Broken Frontier

Andy Diggle weaves several subplots into the narrative of his Daredevil run. The Owl's network is falling apart, with his infirmity. The Kingpin gains new allies with the aid of his enforcer Lady Bullseye. And Foggy Nelson runs afoul of the criminal justice system, which carries the taint of Norman Osborn's nefarious influence. All the while, the always tortured Matt Murdock continues his bold takeover of the band of ninjas known as The Hand. It sounds confusing, but Diggle juggles the elements deftly and is clearly building the storyline to a massive climax converging the various plot-lines.

Artist Roberto De La Torre continues the gritty realism of the artwork, and its nice to have the continuity of Matt Hollingsworth's dusty, moody hues. De La Torre also uses manipulated photographs in many of the backgrounds, and it works very well for the most part. We get a whole lot of Daredevil in the costume in this issue, and I was impressed with De La Torre's gestures. Even the “quiet” scenes are very dynamic, with great shot selection and expert rendering. He seems to leave some portions uninked to great effect. Overall, terrific artwork a little reminiscent of Leonardo Manco, a personal favorite of mine.

In all, the issue was excellent, but a couple of scenes are worth noting if only to take this into a tangential musing. The book contains a decapitation as well as the amputation of a hand at the wrist, by of all things a shuriken (ninja star). While stretching believability with the force required to sever a hand with a small bit of metal propelled manually, the problem I had was not scientific. A couple of weeks after the grisly vivisection of the Punisher at the hands of Baby Wolverine, I find myself reading another comic, from the House of Ideas, with very grisly dismemberment. Daredevil has been a fairly grim title for some time now, and death is no stranger to its pages, but is this gratuitous gore really necessary? And must the action appear “on panel” to convey the brutality? I don't have an answer for this, and am commenting on the visceral reaction I had to it. Andy Diggle's work has always impressed me, and it does here again, but I think these scenes actually weaken the work rather than enhance it.