Bendis' Daredevil Part 1: Underboss
Jul. 19th, 2011 05:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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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.
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Date: 2011-07-19 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 06:05 am (UTC)http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmg9ir3Yxu1qf83cro1_500.jpg
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Date: 2011-07-20 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 11:33 pm (UTC)Sometimes i casually pick up my Daredevil hardcovers from the shelf and try to read a few pages to kill time, and I always end up reading cover to cover.
This was just an exemplary run.
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Date: 2011-07-19 11:34 pm (UTC)<3
And not to be cruel or anything but I think Vanessa was right. He had every opportunity. Cruel words aside, he should have worked harder to take those opportunities. I know what it's like to come from a family with influences and to be told I'm a disappointment. He should have just kept trying. He shouldn't have given up.
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Date: 2011-07-20 12:04 am (UTC)I suppose in some ways this was a natural progression for the character, he had already become what he hated more than once, I just wish as a character with a fairly extensive history he had been treated with a little more...I don't know, something.
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Date: 2011-07-20 01:15 am (UTC)Not-Bendisness.
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Date: 2011-07-20 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 10:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 01:14 am (UTC)Every opportunity from his abusive, murderer, crimelord father.
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Date: 2011-07-20 01:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-19 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-07-20 06:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 09:44 am (UTC)Or I mean sure it's "understandable", in the same sense that lots of repugnant shit is understandable, but not understandable in any sense that makes anything about it okay.
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Date: 2011-07-20 10:27 am (UTC)It's still kind of a stretch, since it's certainly not something the story confirms, and it's not like Bendis has ever been that terrible subtle with this sort of thing, but I can't totally assume that Wilson himself doesn't carry some / a lot of the blame for Vanessa's actions here.
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Date: 2011-07-20 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 01:06 am (UTC)If this had been another series or different characters, I might join the clapping, but this? Just not seeing it.
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Date: 2011-07-20 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 01:25 am (UTC)TBH I always thought he should have gone ahead and killed Kingpin in this story, or at least, after he had a bunch of guys who had decided to kill the Kingpin repeatedly stab him with knives, he really should have stuck to that and killed the Kingpin, because I mean, come on.
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Date: 2011-07-20 01:27 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-07-20 10:41 am (UTC)Like if you were sent back to 1987 with the knowledge that Joe Kelly would write a shitty story bringing Kraven back, would you tell DeMatteis he should never have written it at all? I hope not, because Dematteis having never written that story at all would be awful!
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Date: 2011-07-21 05:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 05:08 am (UTC)That said, I find the Kingpin's stock dramatically decreased in the modern Marvel Universe. I think it's partly the notion that when a crime-based villain fails too many times, they become less intimidating. There's also the fact Bendis has basically crippled the Kingpin's power base and made him worthless anyway, now he's finished with DD, by inserting the Hood in the same role.
Only, y'know, the Hood is a definition of 'joke character', under Bendis.
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Date: 2011-07-20 09:29 am (UTC)And like I guess the story could have turned out worse without him? But really I think the major plot beats could have stayed more or less the same with him dead. Like you just have Vanessa find out he's dead and then go all ghostface killa on her son and all his friends, then you do whatever happened before Kingpin tries to come back, then instead of Kingpin you have some other jerkoff trying to set him up as the Kingpin. Maybe Bullseye, maybe you have Bullseye go like hey I carved this dumbass target into my forehead, maybe I'm stupid enough to think I can be the Kingpin now! And then Daredevil kicks his ass and then flips a limo over.
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Date: 2011-07-20 11:35 am (UTC)To me, if you replaced Fisk with someone else in that story, it lacks a good bit of the impact it has because it's not the Kingpin. Matt declaring himself as assuming Fisk's 'name' (if I remember rightly) after beating him down works so well because it's one of the few times that Matt has taken such severe action against Fisk, and because it reflects the start of Matt's downfall without going overboard like Brubaker or Diggle did.
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Date: 2011-07-20 03:03 am (UTC)Double Post
Date: 2011-07-20 05:09 am (UTC)Re: Double Post
Date: 2011-07-20 05:57 am (UTC)Thanks for posting...
Date: 2011-07-20 05:24 am (UTC)I mean, how removed is Jersey that he never understood how powerful the metas of the Marvel Universe are? Even the street level guys who stalk criminals in the night, beat crowds of seasoned thugs at odds 20-to-1 or higher, and then disappear in an instant? These guys are nothing to worry about? Easily killed?
Guy must've been one sheltered mob son, and a "Made Man" in the loosest sense. Hell, I'd imagine to be "Made" in a superhero universe, you'd have to kill a low-power hero as part of the initiation.
On another note, I enjoyed the ongoing debate amongst characters as to whether "Matt Murdock is really blind." It only occurs to a few people, such as Richard Fisk, that maybe it's both; Murdock can't see, but his powers as Daredevil make up for it. Even Danny Rand tries to hold up and show Matt a newspaper headline, only for Luke Cage to inform him, he actually can't read from a distance.
There's a nice undercurrent throughout the run that Matt has kept himself so mysterious all these years, very few people really know what he's capable of doing, with all the good and bad that results from that.
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Date: 2011-07-20 08:21 am (UTC)Of course, Bendis nails the mob stuff, even if he didn't adhere to Vanessa and Richard's characters very well (I wouldn't know). His Kingpin is brilliant though, especially when he makes his comeback. Brubaker gave him a badass comeback story too.
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Date: 2011-07-20 01:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 07:58 pm (UTC)My two hardcover omnibuses or Bendis' Daredevil are probably my favourites in my far too big GN collection.
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Date: 2011-07-20 08:00 pm (UTC)The fight with Bullseye is just perfect. So tense!
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Date: 2011-07-20 08:10 pm (UTC)Border'smy local used book shop to see if I can find the trades.no subject
Date: 2011-07-20 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-07-20 11:07 pm (UTC)