WARNING: Avoid this book if you are easily offended!
There, that should get some of you reprobates interested in this purely satirical riff on the fondly remembered yet tragically flawed Golden Age of Comics. Not Daredevil uses all of the original artwork from the old comics, inserting new and horribly irreverent dialogue to create something… well, let’s call it “new” and be done with it.
The title’s editor, Mark Gleeson- no relation to Lev Gleason of “Lev Gleason Publications”, the first home of the creation of Jack Binder- had this to say when he contacted thePullbox about putting something together for his book:
Thanks to our rivals at Timely Comics we are unable to use the original name of the star of our own series. The Golden Age Daredevil was created by the o.g. Lev Gleason in the 40s and enjoyed a successful run before eventually falling into the public domain.
NOT DAREDEVIL is like nothing that has gone before it. Rather than a straight forward reboot we are using “Uncle Levs” toys in a new and unique way…
Rather than dragging the characters kicking and screaming into the modern day our series is set in the weird racist campy universe the originals were.
With stunning artwork by the legendary Charles Biro and award winning Don Rico “Not Daredevil” captures the warm nostalgic feeling of the Golden Age while the narrative is injected with a fresh modern satirical social commentary on the context and culture of the era. It’s supposed to be funny.
I think it is interesting and I hope you will too. It’s a weird pseudo intellectual superhero parody history lesson type of thing. It’s hard to explain but you’ll understand when you read it…
Again, I can’t reinforce enough the fact that this book is going to bother people, as it tears down the tropes of racism and misogyny that were mainstays in many of the comics of the time. That said, it’s humor reminded me of the soon-to-be-late Mad Magazine (may its twisted light forever shine in the hearts and minds of readers everywhere), with total disregard for any hurt feelings that may be incurred. For what it’s worth, I got a kick out of the rocks that were repeatedly turned over, dug up, and/or used to beat the simplicity of the Golden Age over the head.
Without further ado, you can check out what’s going on with New Gleason Publications at their Patreon page. And before you shuffle yourself along, you can even check out a free copy of the first issue of Not Daredevil… See, it could really be a lot worse.
But still… I did warn you.
