Bendis and Maleev begin their final story arc on Daredevil. Maleev has working on this title for about three years, Bendis more than four. That their tenure is coming to an end is significant, and the seeds planted in this issue certainly point to a climactic, epic tone. To be honest, it's not Daredevil's actions, Kingpin's confessions or the public's acceptance of Daredevil as their champion that interests me, though. It's Ben Urich. Urich is the everyman in this story, the guy who gets caught up in something larger than himself. The reader is meant to identify with him, and it was especially effective for me. Maleev's art is as gritty, dark and moody as usual... for the most part, but there is one awkward sequence that doesn't boast the strength we've come to expect from the artist's efforts.
Matt Murdock's life has finally settled down, and with tragedies behind, he's beginning to enjoy some small triumphs. Crime in Hell's Kitchen has been curbed, and the people of New York now adore the once-feared, mysterious vigilante. What he doesn't know is that storms are brewing, storms that will throw his life into a tailspin. One is about to walk through the doors of his law office, and another is meeting with a reporter in a secure-custody facility far from the Big Apple. The Kingpin has decided it's time to talk, and he wants Daily Bugle reporter Ben Urich to do the listening.
I love how Maleev immerses the Kingpin in shadows. It's a visual cue that Kingpin is hiding a great deal from Urich and the federal authorities who are holding him in custody. I also appreciate the fact that Maleev doesn't depict Wilson Fisk as being impossibly huge. He's a big man, but he's still a man. The darkness that envelops him adds to the sense of his size, but this is ultimately a grounded, believable portrayal of the character. Where the art goes awry is in the only super-hero action sequence. Maleev's usually convincing, gritty art is replaced with an awkwardness, an unconvincing action sequence and a figure that's not in keeping with his usually strong eye for anatomy.
Th Kingpin has always been portrayed as a physically intimidating adversary with limitless criminal resources, but Bendis delves into what really makes the character dangerous: his intellect. He knows how to extract victory from the jaws of death, and he's doing so here. He's manipulating Urich because just as he knows just as Urich serves as his witness to secure his deal with the feds, the feds witness what Urich learns. In other words, Urich is forced to write about Murdock and Daredevil. The goal isn't to expose Murdock, but to wound him with Urich's apparent betrayal.
I'm a court/crime reporter for a relatively small daily newspaper. I recently travelled to Boston to cover the extradition hearing of a double-murder suspect, but I covered other angles of the story as well and developed some news features. I visited the jail where the suspect was being held; I had hoped to score an interview, but his lawyer and jail officials put the kibosh on the idea. That interview would have been a coup for me, and I thirsted to bring a perspective on the story no one had tapped into before. It would have been a big moment for me, but I'll be honest -- the thought of it terrified me. Not that it would be a milestone in a journalism career, but the thought of sitting across from someone alleged to have committed a grisly double homicide scared me. I realize most people might not be able to relate to such a mix of professional and emotional concerns, but believe me, Bendis nails it. It's powerful and compelling, and Urich's fear brings the extreme nature of the circumstance down to earth. 8/10
