DVD ‘Daredevil’ outmuscles current ‘Hulk’ in the theaters

This chronic feature lets me review what’s recently passed my bloodshot pupils. So pull up a chair, break out the sarcasm filter and welcome to:

Mr. Zad’s comic critique

Daredevil, DVD (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, $29.99). The bloated miscue of director Ang Lee’s film adaptation of the Incredible Hulk looks unforgivable when compared to the fast-paced film drama afforded to tell the tale of Marvel Comics’ Man Without Fear.

I mention this because after digesting almost 150 minutes of “Hulk” at a theater, I soon popped in the DVD version of “Daredevil” and felt rejuvenated about bringing superheroes to the silver screen.

“Daredevil,” the movie, has actor and comic-book lover Ben Affleck taking on the role of blind lawyer Matt Murdock — aka Daredevil — who has been part of the Marvel Universe of characters since his introduction by writer Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett in 1964.

Mr. Affleck gets huge assistance from Colin Farrell, who plays archenemy Bullseye, as they demolish humans and scenery with a Greek tragedy love interest, Elektra, played by Jennifer Garner, aboard to further complicate a brooding plot of revenge and heroic vigilantism. The addition of Michael Clarke Duncan (John Coffey in “The Green Mile”) as another famous Marvel villain, the King Pin, rounds out a depressing story for Mr. Murdock but an exhilarating one for the Daredevil fan.

The film packs a wallop thanks to Matrix-like action scenes, the spark between Miss Garner and Mr. Affleck and the ability to faithfully re-create a story reminiscent of writer-artist Frank Miller’s successful 1980s run on the comic-book series.

Great, the comic aficionado sayeth — but what does the two-disc DVD package do for me and my kind who have already seen the movie as well as those humans not familiar with the protagonist?

Well, Natchios cheese breath, the first disc not only brings the 103-minute film to crystal-clear life, but also offers an enhanced viewing mode that, when played in tandem with a commentary track by director-writer Mark Steven Johnson and producer Gary Foster and on-screen text trivia, deconstructs both the cinematic accomplishment and sequential-art success story of the character.

Viewers will learn how Mr. Johnson has wanted fanatically to be a part of this movie since he was 14, understand the painstaking process involved in getting the costume to look just right — trying to appease both fan and studio weasels — and get prompted on what comic books must be read to completely understand the Daredevil mythos.

Two fantastic areas, broken up into film and comic, make up the second disc, with each anchored by an almost hourlong documentary.

“Beyond Hell’s Kitchen: Making Daredevil” simply looks at all of the fun involved in making an angst-ridden action picture as passionately as possible, right down to Miss Garner obsession-mastering the sai weapon and how a story by consultant Tom Sullivan led to the brilliant rain sequence in which Matt Murdock first sees Elektra in his Shadow world.

Also under film: Look for a tepid screen test of Miss Garner, a photo gallery of more than 100 images, three music videos and a few multiangle scene studies of key action sequences.

As for the comic banner, “The Men Without Fear: The Art of Daredevil” feature uses interviews with sequential-art legends and legends in the making; among them Stan Lee, Gene Colan, John Romita, John Romita Jr., Frank Miller, Joe Quesada, David Mack and Brian Michael Bendis — along with plenty of comic art to explore the illustrative heritage of a hero Mr. Miller considers unique for being known for what he cannot do.

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