Daredevil Legends, Vol. 4: Typhoid Mary By Ann Nocenti

Aaron

This volume of Daredevil, which introduces one of his supposed greatest foes, has just about every problem comics had in the late 80s and early 90s. First of all, Typhoid Mary is introduced with basically no explanation for where she came from or why she's suddenly in town. There's a vast splash page of exposition used to attempt to explain her powers and her particular brand of lunacy, but all this did was further make me wonder "Why in the hell is she going after Daredevil? Why is she even in New York?" In this entire volume, these INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT motivation points are never explained. Basically, Typhoid Mary is just crazy and her powers seem to be whatever she needs in a given moment.

Secondly, the dialogue. Holy shit, it's terrible. People talk to themselves constantly, in ways no human being would ever do. They essentially just stand out in the middle of the street, explaining all their thoughts and what they think they should do next. Everything reads like "Oh that Daredevil. How I hate him. He is a thorn in my side for several reasons. I will now list every reason and fill this entire panel with speech bubbles. I have no interest in showing or taking action. It's far better for me to just stand right here and shout about my feelings. Oooooh, Daredevil! I'm going to get you!"

Additionally, Nocenti just cannot plot to save her life. It feels like each so-called progression of the Typhoid Mary storyline just jumps forward completely out of nowhere, with Mary just doing a new thing to Daredevil for no real reason. Kingpin's thought process is also super unclear. He is once again trying to ruin Matt Murdock's life for some reason (instead of just killing him, which he could easily do, but doesn't for a reason that is never made clear), so he tells Typhoid Mary to make Matt fall in love with her. So, she does. Lickety split. Matt falls in love with her IMMEDIATELY, cheating on Karen Page and potentially further ruining his own life, but it's never explained how Mary actually got him to do this. Was it a special power she had? Nocenti certainly didn't make it seem that way. Seems like Matt is just like "Oh, cool, a new girl, guess I'm in love now." It's absurd.

The one, minor shining light is a Batman: Knightfall-esque string of issues where Mary pits Daredevil against a slew of his most-never-heard-of enemies. While I had no idea who "The Bullet" or any of the other baddies were, the story plays out in a tense, desperate manner, and was the lone break of inanity the book had to offer.

But then top all this off with the fact that this volume doesn't have an ending. The Mary storyline just kind of peters out and disappears once the idiotic company-wide "Inferno" crossover starts, and as far as I can tell from researching Mary, she doesn't come back for a really long time. So, Nocenti had no idea how to end this, and just took the opportunity to sweep it under the rug once a crossover occurred.

The crazy thing is, when Marvel published the original "Daredevil Legends" collections, they printed three others: Daredevil Yellow, Born Again, and The Man Without Fear. These stories are 1 million percent top of the line grade A best of the best Daredevil stories. They are practically immaculate. The fact that they lumped Typhoid Mary in with all these other amazing stories is almost insulting to Daredevil fans. Guardian Devil, Miller's Elektra storyline, hell the initial Stan Lee stories. Any of these would've made more sense. I really have no idea what Marvel thought they were doing with this, other than the fact that this Typhoid Mary origin story was printed around the same time that Bendis reintroduced the character in his classic Daredevil run. So, maybe that's why? In any case, this isn't a "Legend," this is a "Garbage Dump." But I guess nobody would buy a collection called Daredevil Garbage Dumps: Typhoid Mary.

Aaron

A noted Daredevil storyline from 1988-89 featuring the introduction of Typhoid Mary, one of DD's more dangerous enemies. The Kingpin hires Mary to seduce Matt and break his heart, but she takes it a little bit too far.

Mary has dissociative identity disorder, her mind containing a psychotic and playful Typhoid and a sane and peaceful Mary. Her tactic of attacking Daredevil as Typhoid and actually causing Matt to fall for her as Mary was really compelling. She knew his secret identity but he did not know hers; Mary has some low level powers of telekinesis and mind control which appear to fool Matt completely, making her appear to be a completely different person as Typhoid. Considering Matt is at this time living happily with Karen Page, things go downhill quickly.

This was easily approaching four star territory for me, but about three quarters of the way through, a crossover from the
Inferno event disrupted the story, causing the Typhoid Mary story to be ended almost as an afterthought in the final issue.

Craig

Nocenti's work here is genius. The fact that she was writing these scripts at a major company is still shocking. Many people unfairly read this as subversive, overly political, etc (all of which may be true, for all I know), but what they completely miss is that Nocenti has put together an incredibly complex analysis of heroism and it's hypocrisy. The world is incredibly grey, where right and wrong begin to lose their meaning except in the eyes of the children here. I'm also fascinated by Nocenti's portrayal of Typhoid Mary as whore/ virgin and her use of Karen Page (former prostitute and crackhead) to bust up a child porn ring...sort of like sending an alcoholic on a stakeout in a bar. In any event, these stories are far more layered and rich than 99% of what was produced at the time or since.

Antti Rask

There's something about (Typhoid) Mary!

It is impossible to review this story without explaining the context a bit. I first read these comics in Finnish, in the nineties, as they were collected in a magazine called Sarjakuvalehti (you can actually see which Marvel comics were collected in it between 1990-96 on this website (it's in Finnish):
http://www.perunamaa.net/sarjakuvaroc...). So I must have been around ten at the time. And I can tell you that Daredevil (both Miller's and Nocenti's) made quite an impact.

After reading this collection now, at least twenty years later, I can still understand why I liked the stories in the first place. In hindsight is easy to say that while this story arc is much more coherent than in Nocenti's next one, collected in
Daredevil: Lone Stranger, there are still some severe plot holes, especially when the whole Inferno cross-over happens. I'm not saying cross-overs can't work ever, and actually I quite enjoyed this particular cross-over as such. But it does derail the main plot in a fashion that it never quite recovers from.

The one sort of a meta-thing I do like about these particular Daredevil stories is the way they depict the common people's reactions to all these major events (something the Marvel cinematic universe is getting into somewhat (most recently with the new Spider-Man movie)).

But in the end, when reading the story again, I was still impressed by the almost impressionistic feel of the comic. In my mind, this is John Romita Jr. at his freest. And Nocenti's Typhoid Mary and the supporting cast she brings to the table is still very effective.

Danny

OK, so I'm a huge fan of Daredevil, I remember seeing the Ben Affleck movie in the theater and thinking he was cool. As I got older, I became more curious about his comic book and eventually got to read them. Starting with Miller's groundbreaking Born Again, then working my way through the characters' most famous runs. Ask anyone. People will tell you the modern Daredevil we read is Frank Miller's Daredevil rather than Stan Lee's. So I've read Miller's, Bendis', Brubaker's, Waid's, and most of Zdarsky's run. The one run I've missed is Ann Nocenti's.

They never really released her run in an easy to buy trade or omnibus like the other writers. Does sexism have a play in this? Who's to say? But I've always been curious, especially since she created the character Typhoid Mary, who has such a cool arc in Bendis' run. Imagine my surprise when I explored another library in CT and found they had it. Now my problem, and why it's getting two stars, is that it's incomplete! It has a huge cliffhanger and makes the story end as if we won't see Typhoid Mary again. The book doesn't make you aware that it's part 1 of a series or an incomplete arc. It makes it seem as though it's the full story of Typhoid Mary or at least her full introduction.

The thing that's really aggravating, though, is that it was a genuinely solid story. Slightly Born Again-esque, but I would argue this crushed Murdock more than Born Again. His body got put through the ringer, and Mary got him to betray someone very close in a despicable way. Also, I tend to hate John Romita Jr.s art, but this time, I didn't mind. Perhaps the 90s coloring works for his art. Who's to say. My only complaints in her writing are mostly how comics work back then with internal monologues that over explain exposition. And yes, some dialogue is a bit dated. But it was a fun time. But that ending really aggravated me.

Unai

Segundo tomo de la etapa de Ann Nocenti a cargo del diablo de la cocina del infierno. Esta vez ya con John Romita Jr. como único acompañante. Si el anterior tomo era ya un buen comienzo tras la alargada sombra de Frank Miller y "Born Again", aquí despegamos definitivamente gracias a una de esas amantes que destruyen al héroe y de paso a la persona tras la mascara.

Dice Ann Nocenti que quería romper con los cánones femeninos en los tebeos y desde luego con María Tifoidea se rompió el molde, porque es una elementa de cuidado. De hecho son dos, María por un lado, dulce, fragil, inocente y por otro Tifoidea, una cruel asesina, manipuladora y femme fatale.

Un cuerpo y dos personalidades enfrentadas, una ama a Matt Murdock y este se siente mas que atraído por ella y por su carácter frágil y bondadoso. La otra tiene el encargo de hacer que Daredevil se enamore de ella para después romperle el corazón en un millón de pedazos, encargo por el que Kingpin la pagará un millón de dolares.

Entre medio de tan complicado asunto, Karen... siempre a la deriva, siempre sintiendo que Matt se le escapa entre los dedos. Karen con la vena que le pica y que puede recaer en la heroína en cualquier momento. Karen que por ayudar a Matt en un asunto de pornografía infantil, tiene que volver a entrar contacto con los mundos sórdidos de porno y degradación de los que acaba de salir.

Y en el centro de todo siempre Kingpin, la otra cara de la Cocina del infierno, planificando la destrucción total, tanto de el héroe y como del abogado. Con Foggy y Tifoidea como peones en sus planes para demostrar que el mundo es una mierda y que porqué Botin nunca pisó la cárcel. En fin, que me lío. Tomo imprescindible para los que gustamos de Daredevil y que tiene un poco de todo, desde juicios, conciencia social, ecológica y económica, a pegarse con Punisher, villanos que parecían fuera de circulación y siempre la Nueva York de los 80 y sus gentes, como un personaje mas, normalmente enfermo y aparentemente, sin solución.

La gran diferencia que veo entre estas historias y la puta mierda que hace Waid hoy en día, es que aquellas historias hacen crecer al lector, sobretodo si uno era un chaval inquieto. Podían hacer que se interesara por muchas cosas de las que dicen, comentan y suenan de pasada mientras que las de hoy en día de la etapa de Waid son de tan ligera digestión que se olvidan al momento. Los tebeos no son algo estructurado para educar, ni para concienciar, ni para entretener, sino que son los que su autor en ese momento quiera que sean. Ahora Waid no da mas que entretenimiento ligero, legitimo por supuesto que si, y exitoso en ventas, pero que a mi no me gusta ligado a Daredevil.

Nocenti llevaba su ideología de izquierdas, a unos guiones que apuntaban a varios niveles del héroe y de los villanos y eso se nota no solo en los hechos puntuales de las manifestaciones antinucleares de Daredevil, cosa de la que en Euskadi en esa época sabíamos mucho, por poner solo uno de los muchos ejemplos posibles, sino a algo mucho mas intrínseco en la naturaleza de los personajes, la ciudad, y por ende el alma de los propios tebeos que creaba para el cuernecitos. Pues como digo incluso la propia ciudad tiene alma, creada por sus ciudadanos y su violenta época ochentera y desde luego en este tomo, tiene demonios y no solo diablo protector.

Matt

It's a little difficult to review this book. The immediate impression I had upon finishing it was to wonder why Ann Nocenti isn't always mentioned in the same breath as the greats, such as (obviously) Frank Miller or Chris Claremont or Dennis O'Neill or... You get the idea. But taking into account the inconsistent nature of this particular storyline, I wonder if it's indicative of her output overall.

Let's get this out of the way; there are some great comics in this collection. Nocenti and Romita—whose art I usually can't stand—managed to follow up Frank Miller's legendary Born Again with the introduction of a character who was welcomed instantly into the canon of Daredevil's rogues gallery. I imagine the intent was to come up with another Elektra, and while they didn't quite do that, they did create a villainess/love-interest who stands on her own.

Daredevil is a character who seems forever doomed to have his life wrecked over and over again. Frank Miller did it a few times. Later, Kevin Smith would kill off a major character (who hasn't yet been resurrected). Recently, Brian Bendis outed his secret identity to the public and sent him to jail. The guy just can't catch a break. In this story, the Kingpin, who learned Daredevil's secret identity in the abovementioned Miller Story (Born Again), recruits a female criminal with a split personality and low-level tele- and pyrokinesis to destroy Matt Murdock. Her "normal" personality is Mary, a goodhearted and beautiful woman. The other goes by "Typhoid," and she is supremely damaged and sociopathic.

I suppose I shouldn't have been shocked by the maturity level of this particular arc, as Miller had really pushed the envelope in terms of sex and violence in his own issues. Still, I imagine that the content was just a hair from being rejected by the Comics Code Authority. (Of course, the Code had really relaxed its standards by that time. I remember reading a Batman comic from around the same time in which the main character stumbles across the corpse of a man who'd been mauled to death by a lion or tiger or some other such large cat. There wasn't much blood to speak of, since the image was dark, but there was an exposed rib cage.) Typhoid enjoys using men in just about every way one could think of, often letting them feel as though they have some sort of power over her while, in truth, manipulating them to do her will. The Kingpin even finds himself under her spell, and I found myself a bit surprised to see a panel or two of the two of them redressing, post-coitus. And if the Kingpin is succeptible to her lures, you can imagine that Daredevil, who has had an extensive number of past flames, would be fairly powerless.

At the beginning of the story, Murdock is once again involved with Karen Page. While he hasn't regained his law license, he still consults with a Hell's Kitchen attorney, allowing him to practice by proxy. The case in which he's currently involved concerns a young boy whose swim in a contaminated pond has left him blind. The company responsible for the pollution is owned by the Kingpin, unbeknownst to Foggy Nelson, Murdock's former partner who is representing the company. Meanwhile, Typhoid Mary has been wreaking havoc on the underworld in the city but for her own personal gain rather than the altruistic motivations that guide Daredevil. When Kingpin gets wind of her, he decides that she'd be perfect for his plan to break Murdock completely.

The unfortunate part of this book is Nocenti's tendency to get fairly heavy-handed when trying to make her points. In the first issue, she actually has the Kingpin thinking about how Typhoid Mary's dual personalities are a dark echo of Daredevil/Matt Murdock's. This point is made in a much better fashion in a later issue in which captions depicting the similar actions of Daredevil and Typhoid Mary, both of whom have just returned home from a fight with each other, are juxtaposed to show the similarities. (This latter example is by no means subtle, but it's still less hamhanded than the Kingpin's explicit illustration through his thoughts.) Also, couple of the issues feel like big message stories, such as when Daredevil and Karen try to rescue a kidnapped girl before she can be put through whatever horrors her captors have in mind. (I can't remember if this actually occurs, but dialogue like this would not have felt out of place here: "Did you know that [statistical number] children are kidnapped every day, and [percentage] are never seen again?") Probably the clumsiest example of Nocenti's awkward allegory is in the centerpiece issue, where Daredevil fights a large number of his rogues gallery during an anti-nuke rally. Many of the demonstrators remark that Daredevil and his nemeses are just like the U.S. and Soviet governments with their threats of mutually assured destruction. Personally, I don't quite see that the comparison is all that valid, but I'll admit that it's laudable that Nocenti would try to use her story to make some political commentary. I just wish it had been shown rather than told.

My biggest complaint about this collection are the last several issues. One features a fairly pointless guest appearance from the Human Torch, while the last two completely fumble the story. They're epic, to be sure, but not in the way it should be. This arc unfortunately happened to be released as Marvel was gearing up for Inferno, its crossover event of the year. In the penultimate issue, Daredevil goes through some very well-rendered hallucinations, which make this particular chapter stand out amid the weird goings on, but the final issue sees New York invaded by demons. I can imagine that people unaware of Inferno would find themselves scratching their heads as they read this portion of the book. Worse yet, it does nothing to resolve the Typhoid Mary storyline. I know that this particular thread was meant to lead into yet another new direction for the series, but it just feels like such a big anti-climax.

None of these things can take away from the greatness of most of the book. It was very daring, especially for its time. So if you've read through all of Frank Miller's Daredevil stuff and are looking for some more adventures of the Man Without Fear to try, you could do a lot worse than this.

Camilo Guerra

A mi me encanta Daredevil, con su actitud sufrida, que siempre cree en la justicia, sus saltos en la ciudad y sus enemigos de lujo, por eso me anime a leer este tomo y no me decepciono. Typhoid Mary es una asesina con dos personalidades, en un lado es una ternurita que dan ganas de invitarla a comer helado y contarle tu vida, en otra, es una Jesse Jane con poderes telekineticos y pirotecnicos que quiere sangre. Acá esta este Matt Murdock que siempre se mete en líos de faldas ( ah, para ser ciego y vivir sufriendo, no la pasa tan mal...) y aquí se pone en un baile eterno con Mary, que si, que no, que partamonos la cara, que besemonos...el guión de Noccetti es muy bueno, sobre todo en plot mas que en diálogos,mientras el arte de Romita Jr es muy bueno mientras que el entintado de Al Williamson es INCREIBLE dándole al arte un nivel que no habia visto antes en Romita. El Numero de BULLY es muy entretenido, me encanto como la pelea entre Daredevil y Punisher es narrada por el criminal.Si todo es positivo, ¿porque dos estrellas?, ah, por ese final tan cortado en el que INFERNO mete las manos y detiene la trama, no venia al caso y daña la historia de una manera inmunda,rompiendo el ritmo de la trama.

Divina

Typhoid Mary, classic femme fatale. Her seductive nature isn’t really put down, no one is calling her a slut or anything, but instead it’s a show of her power. She’s using mens desires for her to her favor.
Obviously, glaring problem with her character is the misrepresentation of DID, one innocent side, one dangerous side. As much as I hate that, it’s important to consider the context, because this WAS written in the ‘80’s, so I can’t expect them to have the best or most accurate representation. Many of the female characters didn’t really have personalities. Mary and Karen were both very … attached to Matt in an “Oh, Matthew~” way which got on my nerves.
This also very much had an anti-war message. Makes me think about all the people complaining about how newer comics or media based on comics have gotten ‘politicized’ when comics have always been political.
#262 is the most memorable issue for me. The illustrations of Matt’s visions of Stick are sick and … just something about them. Mm. Delicious.

Artur Coelho

Diretamente do final dos anos 80 do século XX, algo muito aparente no estilo visual, uma das mais duras inimigas de Daredevil. Typhoid Mary é uma vilã de personalidade dupla, tanto pode ser a inocente e manipulável Mary, como a violenta, sem limites e com alguns poderes telequinésicos Typhoid. Na sequência da reconstrução do personagem por Frank Miller, com Matt Murdock a sobreviver à conspiração de Kingpin para o destruir, Typhoid Mary entra em jogo. A sua missão? Uma segunda tentativa de destruir Daredevil, um novo ataque em duas frentes. O herói terá de enfrentar a vilã, e o homem questiona as suas escolhas graças à influência da outra personalidade. Tudo num estilo muito anos 80, que se revê com algum sorriso de nostalgia.

César MM

No me sorprende que sea uno de los clásicos de Daredevil. La edad oscuro del cómic le sienta muy bien a este superhéroe y Ann Nocenti no solo sabe sacarle jugo a este NY lleno de violencia, drogas y capitalismo salvaje, también nos da una de las malas más malísimas del mundo Marvel, Typhoid Mary. El trabajo artistico de John Romita Jr. al nivel del resto.

Jose

Mixed feelings. Would have enjoyed it more several years ago. Now, it was just a bit of MEH. But great character Typhoid Mary, not a bad Romita Jr and Kingpin as good as usual

Jay

I wanted to go back and read the origin of Typhoid Mary. This did NOT age well. Writing, art, pacing. Yeesh.

Elise

Probably deserves at least another half a star for Karen Page. (Karen Page!) I don't click with the way Nocenti writes Matt, but Typhoid Mary's an interesting chick, and also: Karen Page.

Eric

It's strange. Daredevil works best when written as a pulp hero, as with Frank Miller or Brian Bendis, but sometimes people just want to see him as a superhero doing big things, like they can with Spider-Man. I prefer the pulp every time, giving Daredevil something that makes him really stand out from other heroes.

This book is trying to blend both worlds, doing the superhero thing while building a dark atmosphere of story. The introduction of Typhoid Mary is actually very engaging and I'm glad I read this to see how she had her beginning. But really, that's where the power of this story is, in the tale of Mary, as well as the breakdown of Karen Page and Matt's relationship.

I'm going to read the rest of this story but I don't see it working it's way into my collection, it just doesn't have the same power as Miller or Bendis.

Alazzar

In my continuing quest to read more Daredevil, I found myself working up to Ann Nocenti's "Typhoid Mary" storyline. There's definitely some good stuff in here (it's always nice to see Daredevil's life take a beating, not because I wish him any ill, but because it's so interesting to see how he reacts to fate's latest kick in the teeth), but there's some less-than-good stuff as well. Like Typhoid Mary's visual design, for example. Who the hell came up with that? What's with the metal shoulders? She looks ridiculous.

Still, her character is interesting enough, even though it's disappointing that this volume doesn't actually resolve the Typhoid Mary story-line. (Boo-urns!)

Anyway, it's no Frank Miller, but then--what is? I'm glad I read the book, and look forward to continuing through the Daredevil paperbacks available at my library!

Kyle Moore

The definition of why event crossovers suck. The plot of the book gets shot in the last 2 or 3 issues by the inferno crossover. Suddenly the story shifts and makes almost no sence to anyone reading this without at least knowing what inferno was. The story itself is good, Typhoid Mary is a great character. Daredevil/Matt kind of suffer from focus shifting from Typhoid, Kingpin, and Foggy. The children in the book get to be annoying but only show up a few times so they are not that big of a deal. All of that being said I enjoyed the book but wished for more in a few different aspects.

Fugo Feedback

Por lo que veo en la descripción, el contenido de este tomo lo tengo distribuido entre los tacos 2 y 3 de
la colección de retapados que sacó Forum hace bocha. Cuando finalmente me los lea, veré si reparto la reseña entre esos libros y este o qué.

Tamir Hason

Well, it's an OK story. From the beginning it was good until the middle and end, when the frigging devil popped out of nowhere and out of context.

Nadia

Ann Nocenti's writing is not for everyone. It is weird. But it's definitely my thing.

Title	:	Daredevil Legends, Vol. 4: Typhoid Mary
Author	:	Ann Nocenti
Rating	:
ISBN	:	0785110410
ISBN-10	:	9780785110415
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	Paperback
Number of Pages	:	224
Publication	:	First published January 1, 1988

Daredevil Legends, Vol. 4: Typhoid Mary by Ann Nocenti

Daredevil Legends, Vol. 4: Typhoid Mary Reviews

Daredevil Legends, Vol. 4: Typhoid Mary Reviews

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