Trade Issues: Where Chris reads story arcs he should have read years ago!
About a year ago, I grabbed the first issue of Daredevil vol 3 on a whim while at the comic book store. I was reading every other #1 that was happening at the time so I figured, why the hell not? Within a few issues, I had a new favorite superhero in Daredevil. I attribute this mostly to Mark Waid's absolutely genius writing of the character. But an issue (or sometimes two) a month just is not enough. So, I began looking back through the first two volumes. Where to start?
Frank Miller seems like the obvious choice. But, due to All Star Batman and Robin offending me on a cellular level recently, I decided to wait a little bit on that. So why not go to Brian Michael Bendis' highly lauded run!?!? Well, that seemed like the perfect idea. Vol 2 was suppose to be excellent. But Bendis didn't write the first story in it. The first eight issues were penned by the Clerks/Mallrats/other awesome things director Kevin Smith. A die hard comic fan, he would seem like the perfect choice.
And you'd be pretty much right. Oh, screw you, it's my blog. Spoilers
The general gist of the comic is that a young girl finds Matt Murdock and inform Matt that she knows he is Daredevil. The girl then says that she was divinely impregnated, hands him her baby before she mention, that her child is the second coming of Christ and that Matt is destined to protect her. The girl then leaves without a trace. Within a day, Matt is approached by a second person. The old man tells Matt that the child is the anti-Christ and must be killed; and if Matt continues to protect the child, horrible things will begin to happen to him and those he cares about.
This leads to a severe moral dilemma for the Catholic Matt. Can he kill an ultimate evil when it's just a child? Or is it even the anti-christ!??!?!
The answers point to yes. As the old man promised, bad things began to happen to Matt and those he cares about. Karen Page returns to his life, HIV positive. Foggy is accused of murder. And to top it all off, Bullseyes makes a dramatic return to Hell's Kitchen. Matt isn't so much broken physically as he is broken mentally. This comic shows his inner torment extremely well as he constantly tries to come to terms with all the madness and loss going on around him.
And there is just so much loss for poor Matt. I can't think of another comic book character who so constantly loses the women he loves to the SAME super villain. Causing a serious case of deja vu to Elektra, Bullseye kills Karen Page (this time with Daredevil's staff). This story arc is very moving; it's just tragic to watch a character that has constantly been defined by loss losing even more. And at his lowest is when Kevin Smith does his best work with him, particularly a great moment between Spiderman and Daredevil in the last issue. Since I haven't read Frank Miller's run, I can't properly compare but I can't imagine Frank having as much depth with his stories as Senor Smith.
Also, I love the wrap up with who was behind it all. It was very reminiscent of Batman: Hush. Any comic that can get any comparison to Batman: Hush is always a good thing.
Do yourself a favor. Get this comic if you're at all a fan of the poor Faustian guardian of Hell's Kitchen.
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