Daredevil

Daredevil 9-15

Echo!  I love this character.  Her deafness is a great contrast to Matt’s blindness, I love her look and backstory, and her power set, while a copy of Taskmaster’s, has always been a favorite of mine.

It’s a shame that her first arc is so uneven, both in art and writing.  Joe Quesada can’t stay on this for its entirety, and Dave Ross, while not horrible, can’t compare.  On the writing side, the parts without Echo suffer horribly.  Issue 12 is completely unnecessary filler, probably a failed attempt to help Quesada catch up.  The Kingpin court case is an equal waste of time.  The super promising Maya/Matt relationship fizzles after a horribly botched murder attempt.  (Echo shoots Kingpin in the head and he’s only blinded as a result?  Unbelievable.)  Such a disappointing arc considering the brilliant flashes of execution where it absolutely sings.  

How does David Mack not get a layout credit?  There's no way this is just Quesada.

This visual depiction of music totally reminds me of Cages...

...which I'll get to when I re-read it.

Great first date followed by a great first fight.

Love all the mimicking.

Beautiful.  Love the symmetry.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Hits every rating from Didn’t Suck to Really Good.  It’s impressive, really.

Daredevil 16-19

Brian Michael Bendis and David Mack collaborate on a story that hit hard the first time I read it, but comes off as surprisingly trite this time around.  The mystery revolves around a traumatized kid, and the big reveal is that he killed his abusive C-list supervillain father.  It’s much ado for a slight story, and if it weren’t for Mack’s insanely good art, I probably wouldn’t give it a second thought.

I really like how Bendis recalls Ben Urich's trauma from the Miller run.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Daredevil 20-21

The first two issues of an arc where Matt Murdock accepts a client who wants to sue Daredevil for property damage.  It’s not bad, but the writing by Bob Gale doesn’t stand out and Phil Winslade's art is below average.  It’s easy to understand why I stopped buying it the first time around, and it’s easy to cut these first two issues this time around.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: No

Rating: Fine