Ed Brubaker has written a lot of great comics, he’s even just written a good populist one (I don’t know what else I’d call X-Men: Deadly Genesis). But Daredevil is something entirely different. It’s Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark doing a mainstream comic book and making it a) a Brubaker and Lark collaboration, b) a rewarding reading experience, and c) exhilarating. Daredevil reminds me of “Seinfeld.” If “Seinfeld” was must-see-TV, Brubaker’s Daredevil is a must-read-comic book. Every issue I looked forward to reading it, was excited to see what was going to happen, and talked about it with other people who had read it. We gleefully talked about it. Brubaker takes the situation and makes it really damn cool. Reading it again, I wondered if he knew how thrilling some of these scenes would turn out. I suspect he did. Michael Lark’s art, which always seemed like the anti-Marvel art, is so perfect for Daredevil, it’s impossible to think of it looking any other way. Lark’s superheroes are always interesting to see because his people are so realistic, it seems like the superheroes just wouldn’t fit. They do, of course, because Lark establishes such a “real” world, seeing superheroes in it is thrilling. Daredevil isn’t a particularly flashy superhero, but it still works.
The story--Daredevil in jail and how he gets out--doesn’t really give many hints as to what’s coming next. Spared down, the story would have been a three-page flashback in an old Marvel comic. Brubaker fleshes it out instead, really getting into the main character, working him through a catharsis ringer of sorts. There are some familiar Brubaker elements--he managed to create some of the same guilty pleasure at violence on bad guys in Sleeper--but not many. Each issue is packed, much like Brubaker’s Catwoman, and there’s a real time commitment to the read. In a couple issues, I kept thinking about something from the issue before and it turned out these remembered events were from the same issue, just earlier. The storytelling economy is fantastic, since it manages to get a lot in, but also provide a lot of great opportunity for Michael Lark art.
Brubaker’s provided a lot of twists for his upcoming Daredevil work and while they’re good twists, ones he presents quietly to the reader and the reader consumes and digests without even noticing until Brubaker points them out later, I’m a little worried. There’s a lot, but it’s all about one thing, but it’s still a lot to leave the story with. The big reveal goes a little bit too far, leaving the reader’s brain postulating too much. But it’s a small point (and beautifully illustrated) and doesn’t do anything to hurt the significant achievement of Brubaker and Lark’s Daredevil.
