Bendis' Daredevil Part 1: Underboss

[cyberghostface]

This is a repost of a series I did way back in 2011. I am sharing it again for two reasons.

1. For the benefit of potential newcomers curious about Daredevil because of the upcoming Netflix series.

and 

2. Comixology is right now having a 99 cent sale on Bendis's entire Daredevil run here. I know a lot of people last time said these posts got people curious about checking out the title so here's your best chance if you want to read them at a cheap price.

For those getting the bundle it also includes 'Wake Up' which was a stand-alone arc Bendis did with David Mack (which in my opinion isn't as good as the main run) as well as the 'End of Days' miniseries which basically functions as a potential "last Daredevil story". Finally in case you decide to just mass order everything I should warn you that for some reason David Mack's "Echo: Vision Quest" arc is part of the sale (but not in the bundle) which in my opinion is the comic equivalent of watching paint dry.

IMO, Bendis' Daredevil run is not only one of his greatest works but also one of the best runs on the title period. Granted, I haven't read every single issue, but I've read most of the essentials, and the only one I've liked better was Frank Miller's Born Again. During the time he was on, this was the title I always had to read first.

The first arc of the title basically sets up the 'status quo' that would remain in place for the rest of his run. It's a bit different in tone as well from his later stories. Daredevil doesn't appear a lot and Maleev's art is a bit more rougher and 'uglier' than it would be in the future. I think it's still a good story but it's not representative of how the rest of his run would be.

A note regarding the story's chronology: the story flashes back between the past and present. I'll do my best to explain so hopefully it will be easy to follow.

A bit of a history lesson: at this point in the title, Kingpin was blind after being shot by Echo/Maya Lopez.

First issue was #26...













We flash back to a week ago. Matt Murdock is making his case against a corporation that sold dangerous amphetamines to children. Outside the court, he is attacked by the supervillain called Nitro, who creates a large explosion that causes Matt's sense to go crazy. As Daredevil, he tracks down Nitro and demands to know who sent him after Murdock.

In #27, we are again following the events from 'last week'. Matt is with Foggy at the hospital, and the two discuss who could have sent Nitro. Foggy suggests that it has to be the Kingpin because no one else knows who Matt is. Matt is skeptical, being that Fisk has known who Matt is for a long time and hasn't attacked him in such a fashion. Foggy guesses that Kingpin's blindness has changed him.













#28 was part of Marvel's "'Nuff Said" event in which all of the titles would be silent and told without spoken dialogue.



Matt thinks back about Elektra, and in addition, thinks about Bullseye.





Daredevil discovers another assassin gunning for Murdock--Boomerang. He tries to find out who sent him but nothing.







I'll explain more of this later, but Bendis actually had big plans for Bullseye early on in his run (he had fled after killing Karen), so this was to foreshadow it. Kevin Smith intervened because he wanted to write the DD/Bullseye confrontation since Karen had died during his run. So he wrote one issue of a miniseries...and never finished it. He later admitted that he should have let Bendis write the story. Oops.

In #29, Vanessa Fisk has heard word of her husband's 'death'. It turns out he wasn't killed, but his consigliere leaked that he was to prevent Fisk's enemies from finishing the job.



Originally, Bendis did plan on killing Kingpin, but editor Ralph Macchio talked him out of it, saying that someone would just end up resurrecting him and it would cause a huge mess. Bendis is one of my favorite writers, but there are times when I wish that there were more Ralph Macchios holding his hand whenever he tries to kill off major characters.

So we flash back to three months ago, when Silke and Fisk first meet. Silke comes with greetings from his father, who also has a favor to ask. Seems there's a lawyer giving his father trouble, and he wants Fisk to take care of it.





We go forward to two days before Kingpin's attempted assassination. Daredevil is roughing up some goons to find out who put the hit on him, and he hears that it was the Kingpin who ordered the hit.







We go back to two months ago. Silke is with Fisk's men and brings up Murdock. The guys tell him to drop it. Richard Fisk is nearby, and asks Silke to come have a drink with him.

Flashing back to the present...



#30, Daredevil is discussing the Kingpin with Urich. Urich says that Kingpin's 'death' (as they're not sure if he is) may be connected to the hit being put out on Murdock...as if this was a way of showing Kingpin who's boss.







One month before the assassination attempt, Silke brings up the idea to Fisk's men to take down the Kingpin.











Silke tells the first step is to defy Kingpin's rules and put out the word that his era is over. Silke and Richard Fisk put an open bounty on Murdock.

We flash forward to today. Vanessa Fisk is having her husband taken out of the country. Vanessa is staying in New York to punish those who ordered the hit on the Kingpin.

#31...








Vanessa goes outside where Fisk's consigliere is waiting. She tells him to put the order out. All of Kingpin's men are subsequently killed by assassins.

Silke narrowly dodges his assassination attempt and calls his father for help.



With no options left, Silke goes to the FBI for protection.

Comments

[leoboiko]

As much as I love the new colorful Daredevil, I did appreciate the art in this arc.

[mrstatham]

There's definitely room for both, and I think Waid's run wouldn't have been refreshing as it has been without Bendis' run.

[starwolf_oakley]

1. How *did* the Kingpin get his sight back after this? And it was Echo who blinded him, right?

2. Richard Fisk looks like a young Bela Legosi to me. I understand Maleev might have been going for Fredo Corelone/John Cazale, but he looks like Young Legosi to me.

3. Six points means what? Six percentage points? Explain crime math!

4. When the chips are down, Silke sure is a whiny punk isn't he? As are most criminals in Bendis' stories.

5. To this day, I'm still a bit confused why Silke would give Matt's ID to the Feds and why one of those Feds would give it to a newspaper. Was it just the money? Do certain cops hate masked superheroes that much in the Marvel Universe?

6. Going back to BORN AGAIN, the Kingpin was careful to make sure only a VERY select group of people knew Matt was Daredevil. (Fisk also thought Matt faked the blind part, but that's another retcon.) Hitmen trying to kill everyone who knew is why Karen Page went back to New York. So, all these goons know even if they don't say it "out loud"?

7. Daredevil costs various crime syndicates millions? Awesome! Of course, it has been said that Spider-Man and Daredevil are the ones who really financially hurt Fisk and his cronies over the years. Moreso than the Fantastic Four or the Avengers ever did. Spider-Man and Daredevil went after small time crooks when they weren't going after costumed nutters. And these small time crooks paid a percentage of their "ill-gotten gain" to Fisk and Company.

8. The "Out" storyline and everything that follows this... Did Matt ever say out loud or in a narration box how this is at least partly Karen's fault, as she sold his secret ID for a heroin fix? Matt was never really angry at Karen for everything that happened to him... at least he SAID he wasn't.

[cyberghostface]

1. Kingpin mentioned in Hardcore that he got reconstructive surgery in Stockholm. There was a deleted scene in the hardcover that revealed he was still mostly blind but could make out shapes and colors.

5. That was his only trump card left. With the FBI agent we saw his POV leading to him selling out DD and it was mainly because he was barely making ends meet so he turned to the Globe out of desperation.

6. Well i think Kingpin killed everyone who Karen's information had touched but I could see him keeping it in his inner circle.

8. I don't think he would tbh; he forgave her in Born Again and his life was effectively destroyed there. Although Bendis established that a number of his actions were a result of a nervous breakdown over her death.

[dr_archeville]

Daredevil v.2:no.46 (June 2003) revealed that Fisk received an eye transplant while he recuperated in an unnamed eastern-European country, thus restoring his sight.

[informationgeek]

I picked up Bendis' entire Daredevil run last year when I ran into some good luck by finding the Ultimate Collections. Didn't get too far into it, but I did read all of this arc. Pretty awesome I got to say.

[lilacsigil]

I liked Echo: Vision Quest a lot and I'm a big fan of Mack's work, but it was absolutely in the wrong place. It wasn't a Daredevil story and it was published in the Daredevil title right after the end of a huge arc where everyone was waiting to see what happened next.

[mrstatham]

Pretty much. I assume it gave Maleev some catch up time, and I presume it was put into the pages of Daredevil because Echo likely wouldn't support her own mini at the time - or Marvel weren't willing to try.

[cyberghostface]

I think it was because Bendis is close friends with Mack so he let him take over as a favor.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah the five months waiting for Bendis to return for me was like going into withdrawal lol.

[squirle]

Bullseye looks ridiculous in that "disguise". Think he took lessons in dress up from the Ninja Turtles?

At the start of this arc I was very worried. "Am I really supposed to buy this Silke guy as a new, cool, totally radical replacement for the Kingpin?", I thought. So I was very happy to see him completely fail by the end of it. Seeing Vanessa Fisk step up and be a badass was even better.

[cyberghostface]

Yeah I like that Silke got his. It's sad that he ended up playing it straight with Ultimate Kingpin though. :(

[tigerkaya]

It amazes me why Bendis would leave his comfort zone street level stories is where his writing style works best. Not straight up super hero teams and cosmic titles.

[silverhammerman]

I've always been a little wary of Bendis' Daredevil/Alias stuff. I know it's supposed to be quite good, and even looking at the pages here it's obviously well crafted and smart, but it's also so very emblematic of the early 2000's "realistic" superhero trend that I could not care less for.