Here's the thing about Bendis and Maleev's Daredevil: Strictly on paper, I should hate it. It substitutes talk for action, it looks at the superhero genre through a lens that is far too realistic for the genre, it has a take on some of the Marvel characters that would probably set my teeth on edge from just about any other writer, and yet... with Bendis and Maleev, it's one of the best books Marvel publishes. Check that: It's the best book that Bendis writes at Marvel, which might just make it the best Marvel book period once Runaways is officially gone. Bendis and Maleev spend this issue looking at international terrorism and superheroes with the same lens they've used to look at with the law and superheroes or organized crime and superheroes in previous Daredevil arcs, and it's funny and entertaining and smart. It also features some terrific development for the Matt/Milla subplot and a welcome return of Black Widow to the pages, and it's really just fantastic stuff on every page.
Bendis has built up a little universe for himself inside Marvel that reminds me of when John Ostrander was a go-to guy at DC and had this whole group of characters who bounced between his titles. Given that the continuity at Marvel is at best loose these days, it's nice to get a sense of a larger universe in what Bendis is writing. He's been doing this sort of cross-continuity with Alias and Daredevil since the beginning, but now he seems to have taken the Avengers and Nick Fury under his wing as well, and we're starting to see the Marvel Universe look like a universe again. Of course, it's a universe entirely written by Bendis, but that might not be such a bad thing.
One of my complaints about superhero comics in general these days, and Marvel superhero comics specifically, is that there's this drive toward more realistic storytelling, which I generally feel misses the point of the genre. However, the reason there's this drive is because it's been shown that it can be great, and the guy who tends to do that is Bendis. I have some quibbles with the way he writes the Avengers here (Captain America should never, ever say that he'd be happy to have a villain die, because that's just not his character), I did love seeing them take down a terrorist as if they were a finely tuned military organization. I also really like seeing Black Widow's continuing transformation from superhero to superspy, and the cameo here by Nick Fury is a perfect blend of heroic loyalty and pragmatic spy master.
When you read a Bendis/Maleev Daredevil, you pretty much know what you're in for. A ton of talking, not so much with the action. Fortunately, that suits the strengths of this creative team just fine. Bendis's dialogue is as sharp as ever, with a chuckle on just about every page coming out of some of the smartest dialogue in comics, and Maleev really does sell Daredevil's world with his gritty, photo-referenced style. The guy cannot handle the costume stuff (seriously, his Black Widow in costume looks like a housewife) but the non-costumed stuff, he just nails (out of costume, she's sexy as hell). There's also a surprising amount of storytelling going on in the way his characters carry themselves, and while the faces tend to be pretty unexpressive, the characters have a ton of body language with which to express themselves.
Daredevil is the title that is probably responsible for any number of the problems that I have with Marvel right now, because Bendis and Maleev showed what a talented creative team can do with this kind of off-beat, realist look at the Marvel Universe. However, blaming Bendis for the titles I don't like is like blaming Frank Miller or Alan Moore for the horrible grim and gritty '90s that came out of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. And honestly, I don't think comparing the Bendis/Maleev Daredevil to Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns, both in terms of sheer entertainment value and in terms of importance to the genre, is a bad comparison to make. Daredevil remains the must-read title at Marvel Comics these days.
