2018 Upper Deck Daredevil Season 1 & 2 Trading Cards

Review

2018 Upper Deck Daredevil Season 1 & 2 Product Review

Reviewed by Trey Treutel

Good: Loaded autograph checklist; good insert variety.

Bad: Manufactured film cels count as a box hit; some designs are a little boring.

The Bottom Line: While the set has other attributes of note, the key aspect for 2018 Upper Deck Daredevil Season 1 & 2 is the autograph checklist. That alone is a strong enough reason to consider opening a box if you are a fan of the show.

Card Design: 3.5/5.0

Given Upper Deck's ability to produce some very cool entertainment sets, I was a little underwhelmed by the base design. This is not a show that transfers to cards as well given that many of the images come from night scenes or just seem darker. When you add in a brick building frame, it does little to improve that.

The backs are largely the same with red-tinted glasses, but I did enjoy how each card switched the image visible in the lenses to match the plot point covered on the front.

Also, while the base parallels are fairly simple with multiple Daredevil logos added to the background, I find that it fits the style better than some crazy colored foil or holographic fill.

Contrasting nicely with the darker base set are several of the inserts. I particularly liked the Episodic Art cards which come with an ornate frame border. I also thought the chalkboard quote for Speak the Language was amusing, and the newspaper-style Hell's Kitchen Headlines brought a little more of the show into the set.

On their own, the Rabbit in a Snowstorm autograph cards are not the most exciting, but they really stand out in a good way in comparison to the darker style of the base cards. I keep holding out hope that one of these days Upper Deck is going to make the switch to on-card.

From a design perspective, the Film Cels cards look great and I would have assumed they were the real deal. My issue is that they are manufactured and count as a box hit in an entertainment set. I admit I have a hard time getting past that.

Checklist: 4.5/5.0

I struggle to come up with a set for a tv series or movie that has this many of the big characters in the autograph checklist, including Karen Page (Deborah Ann Well), Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), Punisher (Jon Bernthal), Elektra (Elodie Yung) and Daredevil (Charlie Cox). If you had to look for a gap, Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin is probably the biggest omission. Yes, it's not only the show's stars in the list but it is a very strong lineup overall.

While they are not nearly the same draw as the autographs, I did like the Memorable Moments cards that brought in the comic book aspect. Too many sets get stuck in their niche and things like this provide a little extra info.

Value: 3.75/5.0

Like most sets, value depends heavily on the hits. Each box averages 2-3 cards from a group that includes sketches, autographs and Film Cels.

If you look at the odds, the most likely outcome in a box is 1-2 Film Cels cards and 1 autograph, but you could just end up with 2 Film Cels. Boxes are running about $105-120 right now, so there is still a fair amount of risk. The upside is there, as well, and it helps that there are multiple signers that can make a box a huge win rather than just one big name.

The Fun Factor: 4.0/5.0

When you pull an autograph for the title character, it is generally difficult to have a bad box experience. Though, compared to other Marvel UD sets, the wow factor, especially when talking about design, is not the same. I chalk that up more to the action-drama aspect of the series than anything else, but it did cap the excitement a little.

2018 Upper Deck Daredevil Season 1 & 2 Gallery

The box used for this review was provided by Upper Deck Entertainment.

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