Daredevil

Daredevil 88-94

Vanessa Fisk turns out to be the mastermind behind everything in the Brubaker run before dying of a terminal illness.  She presses the magic reset button and Matt’s no longer definitively Daredevil.  (There’s enough plausible deniability, I suppose.)  At this point, it’s basically the worst kept open secret in the world.  Everyone knows it, no one can/wants to prove it.  I’m a little sick of it, to be honest.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good

Daredevil 95-105

Mister Fear (who?) is the next big bad to rear his ugly head.  He’s basically Scarecrow dressed up as the Batman Phantasm.  He does a supremely effective pass at ruining Matt’s life - by the end of it, Milla and Melvin Potter are institutionalized with destroyed minds, Matt’s become a rage-filled, exhausted shell of a man, and the Hood’s gained a firm foothold in Hell’s Kitchen.  I’m really getting sick of down-on-his-luck Matt - He’s out Peter-Parkering Spider-Man, and there’s no fun in it.  At least Bendis injected some humor into his run.  Ed Brubaker’s version is all hopelessness.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: No

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Nice

Daredevil Annual 1

Focusing on the Black Tarantula, this is a nifty little story of a man who tries and fails to completely rehabilitate upon his release from prison.  But he still ends up a better man than he used to be.

Regret buying: No

Would buy again: Yes

Would read again: Yes

Rating: Pretty good