Daredevil #114 – Review

By Ed Brubaker (writer), Michael Lark and Stefanao Guadiano (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors)

The Story: In this penultimate installment of the “Lady Bullseye” arc, Matt Murdock, a.k.a. Daredevil, faces the reality that custody of his ailing wife has been legally black-mailed away from him by her parents. Meanwhile, Master Izo, the near-immortal, drunken kung-fu master, plots counter measures against the Hand by leveraging the Immortal Iron Fist and the Black Tarantula on separate missions. Unfortunately, Lady Bullseye and the Hand are one step ahead of the ancient master and are coming for Daredevil with a couple surprise fighters that he may be unable to battle, let alone defeat.

What’s Good: The opening scene is exceptional with perfect symmetrical beats between Matt’s dialogue with Foggy and Matt’s inner monologue. I enjoy how Brubaker, like Bendis, puts Matt’s self-righteousness and border-line insane sense of self-entitlement (even when he totally in the wrong)  out-there for the reader to see. It shows that Daredevil is a flawed hero; a characterization that obviously  fuels  the”real” feel of this series. Additionally, the supporting cast in this arc is great. Everybody plays a role rather than just taking up space as throw-ins.

Lark’s art is solid. The violence is presented accurately and devastatingly. He also seems to excel at positioning characters in just the right pose to reflect Brubaker’s script.

What’s Not So Good: Not too much. It should be noted that this is one of those issues when Matt never dons the costume. Also, there is way to much legal drama in Daredevil as of late. Yes, yes, the whole “justice is blind” as the underlying metaphor for Daredevil has to be there for the character to work, but I really think this volume of Daredevil has had more than enough explicit legal drama.

Conclusion: I find Brubaker and crew to be at the top of their  game on this current arc and this issue holds true to that. Perhaps there is justified frustration in the slow build of this issue that detours into heavy back story (Milla and Matt never signing marriage papers, etc) that seems irrelevant to this arc. But then again, long time fans will be very fulfilled with this approach.

Grade: B+

-Rob G.