Graphic Novel Reading Group discussion

I couldn't find a thread about the Daredevil Netflix series, which I thought was a superb adaptation.

The season 2 trailer just dropped and it looks every bit as good as season 1.

"You know you're one bad day away from being me."

https://youtu.be/m5_A0Wx0jU4

The first season of Daredevil surpassed my expectations and now I'm ridiculously excited to see the second season. I can't wait to see Bernthal bring Frank Castle to life.

Based on the trailer and perhaps the upcoming one, I like they are keeping the story sacred, except to say The Punisher and Elektra will play a big part. Plus I do think they nailed the casting of those two.

I really enjoyed the first season. Has anyone started season two yet? Hopefully I'll have time to start it soon.

I've started and finished season 2 on the day it aired, and it is amazing.

The second season isn't nearly as good.

There were a lot of shake-ups behind the scenes which resulted in the story being badly broken. As a result, the structure is a mess. The rush to finish seems to have left subplots and scenes still in their rough draft form. The entire court sequence, for instance. Even for a TV trial that was hilariously inept. It didn't help that Arrow had a nearly identical trial story and pulled it off masterfully.

The first few episodes of Season 2 are fantastic. It's telling two great stories. You've got the Punisher's story, which is really compelling and works as a nice little exploration on what counts as insanity: The Punisher is fully aware of what he's doing, and he knows that it's illegal, but he doesn't care. Is he really crazy? Or does he simply not subscribe to the same moral code as the rest of society? And then you've got the Elektra story, a complex woman who's free and adventurous and also kind of a toxic person who's dragging Matt into some dark places simply because she likes it.

And then the ninjas show up and ruin everything.

I feel like that really could be the tagline of the whole season: "Then the ninjas show up and ruin everything." Because the whole thing just completely falls apart. The Hand plot is BORING. It's all this vague pseudo-mystical crap, with no explanation of what the hell the Hand's goals are, what it is they're planning, anything. They're just faceless mooks to be taken down.

And it sucks that the Asian group is given so little personality. That they're just faceless, inhuman monsters to be defeated. The Hand aren't characters. The Irish were characters. The bikers were characters. The Japanese? Hell no. Not even close.

And that carries some really problematic racial undertones that make a lame and boring plot into one that's genuinely uncomfortable.

So, yeah. Season 2 starts strong, and completely falls apart as soon as the Hand are brought in.

Excellent point. Ninjas = cannon fodder.

They were probably also so focused on topping the hallway fight from season 1 that they forgot to have a reason for the battles this season. The stairwell fight is amazing, but I haven't seen anyone talking about it. And that's because without a solid story to back it up, it's just a pretty fight scene.

The only scene anyone is talking about is Frank's prison fight, and even then it's only a few people. What we really saw was a decent Punisher origin story (and the origin of his shirt) with a lot of extra business padding it.

I found Season 2 blew the first season out of the water. Enjoyed it much more.

I love the Daredevil series, can't wait for season 3. I didn't see a thread for this, I was wondering what people's thoughts were on the Netflix Punisher series? I thought the beginning was kind of slow, but other than that I liked it.

Punisher was far better than I expected. It had a lot less padding than the other Netflix Marvel shows. I'd put it right up there with DD1 and JJ.

I think I'd rank them as TP, DD1 and JJ as top-tier, first-place tie.
LC as second place.
DEF and DD2 as distant third place.
A kick in the pants at fourth.
Going to the dentist fifth.
A bunch of other stuff.
IF in 98th place.