Broken Frontier

The death of a friend propels Matt Murdock toward the brink of his sanity.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

There is simply no way for me to review this issue without giving away plot details. If you read this series by the trade, read no further into this review…and try not to look at the cover of this issue!

Okay, now that that is over with, let’s get right into it. Apparently Foggy Nelson is dead following last month’s shocking conclusion. Matt has been let out of prison (with loads of security in tow) to attend the funeral. Dakota North has taken over as Murdock’s attorney and tries desperately to keep him out of the general population at Ryker’s Island Penitentiary. However, the feds have it in for Matt and get their way…but on the heels of his best friend’s murder, Matt happens to like the court’s ruling as well.

A lot of people were apprehensive about Brubaker and Lark filling the roles previously held by Bendis and Maleev during their long, Eisner Award-winning run on Daredevil. I, for one, was not one of those people. As much as I enjoyed the Bendis/Maleev era and where they took the character(s), I was looking forward to what Bru and Lark had to offer for the old Horn-head. Beginning with last issue, I have been about as far from "let down" as a reader can get.

Brubaker has a storytelling prerogative that greatly appeals to me, especially when it comes to crime stories. His premiere Daredevil issue last month was not only packed with a fantastic and dense story, but it was a real page-turner that left me aching for more--something that even Bendis did not do on this title. While this issue did not quite gain such a rise from me, it more than held my enthusiasm for coming issues. Bru is still packing a lot of story into the pages and all the while managing to push the pace forward at a good click. And one area, important to this title, that Brubaker gave great impact to was the court scenes. All the dialogue rang true and played out like a good TV law drama. He also gets a lot of credit for reintroducing some old school characters to the book. It’s a nod to longtime fans that doesn’t disrupt the story for new readers.

I also thought Alex Maleev did a fine job on DD, but I took issue when Bendis’ scripts called for more than a little action because his images tended to look stagnant. Lark has a more fluid approach to action sequences, and his overall style is similarly "murky" to Maleev’s, making the artistic transition nearly unnoticeable. The layperson would probably look at issue #83 and #73 and not see a difference, which is a tribute to the talents of this art team that includes Gaudiano on inks and stellar colors by Frank D’Armata.

So…Foggy is dead, Matt has snapped and an unknown is flipping over the rooftops and fighting crime as Daredevil in Hell’s Kitchen. This, just two issues into what looks to be a great run for the new creative team. What else could they possibly do? Whatever it might be, it’s well worth checking into.