Reviewer: Will Cooling
Title: King of Hell’s Kitchen Pt 5
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Art by: Alex Maleev
Coloured by: Matt Hollingsworth
Lettered by: Virtual Calligraphy’s Cory Petit
Editor: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Marvel Knights/Marvel
One of my firm pop-culture theories is that superhero comics are very similar to musicals with the shame brash characters, OTT costumes, garish colour schemes, dubious sexuality and a charming unpretentiousness borne from a sense of camp ridiculousness. The only difference is that in superhero comics the big show tunes are replaced with the equally gay spectacle of men in tight pseudo latex costumes fighting each other. Now during the literally dark days of Miller-O’Neil hegemony where ultra-realism was the order of the day comics lost this camp spectacle feel only for it to (thankfully) return with The Authority with all the similarities with musicals back to the fore and the fight scenes better than ever with even bigger baddies and tighter costumes (yum) all of which was given a nice bass line of the caustic irony of a slack-jawed Oscar Wilde.
Why do I mention this I hear you ask? Well you see one of the few comics currently out that maintain the Miller-O’Neil approach is Bendis/Maleev’s Daredevil with a good straight emphasis on intensity, characterisation and grittiness. Yet at the end of last issue where Murdock (now back as Daredevil after a year off) along with Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Spider-Man attack the headquarters of the Hell’s Kitchen Yakuza (cue redneck cries off “bloody foreigners; coming over here taking our mobsters jobsâ€) we were obviously being primed for the highlight of anti-realist comics-the big fight scene. Now Bendis as seen by the last time he tried such a scene (Ultimate Six 6) has a slight problem in writing these in that these as re-popularised by Millar & Ellis are supported by a superficial, knowing sense of irony that he really doesn’t seem able to duplicate therefore this time round he hedges his bets. The first section of the fight scene is indeed “Daredevil and friends do Zulu” as the faceless Jap hordes come at them from all sides. This is well constructed with Spider-Man proving useful lip-service to the necessary irony with him zinging all over the place contributed some choice one liners. The second part is Daredevil v. Yakuza Leader, which is more Bendis’ forte seeing as its basically two guys beating the crap out of each other while being really intense (bit like HHH matches before he started to wear those purple trunks). Now its fantastically written with Bendis perfectly capturing Daredevil at he’s menacing best but didn’t we have this fight like 6 issues ago (the Mack issue DO NOT count)? Not only that didn’t it have a fully rounded character that had a chance of beating Daredevil? Its nit picking I know but it’s still slightly annoying none the less.
Of course there’s not even small problems with Alex Maleev’s art, which combines mature and thoughtful linework and use of shadow to produce art with a visceral, ugly beauty all given unparallel (in mainstream American comics) texture by the superb pastel-esque colouring of Matt Hollingsworth. Maleev has a very unique approach to fight scenes with his panels having a hanging, static quality that brings them closer to individual paintings than filmic frames. Some don’t like it but personally I feel it captures the intensity of the script and the fight excellently especially when Bendis turns it up a notch for the climatic fight. He manages to give us some amazingly effective panels that offer more characterisation than a hundred words could (of course this being Bendis we get the hundred words as well).
Where Maleev is particularly effective at capturing the cathartic silence after Daredevil defeats the Yakuza leader making for an easy segue into the anti-climax as Bendis hints at the choices faces the now sane Daredevil and Foggy told Milla last issue. Here Bendis’ grasp of characterisation, which hitherto had been surprisingly absent with two dimensional, generic bad guys, Iron Fist largely invisible and Spider-Man and Luke Cage being easy (albeit enjoyable) retreads of their established stereotypes. The characterisation on offer is miles away from the slack-jawed Wildean approach popularised by Mark Millar and promises that this comic will continue to stand apart in a superhero market dominated either by the ironic or the retro.
And I for one I’m glad.
