The Long and Short Of It – Daredevil #93

Reviews

Daredevil #93

Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano
Colours: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover: Lee Bermejo

The Long of It

Ed Brubaker can currently do no wrong. It is official. Everything he goes near at the moment; be it Captain America, Criminal, Uncanny X-Men or Daredevil; is considered to be golden. “Modern Classic” runs aplenty. Kill Nomad & Banshee? Barely a murmur from the assembled collection of basement-dwelling fanboys. Bring back Bucky, one of the sacred golden cows of Marvel, and present him to an audience jaded from a never-ending series of ridiculous resurrections? Just like falling off a log. Tackle the long-avoided hot-potato that is the third Summers brother? Not a sniff of a problem. Pick up after the award-winning run of Bendis and Maleev on Daredevil? Pah! Easy. Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast. How many writers have come into one of the Big 2 companies, made such an instant impact, and then been given the ball to really run with? I can’t think of any. And with Daredevil #93, the concluding part of the “The Devil Takes a Ride” arc, he is continuing to apply his Midas touch as liberally as he likes.


I don’t care how he does it, as long as he keeps doing it.


With this issue, Matt Murdock is able to finally start getting his life onto an even keel again. He finds that Foggy Nelson is alive and well and living behind an unfortunate moustache. The charges against him as Daredevil are dropped. He is reinstated as an attorney, and he and Foggy set up new offices, taking referrals only. He welcomes a new partner to the Firm-Formerly-Known-As Nelson & Murdock. He even manages to wrestle with his conscience sufficiently to settle his debt to Vanessa Fisk, by getting her husband freed from jail (albeit with the requirement that the Kingpin relinquishes his US-citizenship). All of this happens in one issue. How Brubaker is able to achieve this, but still maintain the feeling that there has been no jarring change of pace from the Bendis/Maleev run which was decompression incarnate, I have no idea. And I don’t care how he does it, as long as he keeps doing it. Matthew Murdock, after all his trials and tribulations (obvious pun intended), is back to being both the blind lawyer and the Man Without Fear.


Because marrying corpses is just plain wrong.


And yet despite all this progress in his life, there is still a rather large issue troubling him. His recent trip to Europe meant following around a woman who smelled like his heart’s desire. Surreal, I know. But go with it. Because the problem is that his heart’s desire is Karen Page. Who’s dead. And who clearly isn’t the woman he’s married to. Because marrying corpses is just plain wrong. So Murdock now needs to address the way he feels about Milla, his wife. And from the final page cliffhanger, it would appear that next issue’s “Milla’s Story” could be a little more complicated than young Matty needs right now.


In short, he is fast becoming one of the most influential writers of his generation.


Brubaker’s storytelling ability is tangible. He masterfully crafts a web of intrigue and sub-plots that have been sadly missing from Marvel comics since the advent of the trade paperback (one of my biggest bugbears). His stories can be vast and expansive as in this case or, as he showed in the recent Winter Soldier: Winter Kills one-shot (Thank you for this example to TLH from the reader forums), self-contained gems. Characterisation is intrinsic to his plotting, and his dialogue is intelligent without being ponderous or impenetrable. In short, he is fast becoming one of the most influential writers of his generation. And all this in such a very short time. But I don’t need to pucker up to his posterior any more than this. We’ve already given him awards for his talent in the recent Nexus Year-End Awards. So I can stop now.


A book that is almost a byword for quality.


His partner-in-crime however, Michael Lark, is still due some credit for the fabulous work he is turning in issue after issue. Alex Maleev was a hard act to follow. His work had defined Daredevil for the past few years, and had established the beautiful noir look with which Daredevil has now become synonymous. So choosing the right artist to follow that run was crucial. The tone of the book had to be maintained, despite the change in artist. So whoever it was that chose Michael Lark to take over the reigns has pulled off a masterstroke. This book is simply stunning. It has an air of sadness about it that mirrors the principle characters themselves, and Maleev’s characteristic noir style has been continued and progressed. Lark is establishing himself very quickly as an absolutely wonderful artist, and his style is enhanced further by the diligent work of Stefano Gaudiano and Matt Hollingsworth. The result of these three artists (yes, colouring is most definitely an art-form), and the writing skills of The Bru, is a book that is almost a byword for quality. Whenever you pick up an issue of Daredevil, you get the overwhelming feeling that it is a different class of product to almost everything else on the market today. Almost as if they are trying to deliver something completely distinct from the standard perception of a comic book. They are certainly setting themselves different standards than those set by others in the industry. And they consistently hit those heights.

One final point. When the guy responsible for Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius is your letterer, you know the book is pretty damn good.