***Spoilers about much of Daredevil – you’ve been warned***
I’ve been a Daredevil fan for just about as long as I can remember. He always peaked my interest and my interest was repeaked when I learnt that Kevin Smith had written an arc. I bought it all up and needed more. I since own every issue of the new volume of ol’ hornhead, and a good majority of the first volume. I thought that Smith’s run was pretty good, and that Joe Quesada’s art was really bloody good. Then I read the Bendis run.
Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev took Daredevil to a completely new level, in my opinion. The art was completely stellar. The stories were good and as a complete run, Bendis is top of the line for Matt Murdock.
Purists will try and argue that Frank Miller was, and is, the definitive Daredevil storyteller. And he was good, but I say (and risk any fanboy ire) that he might have been slightly overrated in his work on the Scarlet Swashbuckler. His first run, especially as writer, certainly set up the most iconic Daredevil that we have to date. Kingpin as the nemesis, Bullseye as the opposite, Elektra as the forever lost girl and ninjas as the background to it all. He made Matt Murdock a brooding Catholic and the gritty hero that he still is to this day. I do not take that away from Miller. But, good as his stories were there, Bendis does it better.
And yes, I know, Miller did Born Again, and EVERYONE loves Born Again, but maybe I just don’t get it. It’s a good story, sure, but great…I don’t personally think so. Maybe it was for its time, but surely not now. It starts off good, a great high concept, Kingpin destroys Murdock’s life when he finds out Murdock is DD. That’s good fiction. But then we get Nuke and a huge battle with helicopters. It just didn’t gel with me. It was a little crazy and didn’t quite feel like DD to me.
With Bendis’ stories (and Maleev’s, he had just as much to do with the success) we get so much more. Murdock outed to the press as Daredevil. Murdock coping with the constant prying into his life, and the need for quality bodyguards in the form of Lucas Cage and Jessica Jones (matchmaker that Murdock was, ha). We get Murdock dropping Kingpin from his perch and installing himself as the new kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen. We get Murdock marrying a lovely young blind thing and slowly losing his mind. Then, the best storyline so far in DD lore I believe, we get the Murdock Papers.
Kingpin suckers Murdock into revealing that he is DD and off to jail goes the contemptuous Matt Murdock, Attorney at Law. You take the run as a complete and Bendis seeded so much in there. You take certain storylines, like Murdock Papers and you get gold DD. You take certain moments, like Daredevil’s one sided fight with Bullseye that is possibly one of the best things I have ever read, and you get a character who is interesting. You get more than just Daredevil, you really get Matt Murdock as well.
I have liked Ed Brubaker’s run on DD so far. His prison tales were good, his European jaunt had much to like (hearing the Matador say “Dios Mio!” was worth the price of admission alone) and I really liked the way he ended his Mister Fear arc. All with quality writing and great art from Michael Lark. DD was holding up as a must read for me, but it just wasn’t boss. It wasn’t Murdock Papers, not yet.
The last arc, with Greg Rucka, was solid, but not exactly what I wanted from my old friend Murdock. But it did help set up Dakota North further in my head as a kick ass character. I really like her in the book’s ensemble, and made me hate when she got shot and left for dead at the end of that issue. Brubaker was reeling me in, but I was not yet landed, quite honestly. Then, last night, the oar hit me on the head. I’m out cold in the bottom of the boat right now.
Lady Bullseye Part One just completely blew me away. It’s an issue where it feels like perhaps not a lot happens, and it is mostly set up, but I loved the issue. Loved it so much that I read it again this afternoon straight after work and before my run so that I could think about it for the next half an hour as I hit the pavement.
Lady Bullseye got pretty roughly trashed by the fanboys on the wwInterweb before she even hit a newsstand, people not liking the feminisation of a previously popular character. Majority seemed against it, but that majority didn’t seem like the crowd reading the book anyway, so fuck ‘em, right?
The issue gives detail of who she is, and where she came from. Simply and well written. We see what she does, reconnaissance, and who she is after, which really peaked some interest in me, not what you might initially expect, but promises to yield some pretty awesome showdowns.
The other half of the issue dealt with pretty mundane stuff. Murdock helps North heal, with the doctoral help of Daniel Rand, and shows her some stretches. Oh, how he shows her some stretches.
Murdock has always been an arc-fucking-bushman, but even this takes it to new levels. His wife, Milla, is in the loony bin because of him. He loves her and wants to care for her, like any good husband. Dakota North seems to have staked a claim well under his wing and they work well together. That’s why it hits so hard, but so real.
Murdock and North kiss during a ninja yoga session after some serious chat. Neither knows what they are doing, but it all goes ahead anyway. They are next in bed, and Murdock is shitty that he did it, but also that it doesn’t feel that bad. He leaves her in the bed, with a fantastic panel showing her in profile, we see what Murdock sees.
This whole concept has completely interested me. Maybe because you see shit like this happen a lot. You see people make stupid mistakes and I really want to see how Murdock deals with this one. Cheating on your insane wife with your hot ex-model PI may put you into some hot water. I want to know how North is going to deal with it as well. I like that we can see inside Murdock’s thoughts and I think Brubaker is doing a hell of a job writing this one at the moment. I really cannot wait to get to the next issue on this one.
Superhero infidelity. Should I hate him for it, and why don’t I?
Posted on October 21st, 2008 by ryan
Filed under: comics | No Comments »
