Sorry everyone for being so late in posting this review. I intended to do it days ago, but the time got away from me and I’ve also been a little conflicted about what my feelings about this issue really are. Before writing this, I had to go back and read #118, as well as my review of that issue. In retrospect, my score of 8.5 for that may have been a little high and I don’t necessarily think this issue is worse, but there are some things that do bug me a little and collectively bring down the score for me.

What I do like about this issue is how the Kingpin is written and how he uses everyone around him like pieces on a big chessboard. It’s easy to understand his motivations and his actions. The plotting in general is really good, even though the actual motivations of the Hand are still a big, and fairly annoying, mystery at this point. I guess I’m still a little peeved about the fall-out of the last arc and the absolutely nonsensical decision on behalf of the Hand to try and recruit Daredevil. “We’re crazy ass ninjas, and we thought that might be cool” isn’t really an explanation in my book. Not that that’s the explanation we’ve been given, but in lieu of anything reasonable, this is what we’re left with. Either way, it’s the bad guys, including the Owl, and their shenanigans that really carry this entire issue. That and the stellar art, which is as good as always and really fits all of the night time action (I’m happy to hear that Matt Hollingsworth is staying as the colorist, by the way). Also, we find out this issue what Lady Bullseye’s chopsticks are for aside from holding her hair up, and that was a fun bonus, I guess.

However, we also find Brubaker playing the fellow cast member in jeopardy card. Twice. And, in one case, for no rational reason at all. The fact of the matter is that it’s clear at this point that he hasn’t been able to deliver on his goal of making the stories less about everyone attacking Matt’s personal life when that still seems to be all everyone is doing. I was also a little disappointed by Foggy’s quick turnaround. I happened to think that Foggy’s reaction last issue wasn’t over the top or uncalled for. Matt has been acting irrationally and selfishly for a long time now, and he deserved to be called on it. There is also very little of interest happening to the main character this issue. Brubaker writes the heck out of the Kingpin, but I’m starting to get the feeling that he doesn’t really know what to do with Matt, and that the character’s bewilderment at every turn is some kind of weird subconscious manifestation of that. There are also other little details that detract from the overall enjoyment of this book for me. Detective Kurtz has a Daredevil signal now? Is this Batman? And what’s with the sensory deprivation tank? Yes, we know Matt has one, as seen in the Miller run, but throwing in that reference seemed odd and unnessecary.

Will the next issue bring this arc around and give Brubaker’s run the great final issue I feel it deserves? I hope so, and I know the writer is capable of delivering, but in all honesty, I’m not holding my breath.

Tagged as: Daredevil vol 2 #100-current, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Reviews

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I want to start off by saying that I liked this issue a lot. I like the bigger story that we can feel brewing behind the scenes as well, and taken out of context as a stand-alone story, it’s top notch. But I can’t help feeling just a little conflicted.

The problem is that this is not a stand-alone story but a continuation of a thematic trend that has now gone on for so long that I’m starting to suspect that Ed Brubaker has some seriously sadistic tendencies. The good news about that is that it will give me enough material for at least two posts beyond this review. The bad news is that it’s beginning to wear me down. I will get back to all the reasons why in a later post, but now let’s move on to the issue at hand…

The beginning of this issue is set a few days after the end of the last, as evidenced by the fact that the details of the deal between Matt and Wilson Fisk have begun to crystallize and their plan to take down the Hand is set in motion. There is immediate doubt, however, regarding just how much Matt knows about the methods the Kingpin intends to use as the first few pages show the latter breaking Leland “the Owl” Owlsley out of custody. The Owl is a character which I certainly hadn’t longed or expected to see back, but who is put to very good use at the end of the issue.

There’s a great sense of a well conceived plot at play in this issue which reminds us of what Brubaker does best. The criminal mastermind disguised as a comic book writer, whom I got a real sense of when I finally decided to pick up his Criminal recently, leads us through the sordid consequences of the unholy alliance between Matt and the Kingpin, and the storytelling feels really tight. While I still have the same concerns as I did at the end of last issue (regarding why Lady Bullseye is still even interested in harrassing Daredevil), they are easier to dismiss this time around with the pace picking up and the stakes being raised.

Another great scene is the one between Matt and Foggy. While I don’t want to spoil the issue for anyone who hasn’t read it, suffice it to say that Foggy manages to shake the final vestiges of the lovable goof persona which held him back as a character for much of the first thirty years of Daredevil history. The only negative here is that it further highlights just how low Matt has sunk. While his deal with Fisk is incredibly intriguing and makes a perfect kind of sense, as Matt himself explains in this issue, there are aspects of Matt’s behavior and reasoning that, combined with what has been going on for the last couple of years, are making him less and less likable as a character. I do believe this is something that Andy Diggle will have to address in some way, if Brubaker doesn’t beat him to it with the final two issues of his run. I love the humanity and frailty of Matt Murdock as a character and I don’t mind his many flaws, but he is beginning to lose my respect and that is not the kind of development that I would like to see.

The art is good, as always, and the snow falling on Manhattan looks great on the page. I love the way Lark can make even the more exotic characters like the Owl look realistic while still being true to their original, more cartoonish, appearance. Lady Bullseye is also beautifully drawn and I have nothing negative to say about the art team at all.

With a full two months until the next issue, we will have plenty of time to digest the events here and to engage in fun, yet futile, speculation of what final surprise Ed Brubaker might have up his sleeve. With all of the pieces of plot set in motion here, I’m excited to see where this all might lead, but I have to admit that a big part of me hopes for some kind of spiritual redemption for my favorite guy in red. It’s beginning to seem long overdue.

Tagged as: Daredevil vol 2 #100-current, Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark, Reviews

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