Bendis' Daredevil Part 1: Underboss

[cyberghostface]

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

[blackruzsa]

Man, I wish I could've seen the rise before the fall.

[the_eleven]

Go check out the Roger Stern run on ASM in the '80s for the highlights of his career as The Rose, it's great stuff. Editorial eventually fires Stern (bad move) and makes a mess out of wrapping up the whole Hobgoblin thing (see Christopher Priest's blog for a lengthy examination of the editorial practices then that wound up leading us to Maximum Clonage etc) but one of the comics that originally turned me on was Web of Spiderman #30, which is iirc the first origin story for The Rose.