If he really wanted to reveal himself, he'd have taken off his pants...

Finished reading the recent Daredevil arcs Underboss, Hardcore and King of Hell's Kitchen (volumes 7 and 9 respectively) and I am surprised to say that they are very good. I know a lot of people are loving Bendis' run and I kept hearing about it so, intrigued by the hook of Daredevil's identity being out in the open, I finally read it. I was advised to start after David Mack's time on the title by my local comic shop weasel and rightly so. The part where Murdock kills the Kingpin and declares himself King of Hell's Kitchen was so great. The sequence where DD is giving the (i'm assuming 'usual') 'how many times...' monologue and the art goes from goofy to current stuff is great. I'm assuming this was done to accentuate the impact that DD is going to kill him after decades of only beating him up only for things to go back to the way they were again. And don't try to tell me he's not dead. That is such bullshit. I don't like how in later issues (within vol. 9) the Kingpin is only referred to as being 'gone for now' or something like that. Clearly, in Bendis and my mind the Kingpin was killed at the end of Hardcore. To have him come back would be purely Marvel's perogative at the chagrin of Brian Michael.

Despite how cool all of this is, there is too much time spent on drug dealers and the like. This 'war on drugs' crap in superhero comics has got to go. I hated how it was used in Will Pfeiffer's H-E-R-O and it bothers me here. Surely the Daredevil exists for more than that. But at the same time, the small point of 'drug dealing is bad' is felt a tiny bit. But overall, man, this is some weak stuff. That speech where he commands those in the bar, with Kingpin's dead body at their feet, to never deal in his neighborhood again is pretty hardcore though. I especially liked the touch with how he was wearing all of the costume except the mask. Nice.

In King of Hell's Kitchen there is again some silliness but it is so minor compared to the very personal and touching relationship between Matt and Milla. I really liked how Bendis conveyed that. It was especially poignant with Milla's description to Ben Urich of what it was like for Matt, as a blind person, to not be able to recognize his dead father's face. I had not made the connection between how blind people feel faces to recognize someone and his father's disfiguration. Seeing your father's face all fucked up must be one thing, feeling it has to be another entirely. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and admit that I did cry a little at this part. Still gets me.

So, overall, I really liked it and am looking very forward to volume 10: Matt Murdock's Murder Mayhem Mega-Arc: My Pants, Mister, My Pants.

Oh, and as always, Alex Maleev's art is great and particularly suited to Bendis' writing for the big red guy.