Summary
Donny Cates, kicks off a 20th-anniversary celebration of the classic 90’s run in Marvel Knights 20th #1, but a phoned-in story and inconsistent art leaves the issue feeling tired by the end.
The saviour of Marvel, Donny Cates, kicks off a 20th-anniversary celebration of the classic 90’s run. You remember those old Twilight Zone episodes where a guy would be in a situation that he knows can’t be real, and the people all around him act like they don’t know him even though he knows they do? Well, neither do I really, but that’s the strange kind of vibe that Cates is wrapping Marvel Knights 20th around.
Daredevil finds himself at the grave of Karen Page but doesn’t know why, who he is, or who she is. The Punisher shows up and tries to bring him up to speed, with the help of weird car ridden nerd Banner, but DD rejects the offer and after a smack on the head starts to remember some of his backstory.
Meanwhile, in cutaway, we see Bullseye watching the attack. As he reports his findings to a hidden mastermind, we are told that he is suffering the same bout of amnesia as Murdock.
So you get the idea of what’s going on here, and as Matt tries to find some salvation, we stumble across different characters, all trapped in the Matrix apparently, and there’s a mysterious after credits sequence where we get a bit more information about the overall arc.
I guess the reason that this feels like an old premise is that it is. It’s been done before and as a result, this feels like a rehash. The art by Travel Foreman is also a little rudimentary. There are some nice moments in there, but as a whole, it’s very uninspiring. The opening splash page that should reel us in visually is spoiled by a terrible gravestone that is literally a grey block with a name on it. Worst grave ever.
There’s a nice full-page montage that I liked looking at, but a few more pages down the line we see some horrible panels with Matt, Foggy and Jen Walters that look out of proportion, rushed and awkward.
So as a first issue this comic falls a little shot of what it’s meant to do. A phoned-in story that feels tired by the end of the issue and inconsistent art means I probably won’t pick the rest of these issues up. It’s a $4.99 book that features some of Marvel’s most recognised characters but it’s just so vanilla that I might save my money for something better.
