,1931],"class_list":{"0":"post-11113","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-comic-book-tv-shows","8":"category-comic-books-2","9":"tag-comic-book-adaptations","10":"tag-daredevil"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/144"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hardwoodandhollywood.com\/pop-culture-spin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}